Pranksters Posing as Laid-Off Twitter Employees Trick Media Outlets (nypost.com) 123
"A pair of pranksters posing as laid-off Twitter employees tricked multiple media outlets Friday as the public anxiously awaited news on whether Elon Musk had begun axing staffers," reports the New York Post:
CNBC's Deirdre Bosa interviewed two people who identified themselves as Twitter employees and were seen near the company's San Francisco headquarters carrying cardboard boxes.
Skepticism immediately emerged on social media. One of the pranksters said his name was "Rahul Ligma" — a reference to a popular internet meme — and held a copy of Michelle Obama's book "Becoming" aloft while speaking to reporters. The other said his name was "Daniel Johnson."
CNBC, Bloomberg, the Daily Mail and NBC were among the outlets that reported layoffs were underway after the duo spoke to the media.... "It's happening," CNBC's Bosa tweeted. Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them."
"They are visibly shaken," Bosa added. "Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn't know how he's going to make payments...."
Twitter employees have feared for months that Musk would enact sweeping layoffs at the company once his $44 billion takeover was complete. Those fears escalated last week after the Washington Post reported Musk was planning to cut 75% of Twitter's 7,500-employee workforce. Musk immediately fired several executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, but it's still unclear how many employees will be ousted. He denied the 75% figure was accurate while meeting with Twitter employees earlier this week.
A source familiar with the situation told the Post that Twitter employees feel as though they're "in limbo," with no one having a clear idea of how many layoffs are coming. "People are just keeping their heads down until they see what happens," the source said. The source added that remaining employees are fearful about speaking to the media now that Musk has assumed control of the company. "Folks don't want to get fired for leaking," the source said.
You can still watch video footage of the pranksters' interview on Reuters' official feed on YouTube (headlined "LIVE: Outside Twitter's San Francisco HQ after Elon Musk takes over")
The Verge spotted the footage — and then added that "Since we're doing this, here are some other ridiculous things said by Ligma and his box-bearing associate." "It makes me worry about the future of our democracy... the future of celebrity conservatorship. I mean, when Britney [Spears] happened...."
"I even own a Tesla, man. I'm a big fan of clean energy, climate change, even free speech too."
Elon Musk — who has changed the title on his Twitter profile to "chief Twit" — responded Friday afternoon to the brouhaha, tweeting "Ligma Johnson had it coming."
Earlier in the day, Musk had tweeted "Let the good times roll" and "Comedy is now legal on Twitter."
On a more serious note, Musk also tweeted Friday that Twitter "will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes."
Skepticism immediately emerged on social media. One of the pranksters said his name was "Rahul Ligma" — a reference to a popular internet meme — and held a copy of Michelle Obama's book "Becoming" aloft while speaking to reporters. The other said his name was "Daniel Johnson."
CNBC, Bloomberg, the Daily Mail and NBC were among the outlets that reported layoffs were underway after the duo spoke to the media.... "It's happening," CNBC's Bosa tweeted. Entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them."
"They are visibly shaken," Bosa added. "Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn't know how he's going to make payments...."
Twitter employees have feared for months that Musk would enact sweeping layoffs at the company once his $44 billion takeover was complete. Those fears escalated last week after the Washington Post reported Musk was planning to cut 75% of Twitter's 7,500-employee workforce. Musk immediately fired several executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, but it's still unclear how many employees will be ousted. He denied the 75% figure was accurate while meeting with Twitter employees earlier this week.
A source familiar with the situation told the Post that Twitter employees feel as though they're "in limbo," with no one having a clear idea of how many layoffs are coming. "People are just keeping their heads down until they see what happens," the source said. The source added that remaining employees are fearful about speaking to the media now that Musk has assumed control of the company. "Folks don't want to get fired for leaking," the source said.
You can still watch video footage of the pranksters' interview on Reuters' official feed on YouTube (headlined "LIVE: Outside Twitter's San Francisco HQ after Elon Musk takes over")
The Verge spotted the footage — and then added that "Since we're doing this, here are some other ridiculous things said by Ligma and his box-bearing associate." "It makes me worry about the future of our democracy... the future of celebrity conservatorship. I mean, when Britney [Spears] happened...."
