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> white supremacists increasingly dominate everyone's feeds Either I'm the one person who isn't seeing this, or this person has a very deranged definition of "

by hbn 4y ago

> white supremacists increasingly dominate everyone's feeds Either I'm the one person who isn't seeing this, or this person has a very deranged definition of "white supremacist." I get AI grifter guys in my feed but I can't recall seeing unironic white supremacists. I'm not a fan of Elon but these people that made their entire personality trying to demonstrate how Twitter is dead are the same ones who were saying it would happen as soon as Musk was confirmed to take over, and if anything are disappointed it's not going as badly as they predicated so they need to make things seem worse than they are. The biggest problems I've had with Twitter since Elon took over is having to see his unfunny jokes like tweets saying which planet they're sent from or making the logo a doge head for a few days.

vadansky 4y ago
Agreed, I hate how people just throw this out like it's fact and everyone applauds. My twitter feed before was a ton of artists I follow, my twitter feed now? A bunch of artists I follow.
- N1ckFG 4y ago
  I bet most of the community here defaults to Following (non-curated timeline). Mine's gotten a lot quieter, without as many interesting threads cutting across fields, but talking to friends hasn't changed. However I've seen the occasional literal, ideological N*zi pop up in New Twitter's For You (curated timeline), which I suspect is down to using metrics susceptible to rage-farming.
nbar1 4y ago
People are creating an alternate reality in their own head.
bfeynman 4y ago
Maybe your feed is curated more, but it's definitely true that visiting a tweet url as an anonymous user, almost no matter what the tweet is about or who tweeted it, when you scroll down it starts just showing suggested tweets/topics, and not kidding they are almost all paid blue checkmark right wing provocateurs. And part of this was unintentional in promoting "paid" checkmark people but the vast majority of those are a certain type of person who want to shout loudly.
- nicky0 4y ago
  Seems the previously amplified "notable" voices have self-selected themselves out of the blue checks because they refuse to buy them. I see a lot of "I'll never pay a single cent to elon" sentiment from the former anointed ones.
dfxm12 4y ago
It's exaggeration for sure, but even I get some white supremacist content in my "For You" feed and I only follow sports/band/venue/restaurant accounts. It's puzzling how it found its way there. My "Following" feed is fine though.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- revelio 4y ago
  Like what, exactly?
- xboxnolifes 4y ago
  It's puzzling how very broad topics such as "sports" might have overlap with white supremacy communities?
  - dariusj18 3y ago
    It's puzzling how human intervention isn't used to prevent such a simple but unrealistic correlation.
manuelabeledo 4y ago
Not sure about white supremacists, but as an ex-user of Twitter, now a casual lurker, I find that toxic commenters are almost everywhere. I don't know if part of Twitter's algorithm was to filter these out for me, but browsing Twitter without an account is a wild ride, and has led me to believe that the far right has indeed infested the platform thoroughly.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- FrankyZunim 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - fmoralesc 4y ago
    The far right can only infest.
  - manuelabeledo 4y ago
    You got it right.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- elicash 4y ago
  It's like dating apps. Letting people buy reach, rather than relying on "merit," can make people's feeds worse. And yet you have to make money. It's a balancing act. You want to turn the ads spigot on just enough that people are still happy with the service.
- Atlas22 4y ago
  At least for me the twitter comments have always been a cess pool of toxicity and really have only gotten worse over the years. Far worse than any other platform I've used. I haven't noticed a significant change in the rate the toxicity grows since he elon took over but to be fair I do feel as though the toxicity has been near saturation for years already. A lot of it did, and still does get removed/hidden that at least gives the impression that the platform is less toxic than it really is but I don't really buy the argument that forceful removal/banning is helpful anymore because it really hasn't worked anywhere online that ive seen, it just escalates things and makes them madder/more vengeful. Then they just make new posts/accounts/do damage elsewhere. I'd much rather just read a few more empty death and terrorism theats and move on with my day than have twitter esculate them until they actually are mad enough to try and follow through with them.
maplant 4y ago
I have seen on my feed a picture of Hitler with a sympathetic quote from an account called "Racial Consciousness" with a blue check mark. I could not even imagine seeing that before Elon took over. So for me, yes, there are definitely white supremacists increasingly dominating my feed.
- throwaway894345 4y ago
  Are you sure that wasn't satire? Poe's law and all that?
