4 ms·

If "cancel culture" is no big deal, then why is everybody so terrified of Elon taking over Twitter? What is so bad about this that you feel the need to make wea

by ufmace 4y ago

If "cancel culture" is no big deal, then why is everybody so terrified of Elon taking over Twitter? What is so bad about this that you feel the need to make weak-man arguments accusing everybody who is moderately pro-Elon of being a mindless shill?

zzzeek 4y ago
Elon taking over Twitter given his promises to dismantle what meager content moderation policies it has, means it becomes a more amplified platform for political misinformation and hate speech, further radicalizing large portions of the population to partake in even more violent acts, such as the recent assassination attempt on the speaker of the house, armed vigilantes stalking voting locations as we have seen in Arizona looking for supposed "mules", things like that. Lax content and moderation policies will enhance the platform's capability to be used as a tool for online stalking, harassment, death threats, etc. so that non-right-wing voices will probably need to abandon the platform ( a "cancel culture" of sorts indeed, where people who don't silence themselves will be in danger of being literally cancelled). Beyond that, there is then his massive conflicts of interest and his personal political opinions such as those involving Ukraine, which he would be able to amplify in the same way as any nation-state seeks to spread propaganda regarding their political agendas. The Pentagon literally had to negotiate with him, as though he were his own nation state, regarding his maintanance of the Starlink system that Ukraine depends upon in their current war with Russia. If Musk is essentially rich and powerful enough to be treated as a diplomatic entity, it's pretty scary he'd have full privatized control over the most influential social network in history, not any less frightening than if Twitter were a state controlled entity by the US government, the Saudi government, etc.
- skellington 4y ago
  Yes, you have been carefully programmed to regurgitate the state's position on free speech and congratulations for doing a good job of repeating the correct party speaking points! Do you mean the violent political act from a GREEN PARTY registered crazy person? Were you this concerned about political violence in 2017 when a liberal shot and wounded 5 people at a Republican baseball game in Virginia? Do you mean the Pentagon had to pay for his critical service instead of assuming it was a free service while they pay Lockheed, Ratheon, etc.. billions of dollars for their boom-boom machines? Do you think the Pentagon does not negotiate with Lockheed and those F35s are free? Are you talking about the war in Ukraine that is at least partially the fault of NATO and the US involvement in that region? Are you another blood thirsty neo-liberal who desires that NATO defeats Russia and is willing to fight to the last Ukrainian? You're especially concerned about map borders in Eastern Europe while simultaneously hating borders in North America? Sounds like you have it all figured out.
  - zzzeek 4y ago
    and your points would be fully regurgitated from Russian state media, congrats to you as well. as far as "shooting", liberals would prefer there were no guns, so yes, any "shooting" by anyone at anyone is of great concern to us. The "liberal" NYT had a full above-the-fold headline for the Scalise shooting, it was taken entirely seriously by the "media elites": https://mobile.twitter.com/BFriedmanDC/status/1586471174011490304 https://mobile.twitter.com/BFriedmanDC/status/15864711740114... . The Pelosi attacker was also right-wing radicalized after originally being a left-wing radical, as you are most likely aware so the GREEN PARTY registration is a strawman. The reductionist implication that the political landscape is nothing more than "both sides are trying to radicalize and kill each other" has no basis in fact and only serves to change the subject from the issue that right wing terrorism is the greatest US terrorist threat right now. Lockheed last I checked was not trying to corner a huge portion of the social media market and they aren't run unilaterally by a narcissistic shitposter with dumb opinions, so while the military industrial complex is not entirely fun, the comparison is pretty nonexistent.
    - zo1 4y ago
      Wow. Imagine a popular OSS author having the opposite viewpoints as you and publicly espousing it on HN. I can't think of one, wonder why. No wonder you guys are all upset about this, the social gravy train is going away.
      - zzzeek 4y ago
        popular OSS authors, who are in the business of giving their work away for free and helping others use it for free, tend to not be fascists. The core decision one makes, typically early in life, that leads them down the "liberal" or "conservative" path is the decision as to whether or not other people matter. also I have no clue what this "gravy train" you refer towards means. Liberal and left-leaning voices who are too outspoken live under a constant regime of death threats, stalking, and harassment. Right wing extremists pretty much have the microphone already, as I walk in my suburban neighborhood, every TV screen I see through a window is pegged onto FOX all day long. So not really sure what you're talking about.

