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I binned off Twitter about a year or so ago. I do not miss it. Happy to bin off Instagram, & will do if I start seeing too much crap.
However Facebook is sadly too useful as a tool for community & group messenger chats. I have mitigated my Facebook use by deleting the app & only using it via my phones browser.
And who is manipulating voters expectations?
Manipulating? Sounds like some sort of international conspiracy across Europe and the United States.
Or maybe the failure of neoliberalism might be a better explanation?
I don't think Farage and Trump's connections are secret... no need to talk about conspiracy theories. I presume Farage will be over in the USA again soon, working out what he can do post inauguration to get Musk back on side and not lose Trump. Improving "everything" to not give these people the chance to do their populist shilling isn't going to happen, they will always find an in. There is always a perceived threat from outside, or within, to scare people into supporting you.
Bannon said, “The Democrats don’t matter, The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
Indeed. Wikipedia is next on the hit list, if the rumours are to be believed; Musk told his fans to stop donating a few weeks back, because of "left-leaning editors".
I don’t think Farage and Trump’s connections are secret…
And you think that connection is influencing the whole of Europe?
How many European countries can you name where voters don't feel let down by established political parties and politicians, and where voters feel that their expectations are being met?
Whatever ever the total I don't think that they represent the majority of countries.
Interesting folk are saying FB has got worse - I've never Twittered or Insta'd so only have FB to go on but I limit what I look at, rarely argue with idiots (made an exception for one who declared Farage was "the future" the other day) and have unfollowed a couple of friends when I've seen weird shit from them, and I don't seem to be getting pushed any nonsense for or against me echo chamber views.
And you think that connection is influencing the whole of Europe?
To a certain limited extent, yes. And the role of USA owned internet media companies such as X & Meta is also key in many countries. But populists across Europe are only very loosely grouped, plenty of them need little help from other jurisdictions. That populism works everywhere, no matter how well the population is served, and how politics is organised, is a depressing thought... but true. Even acts of trying to create more equal societies, and using state power to improve everyone's quality of life, is fuel for the populist. The will still get people begrudging help and support for "others".
I beg to differ, the far-right in the United States and Europe are exploiting an existing situation for their own agenda.
They didn't create the existing situation, the conventional right-wing did.
What is broken is the connection between established political parties/politicians and voters, and delivery of voters expectations.
Maybe. Younger voters are both less likely to join political parties and vote, and overall are less engaged in local and national politics and yet at the same time are the most likely to complain that 1. they are ignored, and 2. that they don't like the outcome. While there are clear reasons why younger voters are disconnected (they own less of the wealth at the same age that their grandparents did for example), unless they engage, they're going nowhere. People get the politics they deserve is a truism for a reason.
Plus there's a difference between the politics to change people's lives, and the use of politics to make money, Trump is clearly, unashamedly in politics to enrich himself, if he enriches other multi-millionaires and billionaires at the same time, it neither worries, or bothers him. You can see this effect given the amounts of campaign donations made to Trump this time around. They're expecting a pay-off not a Alt-right revolution that apart from a few aresholes and idiots; nobody really wants. Musk has recently changed the way his algorithm on X categorises misinformation and truthfulness that has the entirety of the on-line Alt-right panicking. Not about the way that information is disseminated, but about their money pipe-lines. The grift is in the open.
@PrinceJohn Done the same, for the same reasons. The community group issue is a bit thorny, otherwise would just close my account.
Plus of course This iteration of the far-right are very good at exploiting the thing that "The Media" cannot seem to shake itself rid of, which is is. 1. treating them as if they are reliable narrators and faithful actors and 2. trying to be objective. Until the trad media stop engaging with theses folks in this way, the rest of us will be soaked in their dis-information.
. People get the politics they deserve is a truism for a reason.
Because its something with can be trotted out whilst patting yourself on the back for being so much more political aware and skilled? Its about as sensible a statement as the one misassigned to Churchill.
From memory young people are increasingly disengaged with political parties but increasingly so with other methods of political engagement such as campaign specific groups.
