Anybody considering leaving Twitter?

Started by Spotted Horses, October 30, 2022, 07:11:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Spotted Horses

Anybody considering leaving Twitter now that is is owned by Elon Musk?

I have an account, I've made one tweet, I think, just to see if my account worked. I just checked and I follow about two dozen accounts and am followed back by six. My participation consists of ignoring periodic emails telling me what I've missed on twitter. I don't think it is worth the effort to delete my account.

I ask myself why Elon Musk needs to own Twitter. Consider this. Tesla makes a tenth of the number of cars as Ford, but has a market capitalization ten times higher than Ford. The market capitalization per car manufactured is 100 times higher than Ford. From this I conclude that 1% of the value of Tesla derives from making cars and 99% derives from Elon Musk's tweets. He needs to own twitter to insure that he is not banned.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

JBS

If you play around with your settings in Twitter, you won't get those emails.

I will leave Twitter if and when its becomes unusable or not worthwhile for getting news and updates on some topics I'l interested in.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Spotted Horses

#2
Quote from: JBS on October 30, 2022, 07:19:48 PM
If you play around with your settings in Twitter, you won't get those emails.

I will leave Twitter if and when its becomes unusable or not worthwhile for getting news and updates on some topics I'l interested in.

The emails don't really bother me.

Getting news from Twitter seems bizarre to me. I subscribe to the NYTimes, I look at headlines on some sites I don't subscribe to (WaPo, etc), I look at some sites without firewall (BBC News, CNN, CBC) and I get news pushed to me by a few others (Yahoo News, etc.) I don't seem to need Twitter.

I am less inclined to use it now that it seems like it will be a tool of the Elon Musk cult of personality.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

JBS

Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 30, 2022, 07:24:18 PM
The emails don't really bother me.

Getting news from Twitter seems bizarre to me. I subscribe to the NYTimes, I look at headlines on some sites I don't subscribe to (WaPo, etc), I look at some sites without firewall (BBC News, CNN, CBC) and I get news pushed to me by a few others (Yahoo News, etc.) I don't seem to need Twitter.

I am less inclined to use it now that it seems like it will be a tool of the Elon Musk cult of personality.

I follow various journalists, columnists, and media accounts, so it amounts to the same thing. Some are specialized enough and quick enough (like Scotusblog for US Supreme Court stuff) that they're better--usually more detailed than anything CNN or similar will publish if they publish anything at all.

The key is that these are sources I know about from outside Twitter.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Karl Henning

Not as yet seriously contemplating an exit. I've dipped my virtual toe in both Tribel and Mastodon and doubt I'll do any more than that.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Todd

Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 30, 2022, 07:11:59 PMI ask myself why Elon Musk needs to own Twitter.

For the same reason that Jeff Bezos needs to own the Washington Post, Patrick Soon-Shiong needs to own the LA Times, or Laurene Powell Jobs needs to own The Atlantic.  Some billionaires feel impelled to own media companies.  That is an ancient impulsion.  Try to control messaging in the public sphere.

Jack Dorsey is in beta testing stages for a new social media app.  Disaffected Twitter account holders might be able to look into that.  Perhaps the celebrities who have publicly proclaimed they are fleeing Twitter will join up.  The exchanges should be robust and powerful.

Full disclosure, I do not use Twitter.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Spotted Horses

Musk tweeted a link to an article in a pseudo newspaper claiming that Paul Pelosi was attacked by a male prostitute he had hired. The same newspaper had previously published an article revealing that Hilary Clinton had died in 2016 and an impostor was sent to debate Donald Trump.

We can see where this is going...
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Todd

Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 31, 2022, 07:48:49 AMThe same newspaper had previously published an article revealing that Hilary Clinton had died in 2016 and an impostor was sent to debate Donald Trump.

That may explain her recent shilling for crushthecoup.org.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Karl Henning

Then there's Elon Musk, whose scandalous and bumbling attempt at taking over Twitter suddenly "succeeded" when Twitter's leadership essentially walked off and allowed themselves to be fired. But make no mistake, Musk isn't succeeding here. He made clear that he didn't really want to buy Twitter – at least not at the asking price – and he only ended up going through with it in order to avoid testifying under oath in a scandal that the federal government is reportedly investigating him over.

So now Musk is stuck massively overpaying for Twitter, with a stunning percentage of his personal wealth now tied up in the deal, and a number of outside investors who are going to be breathing down his neck. Twitter has already lost at least one major advertiser, meaning Musk has to be on his best behavior for awhile in order to keep Twitter financially viable. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't appear capable of that.

Musk is already tweeting phony, disgusting, and disproven right wing conspiracy theories, and then deleting them hours later. He knows he can't get away with tweeting this kind of garbage. Yet he appears to be so psychologically unwell, he actually believes the unhinged conspiracy theories he's posting. If he's so unwell that he thinks pizza gate level phony stories are real, it's not clear that he's capable of even temporarily mimicking sane behavior for the sake of saving himself from financial ruin.

