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Manufactured consensus on x.com

rook2root.co

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Re: Manufactured consensus on x.com

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN certainly leans one way. X has gone more central. BUT remember that what you see is driven by the people you follow, mostly. Don’t like what they say or their political persuasion? Unfollow.

That's what my liberal friends told me from 2017 to approximately the day Musk bought Twitter: "They're private companies, bro, they can do what they want. Just don't use them if you don't like it." They never said that before 2017, and they've stopped saying it now. Welcome back to the "censorship is bad" side, I guess; just don't tell me it was ever about a principle.

The difference is that "liberals" never even attempted to censor conservatives. Rather, what happens is that conservatives pretty much can't articulate their views without employing slurs. And, well, that gets you censored.

The reality is that if I talk like Kamala at work then nobody gives a flying fuck. If I talk like Trump, I'm going straight to HR.

It's not that conservative voices are incapable of being rational or are being purposefully targeted or anything. It's that American conservatives are far-right populists so of course their messaging follows that notion. They appeal to emotion, they berate, they gloom and doom, and they have very Nazi-like rhetoric just by their nature. That's how populist messaging works - it wouldn't be populism if you weren't trying to convince people that monsters are coming to eat their babies or something.

Point being, yes conservatives are obviously targeted more by censorship. It can be very easily avoided by not lying, not saying slurs, not calling for the decimation of peoples, etc.

Our own President cannot meet that standard. So, predictably, outrage populists on places like Twitter certainly cannot. It seems to be that conservatives have no voice of reason, no person to look up to.

Re: Manufactured consensus on x.com

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing that. The section on conspiracy thinking was interesting to me. I've been trying to understand the ever increasing amount of it in our society, and my thoughts keep going back to the rise in marijuana legalization. I can't help but feel that there is a link. Like ketamine, other psychedelics can trigger mild psychosis and with it conspiratorial thinking, grandiosity, and all of the other symptoms d…

> The section on conspiracy thinking was interesting to me. I've been trying to understand the ever increasing amount of it in our society, and my thoughts keep going back to the rise in marijuana legalization. Are we switching the horse and cart places here? It's highly likely that people resort to drugs in order to cope with the distress caused by conspiracy talk. Musk is using drugs as stimulants to increase his "…

[deleted]

Re: Manufactured consensus on x.com

#253
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for anyone interested: https://alisoncrosthwait.substack.com/p/a-ketamine-addicts-p...

Thanks for sharing that. The section on conspiracy thinking was interesting to me. I've been trying to understand the ever increasing amount of it in our society, and my thoughts keep going back to the rise in marijuana legalization. I can't help but feel that there is a link. Like ketamine, other psychedelics can trigger mild psychosis and with it conspiratorial thinking, grandiosity, and all of the other symptoms d…

You're very much welcome!

Regarding conspiracies, I really must share ContraPoints' new video ... CONSPIRACY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teqkK0RLNkI

Re: Manufactured consensus on x.com

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's usually some mental gymnastics related to Israel, Gaza, etc... Because many Muslims deny the holocaust, much of the far-left has co-opted that rhetoric. It's super visible on TikTok, for example. Edit - some comments below this seem to doubt. Just go on TikTok to politically charged posts about Palestine. This whole thread is about social media. Not holocaust denial on the mainstream left, specifically the far-l…

In my many decades as a political observer I have never seen Holocaust denial on the left. I guess it's a pretty niche sub-movement. Where does one pick these nuts?

USSR practiced a milder form of Holocaust denial by downplaying the fact that victims were killed because they were Jews. A typical manifestation of that was various monuments to Holocaust victims, the signs of which referred to them strictly as "Soviet citizens" without any mention of their ethnicity.

https://www.blavatnikarchive.org/story/forgotten-remembered

Re: Manufactured consensus on x.com

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outside of PBS, do you have evidence for this claim: "News is/was paid vast sums by the government to tell a certain story"? > Alternative views definitely have reach. Yes, but are we in a 1984 situation where that reach is managed behind the scenes. Reach, but perhaps not too much reach. With respect to the chart, how do we know that Twitter users are not largely partitioned? How representative is the fact you saw s…

I get and agree that 'super accounts' like Musk or Taylor Swift or Barack Obama can have an outsized impact that is too powerful. Strongly argue that TODAY has far more diversity of thought being communicated on various media than 2024. Disagree on being "in 1984 situation," the whole "Biden is sharp as a tack" -> replaced without primary "Campaign of Joy" is as 1984 is you can get. Very clear evidence of syndication…

> Disagree on being "in 1984 situation,"

We are not on the same page. I was not referring to a 1984 situation in the sense that government now currently has control over all information and strictly controls it. If anything, we're more in a "Brave New World" situation than 1984.

I was referring to instead just a tactic used in 1984 where the dissenting opposition is controlled rather than suppressed. The dissent is allowed to exist, but it's in a controlled manner. I'm also only referring to within Twitter/X as well, not about US society.

> The hard evidence you request is thoroughly concealed and hard to follow as it gets washed through non profits and NGOs.

In contrast, 'soft' evidence sounds like the stuff of unsubstantiated claims - which is not evidence. So, we can probably just simply talk about evidence, the distinction of 'hard' vs 'soft' seems meaningless to me (soft evidence is simply not evidence). My question - how is someone to distinguish between evidence that is thoroughly concealed vs evidence that does not exist? If you can't distinguish between the two, then is it fair to say that evidence that was destroyed is simply no longer there? Can you show evidence of this destruction?

> USASpending shows $2mm direct in 2024 to NYT

Where can I see that?

Checking 'USASpending.gov", searching for 'recipients' and then NYT, it shows a total awarded amount of "$322,716" [1].

Though, giving you all of the benefit of the argument and let's say the $2mm direct is true. A quick google search shows annual 2024 revenue for NYT was $2.6B (which surprises me it is that much). $2mm is less than 0.1% of revenues. Seems like NYT would hardly miss it if it were gone.

[1] https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/f05659be-52e5-38ef-461...

Re: Manufactured consensus on x.com

#256

Spend a decade crying wolf or "muh fascists" at every little thing we disagree with, and suddenly everyone is surprised when the public tunes it out and we get fascists. "who made you this way?" "you did." - american politics circa 2025

I mean, the fascists today are basically the same people as the fascists 10 years ago. It wasn't crying wolf, it was seeing what was going to happen in the future.

If I tell a young black man he is gonna grow up to be a criminal, that makes him more likely to grow up to become a criminal.

Especially if I refuse to debate him and instead hurl insults at him and viciously deride him.

The same is true of the ordinary and the middle-of-the-road people when it comes to fascism.

The best way to create fascists is to attack and histrionically go after non-fascists and demand they conform to our way of thought.

Just being left-wing and going after people out of disgust over their opinions, I've accidentally alienated more people and created more fascists than any of these limp-wrist right-wing conservatives could ever hope to create.

I only realized it years later.

Radicalism begets radicalism.

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