Gilded Age work week was six days, workdays were 12 hours, child labor was rampant and life expectancy under 60. I'd still prefer this era, bad as it is.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:10 (eight months ago) link
wow checkmate
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:15 (eight months ago) link
just due diligence
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:18 (eight months ago) link
produces stagnation
― But his face would not turn into hot Kirby (Evan), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:18 (eight months ago) link
twitter or whatever it's called requires ongoing child labour to function so what are we doing here
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:20 (eight months ago) link
thank god it's them instead of you
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:21 (eight months ago) link
me so chastened
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:25 (eight months ago) link
how could I not see that the Gilded Age should be viewed as the good old days compared to now?
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:30 (eight months ago) link
Let's wait and see how many striking actors and writers get gunned down by Pinkertons
― hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:41 (eight months ago) link
sign me up for the saudis getting my DNA
― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:44 (eight months ago) link
solidarity to the actors & writers but they're not exactly mining cobalt are they
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 31 August 2023 18:50 (eight months ago) link
assassination of union leaders, like child labour, mostly outsourced to the global South these days
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 31 August 2023 19:02 (eight months ago) link
news flash: the late nineteenth century also had colonialism
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 31 August 2023 19:32 (eight months ago) link
The Gilded Age was fantastic if you were a robber baron or a corrupt politician.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 31 August 2023 19:34 (eight months ago) link
nothing in my statement to make anyone think there wasn't colonialism in the 19th century but sure aimless fume away
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 31 August 2023 19:41 (eight months ago) link
my comment was not solely directed at your post, Daniel, but more toward multiple posts that imply that the persistence of capitalism and colonialism in the present day somehow negates my dissent to the idea that ex-twitter's new policy "makes the gilded age look like the New Deal"
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 31 August 2023 19:50 (eight months ago) link
things bad then things bad now different but also same
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 31 August 2023 19:53 (eight months ago) link
pedantic nitpicking of rhetorical statements uncool
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 31 August 2023 19:54 (eight months ago) link
sometimes hyperbole overshoots into just plain silliness
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 31 August 2023 20:00 (eight months ago) link
most of us could stand to be sillier
― your original display name is still visible (Left), Thursday, 31 August 2023 20:02 (eight months ago) link
sometimes it does feel like this pic.twitter.com/towU6yBIcU— katy (@gewittrderrosen) August 31, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 31 August 2023 20:03 (eight months ago) link
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — it’s not your fault.
Never noticed this laughable message before.
― nashwan, Monday, 4 September 2023 11:47 (eight months ago) link
That's my attitude towards the world in general.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 4 September 2023 12:22 (eight months ago) link
Because Twitter is no longer a publicly traded company with a public stock price there’s no straightforward way to assess its current value. But most market analysts estimate the company is now worth no more than a third of the $44 billion Musk paid for it a year ago. To be fair, Musk clearly overpaid for the company. He paid a premium over the company’s current stock price and even that price was probably inflated. But there’s no question Musk’s erratic and destructive reign has dramatically damaged the company, torching its public reputation and leading to a catastrophic decline in ad revenues which Musk and independent press reports have pegged at between 50% and 60%.But Musk has found a new scapegoat: the Jews. Or rather, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish community’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to fighting not only anti-Semitism but all forms of racial and religious bigotry and other forms of discrimination. But I suspect the “rather” or the distinction in general might be lost on Musk’s 155 million Twitter followers. Over the past several days Musk has gone on a tear claiming that the catastrophic decline in his company’s value since he purchased it is mostly or entirely the fault of the ADL and churning up Twitter debates that at least big time anti-Semitic accounts think is clearly boosting their cause.As is often the case, Musk’s attacks have evolved out of tag teaming with notorious anti-Semitic accounts on the platform. It kicked off on Friday when Musk responded to a tweet by Keith Woods, an Irish white nationalist and self-described “raging anti-Semite.”