African Musk: Not a Fragrance

[Stavros]

Some analysis of what went wrong with Starship:

Or just ask the experts-

How Do We Launch Things Into Space? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids

[Fitzcarraldo]

Or just ask the experts-

How Do We Launch Things Into Space? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids

Well, he has a NASA contract for designing a lunar lander.

[Stavros]

Well, he has a NASA contract for designing a lunar lander.

And delegate the task to Howard Wolowitz. They've worked together before. Washing dishes. And did it well.

[broncofan]

For those who aren't on twitter, I want to describe what it was like before and since Musk took over. Before I would like a video of people playing tennis and I would get recommended videos of people playing tennis.

Now it's like "you like tennis? Here's a video of a person on crutches being assaulted on a tennis court." There's this for you tab and it basically recommends every ignorant, gibbering, hateful soul you've ever encountered. For you: three people who called you an imposter Jew. Why's it for me? Because in his view of free speech, they call me names and there's a conversation to be had. Both sides. They may call you names, but you called them hateful so it's basically the same thing.

This last point just underlines why Musk's idea is so stupid. Many of the people who are on there are Nazis. Not because I call people I don't like Nazis but because colloquially speaking, they are obsessed with demonizing every non-white, non-Christian minority group. You are not encouraging dialogue by showing me what they have to say. Instead you are exposing me and other people to noxious stupidity, overt hatred, racist caricatures, violent videos, and anonymous people insinuating the day will come where they'll carry out public executions of the people they hate. It is absolutely idiotic to think there's a responsible business that should host those views.

[Stavros]

For those who aren't on twitter, I want to describe what it was like before and since Musk took over. Before I would like a video of people playing tennis and I would get recommended videos of people playing tennis.

Now it's like "you like tennis? Here's a video of a person on crutches being assaulted on a tennis court." There's this for you tab and it basically recommends every ignorant, gibbering, hateful soul you've ever encountered. For you: three people who called you an imposter Jew. Why's it for me? Because in his view of free speech, they call me names and there's a conversation to be had. Both sides. They may call you names, but you called them hateful so it's basically the same thing.

This last point just underlines why Musk's idea is so stupid. Many of the people who are on there are Nazis. Not because I call people I don't like Nazis but because colloquially speaking, they are obsessed with demonizing every non-white, non-Christian minority group. You are not encouraging dialogue by showing me what they have to say. Instead you are exposing me and other people to noxious stupidity, overt hatred, racist caricatures, violent videos, and anonymous people insinuating the day will come where they'll carry out public executions of the people they hate. It is absolutely idiotic to think there's a responsible business that should host those views.

I didn't realize now bad it can get. I read an article in the Telegraph the other day, freed by Yahoo from the paywall but no longer available, in which the author taking her cue from Carlson, argues too much 'news' in the Media is not news at all, but people shouting at you, being angry, even hysterical, making wild and unverified accusations as if there really was a 'deep state' that is out to turn you into an obedient zombie. But who is trying to take you down the road to mind numbing slavery shaped by a 19th century concept of Race in which you can never be a 'legacy American' or even just an American? The same people! It used to be the case that these views were on the fringe because that is where they belonged, along with the Trotskyists and the Eugenicists. The internet may have opened up a platform for such people they could only have dreamed of before, and it does expose the worms wriggling around in the dirt. But people with responsibility should prove they have the right to own it, eg Musk, and make editorial decisions that do not create the permissive environment in which raw abuse is valued as 'free speech' in equal terms to genuine news and information.

My assumption is that if you haven't deleted your Twitter account, you are going to do it soon -?

[filghy2]

I'm not a prolific twitter user, but I can't see much difference. The "You might like" recommendations still look reasonable and what I'd expect to see.

[broncofan]

That's interesting. There are two differences I notice. One is in the "for you" tab on the left that refreshes the timeline. The "followers" tab is exactly the same and I use it but it took me a second to figure out that I was always on the "for you" tab which I think it defaults to.

And the primary difference in the for you tab is that when I used to get "you might like" recommendations in the past it was always based on things I had pressed the like button on or that someone I follow likes. It was never based on who I interacted with. They didn't used to have a for you tab but that's not really important bc the main tab used to be based on an algorithm of interaction in the same way, just I believe a different one. You used to be able to hit a button at the top right if you wanted just your followers without ai trying to figure out how to customize your timeline.