  - Kye 4y ago
    Satire requires a clarity of purpose and target lest it be mistaken for and contribute to that which it intends to criticize.
    - throwaway894345 4y ago
      I agree, but (1) not all satire is good satire and (2) not everyone is adept at picking up on good satire and (3) even those who are adept at picking up good satire might miss something once in a while.
  - flangola7 4y ago
    "It was just a joke" is a common distraction technique used by neonazis and other social conservatives. When seen it is safe to presume bad faith until proven otherwise.
    - throwaway894345 4y ago
      It’s also used far more frequently by ordinary people who tell jokes. “You know who else drank water? Hitler!” Am I joking, or am I pointing out the silliness of taking something as mundane as “humor” and portraying it as something uniquely fascist?
      - 4y ago
throwaway894345 4y ago
Yeah, I don't have this either. I suspect it's the new sense of "white supremacist" (something like "people who are at all critical of left-wing identity politics") rather than anyone who discernibly professes a belief in the superiority of the "white race". > I'm not a fan of Elon but these people that made their entire personality trying to demonstrate how Twitter is dead Yeah, when he laid off a bunch of engineering, lots of people (including Grady Booch, one of the guys behind UML) were insisting that Twitter was going to fall apart, pointing to every single bug as proof of their prophesy (despite that Twitter has always been plagued with bugs--fail whale, anyone?--and many other successful social media platforms thrive as businesses despite far more frequent, egregious bugs). Of course, this isn't an endorsement of Musk in any way, but it will be read as such because we're not allowed to have nuanced opinions on the Internet.
- Xeoncross 4y ago
  > nuanced opinions Ah yes, I remember when people had those. I think they phased them out because they didn't fit into the headlines anymore. Also, it costs less to paint the world with simple black and white.
hk1337 4y ago
It's the usual thing of broad strokes defining a whole group of people. Dehumanizing to make it easier to hate them. All democrats are commie socialists that want to take away your individuality. All republicans are white supremacist nazis that want to impose their will.
nemo44x 4y ago
It could be from Robin DeAngelo who wrote the very popular book "White Fragility" and other books about problematic white people. She says: "Remember: When I use the term “white supremacy”, I do not use it to refer to extreme hate groups. I use the term to capture the pervasiveness, magnitude, and normalcy of white dominance and assumed superiority." So it looks like a further redefinition of a word to control language and discourse. In essence, "white culture" (I don't really know if that's a thing?) or what is commonly referred to as "whiteness" today is “white supremacy”. So unless you want to be a "“white supremacist" you will actively fight against it. At the least, you certainly won't disagree with the critical social justice ideology if you want to be an "ally". And if you think you're being a "good white" by not being racist you are actually problematic and need to "do the work". This is from her extremely popular, celebrated, and mainstream texts and not my opinions.
EMM_386 4y ago
> Either I'm the one person who isn't seeing this, or this person has a very deranged definition of "white supremacist." I honestly have noticed no changes whatsoever in my feed. A lot of people I follow are griping about how bad it is, but I'm not seeing it. Perhaps they are sunsetting this site because it's not all doom and gloom, as much as they may have wanted it to be? I have no opinion on the entire matter other than it's the same for me, outside of Elon Musk making more frequent odd replies (as you mention). He seems to respond with "we really need to look into this" or "this needs further investigation" on things that border on conspiracies or are easily proven/disproven. Am I just an outlier for some strange reason?
SkyMarshal 4y ago
I don’t see any either, mainly b/c I curate who I follow and click the link at the top “Following” to only show tweets of people I follow (instead a of the default “For You” which mixes in Twitter’s mostly inane recommendations).
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
runjake 4y ago
A couple things here: 1. Their definition of "white supremacist" is far, far wider than yours. 2. I don't see white supremacists at all. In fact, aside from Elon's mercurial and adolescent drama and knee jerk policy changes, Twitter is far, far better. It seems like all the people who whined about other people on Twitter fled to Mastodon or something. And in fact, I stopped using Mastodon because it became a clutter of people complaining about people on Twitter, because those people held different opinions.
ldehaan 4y ago
[dead]
BrotherBisquick 4y ago
Allowing people to express themselves is fascism.
drcongo 4y ago
There's no such thing as an ironic white supremacist.

by hbn 4y ago

vadansky 4y ago

Agreed, I hate how people just throw this out like it's fact and everyone applauds. My twitter feed before was a ton of artists I follow, my twitter feed now? A bunch of artists I follow.

