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A Political Thread pt. 2

Quick question/suggestion (may need a separate thread)
Given the ever increasing amount is of deliberate misinformation on Twitter, and the tweaking of algorithms to boost said misinformation, and the spread of hatred.

Could we make an informal local rule to maybe copy/paste the contents, or title, rather than just linking?

I've now set my browser (Firefox) to disable embedding from twitter, and I'm going to (try to) stop linking it, or clicking links in.
I just want to starve it of my views and clicks.
 
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I'm not seeing any news of racist riots last night - is it too early to hope that it's burned out (with the help of 700+ arrests)? Or have I just missed them?
I won't get my hopes up too much until we go through Saturday and Sunday nights, but a peaceful Friday night has to be a good thing.
 
I'd definitely say wait until after the weekend. However, it seems the arrests and prosecutions as well as the huge counter protests are having an effect. One major thing that riots like these rely on is momentum and public support. If the public are behind them, then they can grow quickly. However, like we've seen, if the general public aren't behind them and have mobilised to stop them, then they die out quickly.
 
It's not an election winner, but I feel if the Dem's play their cards right it could give them a further boost. It's already had some impact and we know Trump has a very thin skin. It seems to be getting to him. If they can get under his skin with it they could get some embarrassing moments out of him. They don't even have to be completely direct. Just stuff like, that statement was weird or that's a weird answer. Just keep building it little by little.
 
It's not an election winner, but I feel if the Dem's play their cards right it could give them a further boost. It's already had some impact and we know Trump has a very thin skin. It seems to be getting to him. If they can get under his skin with it they could get some embarrassing moments out of him. They don't even have to be completely direct. Just stuff like, that statement was weird or that's a weird answer. Just keep building it little by little.
You also have to be pretty engaged to understand why trump is a serious long term threat to the world.

But just pointing out that trump and Vance are creepy as **** compared to Kamala and Tim will work on the casual voter.
 
Have to say I like what I've seen from Harris and Walz - especially Walz who is very likeable. I heard that Harris wasn't popular behind the scenes but she has come across well since hitting the campaign trail. The good thing about her taking the baton from Biden late doors is that Trump and co have been caught off guard and haven't been able to run her down over the past year or so anti Biden bile was all for nothing and won't count in November.

If they learn from the Trump v Hilary debates I think Harris could wipe the floor with him even if it will be mostly scripted attack lines. He's 78 and not as sharp as he used to be (not that he was ever that sharp). She will be far more capable of thinking on her feet and her experience as chief prosecutor will serve her well. The VP debate should also be good - think Walz should be able to more than hold his own.
 
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Is anyone else finding Elon Musk's trolling of the UK and in particular Kier Starmer a bit odd?





Since the riots the amount of misinformation he has posted on X is mad.

When you consider he can (or probably has already) change the algorithm to enhance his profile and ones of similar views, he's possibly one of the biggest pushers of misinformation.

Add to that his apparent like for Tommy Robinson and Douglas Murray it's a very strange situation.

What can the UK Government do, if anything?
 
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Is anyone else finding Elon Musk's trolling of the UK and in particular Kier Starmer a bit odd?





Since the riots the amount of misinformation he has posted on X is mad.

When you consider he can (or probably has already) change the algorithm to enhance his profile and ones of similar views, he's possibly one of the biggest pushers of misinformation.

Add to that his apparent like for Tommy Robinson and Douglas Murray it's a very strange situation.

What can the UK Government do, if anything?

It's an ego thing with a not small wiff of racism about it
 
Is anyone else finding Elon Musk's trolling of the UK and in particular Kier Starmer a bit odd?





Since the riots the amount of misinformation he has posted on X is mad.

When you consider he can (or probably has already) change the algorithm to enhance his profile and ones of similar views, he's possibly one of the biggest pushers of misinformation.

Add to that his apparent like for Tommy Robinson and Douglas Murray it's a very strange situation.

What can the UK Government do, if anything?


He's interviewing Trump soon. I think he's jumped into bed with him and the Republicans and so will abuse his position as X owner to bash Governments that they view as leftie or at least not aligned with them. Truss and Farage are also pals with the Republicans (they are often over speaking at Trump/Republican rallies etc) and so I wouldn't be surprised if they are also complicit.
 
He's interviewing Trump soon. I think he's jumped into bed with him and the Republicans and so will abuse his position as X owner to bash Governments that they view as leftie or at least not aligned with them. Truss and Farage are also pals with the Republicans (they are often over speaking at Trump/Republican rallies etc) and so I wouldn't be surprised if they are also complicit.
He jumped into bed with them a few years ago, starting (to my knowledge) in 2018 with the Tham Luang Caves incident, when only MAGA and his personal fanboys were fine with him accusing anyone who disagreed with him of being a paedo; pushing him down the conspiracy theory rabbithole => covid conspiracy rabbithole => butting heads with twitter for disagreeing with him and disallowing the "free speech" of far right liars and inciters of violence.
He's now an explicit driver of misinformation and agitator of violence, not to mention "tweaking" the algorithms to give a louder voice to people who agree with him.


Personally, I think we need twitter to dwindle into obscurity - which is tough if there's not a valid competitor for people like journalists, researchers and fact checkers.
Which is why I've disabled it's embedding on my browser, and think we should have a house-rule to not link to twitter - however convenient the embedding is.
 
He jumped into bed with them a few years ago, starting (to my knowledge) in 2018 with the Tham Luang Caves incident, when only MAGA and his personal fanboys were fine with him accusing anyone who disagreed with him of being a paedo;
It's incredible how much that changed the landscape when you think about it - I used to think of him as a somewhat eccentric, but mostly harmless, billionaire who was obssessed with space travel and sci-fi stuff before that
and then he showed his true colours and went spiralling down into what we see now
How much damage is the current twitter climate doing to global politics/disinformation?
All because he thought he knew better than experts and his feelings got hurt when people pointed out that he didn't
 
It wouldn't surprise if the MAGA muppets start buying Tesla cars due to his bromance with Trump. Maybe that's one of his motives.

Hopefully many of them sign up for a trip to Mars (one way).
 

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