Posted on 04/27/2022 7:31:10 AM PDT by FarCenter
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There are two reasons for the excitement. The first is related to Musk himself: his perceived character and affiliations. Elite media and progressive circles tend to regard him as more dangerous than Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos not because he is richer or more powerful, but because he is more culturally aligned with various deplorables, from crypto-bros to MAGA-heads to Joe Rogan.
This perception helps to explain the fretting over Musk’s claim to be a “free speech absolutist”, which human rights groups have warned could usher in a torrent of online hate. But whether or not you think unrestricted free speech is a good thing, it is unlikely to be put into practice. There is widespread agreement that unmoderated public forums are completely unmanageable due to trolling and abuse, and any administrator of any social media platform will have to engage in some filtering or censoring. The worry is about what kinds of speech he will and won’t let through.
The second reason relates to Twitter’s tenuous role in preserving an established national elite in an age in which the very idea of such an elite is dying. Twitter has in recent years, just like the internet itself, bifurcated into two broad strata: a national “overculture” of elites — academic, celebrity, political, or journalistic — and a more shadowy, disparate “underculture” of often-pseudonymous hoi polloi, who increasingly define themselves in opposition to the traditional elites.
For many years now, the undercultures of Reddit, 4chan, and other online forums have made the idea of a respectable, professionalised online discourse more difficult to maintain. And the ability of the underculture to mobilise masses of anonymous users to push against the elevated voices of the overculture has shaken the established media culture to the bone.
This dynamic was on display last week in the conflict between Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz and the formerly anonymous Libs of TikTok Twitter account. The landscape of the battle was an indication of the overculture’s weakening position. When an anonymous account holds enough influence to not only merit mention by the Post but rally an online army against the journalist who exposed her, the elites have lost a great deal of the power that makes them elite.
I hope the lefties start losing more than just the twitter war.
The libs have had absolute power over social media, and as the old saying goes, they have become absolutely corrupt.
lost the twitter war?
Feel free to dig this post back up in a year. I predict the ‘elites’ aren’t walking away with their tail between their legs. If you’re going to use ‘war’ as the metaphor, I would suggest that they lost a lot of territory, but the insurgency has only just begun.
“If you’re going to use ‘war’ as the metaphor, I would suggest that they lost a lot of territory, but the insurgency has only just begun”.
You are correct.
The war has barely even started. Musk is going to get attacked from all sides.
Any day I expect to read he is more dangerous than Jefferson Davis.
“The worry is about what kinds of speech he will and won’t let through.”
I think it would be hilarious if Musk allows any kind of political speech but instabans anyone who uses foul language or posts vulgar photos. The left would go insane.
the old ‘money talks and bs walks’ ..
The leftist type of folks don’t lose anything until they’re hanging from lampposts. They have the same thing in mind for us. This is not over.
It has been an ongoing war for decades. The height of their influence was about 1990, in my opinion.
As faith in the Media was lost, the Media/elite became more and more open about their rule/control. In doing so, they lost credibility.
As they lost credibility, they had to become more tyrannical to maintain control.
Now it is out in the open for all, and there is likely a majority involved in the insurgency.
“free speech absolutist”
That beats the heck out of nonstop communist pervert America-hating prog propaganda.
If Musk is a “free speech absolutist” the prog might have to go back to the era of "mean tweets" and everything that went along with it.
Low taxes.
Low inflation.
Very low unemployment.
Low gas and energy prices.
No food shortages.
No invasion from the south.
No foreign wars.
Just awful, right?
.
I agree, but I think Musk may become an inside man (or is). Allowing people the freedom they hope for on Twitter may end up killing conservatives. We have some real fruits and nuts in our party too. I predict Musk will never satisfy People here and this time next year he will be a demonic, baby eating pedo by then. If he’s not already deemed so.
As they lost credibility, they had to become more tyrannical to maintain control.
Now it is out in the open for all, and there is likely a majority involved in the insurgency.
~~~
I agree with your assessment, but I think you are more correct in regards to the ‘old media’. Their golden age was back in the 80’s and 90’s when everyone thought that CNN, NYT, and WaPo didn’t just have high journalistic standards, but they were icons of the media. Of course, their leftist leanings were discernible to anyone who didn’t share their views, but they were much more careful and I would say artful about cloaking their slant, particularly about issues. When it came to politicians, even back then they were obvious. Even their constant attempts to vilify Reagan and GWB were written in the faux language of intellectual journalism.
The new media, and social media, don’t play on those same levels. They have the power to censor everyone with opinions and even facts that they find inconvenient or disagreeable, and they do it below board. This is what Musk was talking about. They aren’t even transparent about their bias. At least the old media make their dirty play mostly out in the open. If social media shadow bans half the population, that’s a tyranny of the private sector, and no one can prove a an injustice ever occurred.
Very good points. However, about half the population understands these type media are corrupt, anyway.
You can't hide taking a sitting President off of Twitter.
The censorship on Facebook has become a standing joke. People talk about being in Facebook jail for telling the truth.
The Hunter Biden Laptop censorship has become plain, for huge numbers of people.
That makes no sense!
“Lost the Twitter war”
I am afraid not, this was just the opening volley.
After all, truth seems to usually be violence.
and must be responded to with real violence.
Yeah, at least for now he's pushing conservative things like free speech, or even the use of fossil fuels during an energy crisis. But he's the same Musk that lobbied for governments to force companies to buy carbon credits as penance for their imaginary global warming sins.
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