Twitter 2: Tweet harder

[Varysblackfyre321]

4 hours ago, Conflicting Thought said:

a lot of groups that werent considered white are now "accepted" as white...until they arent anymore. whitness is a very fickle concept. 

Yeah. It’s not even contingent on the color white.

Plenty East Asian people have “white” skin and early on European explorers described them as white.

That came about by virtue of  eugenicists categorizing them as yellow in the 19th century.

[Erik of Hazelfield]

2 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

If Musk’s management of Twitter has shown anything, no one shoukd go to Mars with him. He’d be withdrawing oxygen, food and water privileges on a whim

I used to think Elon Musk was cool, back when he stuck to making electric cars and sending rockets to space. As far fetched as his Mars plans were, I thought they were inspiring and thought provoking, in a sort of “yes we can” spirit. Everyone else seemed to come up with reasons why electric cars or reusable rockets couldn’t work - Elon attacked the core of the problem, and succeeded. In hindsight it may have been obvious, but like Columbus and his egg, Musk was the one who actually did it. He also seemed like a fun guy who added references to Spaceballs and David Bowie to his cars and rockets. Sending that Roadster to space was mad and beautiful. 

I mourn the loss of that man. He probably never existed in the first place, but in my mind he did. Now he’s behaving like a clown and a bully, and it seems like a mystery how he could ever have run a successful business. I even sort of hope his Mars plans fail, for the reasons cited. I’d rather stay on a ruined Earth than living under a guy like that on Mars.

[Varysblackfyre321]

3 hours ago, Week said:

The issue for many on 'the Right' is that their parties support, espouse, and provide cover for racism, misogyny, and bigotry to the point of violence. A problem that is orders of magnitude greater than whatever 'the Right' is whining about.

The right uses idpol to obscuate their bigotry?

it’s the left’s fault.

[Varysblackfyre321]

5 minutes ago, Erik of Hazelfield said:

used to think Elon Musk was cool, back when he stuck to making electric cars and sending rockets to space.

It should be said he hired people to do this.

He doesn’t even have a scientific degree and the ones he’s faked was a BA in physics.

He’s not a stupid man but he no more invented cars and rockets than the ceo of Disney invented black panther.

[Ran]

10 minutes ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

He doesn’t even have a scientific degree and the ones he’s faked was a BA in physics.

That sounded interesting, so I decided to Google. But per the University of Pennsylvania, he has a BA in Physics and BS in Economics granted in 1997. There seem to be conspiracy theories darkly suggesting nameless "investors" arranged "phony degrees", but at U Penn? It's not some fly-by-night school. 

As far as I understand it, many of the claims being spread come from claims made in a lawsuit (Eberhard v. Musk, 200) that did not go to trial and was settled out of court, so while one supposes the claimant believed their claims they don't automatically prove these claims were accurate.

[Varysblackfyre321]

25 minutes ago, Ran said:

so while one supposes the claimant believed their claims they don't automatically prove these claims were accurate.

Fair enough. It’s still unwise to treat Musk as the personal inventor of rockets and electric cars. He’s no more a rocket scientist, or engineer than the average man. 

[DMC]

The rich kid got a degree from Wharton, right?  Shocker!

[Varysblackfyre321]

So I think it’s likely West eventually just says flat out something to the tune of Hitler good, or Holocaust fake.

If/when that happens do you guys think he’ll suspend/ban Kanye or keep holding on?

[Mindwalker]

I would just like to make 3 points about West.

1. The only ones exploiting his mental illness are those who nominate, promote, encourage him to run instead of seeking help.

2. No mental illness makes you antisemitic, racist etc.

3. He just released an anti-trans ad. By which I mean: People are getting killed because of the hate speech of him and his ilk. The hell it's exploitation to fight back, give me a break.

[Ormond]

5 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

As someone who is actually Jewish and lives in the US this conversation is groan inducing to say the least. 

Just use "some" as a qualifier. I have blue eyes, dirty blond hair and generally look like I'm Western European and more German than Jewish. Nobody ever bothers me and people tend to be surprised when I tell them I am. However, a lot of my family does look stereotypically Jewish and they catch a lot of L's because of it, especially if they're wearing anything that clearly tells others that they are. And because of anti-Semitism I no longer have my actual last name. My grandfather had to change it because in the late 40's/early 50's nobody would hire Jewish lawyers. Funny how that game flipped.

I hate the whole "our group is not a monolith" line because it should always go without saying. Some people, like myself, can pass as white and nobody would ever know if I didn't volunteer it. Others cannot. 

I just don't get conflating "looking Jewish" in an American context with "looking non-White". Just because one has certain physical characteristics that "look Jewish" or "look Italian" to many people doesn't mean that those people think that means you are not "White". Again, there have always been subcategories within "White" or "Black" or "Asian".  One can be extremely anti-Semitic and still think Jews are White -- they just aren't the best type of "White" to these people. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

38 minutes ago, Ormond said:

I just don't get conflating "looking Jewish" in an American context with "looking non-White". Just because one has certain physical characteristics that "look Jewish" or "look Italian" to many people doesn't mean that those people think that means you are not "White". Again, there have always been subcategories within "White" or "Black" or "Asian".  One can be extremely anti-Semitic and still think Jews are White -- they just aren't the best type of "White" to these people. 