Whereas Trump very visibly lost the Oval Office and is now visibly on the verge of criminal indictment, and Kanye West has very visibly lost his shoe deals and such, Musk is (for now) able to create the illusion that he somehow has us all right where he wants us. After all, he technically has control of Twitter. But the fact that he's deleting his most harmful tweets means he knows he can't get away with that kind of deranged behavior. Yet he'll likely just end up tweeting new unhinged right wing conspiracy theories, because he can't help himself. Twitter is now his prison. He's stuck with it, can't get rid of it, and the more he craps up the place the more he harms his own status and future. If Musk screws up Twitter badly enough, he could even theoretically lose control of his car company. The guy is that leveraged, on a deal that would be almost guaranteed to lose him money even if he weren't actively sabotaging himself.

RTWT here.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Gurn Blanston

The MAGA/QAnon bullshit hasn't crept into my little corner of Twitter yet, which is populated in the main by British music people. I have only a few political people I follow anyway, and I rarely venture out onto my timeline. I read selected posts and move on. So when the slime gets around to affecting me personally I will leave. I believe Jack Dorsey's new venture is called BlueSky or sommat such. I'll check it out, it's a far more likely destination than Truth Social, for example.  ::)

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

greg

I have an account, never tweeted, only used it for following gaming related release announcements (it's how I ended up getting my PS5, and also another device).


Quote from: Todd on October 31, 2022, 05:07:59 AM
For the same reason that Jeff Bezos needs to own the Washington Post, Patrick Soon-Shiong needs to own the LA Times, or Laurene Powell Jobs needs to own The Atlantic.  Some billionaires feel impelled to own media companies.  That is an ancient impulsion.  Try to control messaging in the public sphere.
It's all pursuit of obtaining power. Very natural thing to do.

But the approach of allowing speech as much as possible, within the legal limits is something I approve. People shouldn't be banned for different worldviews.

Also, people nowadays are obsessed with "misinformation." It's usually not a personal concern if you think about stuff before blindly following something written on the internet. Read something that tells you that drinking bleach cures the flu? Well... hehe, that's more of a case of natural selection at play.
Only time I can imagine it being a concern is something extreme like: "Person or group X is planning to attack location Y." That is something could provoke violence. It might already be illegal, though?
Wagie wagie get back in the cagie

Todd

#11
Quote from: greg on November 01, 2022, 06:42:56 PMBut the approach of allowing speech as much as possible, within the legal limits is something I approve. People shouldn't be banned for different worldviews.

It's the "within the legal limits" that's the tricky thing.  Pressure to suppress speech waxes and wanes.  The political orientation of those who wish to suppress speech changes over time.  When I was young, the right was most active in this regard, though they were actively aided by the left.  Now it is the left that most actively seeks to suppress speech, though the right actively aids them.  Tools of silence are sometimes statutory and sometimes contractual (eg, terms of service violations).

One benefit of living in Oregon is that its Constitution protects free speech more than the US Constitution.  Stripping is literally protected speech, for instance.  The ACLU states that Oregon "is regarded as a model in the area of free speech."  Still, eternal vigilance and all that.  For real. 

That means being aware of and concerned about who owns and controls the press and social media as much as what content grabs headlines.  Certain good billionaires have kept low profiles as they have exercised control over major outlets.  There is no reason to believe that they are actively concerned with freedom of speech or even freedom of the press, as counterintuitive as that may at first seem.  Actions that can be taken to counter such control are limited, and mostly involve migrating to new sources or platforms, which means awareness is critical.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Todd

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

71 dB

Related news: There are now leaks about Homeland Security monitoring and sensuring speech on social media.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

greg

Quote from: Todd on November 02, 2022, 05:19:28 AM
When I was young, the right was most active in this regard, though they were actively aided by the left.
I'm a bit too young to remember the backlash against D&D (though currently watching the new Stranger Things, which displays this very nicely), but I do remember the backlash against violent video games, Harry Potter, and even some against Pokemon IIRC.

Yeah, THAT is why I despise the modern left. Because if this garbage, toxic nonsense anti-fun puritanism which ruins everything. Same as the right wing back in the day.

There have been many, so many nonsense left-wing claims in the last several years that remind me of the dumb right-wing logic of "violent video games cause real world violence."  I can provide some, but won't bother, because there's just too many nonsense beliefs to even start talking about.

(to give the modern left some credit, at least they have a belief in fair wages and 40-hour workweek, that is one good thing)

So... if it can drive away what it has become (full of stuff like feminists raging that an anime character's boobs are unrealistically big), and openly embrace fun, then that is a step in the right direction.
Wagie wagie get back in the cagie

71 dB

Quote from: greg on November 02, 2022, 05:06:29 PM
(to give the modern left some credit, at least they have a belief in fair wages and 40-hour workweek, that is one good thing)

Modern left believes in 30-hour workweek (better work - free time balance).
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Todd

Quote from: greg on November 02, 2022, 05:06:29 PMI'm a bit too young to remember the backlash against D&D (though currently watching the new Stranger Things, which displays this very nicely), but I do remember the backlash against violent video games, Harry Potter, and even some against Pokemon IIRC.

I was not referring to D&D.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Gurn Blanston

NOTE TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES:

This innocent thread is NOT going to become the new USA Politics thread.

That is all.

Gurn  8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

foxandpeng

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on November 03, 2022, 06:03:38 AM
NOTE TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES:

This innocent thread is NOT going to become the new USA Politics thread.

That is all.

Gurn  8)

Yes it is, because they all do unless heavily moderated. This already is. Same inanities and sleeping semtex.

No offence intended, of course.
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy