The deal has officially gone through in the last hours. Twitter belongs to Elon.
He’s calling himself the Chief Twit. He has 110 million followers, and he is enjoying himself.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
Meanwhile there is apoplexy in some corners of Twitter with warnings that the Nazi dogs of the Right are about to return.
““A beautiful thing about Twitter is how it empowers citizen journalism – people are able to disseminate news without an establishment bias.”“
Restoring free speech on Twitter is not necessarily a given. There are plenty of political players that are afraid of uncontrollable citizen journalists and they will fight back.
But Musk at least, is clear on what he hopes to achieve:
The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.
In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost.
That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy.
I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.
And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.
That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!
In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all,..…
Now if only he would buy Paypal again.
The twits of the left will just flee to the next closed forum where they will be safe in their ‘truth’ that the left view is the only view.
550
The ABC?
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“Their” ABC!
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Truth social maybe?
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Correct Gee Aye.
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Again with the lack of comprehension, (or just deliberate snark ?).
Truth Social is NOT a closed forum like Twitter used to be…
… neither is it for far-leftists like twitter used to be.
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“Tribel” is being pushed as the lifeboat for those who get unreasonably upset by words on a screen.
10
Dribble Social
10
They’ve been leaving in droves for months.
Off to CIA-Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple and more.
Of course FB, Amazon shares are crashing now too as the anti woke movement grows.
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What a hateful man, Musk is clearly a fascist!
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I didn’t think I’d actually need to put a sarc tag on that. Oh well.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
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LOL – Important Safety Tip – Always include a sarc tag (unless you are curious to see what proportion of readers are concrete thinkers).
10
You didn’t need to put a sarc tag on it Graeme+P, the red thumbs show those who react instinctively either without thinking or through instant bias.
20
Now I know who really owns the title ‘Chief Twitt’
10
In the following video YouTuber Black Conservative Perspective talks about Elon trolling Twitter but interestingly, includes a video segment from a Twitter employee showing what it’s like working there.
https://youtu.be/ZpdIOdq3PyY
40
Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok
This is “a day in the life of a Twitter employee.” No wonder
@elonmusk
is firing 75% of them
Meanwhile
Entitled, whiny Twitter employee openly talking smack at Elon Musk does NOT go well, like at all
Is she trying to make it easier for him to decide who to let go?
Not. Smart.
Hey @elonmusk thanks for visiting @TwitterSF. Hope you enjoyed your coffee at The Perch! Just one question: was it fun to look at the faces of the people you said you’d be laying off?
— stephanie guevara (@compilesandruns) October 26, 2022
ohNOwhatisyoudoin
@honestrufe
He’s definitely going to remember your face when he fires you 🤣
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Wow that Stephanie person talks like a child. She writes like she will never work again, she is attempting to guilt Musk into changing his mind.
If that is a sample of the culture at Twitter no wonder it displays such a Leftist bias and no wonder Musk is canning the lot of them. They have got to go.
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I wonder what the effect will be on the Mid Terms?
Also, President Trump has previously said he won’t be returning to Twitter, even when Elon invites him back.
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Whilst I’m not convinced that Musk will succeed in transforming Twitter into a broad church (he might not even try that hard), it won’t matter if Trump doesn’t return. What would help more than Trump’s presence is effective pushback against the leftist bias, lies, fake news and censorship that passes for ‘journalism’ these days.
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Two Major New Polls Show Americans Believe The Media Is A THREAT To Freedom
The pollster concludes that “Americans’ confidence in the media has been anemic for nearly two decades, and Gallup’s latest findings further document that distrust.”
Meanwhile, A New York Times/Siena poll reveals that a whopping 84% believe that the mass media is a “threat to democracy.”
Almost two thirds believe that the media is a “major threat” to freedom.
https://summit.news/2022/10/26/two-major-new-polls-show-americans-believe-the-media-is-a-threat-to-freedom/
How does the totally biased ABC even still exist?
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In China its exactly the opposite and you’ll notice the small drop in confidence around the time of Covid.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/685140/media-trust-china/
31
you vill have confidence in ze media!
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Its across all platforms.
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001621/chinese-people-trust-their-media-much-more-than-youd-think
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How on Earth would you conduct an honest, accurate survey in China, especially one that could be viewed as commenting on the CCP in any way?