“ADL has tried very hard to strangle X/Twitter,” Musk told Woods.From here, Musk went on to gin up support for the #BanTheADL hashtag while alternately claiming that he should ban the group but might not, before rolling into claims that the ADL was responsible for tens of billions of dollars of Twitter losses. This all culminated with Musk announcing he was being forced to sue the ADL “to clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism.”Discussing the defamation suit, Musk claimed the ADL could “potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.” Later he said that “giving them the maximum benefit of the doubt,” the ADL might only be responsible for $4 billion in damages.Along with these claims of monetary damages came a storm of what can only be called the bullying hate speech we associate with … well, rabid anti-Semites. This included claiming that the ADL is actually “the biggest generators of anti-Semitism” on Twitter. That was in response to another Woods tweet calling the ADL “the most pro-Hitler organization I’ve even seen.” Indeed, most of Musk’s five day tear was made up of jumping into the comments of notorious anti-Semites and toasting or agreeing with their attacks. He chimed in approvingly when alt-righter Mike Cernovich suggested that many anti-Semitic accounts are run by the DNC to justify advertiser boycotts of Twitter.As is often the case with Musk he claims he positively absolutely isn’t anti-Semitic at all. But self-professed anti-Semites don’t seem to agree. When Musk angrily declared that since purchasing Twitter “the @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic” the anti-Semitic owner of the far-right Gab social media site chimed in, “Welcome to my daily life for the past seven years.”Of course, it’s worth noting that even the narrow claims of monetary losses are absurd on their face. Musk bought Twitter on a self-declared crusade for his version of “free speech.” That meant welcoming back tens of thousands of accounts which had been banned for a mix of anti-Semitism, racism and various forms of harassing behavior. This rather predictably spurred a wave of hate speech and headlines which scarred off most advertisers. Again, it’s little more than 2+2 equalling 4 but Musk not liking the results. Various other controversies and firing half the company’s employees haven’t helped, either in reputation terms or keeping the site online. That was uncomplicated and predictable. Musk’s response is basically to sue math.As a factual matter, U.S. courts have consistently ruled that calling someone or some thing an “anti-Semite” is subjective and protected 1st Amendment free speech. The same applies to racist, white supremacist and other related labels. Of course, there are other ways to get into court. And a bottomless bank account gives an almost endless number of ways to explore them.But the key here is not really about lawsuits or the ins and outs of defamation. It’s that the richest man in the world who holds a commanding position in near-earth-orbit space delivery, electronic cars and global communications spent the weekend churning up hate against Jews as the source of his financial losses. Musk is sometimes compared to the innovator Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company. And the comparison seems increasingly apt, if not in the way many have intended.
But Musk has found a new scapegoat: the Jews. Or rather, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish community’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to fighting not only anti-Semitism but all forms of racial and religious bigotry and other forms of discrimination. But I suspect the “rather” or the distinction in general might be lost on Musk’s 155 million Twitter followers. Over the past several days Musk has gone on a tear claiming that the catastrophic decline in his company’s value since he purchased it is mostly or entirely the fault of the ADL and churning up Twitter debates that at least big time anti-Semitic accounts think is clearly boosting their cause.
As is often the case, Musk’s attacks have evolved out of tag teaming with notorious anti-Semitic accounts on the platform. It kicked off on Friday when Musk responded to a tweet by Keith Woods, an Irish white nationalist and self-described “raging anti-Semite.”
“ADL has tried very hard to strangle X/Twitter,” Musk told Woods.
From here, Musk went on to gin up support for the #BanTheADL hashtag while alternately claiming that he should ban the group but might not, before rolling into claims that the ADL was responsible for tens of billions of dollars of Twitter losses. This all culminated with Musk announcing he was being forced to sue the ADL “to clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism.”
Discussing the defamation suit, Musk claimed the ADL could “potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.” Later he said that “giving them the maximum benefit of the doubt,” the ADL might only be responsible for $4 billion in damages.