"I even own a Tesla, man. I'm a big fan of clean energy, climate change, even free speech too."
Elon Musk — who has changed the title on his Twitter profile to "chief Twit" — responded Friday afternoon to the brouhaha, tweeting "Ligma Johnson had it coming."
Earlier in the day, Musk had tweeted "Let the good times roll" and "Comedy is now legal on Twitter."
On a more serious note, Musk also tweeted Friday that Twitter "will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes."
Paper (Score:4, Interesting)
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Next is he going to ask for punched cards?
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I don't get it. What's the joke? The guy initials are C.D.C., Centers for Disease Control ?
Loser media (Score:5, Insightful)
Reporters just need a source - any source - to quote. That's why Twitter is so important: because "journalists" can search twitter for any opinion they want, which allows them to say anything they want in their article.
Don't like how your local donut shop makes its donuts? Look on Twitter for tweets that agree with you...then use those tweets as source material for your article. Suddenly "controversy surrounding the local donut shop erupted online yesterday" is your lead.
Well done to the pranksters. (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm pretty sure NBC is seeing the humour in it... Also certain Musk isn't and is using it to crow over his perceived enemies even though he was initially taken in by it as well.
Now I'm sure there are those whining about the MSM and using this as an example of how "the meeja" is bad... meanwhile not getting the irony of gorging themselves on the utter tosh that comes out of pla
Re:Well done to the pranksters. (Score:4)
"Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn't know how he's going to make payments...."
classic.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:4, Insightful)
There you go again.
That's the sane version of moderation: keep it clean.
The *insane* version of moderation, as implemented by Vijaya Gadde, entailed banning people for saying there were two genders.
At the most abstract level, the latter is a subjective opinion. Banning people for expressing subjective opinions contrary to yours is different in every way imaginable from banning the use of naughty words.
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You frame it as saying that there are two genders, but they only get banned when they start harassing non binary people.
There are countless examples to prove this. Look at how often Jordan Peterson pushed his "gender critical" views, but it was only when he directly misgendered and dehumanized Elliott Page that he got his account locked. Not banned, just locked until he deleted the tweet.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:4, Interesting)
Ellen Page gets to do anything she wants to herself and call herself whatever she wants.
But she does not get to reach into other people's heads and start toggling bits until she hears nothing other than total approval, endorsement, and celebration of her personal decisions.
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Ellen Page gets to do anything she wants to herself and call herself whatever she wants.
But she does not get to reach into other people's heads and start toggling bits until she hears nothing other than total approval, endorsement, and celebration of her personal decisions.
Yes, lets just pretend that misgendering trans people comes from something other than people trying to be assholes.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:4, Insightful)
People are born with their ethnicity. They can't do anything about that, and judging people on things they have no choice over is low-class behavior that's rightly condemned. As is painting with a broad brush and ascribing to the individual the stereotypes of the group to which they may belong or superficially resemble.
No one is born with a changed name and with their titties or balls cut off. That's a choice. And if it's a choice you publicize...then you're going to get a range of opinions. Equating one end of that range with judgment based on immutable characteristics of birth is itself selfish and low class behavior.
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Many people believe that trans people are born with a mismatch between their actual gender, and the gender assigned to them based on things like external characteristics. There is science to back that up, every year tens of thousands of people are born with some intersex physical characteristics, and there is no reason to assume that a similar thing can't happen to the brain.
Like being gay, it's not a choice.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:3, Insightful)
When science can understand the human condition enough to have some predictive power, analogous to the way we have the power to predict weather or the motions of planets, then we could have this discussion.
Right now, no such understanding exists. And any "science" that exists is either an opinion poll among the subjects of the study (totally unbiased group of experts) or it's politics claiming the mantle of science in much the way Feynman warned about.
The key word in your post was "believe." You can believe
Sex and Gender [Re: Well done to the pranksters] (Score:2)
These are different things.
The evidence that the brains of males are different from the brains of females has been used as an excuse for male supremacy for centuries, but has very little backing in science.
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>Like being gay, it's not a choice."
If that were true, the the percentage of "trans" would remain mostly the same over time. It hasn't, it has gone up tremendously. And no, it isn't because it is just "acceptable." I suspect the overwhelming vast majority of "trans" people (which includes the "non-binary" stuff), are just confused or seeking attention. And it is no wonder when schools are pushing this stuff on children and especially teens, who are already confused, emotional, and going through traum
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The same argument could be made about gay people. Once homosexuality was legalized the number of openly gay people started to rise. Not because suddenly more people were choosing to be gay, but because they could finally openly be themselves without fear of prosecution. Of course it still took decades for social attitudes to change.
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>"The same argument could be made about gay people."
No, because you can't really "un-gay" people. On the other hand, 90% of those claiming to be "trans", if not pushed into it, mutilated with opposite-sex hormones and/or dangerous "puberty blockers" and/or surgery, will eventually drop the trans stuff and lead normal lives. This clearly indicates that for the vast majority, it *IS* a choice.
In the past, almost all these non-gay "tomboys" and "janegirls" would grow out of it soon after puberty. Instea
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People are born with their ethnicity. They can't do anything about that
Unless your name is Rachel Dolezal or Shaun "Talcum X" White, then you can pretend to be black. Heck, you might as well go full retard like Elizabeth "Fauxcahontas" Warren and claim native ancestry.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:2)
You frame it as saying that there are two genders, but they only get banned when they start harassing non binary people.
It seems to be that we're living in an age where that already is considered harassment. People have been fired from their jobs for saying that and only that, or that biological sex is immutable.
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The claim that there are only two genders is ridiculous, though. Especially when you get any knowledge of genetics and the various genetic and phenotypic variant possibilities such as SRY gene variants, Swyer syndrome, XXY, and XYY etc. Just because something is very rare doesn't mean it can't exist.
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More importantly, gender (as opposed to biological sex) is a social construct and nobody should be forced to adhere to some arbitrary definition of masculine or feminine.
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My point is that even biological sex is not confined to two because there are so many possible variants. It's like saying "every human has two arms and two legs" .. it's false. It is like saying humans can only be black or white. Then refusing to believe someone could be Chinese or Indian because you've rarely seen it if at all.
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Sure, I'm not arguing with you.
Sex and Gender redux [Re: Well done to the pranks] (Score:2)
Yes, intersex people exist, for whom it may be difficult (*) to determine biological gender, but that is a completely separate issue from gender identification, and has nothing do with trans people.
(* but in general not impossible.)
Peterson wasn't banned (Score:3)
And the thing is most of the right wing know this. Anyone so tuned in that there are pay attention to Peterson knows what the grift is. The right wing don't believe anything they say. It's about winning. It's about sc
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I don't follow Peterson, so didn't know about this drama. Looked up E. Page on wiki, here is what it says:
Page was born on February 21, 1987, inÂHalifax, Nova Scotia, to Martha Philpotts, a teacher, and Dennis Page, aÂgraphic designer.[7]ÂHe wasÂassigned female at birthÂand used his birth name of Ellen prior toÂtransitioning
. So it is a person born a female and with psychological deviances, that does not make her a male. A body that you have at birth dictates most of your personality, character, behavior if you will. That is the normal situation, which is why when I see politically charged statements like these: "assigned a female at birth", I know I am dealing with politics and not with reason, rationality and reality
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Diagnosing people you don't know, when they haven't asked for your opinion, with a mental illness, is an example of harassment.
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I am not chasing any people giving them my opinion, I am participating in a discussion here, now, in my not at all humble opinion a person, who is born a female believing herself to be a male is an example of mental illnesses, same if a person today believed him or her self to be Napoleon ( there are many Napoleons locked in mental institutions).
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>You frame it as saying that there are two genders
He framed it as one of the majority of people, who don't even believe in "gender", or believe that gender = sex, and there are two sexes.
>"But they only get banned when they start harassing non binary people."
That is nonsense. Both that he was "harassing" anyone and that banning/locking is done only for non-trivial stuff.
>There are countless examples to prove this. Look at how often Jordan Peterson pushed his "gender critical" views, but it was onl
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Wow, some heavy moderation on this one. Yesterday it was at +5, now at +3.