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If you take politics and other racy yellow press material off the agenda, you are left with a feel good type of news. To give an example, China Daily is the mouthpiece of Beijing and it has the feel of a country newspaper.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china
The people are unaware and what they don’t know won’t hurt them, apparently.
02
Many people in China would have eyes to see and ears to hear and brains to understand what is going on as much as anywhere else in the world. I would be surprised if there wasn’t an underground media.
21
Sure they can see and listen. But they dare not speak.
20
They don’t speak politics because without democracy there is nothing to be said.
00
We could look our own mirror for the answer to your question Steve.
01
Social Media is not social and it is not media. Twitter is a complete waste of money. Better to invest that money elsewhere in developing technology and services that truly helps Humankind to progress onwards and upwards. All IMHO.
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Johnny I agree that social media is neither social nor media, and the sentiment that Twitter is a complete waste of money sure feels good. But the reality is, Twitter exists, and in it’s current form it has been incredibly damaging to the world, to freedom of speech, and to Western Culture.
Twitter is not going away.
Elon Musk’s takeover, and intention to straighten it out, is a milestone in the history of modern communication. We can only hope that it turns out well, but there may yet be troubles ahead.
I’m not on Twitter, and maybe will never be. Still, I recognise that this buyout may be even more important than any investment Elon has made in technology.
Maybe this event is the first real strategic ‘battle’ to push back against the ‘long march through institutions’.
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Absolutely.
Their censorship of the Biden laptop scandal alone, along with censorship by other Leftist media, and apart from election fraud, likely swung the US election away from Trump, its rightful winner.
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I find Twitter very useful. I get a lot of skeptical news that way. And the animal videos make my day.
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I generally avoid it like the plague, but, like Farcebook, it is occasionally useful when “recalibrating”.
If the ferals are for it, I’m against it.
Ditto the LSM in general. There have been several occasions in my life where the “standard true view” of churnalists was decidedly at odds with the reality I was experiencing.
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Here ya go:
“If Twitter acquisition completes, company will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware”
Twitter, in Elon’s hands, will be more of a marketing tool for Tesla, SpaceX and other tech ventures and thereby further technological advancement.
50
“Elon Musk wants Twitter to generate $1.3 billion in revenue from a payments business by 2028, according to a pitch deck obtained by The New York Times.
Excerpts from the document, which has apparently been distributed to investors, suggests that the billionaire wants a greater number of transactions to take place through the social network.
While Twitter already offers a tipping feature that allows content creators to be rewarded with Bitcoin and Ether, the newspaper described it as a “negligible” part of the tech giant’s overall business model.
The report indicates that Musk wants this payments business to bring in $15 million next year, and enjoy exponential growth after that — raising questions over whether crypto would play a role in this.
Musk’s other ambitions include Twitter reaching revenues of $26.4 billion by 2028 — five times more than the $5 billion generated in 2021. And while advertising accounted for 90% of the company’s turnover in 2020, the world’s richest man wants to lower this to just 45% — with data licensing and subscriptions bringing in greater sums of cash.
Twitter Blue will likely be a core part of this strategy, where subscribers pay $3 a month to enjoy a greater degree of personalization. The pitch deck sets a target of attracting 931 million Twitter users by 2028 (compared with 217 million as of the end of 2021) — with 159 million people paying a monthly fee for access to Twitter Blue.
In past tweets, Musk has already suggested that he believes Twitter Blue should be cheaper than it is now — with users given the option to pay using Dogecoin.
Another intriguing detail concerns plans to launch a mysterious new product, which is only referred to as “X” on the pitch deck. There are signs that this could be a new tool that enables Twitter users to subscribe to an ad-free experience.”
https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/elon-musk-s-plans-for-twitter-leaked-pitch-deck-reveals-billionaire-s-ambitious-targets
Now, does this sound like an altruistic social media venture or a business? 😎
Maybe it’ll replace Paypal.
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Twitter may suck, but the function it is supposed to provide – the town commons where we may all speak and maybe listen – is important enough, and valuable enough, that some effort to fix Twitter is worthwhile.
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I wouldn’t trust Elon as far as I could kick him. I think he has bought Twitter to use it as a e-commerce platform. He wants to compete with Amazon and Ebay. But, if in the process, he also “cleans it up”, then well and good. By “clean it up” I mean get rid of bots, stop the lefty bias and make it a true social media. Account holders should not be anonymous for starters. Perhaps a subscription to join ? There would be some other very easy rules to apply that would clean it up very quickly.