Not surprising really given young people have been repeatedly asked for their votes and then told to **** right off once the vote was provided.
Its not a surprise that when actual choices are given aka brexit people lash out.
That populism works everywhere, no matter how well the population is served, and how politics is organised, is a depressing thought… but true. Even acts of trying to create more equal societies, and using state power to improve everyone’s quality of life, is fuel for the populist. The will still get people begrudging help and support for “others”.
I think it's because populism seems based on a principle of behavioural economics - loss aversion is more powerful in individuals than the opportunity to gain. Make people scared that they'll lose out or aren't getting their 'fair' share and you'll get a large share of the attention so much easier than by presenting a solution where we all gain sufficiently and those who need the most support get it. At that basic level socialism must be a much tougher proposal than conservative capitalism. Which is daft really because I believe more of us lose out vs where we could be under capitalism, at least the way it is currently.
I thought all this was rather easy - seems not.
Facebook = organising group events and a loose 'community'. Just block any feeds that promote 'the good old days' and Clarkson's mug.
WhatsApp = messaging and making calls. Also creation of temporary groups for events.
Instagram = watching cool little snippets from MTB riders.
****ter = trolling right wing muppets when I fancy it. Ignore everything else.
Ticktock = no ****ing idea.
BBC News = actual news.
Isn't that basically it?
Jenrick v Robinson
Wow. In a sane world, Jenrick would never be heard of again after that interview. An awful example of someone who is only interested in advancing themself at the expense of others through opportunism, rather than actually doing something effective and useful.
Because its something with can be trotted out whilst patting yourself on the back for being so much more political aware and skilled?
No, not really, but paradoxically that doesn't make it less true. These are the politicians, and system we've got, I understand why folks are disengaged, but to change it, you need to engage with it, telling yourself anything else is just fairy-stories.
Do Elon's kids still hate him too? Thought so
****ter = trolling right wing muppets when I fancy it. Ignore everything else.
You're wasting your time and feeding Musk's algorithm while you're at it. What do you think he does on there most days? The same as you. Bin it..
Claiming that people get the politics they deserve is just an opinion. I can't see how it can be described as a true fact.
And it's an opinion which I strongly disagree with btw. In fact I believe the opposite, ie, people do not get the politics/politicians that they deserve.
Although to be fair that it is the only reason that capitalism made a huge concession a century or two ago and allowed ordinary people to vote for their governments.
but to change it, you need to engage with it, telling yourself anything else is just fairy-stories.
The problem is yours is even more fairy tales.
Remember the cry of the centrists "vote labour or the tories will get in" and "who else can you vote for" and the apoplectic meltdowns when people dared to suggest they would vote for a party who would represent them instead?
Thats the problem with your fairytale. The only way votes count are if they are overly represented in swing seats and its made clear the vote has to be earned. For young people no parties are bothering to try and earn their votes and hence no party gets them.
but to change it, you need to engage with it,
Engage all you like .. it's still a shit system (perhaps the best of many shit systems tried as someone said, I dunno) and the only reason it functions the way it does is that the wealthiest gain whoever gets in. The only difference is how much or how fast they gain. PR would help but social media manupulation and hence Musk etc are a big problem whatever system we have, because the average person engages with sm more than politics and can be manipulated. Lies go halfway round the world before Truth can get its shoes on.. etc. And the algorithms aren't about developing great processes for us all, they're about generating clicks and ad revenue and wealth for those in power and in position to influence it all, it's a politics<>sm circle jerk where Musk, Zuckerberg etc gain and we get screwed.
Wow. In a sane world, Jenrick would never be heard of again after that interview.
That sane world, that is doing all the lifting in that sentence, ended in 2016.
Nine years of this, and it's only going to get worse.
He shouldnt have been heard of again after his signing off of Desmonds property development to judge charges.
Nine years of this, and it’s only going to get worse.
Because we now have a Labour government Danny?
I understand why folks are disengaged, but to change it, you need to engage with it, telling yourself anything else is just fairy-stories.