It's sad how thin skinned a lot of conservatives are. Clearly it's not a "troll" or "flamebait", it's an honest and widely held opinion that they happen to agree with. While trumpeting free speech, they use all the tolls they can get to silence it.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:3)
I suppose you'll provide a source for when Peterson suggested Page was less than human?
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The nutters are the ones who believe that the entire idea of sex/gender is a mere societal construct and that men can have babies and menstruate.
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The nutters are the ones who believe that the entire idea of sex/gender is a mere societal construct and that men can have babies and menstruate.
Sex is not a social construct, but it is massively more complex than most people think it is. Gender is absolutely a social construct, and our ideas about what is appropriate for whom and based on what have differed dramatically from time to time, and place to place, and they will continue to do so.
I'm of the opinion that we wouldn't even be having this much trouble with gender roles if we didn't typically strongly enforce our ideas of them in ways that don't make sense, and if members of one gender weren't
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The situation with gender is really dangerous at the moment. Some cis women are getting beaten up trying to use the bathroom because they don't look feminine enough to satisfy some self signed toilet guardian.
Nobody is safe until we all are.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:5, Interesting)
Gender is absolutely a social construct, and our ideas about what is appropriate for whom and based on what have differed dramatically from time to time, and place to place, and they will continue to do so.
Indeed it has. People on r/detrans have said that people used that crap to gaslight them into believing they're transgender when they weren't.
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Do you believe everything you read on the internet or just the stuff that supports your existing viewpoint?
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:3, Insightful)
I read everything, including from sources I don't particularly like. I'm not sure what would be wrong with what I'm saying either. Basically people should just be able to do what they want to do. If a little girl wants to play with monster trucks or g.i. Joe's, what's wrong with that? Also only a century ago it was common for both boys and girls under about 6 years old to wear dresses.
I bought my 3 year old niece a wooden train set that was age appropriate. My sister, who is about as progressive as they com
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Even supposing your story is correct: how the fuck am I meant to know what's in your weird sister's head?
Given you think your sister is very progressive yet believes that wooden trains are for boys, either your sister is not nearly so progressive as you believe or she doesn't exist.
But ultimately that still doesn't mean you are uncritically believing dubious stuff you read on the internet because it plays into your biases.
Arguably there is a conversation to be had. However when you trawl the internet for th
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I bought my 3 year old niece a wooden train set that was age appropriate. My sister, who is about as progressive as they come, spends more time in the LGBT scene than anywhere else, told me to take it back because she didn't want her daughter playing with what she perceived as boys toys (it really didn't seem like one to me, but whatever.)
Why do progressives have this idea that if you don't do things that are gender appropriate, then your were clearly born the wrong sex? It's stupid.
It's hard to argue with a personal anecdote, but I've not seen many people (progressive or not) with the idea that playing with a toy for the opposite gender makes you transgender. Though I've certainly seen conservatives with the idea that playing with an opposite gender toy makes you transgender (or gay).
Generally speaking, gender is like everything else in biology. There's a typical configuration (standard male & female) and then every possible variation of that typical configuration. And with so man
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:2)
Even supposing your story is correct: how the fuck am I meant to know what's in your weird sister's head?
Good luck with that, I don't either. She's somewhat of a thespian.
Given you think your sister is very progressive yet believes that wooden trains are for boys, either your sister is not nearly so progressive as you believe or she doesn't exist.
Oh. I don't care. I can say this much: she's really into the artsy scene and hangs out with noname Hollywood actors (actually in Hollywood) that think they're celebrities even though they'd have a hard time qualifying as even d-list.
But ultimately that still doesn't mean you are uncritically believing dubious stuff you read on the internet because it plays into your biases.
No I pretty critically read everything. I think the sources I read the most are e.g. Washington Post and New York Times. Basically I open Google News in Android Firefox's private browsing mode, scroll, and open wh
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Not really. Nobody thinks Hitler killed Jews in the name of heteronormative people.
Wait, so Hitler murdering tens of thousands of gay men isn't heteronormative and anyway he's less bad than trans people because of the anti-trans creative writing exercise on Reddit that you quoted?
k, dude.