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You cannot speak freely if everyone knows your name.
61
True, especially with the Left’s propensity to commit violence against those with whom they disagree.
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Nobody should be free to make anonymous threats.
Nobody should be free to anonymously defame.
101
Thats right Ted, nobody should be free at all.
11
Thanks Jo – this is good news. I notice much of the MSM are now calling Elon, Putin’s attack dog.
PayPal is broken, the reason that Twitter is my only social media source/sink is to follow the public discussion around BSV.
Bitcoin SV is the only digital currency that has the potential to provide a truly neutral, inflation resistant, immutable, universal medium of exchange of value and information. IMHO.
It allows anyone in the world to participate in free enterprise, and it can scale to millions of txs per minute, of which none of the others are capable.
No wonder the vested interests are trying to destroy it!
49
Deary me…where to start! 😂
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Really helpful John, NOT!
21
I’d start by saying that it is very difficult to assess the sincerity and motivation behind the quoted words.
The saying used to be that if you can fake sincerity then you’ve got it made.
The more modern version might be if you can program fake sincerity into a bot then you’ve really got it made.
00
Yes Forrest, I suppose what you say might be true. All I can say is that John seemed unwilling to give any reasons why he thought my opinion was wrong. I agree with some of what he has said in other posts but not necessarily everything. He obviously thinks he has a superior intellect and does not need to enter into informed discussion.
I will happily ignore any of his postings in future.
10
Given the extreme political polarization I doubt Twitter can be made entirely warm and welcoming. Name calling is a central feature of politics. But stopping censorship of conservative and/or skeptical views would be wonderful.
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Musk paid far more than Twitter’s apparent market value based on revenue and other financial figures and the likely vast number of fake accounts.
I believe he has bought it because he has realised it is a major weapon of the Left in their quest to destroy Western Civilisation, Enlightenment and Scientific values, and he is prepared to pay whatever it takes to remove that weapon from them.
The world has given Musk a lot, making him the world’s richest man, and he is giving something back – freedom of speech.
260
Maybe he can just see that inflation will pay his bills.
He is getting in on the ground floor.
20
A better wording for that is that inflation will shrink his debt.
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Elon Musk Twitter Takeover Nears Completion, Banks Send Cash for Acquisition as Musk Clarifies Intent to Advertisers
Meanwhile Mr. Musk used the platform to notify Twitter advertiser of his intent in the purchase {link}:
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Thanks for posting Old Ozzie.
Elon confirmed my view that his motivation is to help save civilisation with a healthy digital town square where free and peaceful discussion can take place, unlike the censorship, violence and riots of the Left.
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G’day O O,
The ABC has reported the completion and the firing of several of the top echelon.
i
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-28/elon-musk-completes-takeover-of-twitter-ceo-and-cfo-fired/101589002
” Mr Agrawal and Mr Segal were in Twitter’s headquarters when the acquisition closed and they were escorted out, according to Reuters. ”
The SMH has also published, but that’s paywalled.
Cheers
Dave B
60
Sorry Jo but the “far right” is a figment of the MSMs imagination. I have no doubt that there are indeed some individuals who are truely “far right” but their numbers are miniscule, their influence of little account at all.
Its a travesty of the last decade that we have seen the weasels of the MSM and the Left somehow label anybody with opinions to the right of Mao as “far right”.
People voicing sensible and rational opinions about free speech, covid, vaxxes, Net Zero etc etc are not allowed to speak as they are immediately labelled far right. This is a well worn tactic of the Left to silence and not face up to a discussion where they would totally lose every single time. Any study of Communist regimes shows how this is always employed to quell “dissent” and its shocking how Ardern recently attacked free speech, and how there was no push back at all from “our” ABC or any other supposedly respectable media organisation.
No, the danger and the problems we face are totally caused by Leftists, and those of us sensible, commonsense people need to stop accepting the need to accommodate their evil and hateful voices. Call them out, show them for the disgusting people they are.
Its great to see Elon actually following through and starting to dismantle the Leftist ownership of all media.
390
The world needs to match the rhetoric of the
leftfar left. In game theory (and life) generally the best strategy is to be initially generous ie hope for and give people a chance to interact for mutual benefit, but when they are malicious you need to stop any and all concessions take it to heart that they are not benign and reciprocate their behaviour. Be the mirror. So in that spirit in public you should only ever refer to all the vast array of regressive individuals organisations and institutions trying to tear down enlightenment ideals and usher in a dystopian repressive woke world as far-left. The left are not acting in good-faith. They have been playing the propaganda game a long time and have gained a lot from the passive accomodation of the rest of society. We have to match their behaviour going forward if we care about preserving freedom.100
For someone who is ‘Far Left’ then I guess that anyone to the center, or even slightly right of center is to the ‘Far Right’ of them. It’s all relative.
40
Ed Musk it appears is going to allow serious discussions on Twitter. It is difficult to imagine a more serious subject than the RNA covid vaccines side effects and deaths and all of the other related issues concerning covid. This is what Ed Musk has told the Twitter employees.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/elon-musk-promotes-free-speech-twitter-meeting-media
“I think it’s essential to have free speech and … be able to communicate freely,” ……”If there are multiple opinions … just make sure that we’re not sort of driving a narrative.”
Musk told staff that in order for the public to “have trust in Twitter,” it’s “extremely important that there’d be transparency” and that the platform can do a better job at “informing people about serious issues.”
Facts are on the side of good, not evil.
https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/71
Curing the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine – Part 1
https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/72
Curing the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine – Part 2
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To think that people are still studying journalism at university. What a WOFTAM. Twitter will now completely destroy the legacy media. So sad, not. They still think that people will pay for their bigoted, ill-informed opinions.
131
Elon Musk is a master of double speak . He is pushing electric cars and battery systems and harvesting subsidies like all the others in the “renewable” scam. Twitter had become a highly censored media platform that had a limited audience and user base for that reason . He will make money out of it by reducing its bloated wokeforce and making it attractive to a greater audience . He also knows that owning media companies is a source of power that will enable him to help control the narrative .
130
I’ll see how Elon Musk goes before judging. Calling himself Chief Twit is a brilliant start, but it’s the substantial things that matter.
130
As I have forecast before, Twitter will now submerge under a tsunami of hate speech from the extreme right, except of course it will actually be lefties posing as conservatives so that they can say, “Told you so.”
120
I have no problem with Elon Musk making electric cars as long as no one is forced to buy them.
They are just the toys and status symbols of rich people, and everyone is entitled to their toys.
Serious transport remains with the internal combustion engine for the foreseeable future and likely indefinitely simply because hydrocarbon fuels have a much higher energy density than batteries. E.g. 600kg of batteries vs 50kg of gasoline for about the same range with an engine of about the same power.
190
Elon’s stated game is to colonise Mars.
ICE won’t work on Mars. ergo electric vehicles.
That governments pay him to research EVs on Earth via subsidies is just smart business.
And yes most transportation will remain ICE for the foreseeable future and beyond.
There is a place for EVs as passenger transportation in cities for commuters between work and home that do not use their vehicle in their jobs.
60
“And yes most transportation will remain ICE for the foreseeable future and beyond.”
I’m afraid I’m more pessimistic than you. ICE’s are starting to be banned around the world. And since there is not enough electricity/lithium/cobalt etc to go around, it really means that we will not be allowed to have cars.
“You will own nothing and be happy”
101
Yes, ICE’s are starting to be banned around the world, but the bans typically start in 2035. In most democratic countries, that’s several elections away. You would have to be brave or foolish to bet on it actually happening.
60
With any luck the power grids will have collapsed under the weight of unreliables, and Blind Freddy will not be coerced into buying an overpriced virtue-signalling toy that will be completely useless as a means of transport.
20
70
I’ll stick to my Rex.
Every time I see a Tesla heading out of town on the highway I think “where are you going to top that up?” 😂
71
David,
Agreed . My issue is how many Tesla’s would he have sold without government incentives and subsidies ? Everyone is paying for his cars whether we like it or not . Same with all the other electric cars in almost every other country .
130
Exactly right David. I’ll buy an EV when it weighs the same as my present ICE vehicle, and has the same range and does not pose a fire risk. So…I need a circa 1450kg vehicle, with a 48kg battery with a range of at least 700km that does not cost $15k more than an ICE variant and can be recharged in less than 5 minutes. I may be waiting a while.
220
Elon To Replace 3,200 Twitter Employees With One Hardworking Immigrant Named Amar
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Only hours after officially taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has taken action on firing underperforming employees. After reviewing the metrics on individual employee productivity, Musk abruptly fired 3,200 Twitter team members and replaced them with Amar.