"Deserve" is the tricky word in all that. No one "deserves" the ****ed up politics we have got, but under the current system unless people vote for some sort of change - making a big assumption that it exists - then we will keep going round this stupid spiral.
Of course, a revolution/heads on spikes is a form of engaging with the system.
Of course, a revolution/heads on spikes is a form of engaging with the system.
Gets my vote
TBH it does feel like the forces of evil are appearing much more sooner than expectedly just before an election.
Just feels like a full on attack that’s getting worse,started with the Farage Riots and now we are getting down to the latest narrative of hordes of specific furriners with rape/abuse gangs roaming the streets of the U.K. and the great cover up of it.
Makes me sick how quick they are to use the victims TBH.
Has this been posted?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/elon-musk-going-mad-warns-34439131
"I legitimately believe Elon Musk may be going mad. I'm a Musk biographer who has been tracking his online behavior for the last two years—and given that he's admitted to all of mental illness, heavy drug use, and crippling stress, it is now reasonable to fear he is deeply unwell," .
I said elsewhere a few days ago that we could well be witnessing a man going into ketamine psychosis in real time.
The first thing that dictators do is control the news.
X is the news to a lot of people.
Musk controls it (or at least, his army of AI robots does). It's blindingly obvious now why he wanted to buy it, and it had fork all to do with free speech.
In ye olden days, we had Murdoch with the gutter press, the kingmaker in so many countries.
Now, we have this scumbag with X. He wants to be the new Murdoch, the new kingmaker across the globe, not just the US. And he owns the firehose of propaganda - the one that covers most of the US & Europe. And he's looking less and less healthy by the day. I can't see him stopping with Trump getting in.
Of course, a revolution/heads on spikes is a form of engaging with the system.
.
Gets my vote
Careful. Those who might resort to violence can be incited to remove the heads of judges, doctors, writers and academics far easier than getting them to go after those making insane amounts of money from them. And when UK politicians are attacked, and even killed, it tends to be those working hard for their community, not those working hard for themselves.
I’m shocked. SHOCKED!!!
In other news, Elon Musk says bears shit in the woods.
Bullshitter gets bad news out of the way early and reveals he is, in fact, largely a bullshitter - shocka.
He's beneath contempt.
I think it’s because populism seems based on a principle of behavioural economics – loss aversion is more powerful in individuals than the opportunity to gain. Make people scared that they’ll lose out or aren’t getting their ‘fair’ share and you’ll get a large share of the attention so much easier than by presenting a solution where we all gain sufficiently and those who need the most support get it. At that basic level socialism must be a much tougher proposal than conservative capitalism. Which is daft really because I believe more of us lose out vs where we could be under capitalism, at least the way it is currently.
When a riding pal says I'm a "Champagne Socialist", I remind him he's a "Poor Capitalist".
And add on that unlike him I could actually afford to live in the capitalist world he dreams of, but he'd struggle (especially if anything went wrong - job, health etc).
When a riding pal says I’m a “Champagne Socialist”, I remind him he’s a “Poor Capitalist”.
And add on that unlike him I could actually afford to live in the capitalist world he dreams of, but he’d struggle (especially if anything went wrong – job, health etc).
You should then say that should such an eventuality arise (job, health) you would, of course, offer to help him out. But that, because of his principles, he'd be honour bound to refuse your help.
Then call him a **** for good measure.
🙂
Musk discussed ways to oust British PM Starmer before next election, FT reports
Why exactly are we not responding to this in the most robust terms, given that it's someone with a role in the incoming US administration? And can you imagine the Reformist screaming if this was happening in the EU rather than in the US?
At the very least we should be looking at why e.g. Tesla is receiving UK governmental subsidy.
he’d be honour bound to refuse your help.
The patron saint of libertarian nutters Ayn Rand managed to overcome her principles about accepting state aid in later life.
Why exactly are we not responding to this in the most robust terms, given that it’s someone with a role in the incoming US administration?
with my tinfoil hat fully on, could musk be helping to cause bond markets to turn on the government?
Didn't he float the plan that currency should be based crypto/blockchain based (whatever the correct term is).
At what point does he get branded a destabilising extremist and an arrest warrant gets put out for him?