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heteronormative enforcement, that should read.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:2)
You're an idiot. Hitler wanted to kill everything but "Germanic people" and it's hard to tell what the hell he was thinking with gays. Do you even know where the pink triangle originated? Care to guess why it wasn't the same one that Jews wore?
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:4, Interesting)
That's interesting because a lot of them have YouTube channels where they talk about this, one of them even showing the scars on her forearm from the skin they removed for a phalloplasty. This same person, by the way, gets attacked all the time on her YouTube channel accusing her of lying even though some journalists have verified it all.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:5, Insightful)
The distinction between gender and gender role is a rather interesting and fuzzy thing.
One the one hand you get extremists saying that there is no distinction, and thus because some aspects of gender roles are a social construct, all of gender is a social construct.
On the other hand, you have hypothetical extremists who also believe there is no distinction between gender and gender role, and a genital check is a necessary step in screening out applicants for medical school or law school, for example.
Somewhere in the orbit of those knucklehead are the people who believe that not only are gender roles and genders identical and are social constructs, but so is biological sex. Hence gems like "biologically female penis"
Then there are the rest of us, who don't give a flying fuck what any particular man or woman wants to do with his or her life, but are generally aware that there are physiological differences between men and women generally driven by that gact that men father children, women give birth to them, and that structuring society in a way that discourages women from giving birth or men from supporting their children is unsustainable if civilization is to continue. And yes that means women of childbearing age shouldn't be the first required to go off to war and die, or that 250 lb dudes shouldn't be playing contact sports against high school girls.
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The problem isn't whether gender/sex is a social construct (especially knowing that literally everything we speak of is a social construct; but it is an interesting discussion, and the clue is probably in the statistical nature of the phenomena). The problem is that the left does not allow discussion on the subject, especially if you are what they call "cis" in NewSpeak; they'll call you a Nazi right away to shut you up. They don't want to hear your argument; they say you don't have the right to make that a
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The left is not a unified bloc. Nor is the right, though it's closer. Some people think there's a discussion to be had about it, but are just tired of where it always seems to go.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does your "gender" need to be publicly recognized and everybody has to use special words to acknowledge you?
Calling somebody "he" or "she" based on physical appearance isn't an insult, it's just human. Accept it and move on.
I for one am glad my everyday language doesn't allow people to mess with pronouns the way English does.
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Calling somebody "he" or "she" based on physical appearance isn't an insult, it's just human.
Untrue; there are a number of human languages that do not use a different pronoun for people of different sexes. (Finnish, for example, to pick a European language.)
The fact that we do use gendered pronouns should not be mistaken for a "human" thing; it's just a happenstance of history.
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Calling somebody "he" or "she" based on physical appearance isn't an insult, it's just human.
Untrue; there are a number of human languages that do not use a different pronoun for people of different sexes
So? When an English speaker points at an unknown person across the room he/she has to say "him" or "her". No choice.
If an English speaker ever pointed at somebody and said, "go talk to that!", it would be a deliberate insult.
English [Re: Well done to the pranksters.] (Score:2)
Calling somebody "he" or "she" based on physical appearance isn't an insult, it's just human.
Untrue; there are a number of human languages that do not use a different pronoun for people of different sexes
So? When an English speaker [my emphasis] points at an unknown person across the room he/she has to say "him" or "her". No choice.
Correct. English speakers. The post I was responding to said "human".
Also, an English speaker might say "Go to them."
"You need the manager. Go to them and complain, not me."
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I get where you're coming from. Mis-using somebody's preferred pronoun shouldn't cause WW3. I'm happy to be corrected and move on, as you say.
However we must realise that biology ain't as clear-cut as XX vs XY, and that's it.
In humans, the Y chromosome contains a gene called "SRY", which is the main one that determines male characteristics. However, multiple genes are required to actually develop male bits. Defects in these genes are way more common that you think. Klinefelter Syndrome (XXY) occurs abo
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However we must realise that biology ain't as clear-cut as XX vs XY, and that's it.
OK, so how about get people to use "neutral" in English? It exists. We can interact with people as if they're objects by default...
eg. "Where is it?", "Let me go talk to it".