N1ckFG 4y ago
I bet most of the community here defaults to Following (non-curated timeline). Mine's gotten a lot quieter, without as many interesting threads cutting across fields, but talking to friends hasn't changed. However I've seen the occasional literal, ideological N*zi pop up in New Twitter's For You (curated timeline), which I suspect is down to using metrics susceptible to rage-farming.

nbar1 4y ago

People are creating an alternate reality in their own head.

bfeynman 4y ago

Maybe your feed is curated more, but it's definitely true that visiting a tweet url as an anonymous user, almost no matter what the tweet is about or who tweeted it, when you scroll down it starts just showing suggested tweets/topics, and not kidding they are almost all paid blue checkmark right wing provocateurs. And part of this was unintentional in promoting "paid" checkmark people but the vast majority of those are a certain type of person who want to shout loudly.

nicky0 4y ago
Seems the previously amplified "notable" voices have self-selected themselves out of the blue checks because they refuse to buy them. I see a lot of "I'll never pay a single cent to elon" sentiment from the former anointed ones.

dfxm12 4y ago

It's exaggeration for sure, but even I get some white supremacist content in my "For You" feed and I only follow sports/band/venue/restaurant accounts. It's puzzling how it found its way there. My "Following" feed is fine though.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
revelio 4y ago
Like what, exactly?
xboxnolifes 4y ago
It's puzzling how very broad topics such as "sports" might have overlap with white supremacy communities?
- dariusj18 3y ago
  It's puzzling how human intervention isn't used to prevent such a simple but unrealistic correlation.

manuelabeledo 4y ago

Not sure about white supremacists, but as an ex-user of Twitter, now a casual lurker, I find that toxic commenters are almost everywhere. I don't know if part of Twitter's algorithm was to filter these out for me, but browsing Twitter without an account is a wild ride, and has led me to believe that the far right has indeed infested the platform thoroughly.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
FrankyZunim 4y ago
[flagged]
- fmoralesc 4y ago
  The far right can only infest.
- manuelabeledo 4y ago
  You got it right.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
elicash 4y ago
It's like dating apps. Letting people buy reach, rather than relying on "merit," can make people's feeds worse. And yet you have to make money. It's a balancing act. You want to turn the ads spigot on just enough that people are still happy with the service.
Atlas22 4y ago
At least for me the twitter comments have always been a cess pool of toxicity and really have only gotten worse over the years. Far worse than any other platform I've used. I haven't noticed a significant change in the rate the toxicity grows since he elon took over but to be fair I do feel as though the toxicity has been near saturation for years already. A lot of it did, and still does get removed/hidden that at least gives the impression that the platform is less toxic than it really is but I don't really buy the argument that forceful removal/banning is helpful anymore because it really hasn't worked anywhere online that ive seen, it just escalates things and makes them madder/more vengeful. Then they just make new posts/accounts/do damage elsewhere. I'd much rather just read a few more empty death and terrorism theats and move on with my day than have twitter esculate them until they actually are mad enough to try and follow through with them.

maplant 4y ago

I have seen on my feed a picture of Hitler with a sympathetic quote from an account called "Racial Consciousness" with a blue check mark. I could not even imagine seeing that before Elon took over. So for me, yes, there are definitely white supremacists increasingly dominating my feed.