At what point does he get branded a destabilising extremist and an arrest warrant gets put out for him?
Be interesting if he and his associates were unable to get UK visas.
Call me a loon but I can see him interfering with England on a economic scale to dump pressure on starmer.
The patron saint of libertarian nutters Ayn Rand managed to overcome her principles about accepting state aid in later life.
But that would make her, shock... horror... a hypocrite. 🙂
At what point does he get branded a destabilising extremist and an arrest warrant gets put out for him?
Well this is kind of why, perhaps, someone should have considered doing something about him before now. I wasn't being entirely serious when I was talking about reminding him of his vulnerability to nation states with special forces, but I wasn't entirely joking either.
At what point does he get branded a destabilising extremist and an arrest warrant gets put out for him?
Trump got in a second time, right? There's the example that's been set.
Be interesting if he and his associates were unable to get UK visas.
I would absolutely expect Elon Musk to be denied a visa on the grounds that his presence in the UK would not be conducive to the public good.
I present to you the world's most powerful man . In a onesie rolling a splif
"I have been expecting you Mr Bond"
Musk’s support for the AfD is about to very publicly ramp up. Depressing times.
Musk’s support for the AfD is about to very publicly ramp up.
It's his own bed, allow him to make it up because before long it is going to backfire spectacularly.
As he attacks Muslims, I think countries like ****stan,Iran etc should ban twitter. Maybe even Britain and Europe too. Hit him hard in the pocket
I think Musk thinks he's the next Steve Jobs, but he doesn't have a Steve Wozniak to back him up.
Well if Musk keeps taking Ket he'll be more interested in finding where the nearest toilet is to pee in than trying to find a new PM for the UK. His 'addiction' is also likely to be a cause of his delirious outporings and disconnection from reality.
Musk awkwardly mentioned something about memories of Nazism, before trailing off, but Weidel jumped in, saying that she wanted to "shed some light".
Her argument was, remarkably, that Adolf Hitler was not actually a far right dictator after all but instead "a socialist, communist guy" who had exploited "the envy against Jewish people".
"We are a libertarian, conservative party, but we are wrongly framed all the time," Weidel said.
She blamed Angela Merkel for wasteful green legislation and a flawed energy policy, for ushering in a period of high migration that she linked to criminality on the streets. "The crime rate is rocketing," she said.
She also claimed Germany had a "wokeish, liberal education system and all children learn is gender studies". Ah, replied Musk, "so the woke mind virus has infected Germany quite badly".
- Musk and the leader of the AfD via Sky News.
Claim that Hitler was misunderstood, check.
Blame immigrants for crime rates rather than poverty or lack of opportunity, check.
Criticise education and attack minorities, check.
Musk had the opportunity to challenge this clearly fascist politician but didn't, quite the opposite, they agreed overall. I don't care how lightly someone brushes up against fascist views in public, saying stuff like this .. you're not wrongly framed. We know how you think.
Ffs, obviously he was a commie, the party name has SOCIALIST in it!
Don't forget all those ethnic Germans that were murdered before Hitler liberated Poland.
Yes. People out there actually believe that. History is being rewritten.
Germany’s an odd one. I’ve had some scary experiences in places where the government has dumped immigrants under Merkel’s asylum arrangements. Places like Konigswinter just south Bonn, a beautiful Spa/Therme town that’s been utterly buggered by unplanned immigration. I’d never been into a Rewe where the cashiers hid behind hastily installed armoured Perspex shields, nor been told by a 5 star hotel that if my vehicle didn’t fit into the hotel car park then I would be best advised to empty everything out of it or it’d be emptied by thieves overnight. Neither had I ever previously seen rubbish thrown out of a German apartment building into the street below.
They’ve a real problem and nobody from traditional parties has the confidence to fix it, as a result scummy knackers like AFD are ready to step up with hideous solutions.
He's getting novochocked well before 2028.