("Where is he?", "Let me go talk to her?" doesn't seem better?)
The real problem appears when everybody gets to invent their own personal pronouns. I'm not going to play that game with everybody I meet. Nope. I'd rather not even have to interact with people like that - I'm not trying to have sex with them so why should their gender be pa
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:1)
Gender is absolutely a social construct
Bullshit. The fact Tha you identify as a frog, does not make you a frog. The fact that you identify as a child does not give you the right to have sex with children.
Mental illness needs treatment, not praise and acceptance.
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Mental illness needs treatment, not praise and acceptance.
Even taken as an axiom, first you have to agree on what mental illness is.
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No doubt some will. I have a great defense though, I have a beard, and don't want to get tangled up.
Some nutty people do sometimes insist that people should find them attractive. They are in the minority, ignore them.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:2)
They are in the minority, ignore them
Good advice, except that for this particular minority, your chance of catching hell in this life is markedly higher than it ought to be in a world not hijacked by nutters.
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>>Gender is absolutely a social construct
>>The fact that you identify as a child does not give you the right to have sex with children.
The fact that you picked this as an example says more about your state of mind than anything else.
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The nutters are the ones who believe that the entire idea of sex/gender is a mere societal construct and that men can have babies and menstruate.
FFS.
It's not complicated. Humans have three attributes -
1) Sex: Whether you were born with male sex organs, female sex organs, or, in some rare cases, both.
2) Gender: Whether your brain perceives you as a man or a woman, or in some cases somewhere in-between.
3) Orientation: Whether you are sexually attracted to the male sex, female sex, both or neith
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:2)
Most people don't want to visit that kind if hell hole, full of slurs, bigotry and threats.
Well then those people are free to go build their own Twitter.
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:4, Insightful)
Well then those people are free to go build their own Twitter.
The opposite happens - People who wand FREEDOM go to 4Chan, Parler or Truth Social.
And they discover their sites are desolate wastelands because the majority of people aren't interested in sites that are nothing but hellholes of angry slurs, bigotry, threats and naked scat pictures.
TikTok is HEAVILY moderated and it is the most popular social media site on the planet. Why? Because it is fun, full of videos of people dancing and Golden Retrievers tripping over things. Most people aren't interested in toxic bullshit.
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>"And they discover their sites are desolate wastelands because the majority of people aren't interested in sites that are nothing but hellholes of angry slurs, bigotry, threats and naked scat pictures.
TikTok is HEAVILY moderated and it is the most popular social media site on the planet."
The problem is that these are two extremes. One with little to no moderation, and the other with excessive, centrally-controlled moderation (which includes Twitter).
The solution is user-based tools. Tools to help user
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but that doesn't mean they also want a single, central authority (especially one with some extreme viewpoints or agenda) controlling what they are allowed to see.
I'm not so sure. I think most users on TikTok are quite happy to have the algorithm select fun stuff for them, based on their likes. Their massive success is huge evidence for this.
Even here on Slashdot I know I could probably twiddle some knobs and move some sliders to hide the GN@@ nonsense and ASCII swastika bullshit, but frankly I just wa
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[sites like 4chan] are desolate wastelands because the majority of people aren't interested in sites that are nothing but hellholes of angry slurs, bigotry, threats and naked scat pictures.
[tiktok] is fun, [it's] full of videos of people dancing and Golden Retrievers tripping over things.
to borrow 4chan parlance: Now That's What I Call Normie Vol 4
Welcome to Hell, Elon [Re:Well done to the pranks] (Score:4, Informative)
Musk is about to learn the fundamental truth about "free speech" platforms. Most people don't want to visit that kind if hell hole, full of slurs, bigotry and threats.
The Verge had a very good article making these points, "Welcome to Hell, Elon". [theverge.com]
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Musk is about to learn the fundamental truth about "free speech" platforms. Most people don't want to visit that kind if hell hole, full of slurs, bigotry and threats.
The Verge had a very good article making these points, "Welcome to Hell, Elon". [theverge.com]
Twitter was already that. It's just that it was allowed when directed against those you don't like, so you were okay with it.