by ufmace 4y ago

zzzeek 4y ago

Elon taking over Twitter given his promises to dismantle what meager content moderation policies it has, means it becomes a more amplified platform for political misinformation and hate speech, further radicalizing large portions of the population to partake in even more violent acts, such as the recent assassination attempt on the speaker of the house, armed vigilantes stalking voting locations as we have seen in Arizona looking for supposed "mules", things like that. Lax content and moderation policies will enhance the platform's capability to be used as a tool for online stalking, harassment, death threats, etc. so that non-right-wing voices will probably need to abandon the platform ( a "cancel culture" of sorts indeed, where people who don't silence themselves will be in danger of being literally cancelled). Beyond that, there is then his massive conflicts of interest and his personal political opinions such as those involving Ukraine, which he would be able to amplify in the same way as any nation-state seeks to spread propaganda regarding their political agendas. The Pentagon literally had to negotiate with him, as though he were his own nation state, regarding his maintanance of the Starlink system that Ukraine depends upon in their current war with Russia. If Musk is essentially rich and powerful enough to be treated as a diplomatic entity, it's pretty scary he'd have full privatized control over the most influential social network in history, not any less frightening than if Twitter were a state controlled entity by the US government, the Saudi government, etc.

skellington 4y ago
Yes, you have been carefully programmed to regurgitate the state's position on free speech and congratulations for doing a good job of repeating the correct party speaking points! Do you mean the violent political act from a GREEN PARTY registered crazy person? Were you this concerned about political violence in 2017 when a liberal shot and wounded 5 people at a Republican baseball game in Virginia? Do you mean the Pentagon had to pay for his critical service instead of assuming it was a free service while they pay Lockheed, Ratheon, etc.. billions of dollars for their boom-boom machines? Do you think the Pentagon does not negotiate with Lockheed and those F35s are free? Are you talking about the war in Ukraine that is at least partially the fault of NATO and the US involvement in that region? Are you another blood thirsty neo-liberal who desires that NATO defeats Russia and is willing to fight to the last Ukrainian? You're especially concerned about map borders in Eastern Europe while simultaneously hating borders in North America? Sounds like you have it all figured out.
- zzzeek 4y ago
  and your points would be fully regurgitated from Russian state media, congrats to you as well. as far as "shooting", liberals would prefer there were no guns, so yes, any "shooting" by anyone at anyone is of great concern to us. The "liberal" NYT had a full above-the-fold headline for the Scalise shooting, it was taken entirely seriously by the "media elites": https://mobile.twitter.com/BFriedmanDC/status/1586471174011490304 https://mobile.twitter.com/BFriedmanDC/status/15864711740114... . The Pelosi attacker was also right-wing radicalized after originally being a left-wing radical, as you are most likely aware so the GREEN PARTY registration is a strawman. The reductionist implication that the political landscape is nothing more than "both sides are trying to radicalize and kill each other" has no basis in fact and only serves to change the subject from the issue that right wing terrorism is the greatest US terrorist threat right now. Lockheed last I checked was not trying to corner a huge portion of the social media market and they aren't run unilaterally by a narcissistic shitposter with dumb opinions, so while the military industrial complex is not entirely fun, the comparison is pretty nonexistent.
  - zo1 4y ago
    Wow. Imagine a popular OSS author having the opposite viewpoints as you and publicly espousing it on HN. I can't think of one, wonder why. No wonder you guys are all upset about this, the social gravy train is going away.
    - zzzeek 4y ago
      popular OSS authors, who are in the business of giving their work away for free and helping others use it for free, tend to not be fascists. The core decision one makes, typically early in life, that leads them down the "liberal" or "conservative" path is the decision as to whether or not other people matter. also I have no clue what this "gravy train" you refer towards means. Liberal and left-leaning voices who are too outspoken live under a constant regime of death threats, stalking, and harassment. Right wing extremists pretty much have the microphone already, as I walk in my suburban neighborhood, every TV screen I see through a window is pegged onto FOX all day long. So not really sure what you're talking about.