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GW Hayduke

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Everything posted by GW Hayduke

  1. Try to keep up. No where have I indicated anything along the lines of being "impressed by someone's wealth that you'd be willing to look past just about anything they do in order to give them the benefit of the doubt and positive reinforcement." Yes. I understand you feel that understanding people use of culture war to mask economic realities in today's political system is whitewashing. Being aware of how people pull the strings in our society isn't whitewashing. Why would anyone think otherwise?
  2. The world doesn’t need to be as simple and emotional as you make it out to be. Sorting journalism as “both sides” vs whatever or sorting a public figure as “right wing nut job” or whatever, doesn’t add a ton of value. I’m not willing to simply wave my hands and dismiss Elon as a mentally ill person acting irrationally and driven by the whims of dopamine. You can though. You can point and laugh at the monkey as he does his dance. That monkey though currently controls one of the major social media sites with outweighted influence over the news and narratives in our society. Understanding that culture war is nefariously used by billionaires to sort our politics isnt whitewashing. It is kind of basic politics 101 in today’s society. It is an an acknowledgment that billionaires and others use it to mask economic realities. That shouldn’t be offensive.
  3. Your question is why would a billionaire use misinformation, culture war, and propaganda to influence a segment of the US population? If there isn't an obvious answer to you, then you probably should start consuming more "both sides" journalism.
  4. That is probably a big part of it. There is also someone else out there with apparent narcissistic tendencies, and that person also didn't fit neatly into our politically sorted view when he came to power. It is likely that a type of person and a type of group is simply attracted to narcissistic leaders. I think it adds value to ponder whether people like Elon are acting purposely in narcissistic ways and whether they are purposely pushing culture war/conspiracy buttons. And if so, what is that purpose? What are they trying to do? What if it isn't just a simple personality order or mental illness? I think they are both motivated by power, money, and influence. One person is willing to burn our political institutions, our position in the world, and the constitution for his power and grift. Elon seems willing to spend $44 billion, convert twitter into a propaganda machine, and put his other companies and reputation at risk. He was the richest guy in the world. Why does he need more power? What is he going to do with it? Maybe if is just mental illness but what if it is not?
  5. Yes, it is clearly black and white framing. MSNBC and Fox News is probably the proper speed for that debate - that he is either a "right wing conspiracy nut job" or not. Feel free to put him in that category. Feel free to sort everything in the US using that framing. That is fine I suppose. However, hopefully folks want a little more from their media - a little more from the journalistic outlets they consume - a little more when they seek to understand the world - a little more than just team politics.
  6. You are disagreeing with the framing of the analysis in the times article. Your frame is black and white. That is fine. Many are only comfortable with that world view. For others, the article provides an informative perspective. That is why I provided the text of the article.
  7. Folks should read the article. It describes how he socially has been libertarian, against widespread covid restrictions, for addressing climate change, and has now since taking over twitter has been against the left on cultural/conspiracy issues. It draws a distinction between "against the left" vs. "independent" vs. "for the right." https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/business/media/elon-musk-politics-twitter.html
  8. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that a GOP donor provided funds for her “tax the rich” media op. It is hard for me to see how any serious progressive with any understanding of political messaging would have gone along with this. This was a right wing propagandist’s wet dream.
  9. Because there would be no way a temp suspension of the filibuster rule would work. If the Dems suspended it, the GOP would know about it, and they would just suspend it whenever the GOP wanted to pass something. I think ending or reforming it is needed. Suspension just doesn’t make much sense
  10. That is brilliant. Why don't they just suspend it when the Dems are in control and then right before handing it back to GOP, they can switch it back again. That will totally work!
  11. Brittney Griner is a US citizen and therefore has a much higher inherent value than a Russian citizen. It is as simple as that.
  12. What exactly do you think they lied about? Like what?
  13. Exactly. Plus this is one the reasons Twitter was worth $44 billion to Elon. Even if Elon hasn’t had enough time to fully weaponize Twitter, this situation appears to be a success for Russia, the GOP, and right wing propagandists
  14. Totally agree. The dehumanization of huge swaths of US citizens is a very sad and alarming thing to see by supposed educated people. This division seems to be exactly what Putin wanted.
  15. Describing and understanding the situation isn't making excuses. Folks shouldn't conflate the two. But you should probably note that mental illness and insanity are actual legal defenses used in our legal system sometimes and are much more of an "excuse" (he is just off his meds!) than noting aspects that match an intentional performance. I'm pointing toward accountability in terms of likelihood of actual deliberation on how to amplify the antiemetic message. It is easy to accept "he is just off his meds" and then ignore what he is doing and how it fits with what else is going on in the world. Accepting intention and deliberation leads me to consider why he is doing this now. I imagine Kanye is mostly just a pawn but it I'm not convinced it is a coincidence that his episode is occurring at the same time as Trump's announcement to run again and Elon taking over twitter. It is very possible his messages and methods are resonating on the darker side of the right and with some in the black community. Antisemitism was a huge part of the America First movement in the 40s, and when combined with Christian nationalism (the Christian Front) and propaganda (Father Coughlin, senators Lundeen, Nye, etc.). I think antisemitism has potential to again be a powerful current within today's GOP base. A further step into the rabbit hole could also point out a more national intention to try and split groups that have traditionally been aligned politically in the US - blacks and jews. This could allow the right to carve off a slice. We know the right has been somewhat successful at carving off a piece of the hispanic vote to a certain extent, and I believe the potential exists that this may be part of an attempt to do the same with the black vote.
  16. I don’t know what you mean. Him being an antisemite doesn’t mean he isn’t performing. Him performing for clicks and attention isn’t an excuse for promoting antisemitism. You don’t put on a mask, hold a net, and go on Alex Jones if you aren’t performing. Maybe he is just insane, but I doubt it. I think his act is intentional.
  17. I’m leaning towards this being a performance. He is an entertainer. He knows how to manipulate an audience and put on a show. Similar to this.
  18. Rather than another country’s problem, immigrants are overwhelmingly positive members of society as workers, tax payers, and consumers. More immigrants = higher population = higher GDP = greater economic standing in the world. We should all be actively trying to drain the Russian population, while increasing our own and that our allies.
  19. This is an obvious coverup. I’ll tell you who opened the door. This is what the deep state libs are trying to hide. Hunter Biden opened the door. He was trying to get to his laptop that had Hillary’s emails about benganzi and proved Ukraine funds have been going to Sam Bankman-Fried
  20. So the expectation is that all of the morally flawed and corrupt individuals in our society are GOP donors? And when one is a Dem donor, it is newsworthy?
  21. Guo is an intriguing figure and is mixed up in all kinds of wild things. Fresh Air did a solid episode on him. https://www.npr.org/2022/10/29/1131916203/jemele-hill-evan-osnos-guo-wengui-alexandra-horowitz
  22. But the truth in that case wasn't slippery. There was the research and researchers, which were not censored, and then there was the misinformation surrounding that research, which hopefully was and is being censored.
  23. The research conducted by those two scientists did not show that Covid vaccines alter DNA. We should welcome their input, but we shouldn't welcome misinformation about their research. https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-vaccines/fact-check-controversial-mit-study-does-not-show-that-mrna-vaccines-alter-dna-idUSL1N2PK1DC Here is Jaenisch's institute's twitter account. https://twitter.com/WhiteheadInst Here is Young's twitter account. https://twitter.com/youngricka Those two scientists were not banned or censored on twitter.
  24. In 2020, 52% of Catholics voted for Biden. https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/324410/religious-group-voting-2020-election.aspx
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