“Amar is a hardworking immigrant from India who can easily do the work of 3,200 Silicon Valley millennials,” said Musk. “Once we filtered out all the breaks for meditation, wine-on-tap, matcha sipping, shuffleboard, and corn-hole, we discovered that these employees could all be replaced with Amar, who will outperform all 3,200 of these employees by at least 9%.”
Amar’s resume includes a steady stream of success at several call centers in Mumbai, and since his start date on Monday, he has already outworked 2,973 of the employees in weekly productivity. Sources say he works 18 hours per day, sleeps at the office, and takes baths in the bathroom sink, all of which he says are much better working conditions than where he came from.
At publishing time, Twitter employees had announced they all found jobs working for the DNC in Washington, D.C.
390
Good one OldOzzie. Made me smile.
120
It’s interesting hearing Leftists express their opposition to free speech.
They don’t dare say they are opposed to free speech, of course.
They just label any free speech they disagree with, which is just about everything, as “hate speech”.
161
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has little to do with social media or freedom of speech per se. In short it is the single biggest spanner in the works imaginable for those who want to control us and reduce us to the level of serfs.
To understand why it is necessary to find out a little about Ms Julie Inman Grant – who she is, and what she was doing between 2008 and 2015, work for which she received tens of millions of dollars’ worth of stock options in Microsoft, Amazon and Twitter.
You then might like to find out what she is doing now.
90
Ms Julie Inman Grant qualifies for the job and the WEF have recognised her contribution.
14
He has in reality bought a global customer database, which he’ll use to his advantage.
It’s (his) BUSINESS first, free speech second!
“Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, the company that’s developing implantable brain-machine interfaces, could use the data from Twitter’s algorithms to market his companies.
“Musk is entering a market that has great power in terms of algorithms that he can use and use data as he wants to influence the market for his companies Tesla and SpaceX,” said Petros Iosifidis, Professor of media and communication policy at City University in London.
He told Euronews Next the platform will be a “great marketing tool” for his other companies.
“Every individual company like Meta has the power to collect data on individuals through algorithms. Not just where you live but also what you do and buy,” Iosifidis said.
“Targeted advertising can be something he could exploit more. It’s a little bit scary he is entering the media market”.”
https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/04/26/why-does-elon-musk-want-twitter-the-answer-may-lie-with-what-he-could-do-with-your-data
40
Which one?
– Senior Management Executive, Microsoft – pre 2008.
– Senior Adviser to President Obama – 2008 to 2012.
– Back to Microsoft 2012 – in charge of acquisition of AI technology.
– 2012 to 2015 Twittter in charge of acquisition of AI technology, making Twitter the largest holder of AI research on the planet.
– 2015 to 2017 – Adviser to the Australin govt including the Online Safety Act 2015 and its various iterations to now.
– 2017 to present – eSafety Commissioner and Senior Adviser to the Australian govt, including drafting the Cash Restrictions Act 2019?
100
She has the qualifications for the eSafety Commissioner and Senior Adviser to the Australian govt.
04
Thanks Memorvault – now I know who you are talking about. My reaction was …” oh, that horrible woman”
50
Disinformation, you say?
“Disinformation” is not a word from the English language. It is a direct translation of the Russian word dezinformatsiya. It is a KGB form of tradecraft from the Red Banner Institute of the KGB First Chief Directorate, otherwise known as the KGB foreign spy academy.
Disinformation is definition 159 in the KGB’s “Lexicon of KGB Terms,” published internally by the Soviet foreign intelligence service before 1984. Here it is: “Misleading by means of false information; A form of intelligence work in the Active Measures field, which consists of the secret channeling towards an adversary of false information, especially prepared materials and fabricated documents designed to mislead him and prompt him to take decisions and measures which fit with the plans and intentions of the Intelligence Service.”
No wonder it’s become the left’s newest favorite word.
80
Which probably explains why Ms Julie Inman Grant used in repeatedly in her address at the WEF meeting at Davos earlier this year.
She was describing the tactics of “right-wing extremists” here in Oz. Like anti-vaxxers.
81
All, of course, written in…er…which language?
Without looking it up, my guess is that misinformation = erroneous information, and disinformation = deliberately erroneous information.
30
Good golly miss Molly! about time. We finally own the trench, so let’s start the war!