Jews are not white to many of these people. That's the point.

[IheartIheartTesla]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

That sounded interesting, so I decided to Google. But per the University of Pennsylvania, he has a BA in Physics and BS in Economics granted in 1997. There seem to be conspiracy theories darkly suggesting nameless "investors" arranged "phony degrees", but at U Penn? It's not some fly-by-night school. 

Weird...I was in grad school at UPenn around that time....in the Physics Department. I dont remember seeing a thin-skinned narcissistic dudebro there at all.

[Isalie]

4 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Weird...I was in grad school at UPenn around that time....in the Physics Department. I dont remember seeing a thin-skinned narcissistic dudebro there at all.

Im sure you saw plenty..

[felice]

11 hours ago, JGP said:

Mastodon is too siloed

Too siloed how?

11 hours ago, JGP said:

and there are moderation issues [on some servers]

Some servers, sure. Is there any site that doesn't have moderation issues of one kind or another? Twitter certainly wasn't one even before the Muskpocalypse. At least with Mastodon you have the option of choosing a server that does have good moderation, however you personally define that - there's never going to be universal agreement!

11 hours ago, JGP said:

looks like it might be trying to be a safeplace for white civility popo.

It's many different things. A thread discussing instances with non-white admins/mods: https://anticapitalist.party/@serenissima/109379407400439772

[Erik of Hazelfield]

10 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

It should be said he hired people to do this.

He doesn’t even have a scientific degree and the ones he’s faked was a BA in physics.

He’s not a stupid man but he no more invented cars and rockets than the ceo of Disney invented black panther.

 

9 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Fair enough. It’s still unwise to treat Musk as the personal inventor of rockets and electric cars. He’s no more a rocket scientist, or engineer than the average man. 

I know that, of course, and I never claimed or believed that he invented those things. But he did come with a vision and he did put his money where his mouth was. He invested much of his PayPal fortune into SpaceX, which very nearly went bankrupt after a series of failed booster landings. 

He should also be fairly credited as the one who showed the world what an electric car can be - fast, beautiful and useful. Expensive, sure, but there’s a market for that. He insisted on building a network of fast chargers so that Tesla owners could travel across the US and Europe without problems. Those were good decisions that accelerated the adoption of electric cars by years if not decades (my guess). 

 

[Varysblackfyre321]

35 minutes ago, Erik of Hazelfield said:

I know that, of course, and I never claimed or believed that he invented those things. But he did come with a vision and he did put his money where his mouth was. He invested much of his PayPal fortune into SpaceX, which very nearly went bankrupt after a series of failed booster landings. 

I didn’t mean to put words in your mouth.
 I have seen many a person as a tech-genius when his skillouse is being a resourceful businessman with a keen eye for investment. 

[mormont]

I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist but I have genuinely wondered if Musk is trashing Twitter on purpose, for whatever reason. His actions are almost inexplicable otherwise.

But then again the man seems to think he's cooler than Trent Reznor so maybe he is just mad. 

[Liffguard]

4 minutes ago, mormont said:

I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist but I have genuinely wondered if Musk is trashing Twitter on purpose, for whatever reason. His actions are almost inexplicable otherwise.

But then again the man seems to think he's cooler than Trent Reznor so maybe he is just mad. 

I personally think it's just a case of somebody being good at one thing (spotting a couple of unexploited, marketable technological niches and hiring the right people to build the things to fill those niches) and assuming he'll be good at something else totally unrelated (incresing the revenue streams of an already mature social network).

We can debate on how much of Tesla and SpaceX's successes are down to Musk or not, but even if we allow that Musk was instrumental in what they've achieved, they're still very different companies from Twitter. The problems they're trying to solve are fundamentally technological problems and, as many people have already pointed out, Twitter is not actually a tech company. Its product is social engagement, not software, and Musk doesn't seem to know anything about what makes people tick outside of a couple of weird internet subcultures.

[Which Tyler]

12 hours ago, Erik of Hazelfield said:

I used to think Elon Musk was cool, back when he stuck to making electric cars and sending rockets to space. As far fetched as his Mars plans were, I thought they were inspiring and thought provoking, in a sort of “yes we can” spirit. Everyone else seemed to come up with reasons why electric cars or reusable rockets couldn’t work - Elon attacked the core of the problem, and succeeded. In hindsight it may have been obvious, but like Columbus and his egg, Musk was the one who actually did it. He also seemed like a fun guy who added references to Spaceballs and David Bowie to his cars and rockets. Sending that Roadster to space was mad and beautiful. 

I mourn the loss of that man. He probably never existed in the first place, but in my mind he did. Now he’s behaving like a clown and a bully, and it seems like a mystery how he could ever have run a successful business. I even sort of hope his Mars plans fail, for the reasons cited. I’d rather stay on a ruined Earth than living under a guy like that on Mars.

The mask slipped (for me) with the football team that got trapped in a cave in Thailand

[Spockydog]

11 minutes ago, Which Tyler said:

The mask slipped (for me) with the football team that got trapped in a cave in Thailand

For me, it was when he had a former employee swatted for turning safety whistleblower.