throwaway894345 4y ago
Are you sure that wasn't satire? Poe's law and all that?
- Kye 4y ago
  Satire requires a clarity of purpose and target lest it be mistaken for and contribute to that which it intends to criticize.
  - throwaway894345 4y ago
    I agree, but (1) not all satire is good satire and (2) not everyone is adept at picking up on good satire and (3) even those who are adept at picking up good satire might miss something once in a while.
- flangola7 4y ago
  "It was just a joke" is a common distraction technique used by neonazis and other social conservatives. When seen it is safe to presume bad faith until proven otherwise.
  - throwaway894345 4y ago
    It’s also used far more frequently by ordinary people who tell jokes. “You know who else drank water? Hitler!” Am I joking, or am I pointing out the silliness of taking something as mundane as “humor” and portraying it as something uniquely fascist?
    - 4y ago

throwaway894345 4y ago

Yeah, I don't have this either. I suspect it's the new sense of "white supremacist" (something like "people who are at all critical of left-wing identity politics") rather than anyone who discernibly professes a belief in the superiority of the "white race". > I'm not a fan of Elon but these people that made their entire personality trying to demonstrate how Twitter is dead Yeah, when he laid off a bunch of engineering, lots of people (including Grady Booch, one of the guys behind UML) were insisting that Twitter was going to fall apart, pointing to every single bug as proof of their prophesy (despite that Twitter has always been plagued with bugs--fail whale, anyone?--and many other successful social media platforms thrive as businesses despite far more frequent, egregious bugs). Of course, this isn't an endorsement of Musk in any way, but it will be read as such because we're not allowed to have nuanced opinions on the Internet.

Xeoncross 4y ago
> nuanced opinions Ah yes, I remember when people had those. I think they phased them out because they didn't fit into the headlines anymore. Also, it costs less to paint the world with simple black and white.

hk1337 4y ago

It's the usual thing of broad strokes defining a whole group of people. Dehumanizing to make it easier to hate them. All democrats are commie socialists that want to take away your individuality. All republicans are white supremacist nazis that want to impose their will.

nemo44x 4y ago

It could be from Robin DeAngelo who wrote the very popular book "White Fragility" and other books about problematic white people. She says: "Remember: When I use the term “white supremacy”, I do not use it to refer to extreme hate groups. I use the term to capture the pervasiveness, magnitude, and normalcy of white dominance and assumed superiority." So it looks like a further redefinition of a word to control language and discourse. In essence, "white culture" (I don't really know if that's a thing?) or what is commonly referred to as "whiteness" today is “white supremacy”. So unless you want to be a "“white supremacist" you will actively fight against it. At the least, you certainly won't disagree with the critical social justice ideology if you want to be an "ally". And if you think you're being a "good white" by not being racist you are actually problematic and need to "do the work". This is from her extremely popular, celebrated, and mainstream texts and not my opinions.

EMM_386 4y ago

> Either I'm the one person who isn't seeing this, or this person has a very deranged definition of "white supremacist." I honestly have noticed no changes whatsoever in my feed. A lot of people I follow are griping about how bad it is, but I'm not seeing it. Perhaps they are sunsetting this site because it's not all doom and gloom, as much as they may have wanted it to be? I have no opinion on the entire matter other than it's the same for me, outside of Elon Musk making more frequent odd replies (as you mention). He seems to respond with "we really need to look into this" or "this needs further investigation" on things that border on conspiracies or are easily proven/disproven. Am I just an outlier for some strange reason?

SkyMarshal 4y ago

I don’t see any either, mainly b/c I curate who I follow and click the link at the top “Following” to only show tweets of people I follow (instead a of the default “For You” which mixes in Twitter’s mostly inane recommendations).

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

runjake 4y ago

A couple things here: 1. Their definition of "white supremacist" is far, far wider than yours. 2. I don't see white supremacists at all. In fact, aside from Elon's mercurial and adolescent drama and knee jerk policy changes, Twitter is far, far better. It seems like all the people who whined about other people on Twitter fled to Mastodon or something. And in fact, I stopped using Mastodon because it became a clutter of people complaining about people on Twitter, because those people held different opinions.

ldehaan 4y ago

[dead]

BrotherBisquick 4y ago

Allowing people to express themselves is fascism.

drcongo 4y ago

There's no such thing as an ironic white supremacist.