21
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/elon-musk-fires-twitters-top-brass-closing-44-billion-deal-reports
30
Social media divides society. Not left or right versions of it.
My wife argues the internet has made the world a worse place. I strongly disagree. I would never go back to a world without information, which it was before the internet. I would say though, that social media has made the world a worse place.
Social media has made people intolerant of other people’s opinions. There have always been strong divides of opinion, but you didn’t come into contact with it that often. Now, it’s every day before breakfast.
And it drives people nuts. Notice how when you talk to people in real life, they will always agree with you? If they don’t they just say “yeah” and that’s it. This is their natural state. People don’t like confrontation, by default.
But social media destroys this. Because it is no longer face to face, they argue, and the mind is not ready for it.
Like how society is not ready for free speech. IT doesn’t know how to handle it. Previously, free speech existed, but people never had to confront it in the daily lives. Bring on social media, all that has changed, and thus why we see such turmoil.
The left’s reaction has been to crack down on it and ban people for their free speech. The centrist says there is free speech but there are consequences for what you say. The right, being on the receiving end of bans, are all for free speech, until they take power and we shall see what happens.
Not that Elon is a right winger, but we shall see how he handles this. Not a position I would like to have. Not an easy task.
80
Hopefully Musk will be able to eliminate censorship instigated by the US government too.
More cases like this might help:
https://www.uncoverdc.com/2022/10/23/bombshell-court-order-outlines-proven-government-big-tech-censorship/
60
Thanks G,
I didn’t think such an action was possible at all, let alone in the current US of A.
And expedited!
Wow.
Cheers
Dave B
Cooyal
10
There are lenders. Elon will have to find a way to monetize Twitter, or morph it into a money-making business. There are many possibilities.
The advertising dollars from the formerly mainstream newspapers and networks are floating uneasily in the ether….supporting ‘influencers’ and other abstractions neither easily understood nor easy to measure by those signing the checks. The Metaverse is a miniverse. The market is ready to shovel money at a media that can deliver adults, provide metrics, and talks to them as business partners rather than preaches to them as inferior beings. The subscription model has failed relative to the advertiser supported model across media globally where permitted. In a few years we’ll be asking if there will be an IPO, or are the revenues are so juicy that Elon will keep it private to finance his next toy. 10% willing to have adult conversations is millions of folks and hell of a demographic.
30
Here is an article about Parag Agrawal, who Elon had mercilessly day escorted out the door as soon as he took over.
I’m glad this horrible totalitarian Leftist (a tautology, I know) has gone.
https://nypost.com/2021/12/04/new-twitter-ceo-parag-agrawal-raises-free-speech-concerns/
SEE LINK FOR REST
GET WOKE, GO BROKE
60
Hey Leftists!
Terrified of free speech on Twitter?
Well, do what you always told rational thinkers to do.
GO AND BUILD YOUR OWN PLATFORM
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
50
Jeezus David, don’t encourage them. Let’s face it, Twatter was originally built by and for Lefties and I assume that many of Musk’s billions will flow into those lefties’ bank accounts, so they have the means.
40
Fair point Steve.
30
Maybe the loony lefties can buy the ABC.
Their views on youtube are so low, they could probably get it for under $1k.🤣
I came up with another new term.
GUMBIES – Green Utopia Meatheads Believing in Intermittent Energy Systems 😆
60
The left are wailing like spoiled children being refused an ice cream, but it’s not as though the Twitterverse is shifting right of centre, it’s just being moved back to the centre. Can you imagine the outrage if Kamala and all left wing commentators were banned just because they had a progressive view ?. Of course the real fear of the left is having their views challenged, because their house of cards is just waiting for a light breeze to spring up.
60
I’m pretty sure at some point in the saga, Elon said he wanted to make Twitter code (most of it) open-source so it would be a more “transparent” platform.
I wonder if the subsidy farmer will actually do it? I hope so, but am not holding my breath.
Elon has a massive personality cult following. A lot of people get very offended if one dares to question the motives or decisions of their Dear Leader. It’s actually quite disturbing.
I remember making a comment on a YouTube live-stream about what I thought was a bad decision to buy 2 old oil rigs and convert them to launch/landing platforms because of all the work that would be involved, and the fact that new-build semi-submersible platforms (that form the basis of oil-rigs) are not that expensive, and could be customised from the ground up. The response from the cult of Elon was crazy, it was like I’d sent a death threat. They cannot see that he is a human, and can make mistakes, just like the rest of us.