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The Verge had a very good article making these points, "Welcome to Hell, Elon". [theverge.com]
Twitter was already that. It's just that it was allowed when directed against those you don't like, so you were okay with it.
Not sure who you're responding to. Did you even glance at the article?
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Most people don't want to visit that kind if hell hole, full of slurs, bigotry and threats.
Yep - There's a reason there's much more engagement (and by extension more advertisers and revenue) on Twitter than there is on Parler, 4Chan, Truth Social etc.
People like an environment that's (reasonably) pleasant, compared to a toxic cesspool of scum calling people F*CKING F@GG0TZ.
The most moderated site on the planet is TikTok, and on that site engagement is through the roof.
Even Slashdot's users fall
Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:2)
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Re: Well done to the pranksters. (Score:2)
Is there a link to this data, along with data of earlier usage?
Just a prediction... (Score:2)
But just because Elon buys Twitter doesn't mean the troll broadcasters will behave. The advertising will abandon the platform, as will employees out of moral disgust. And what will be left will be worth 25% of what Elon paid.
Re:Just a prediction... (Score:4, Insightful)
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If he tries hard enough, he can get it down to 25% of that.
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Just like every advertiser left Fox News. Oh wait...
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Re:Just a prediction... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll give you another one that is just as likely to happen:
It works and Musk is successful with it.
I don't like Musk's politics, I don't like Twitter. The closest thing to a "social media" platform I use is /., and I use it because a) it is interesting; b) I get to hear different viewpoints than my own; and c) most importantly 80-90% of the stories are rationally moderated in a way that crazy, stupid (or whatever else you might want to call them) posts don't dominate the discussion.
I remember when CT discussed moderation over 20 years ago (along with the importance/availability of anonymity), and the concerns with making it scale. The insight and decisions made back then have helped /. survive a very long time. The perennial optimist in me hopes that Musk understands the lessons of /. and wants to apply it to a much larger platform. I'm less convinced about X, but the only way to make that work is to make the Twitter platform much more widespread.
"Comedy is now legal on Twitter." (Score:4, Insightful)
"Comedy is now legal on Twitter."
I sure hope so. I wonder if people realize just how terrible a hellhole Twitter really had become. A lot of the more surreal type of humor that was popular on the Internet way back when ended up on Twitter. Slowly but surely, the people doing it ended up either being banned or harassed off the site. A lot of comedy simply left Twitter.
This is where the left pretends it's simply some form of "-phobic" humor being banned, but it wasn't. It was anything that was even slightly edgy. People would post something humorous, and then swarms of Twitter leftists would try to "cancel" them in an effort to find the most woke, most virtue-signaling way to misinterpret anything posted.
The fact that Twitter moderation played along with this leftist bent and would ban people over posts clearly intended to be humorous made the entire thing even worse.
Which leaves us with modern Twitter, which is just a miserable website to be on. It's full of leftists yelling at you, trying to out-virtue-signal everyone else. Enjoy anything, and they'll yell at you about how you're really supporting some evil capitalist global warming who even knows what.
Honestly, I doubt Elon Musk will be able to resurrect Twitter, and I'm fairly sure he knows he can't as well. But the loss of comedy was a very real thing, and it would be a nice thought if he was able to bring it back. I don't see it happening though. Firing everyone involved in "trust and safety" would be a good start, though.
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A lot of the more surreal type of humor that was popular on the Internet way back when ended up on Twitter. Slowly but surely, the people doing it ended up either being banned or harassed off the site.
Can you provide an example of the kind of humor you're talking about getting someone cancelled?
Which leaves us with modern Twitter, which is just a miserable website to be on.
So don't be?
It's full of leftists yelling at you, trying to out-virtue-signal everyone else. Enjoy anything, and they'll yell at you about how you're really supporting some evil capitalist global warming who even knows what.
Have you considered the possibility that by most standards, most large corporations' actions (which is what one judges by, I hope, and not PR) actually are evil? Have you noticed that almost everything popular is owned by some large corporation or another?
Honestly, I doubt Elon Musk will be able to resurrect Twitter, and I'm fairly sure he knows he can't as well. But the loss of comedy was a very real thing, and it would be a nice thought if he was able to bring it back.