But I'll give you an example of who is coming up on my timeline that never did before. It's based on the fact that I quote tweeted them to say something negative, and got a bunch of their followers on my timeline who I argued with. And I express the same views there that I do here (I promise I'm not an election denier on twitter lol).

So Mike Cernovich, who is alt-right imo. Jake Shields, an mma fighter who recently came pretty close to incitement against trans people. I'm not going to repeat what he said but if you're on the app you can type in "Jake Shields trans" and look at the tab for top results. I get recommended his tweets all the time. I don't follow him, I've never liked a single thing he's said, but me and some others have responded to a bunch of dumb stuff he's said about "fat women". I also never used to get recommended fight videos of basically personally recorded street fights, some of them involving felony assaults. I've never liked any of the videos and the only connection is that I watch mma and boxing. I know some might say there's the connection but before 5 or 6 months ago I never saw that stuff and have no interest in someone sucker punching someone else or slamming someone on their head onto pavement. For one week when Kyrie Irving had posted a video about how modern Jews aren't really Jews and i responded to one or two tweets, I was recommended all kinds of Black Hebrew Israelite propaganda. It didn't cause me any distress but it was just different and I noticed the change right away.

The only other difference is that I think moderation is closer to 2015-16 levels than it was between 2019 and 2021. 2015 it was close to a free for all there. It might not be as unrestrained now but look underneath any Anti-defamation league tweet. Every single tweet by them is completely bombarded by Nazis. Around 2019 or 2020 these people were getting their accounts suspended with a few reports rather than 12 hour locks that they come back from. Again, my impression is that 2015-16 were that bad but the "censors" everyone complained about from 2019-2020 who Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss claim they exposed were banning people like that. They were banning people for obvious medical disinfo, and election denial.

Which comes to Stavros' question about whether I'll leave. I won't because I can avoid those people if I am deliberate. I'm not using my real name, have no information that someone can use to locate me, and I am seeing these tweets for two reasons. A lot of my followers and the people I follow argue with these lowlives. And I have responded to things they've said. It's just I never got recommended their stuff ever in the past and the street fight videos are definitely a new thing. Those accounts should simply be banned. They broadcast people getting paralyzed and getting life threatening injuries or in some cases being killed. I'm not saying they were never anywhere on twitter before as I wouldn't know but I never got recommended them and I do regularly now.

I am in a group chat with about 30 people. We talked about this last night and it was half and half about whether they thought there was a difference. It could be based on how one uses twitter. It could of course be some confirmation bias but that's more likely for me on the number of bad accounts I've seen in general versus what i'm recommended bc I never had headscratching choices before.

[broncofan]

I just refreshed and got recommended a rightwing guy named Tim Young with nearly a million followers. It's not the majority of my recommendations but it used to be zero.

[Stavros]

Broncofan, on the one hand I can understand the need people have to constantly challenge the Neo-Nazis, or just Nazis since I am not sure what is Neo about them. On the other hand, it seems futile to me because with very few exceptions, they never listen to an alternative argument and never change. There have been some instances of change, in the UK the case of Ray Hill is particularly important and you may have heard of him (link to his obituary below), but on the whole I think your mental health is going to suffer if you are constantly on the front line of a media war you cannot win.

Again, it is up to those who control the 'system' to be responsible about this. Age old, debunked theories of Race are not news, they are not even opinion but iron-clad dogma as irretrievable as Flat Earth fanatics. The hate embedded in their discourse disqualifies it from being valued, so unless Musk can defend his editorial decisions, I think the shareholders should get rid of him, if that is possible.

Ray Hill-
Former neo-nazi Ray Hill who brought down Leicester's far-right movement dies aged 82 - Leicestershire Live (leicestermercury.co.uk)

[broncofan]

https://twitter.com/ADL/status/1651307708480626688

So here is a random ADL tweet from very recent. Most of their tweets are like this and I've seen worse (though obviously I chose the worst one I could see in a couple minutes). The next one is about a synagogue attack in early 2022 before Elon's tenure and there are only four responses. A shame what two of the responses are but it was not what looks like a coordinated response from Nazis. Now, under any tweet about antisemitism, it is what looks like a 4 chan directed assault of asswipes. I chose ADL because I can remember it but I've seen some bad stuff that I haven't seen in five or so years. (as an aside I understand my sampling techniques leave something to be desired but I tried. The difference is that ADL tweets used to have similar likes but about three or four comments. Now, they have tons of people directing hateful mockery.

https://twitter.com/ADL/status/1483076655153225728