Along with these claims of monetary damages came a storm of what can only be called the bullying hate speech we associate with … well, rabid anti-Semites. This included claiming that the ADL is actually “the biggest generators of anti-Semitism” on Twitter. That was in response to another Woods tweet calling the ADL “the most pro-Hitler organization I’ve even seen.” Indeed, most of Musk’s five day tear was made up of jumping into the comments of notorious anti-Semites and toasting or agreeing with their attacks. He chimed in approvingly when alt-righter Mike Cernovich suggested that many anti-Semitic accounts are run by the DNC to justify advertiser boycotts of Twitter.
As is often the case with Musk he claims he positively absolutely isn’t anti-Semitic at all. But self-professed anti-Semites don’t seem to agree. When Musk angrily declared that since purchasing Twitter “the @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic” the anti-Semitic owner of the far-right Gab social media site chimed in, “Welcome to my daily life for the past seven years.”
Of course, it’s worth noting that even the narrow claims of monetary losses are absurd on their face. Musk bought Twitter on a self-declared crusade for his version of “free speech.” That meant welcoming back tens of thousands of accounts which had been banned for a mix of anti-Semitism, racism and various forms of harassing behavior. This rather predictably spurred a wave of hate speech and headlines which scarred off most advertisers. Again, it’s little more than 2+2 equalling 4 but Musk not liking the results. Various other controversies and firing half the company’s employees haven’t helped, either in reputation terms or keeping the site online. That was uncomplicated and predictable. Musk’s response is basically to sue math.
As a factual matter, U.S. courts have consistently ruled that calling someone or some thing an “anti-Semite” is subjective and protected 1st Amendment free speech. The same applies to racist, white supremacist and other related labels. Of course, there are other ways to get into court. And a bottomless bank account gives an almost endless number of ways to explore them.
But the key here is not really about lawsuits or the ins and outs of defamation. It’s that the richest man in the world who holds a commanding position in near-earth-orbit space delivery, electronic cars and global communications spent the weekend churning up hate against Jews as the source of his financial losses. Musk is sometimes compared to the innovator Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company. And the comparison seems increasingly apt, if not in the way many have intended.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/musks-epic-antic-labor-day-weekend-against-the-jews
― i really like that!! (z_tbd), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 14:53 (eight months ago) link
Whoa, I saw some Musk tweet the other day about ad revenue and the ADL, and I thought he must mean some other ADL, where the A stood for Advertising.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:00 (eight months ago) link
wow sounds like the adl... controls the media
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:04 (eight months ago) link
I like how Elon's denial of anti-semitism removes all doubt
― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:08 (eight months ago) link
The five minute research version:
At least two coalitions, Stop Hate for Profit (which includes the ADL and appears to just have blurbs on the associated groups' websites) and Stop Toxic Twitter (who have their own site which is still live) have run campaigns calling for advertiser boycotts. Reportedly, the ADL started advertising on twitter/X again this year
Unless there's some specific momentum behind the ADL's campaign, which there does not appear to be, it's definitely... at least weird... to specifically call out that group.
― mh, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:08 (eight months ago) link
thought the same "surely he's not going full Kanye" but nope
shit is idiotic for so many reasons but if this somehow actually does go to trial it seems real easy for the ADL to prove all the ways the platform has gotten more Nazi-friendly
Elon seems to be doing the Trump thing where it's like "well I didn't explicitly say Hitler was right about everything so calling me a Nazi is defamation", seems like a bad PR strategy
― frogbs, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:09 (eight months ago) link
my guess is that someone specifically mentioned the ADL to Elon (for reasons) and he has absolutely no idea who is or isn't boycotting him and is happy to do some casual anti-semitism
― mh, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:10 (eight months ago) link
ya it's deeply funny that he's calling out one of the few remaining advertisers that actually isn't boycotting him right now
― frogbs, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:14 (eight months ago) link
although I actually question how much of the lost ad revenue is really because of that, when it comes to ad buys it's all about the bottom line and I suspect the real story is just that it's not profitable to advertise on Twitter right now
― frogbs, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:15 (eight months ago) link
this isn't going to trial the intent is to explicitly make anti-semitism a-ok on "x"/Twitter
― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:18 (eight months ago) link
This all culminated with Musk announcing he was being forced to sue the ADL “to clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism.”