60
If Twitter is the town square, it is in better hands. And as someone who refuses to be on social media, I recognize that Twitter was big enough to ban its main drawcard, President Donald Trump. I suppose they could ban the Pope too as a divisive person, but he is far more on the left than any previous pope in history, except perhaps for Pius XII who was silent through the Hitler years and the Holocaust. But Marxists argue that Hitler was on the right and their deadly enemy, except for the Molotov Ribbentrop agreement.
Still it’s a great move to buy Twitter and decapitate it. We will see. It could not be worse.
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I don’t trust Musk, but he is first and foremost a businessman, so he isn’t going to “decapitate” it. Exactly what his plans are I have no idea but I’m sure it will be monetised more effectively and he will diversify/add income streams. And therein lies the challenge: how to make a buck or ten trillion out of something as ephemeral and one-eyed as Twitter currently is. Facebook’s re-invention offers lessons, given that it has broadened its business model and lost value, though the two aren’t necessarily linked.
But I know nothing about how the internet works from a business perspective and even less about how the average Twitter user thinks (other than Orange Man Bad).
20
I mean fire the CEO and half the senior management, which he has done. And a lot of the staff who push their views as censorship and filtering. As much what is shown as what is not shown. Censorship has been used as a political weapon. He says effectively this will stop.
And Twitter, like Facebook, is also a major vehicle for connections between people which carries enormous content and presumably advertising. As such I understand it is a direct competitor to Facebook but about conversations between people, influencers and their followers not families and friends, a different business model. Increasingly if people send a video it is either on Facebook or Twitter.
40
“I mean fire the CEO and half the senior management … ”
Fair enough. Though, to be pedantic, what he’s doing is more of a head transplant 😉
30
He has built very successful companies from nothing. The tone of the company is set from the top, which is why they had to go. You can compare with the ‘Murdoch’ press, which is really about Rupert Murdoch. One person at the top can set the behaviour, for good or ill. If you judge from what he says which is frankly quite inspirational, he could have huge impact on the runaway digital press. And that would give reasonable people an alternative home to the Silicon Valley press which is ultra left fascist.
Fascism to me is socialism which leave the rich in place and preserves their hold over society, much as happened in Nazi Germany where the rich industrialists profited mightily from the war. Along with others like Porsche, Farben, Hugo Boss,Siemens, Bayer, Volkswagen and many more. So much which is going on in America today is straight fascism supported by the violent black shirted thugs in Anti-FA. And it is alive and well in Ukraine too, which was Putin’s point everyone has ignored.
40
I am not a Christian – far from it – but those familiar with the Bible will be aware that when it speaks of the coming Anti-Christ it describes him as being admired, adored, even loved by most for the many great and wondrous things he does.
At the moment there are but two men in the so-called “Christian” world who fit that description admirably.
Just sayin’.
61
Klaus Schwab ? Joe Biden ?
40
Albanese and Bowen!
Tony.
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I doubt that Albosleazy and Mango have even been heard o outside of Oz.
Hows it going Tony? Long time no see.
40
I think it’s pretty funny with Albo and his new girlfriend. Im told Albo was photographed leaving a house of the ladies of the night and rumour has it that’s why Carmel left him, he couldn’t stop betting on the ponies they tell me.
20
All good.
My sister is right into this Ancestry thing, and I mean right into it …..
bighuge time. She traced back many many many generations. She mentioned that when it comes to male descendants, like father, Grandfathers, (2) Great Grandfathers (4) Great Great Grandfathers, (8) etc etc etc, direct male descendants, and found only one of them who (her words) ….. made it to old age pension age, so 65, and even he only made it to 68. I’m now 71, so I’m the (her words again) ….. outlier!!I think of what she does as modelling. I’m the current actual facts
I miss your icon!
(apologies to all for off topic)
Tony
60
When twitter first came about, I remember that Marieka Hardy and Stephen Fry in its cheer squad.
They thought they were quite clever with their quippy 140 character word limit work of art, and wanted us to do the same and experience the euphoria they as high artists and intellectuals of literature could once only enjoy.
I remember an article by Hardy and that was how she was going on, quite elitist of course.
The public’s only opportunity before was a letter to the editor. Now you could express your opinion every minute of the day. And it quickly evolved from that original idea, to amongst many things a place for women to flirt outside their real world which they took to like a duck to water, and then to some type of political policing weapon that apparently controls society.