I laugh a lot at stuff on twitter. Sometimes, it was even intended to be funny.
losers (Score:1)
I see downvotes, but I don't see answers, you cowardly hypocritical cancel culture fuckwads
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Which leaves us with modern Twitter, which is just a miserable website to be on. It's full of leftists yelling at you, trying to out-virtue-signal everyone else. Enjoy anything, and they'll yell at you about how you're really supporting some evil capitalist global warming who even knows what.
This whole post is like a game of telephone with someone repeating what they are told Twitter is like without actually engaging with the platform themselves.
If "leftists" (whatever that means here) are yelling at you then say why that it is and why it wasnt justified, or where you were commenting on that "leftists" would find it in the first place. Logistally this isnt even how Twitter really works in the first place, it's very easy to curate and insulate yourself on Twitter.
Re: "Comedy is now legal on Twitter." (Score:2)
it's very easy to curate and insulate yourself on Twitter
But another wise person stated:
"Most people don't want to visit that kind if hell hole"
So, which is it? Some people don't want to see it? Or they don't like the idea that it's being said anywhere? Because the latter isn't really compatible with a free, democratic society.
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Reddit purged the filth.
Voat absorbed it all.
Reddit's front page was clean.
Voat's front page was trash.
Advertisers don't pay to be placed next to the kind of crap on Voat.
Voat goes away.
That's the reality of Edgelord Comedy.
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Some people fall into column A, some people fall into column B.
I am more of a column A side, I admittedly mostly follow people on my side of the political spectrum but I do follow a bunch of conservative pundits as well. If i want to engage with conservatives in the comments of those followers I can comment there but at not point would i make the statement that "i am being yelled at by rightists" because if i was it was becauase i chose to engage with them in such a manner. if i dont comment anything no o
Surreal humor? (Score:4, Interesting)
You can do surreal humor on Twitter all day long. What you can't do is be antisemetic or anti-LGBTQ and then say "It's just jokes bro, why ya gotta be like that".
This is a common tactic of extremists. They say absolutely terrible things and when they're called out on it it's just a joke. Innuendo Studios over on YouTube [youtube.com] has a long but good video on it.
It's not just jokes. Ya'll been doing it for too long for people to think that anymore. It's not 13 year old boys on 4chan. It's guys in their 40s running conservative think tanks and various nation states. We are way, way past "just jokes" and into "Reintroducing the talking points of the National Socialists back into polite conversation". [youtube.com]
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This is a common tactic of extremists.
And bullies. I was physically beaten by other kids in elementary school that always pretended to be nice and apologetic, and it never ceased to amaze me how often it helped a lot to get them out of trouble with teachers. Needless to say, it resulted in me growing up to be very wary of people who are "too nice".
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Nice karma you've got there. Here, have some mod points.
*poof*
Just kidding!
Public Service (Score:5, Insightful)
The "pranksters" performed a public service, showing how all the "reliable" media are completely full of it.
Re:Public Service (Score:5, Insightful)
The "pranksters" performed a public service, showing how all the "reliable" media are completely full of it.
Journalist and editors doing fact-checking before publishing a story is just a myth propagated by the media themselves. This is a lesson anybody will learn whenever one see any news related to a field that one is familiar with, such as science and technology.
Um... there are going to be layoffs (Score:2, Informative)
The problem here is that journalists are underfunded. So they're in a hurry to crank out stories. Instead of a few months you've got a few days. If that.
The insane thing is that when the layoffs come you'll think back to this story and call
Chief twit? (Score:2)
Clearly the guy doesn't know what the definition of twit is [merriam-webster.com].
But then, he is a real pedo guy so this shouldn't be surprising.
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Whooosh....
This Is How You Do It (Score:3)
It's fun, but it's also very serious.
Long term, non-violent way to destruct power. No hammers or building invasions or AR15s required.
Comedy. It makes you laugh too.
Musk's plans will make Twitter just as popular as (Score:2)
Parler, or Truth social.
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Parler, or Truth social.
Parler was the number one app until Amazon took it out.