Discussing the defamation suit, Musk claimed the ADL could “potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.”
this thought process is amazing
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:18 (eight months ago) link
not remembering who is boycotting you is kind of an object permanence issue, which he's very prone to. you throw one thing in front of him ("the current thing!") and that's all he can think about
he probably didn't think about trans people at all until his kid publicly disowned him and now everything's about that, too
― mh, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:23 (eight months ago) link
he follows some of the most hatefully wrong people in the world and interacts with them and promotes them every day
― i really like that!! (z_tbd), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:23 (eight months ago) link
imo it really comes down to anti-hate groups saying "you can't do that" to him which he sees as adversarial whereas hate groups are actively saying "they can't do that" which gives him a target for his ire
― mh, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:25 (eight months ago) link
As is often the case with Musk he claims he positively absolutely isn’t anti-Semitic at all. But self-professed anti-Semites don’t seem to agree.
reminds me of this burn
“Now, I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist, I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist,” Gillum said.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:26 (eight months ago) link
Well, this was enough to make me cancel my account. There was still some good stuff I followed there but fuck it.
― Cow_Art, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:29 (eight months ago) link
^^^^ fuck yeah, that's the right decision
― i really like that!! (z_tbd), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:29 (eight months ago) link
not denying that Elon is a hateful dipshit at heart but this does tie into an issue that's been mentioned a lot on ILX which is that the right doesn't really have the "purity test" that the online left does, nobody really cares about your past or what your views really are, so long as you're currently amplifying hateful voices and pissing off liberals you're cool with them. in other words it's just really easy to get in with the Nazis and when you're desperate for validation I guess it's just real easy to go down that path
see also: the Dilbert guy. not a particularly long slope from "why can't I say anything nice about Trump?" to "stay away from black people"
― frogbs, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:30 (eight months ago) link
going after the ADL is kind of low-hanging fruit in that they've claimed some twitter accounts with a large number of followers are anti-semitic for criticizing Israel or expressing anti-zionist sentiment
― mh, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:40 (eight months ago) link
i've kept my account for a while just so ...why? it's been several months, i have never had a reason to look into my previous likes or to revisit any of my numerous dumb posts.
i'm going full Cow_Art and deleting the account. i hate that i'm contributing a +1 to anything for such a horrible person and such a horrible movement of shitty people who think his poop emoji stuff is hilarious
― i really like that!! (z_tbd), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:53 (eight months ago) link
― frogbs, Tuesday, September 5, 2023 11:15 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
big companies do care a lot if their ads are being served on overtly racist or other unsavory stuff, its not so much the boycotts but the underlying fact that twitter is a shithole, tho the boycotts im sure do draw attention to that, in conclusion the adl has prob lost twitter some advertisers but ultimately thats musks fault
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 15:55 (eight months ago) link
I kind of wish more of the news and legal people I follow were on Blue sky, I suppose it's just a matter of time before they move over.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 16:02 (eight months ago) link
musk made it a priority to let all the accounts banned for racism back on, and you had to be quite racist to get banned, if you have an old banned account and you tell them you were banned for your conservative views theyll unban you right away now, magic words
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 16:02 (eight months ago) link
another thing is Twitter is just massively unstable right now and the timeline is really janky, even if you did still want to advertise there I'd be concenered I was really getting what I was paying for.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 16:06 (eight months ago) link
yeah advertisers have said twitters tools for them are fucked too, and with the api changes a lot of the third party tools stopped supporting twitter, all self inflicted
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 16:08 (eight months ago) link
and theres no one to call anymore
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 16:11 (eight months ago) link
what is the audio version of the poop emoji
― i really like that!! (z_tbd), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 16:13 (eight months ago) link