You could probably get him to Novochock himself if you start a whispering campaign on twitter that it gives as good a hit as Ket but with no side effects
Pretty sure there’s all sorts of things could be mixed with ket to give Elonia an ‘interesting’ hotshot…
Not that I’m suggesting for one second that something untoward should happen to America’s new First Lady, I mean, heaven forbid Dementia Don takes charge without one of his main enablers pulling the strings…
I thought this from Private Eye was perceptive. Musk has unwittingly built a rabbit hole machine, which targets himself above all others. No wonder he's getting radicalised! He's paying people to specifically target him!
https://bsky.app/profile/jamesbloodworth.bsky.social/post/3lfhm5kcf722d
So Bannon has come out against Musk - seemingly because he's too racist. He illustrates this with examples around immigration policy that seem to suggest that he isn't in fact racist enough for Bannon's tastes. And also anyway - basically all rich white South Africans are the same and should get sent back to where they came from.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/12/steve-bannon-calls-elon-musk-racist
Send in the Lolocopters
Imagine being as wealthy as Musk yet spending all of your time getting angry and going on social media to 'vent'.
What a sad ****.
And unoriginal to boot.
It just proves that the stuff he’s “created” has actually been thought of and realised by other people. He’s no Wozniak, Bayliss or even Dyson (spit).
Apparently spends a lot of time on computer games as well. To the extent either he is getting someone to do the boring gaming for him or he really aint as dedicated to all his companies as he claims he is. Especially with his arse kissing of trump getting in the way as well.
As for Bannon. Hands up who is surprised that Trump is already letting down the maga crowd and pleasing the people who can hand over the cash?
Elon Musk's face is the face of a man who's wearing a Halloween face mask of Elon Musk's face.
- Jonathan Pie.
Brilliant.
Now, even if you put to one side that Tesla is over-valued largely by the ElMo cultists, this is a good example to follow. Apparently he hates the idea of not being the wealthiest person on the planet…
https://bsky.app/profile/juddlegum.bsky.social/post/3lfl5kpxjec27
He is, and (AIUI) Tesla’s sales are plummeting. However, there are a couple of factors at play - firstly it makes its money selling carbon credits to e.g. Stellantis rather than making cars, and secondly, he share price is puffed up based on thinks Musk has promised rather than delivery (there’s no way Tesla should be worth more than e.g. Toyota). But if major investors are selling, will that not depress the share price?
But if major investors are selling, will that not depress the share price?
It would, but $500 million is not a major investor. If 100 big funds all dumped Tesla shares, that would start to hurt, but one fund by itself won't make any difference.
If I knew how I’d be shorting Tesla for sure. He’s a liability.
Its not difficult but it is insanely risky especially given how beloved he is of the meme stock types who have an absolute hatred of short selling.
If you look at institutional vs retail investors its way higher for Tesla vs most similar companies.
Its a tricky one since arguably most of the value of their stock is due to Musk. Its way overvalued otherwise compared to other companies as ratherbeintobago says.
So getting rid of him would likely crater the stock.
If I knew how I’d be shorting Tesla for sure. He’s a liability
The problem is you'd have likely lost a fortune already, the issue with shorting is it's time limited contracts and Tesla stock keeps trending upwards. I'm sure it will tank at some point but it's impossible to predict when that will be.
As for Musk and his computer gaming, it's pretty pathetic he's claiming to be a hardcore gamer at a couple of games and recently outed himself as a complete idiot in one of them (PoE2) live streaming him playing it when anyone watching who's played the game can tell he's a complete noob who must have paid someone to grind his levels and gears. As a billionaire, paying someone to do some of the boring stuff is one thing but being such an egotistical prat that you need to pretend otherwise is just sad.
That 'salute' tonight at the Trump rally.
Oh my ... Does he not understand the significance?
A Seig Heil on his first day in the job…
Impressive!
Oh no. This is so, so bad.
He's a 12 year old edgelord trapped in the weirdly angular body of a man in his 50s.
Also, that kind of suit-too-tight weak-assed salute would never happen if Hugo Boss was still doing the tailoring
I cant get my head around it.
Oh my … Does he not understand the significance?
He’s a man who doesn’t seem to understand an awful lot about anything