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Aloha! Elon is a dreamer one of the few with means. I want him to succeed. I think he will but it will not be fast or easy in time for the mid terms! Elon is in a business where success is not guaranteed and risk is an essential component. Unlike politicians there is a reason why mostly lawyers become politicians. Both professions get paid whether they succeed or fail. Risk is not the essential component! We need much less former lawyers in government and much more carpenters and veterans! Professions who do not take risk lightly and who must succeed to survive! We need more Musk and less Biden!
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How long before the “it’s a private company, they can censor whoever they want” message becomes “Twitter is a threat to democracy”?
It was already mentioned, but I imagine this rhetoric will really flourish now.
40
A bit of thinking aloud …
we’ve mostly been ruled by an often contentious alliance of aristocrats and priests.
Then came along the age of machines, science, and nation states. (Curious that the timing is coincidental with the alleged ‘carbon’ threat … a faux threat created by the outcasts to regain power and moral authority .. it worked.)
Human culture achieves a new height of openness and progress in the Nation State era.
The Priestly class is sidelined a bit.
Global markets and cultural result from this ‘progress’.
Producing BILLIONAIRES.
Basically a Midas Class.
The Midas Class buys up Government, Science, and Media.
The new Billionaire Aristocrats have newly regained power over the Science Priests.
Culture, freed for a short while, is re-enslaved an placed under control of the Midas Class.
We end up hoping for a GOOD BILLIONAIRE to save us.
And maybe give us that ride into Space, the Final Frontier, we thought the Federation would create.
Starship Amazon Musk NCC-1701.
And the Captain is Non-Binary.
The Science Officer has pink hair and is illogical and over emotional.
20
[…] Elon Musk buys Twitter “to empower citizen journalism”. No wonder the left are scared. […]
00
funny sells
/sarc is a terrific form of argument when you are space limited
censoring cursing and name calling with ***** and leaving posts up is a good way to reflect on the sender
‘You ### and &&&& the **** #### ” is very clear, we posted your message, we know what you think, and if you
can’t express an argument in non-profane language that’s on you.
False reports; use the old equal time provision. If debates alternate positions the reader has to skip views
unliked affirmatively; very different that being swamped by bots.
Like here; known to the hostess, so not anonymous whether one uses name or no de plume.
Organizations validated on at least one official channel so site can tag ‘official’ views.
Permit passive engagement with filtering for news consumers.
The results of something like (or unlike) the above should be a body of a modest number of intense users, and a much larger number of
people who check selected threads for the zinger of the day; if the content is worthwhile even folks like us might check in passively
(as we check in here)
My thesis: politicization has stalled innovation in social media; there’s room to grow.
Like TV programs that broke the mold after a decade of stagnation and opened the floodgates for new forms: remember before and after
Miami Vice, or Hill Street Blues?
The internet is still immature; like black and white TV after it went color but still had all the same shows. The Old Newspaper/
evening news world is dead, but I think there is still room for the tip of the pyramid half hour a day four or five outlets of shared
culture; Tic Toc for grownups if you will.
We poked the Libs in the eye and broken out of the asylum, now turn away and evaluate the opportunity.
10
Anybody putting their faith in any of our mainstream political parties is living in LLa La Land. And that includes Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
00
Well we are not far from an election now in Victoria.
Who to vote for?
Lib Dems look good.
UAP has good policies and Clive Palmer is being quietly hidden for now.
Malcolm Roberts is doing a great job for PHON.
40
Peter,
No matter who gets in they will still be a politician . No one is even thinking about debt and they all want to spend money we don’t have . They are spending our money and incurring debt for us , the taxpayer . If the money supply growth exceeds the growth in productivity we get inflation . When you strangle productivity (green policies) and give money to unproductive recipients this accelerates the process . This is now government policy and its called buying votes.
00
Malcolm Roberts, Craig Kelly and George Christiansen have all talked about debt.
IPA talk about debt a lot.
If everyone looses faith and interest in our elections democracy dies.
50
Germany is currently demolishing a wind farm in order to extend a coal mine, in preparation for winter. Winter will not be affecting coal-fired power generation. Wind and solar will not be doing so well.
90
I would not trust Musk as far as I could throw him. Beware everyone (including Jo). He might support some form of “freedom of speech” now, but his idea of freedom of speech may not be the consensus. JUST WATCH OUT!
00