Listen to a reading of this article: A couple of months into Elon Musk's control of Twitter, it's fair to say that from an anti-censorship, pro-transparency perspective there have been a few positive results of the platform coming under new management. The
More to the point, you can bet dollars to dog turds that the CIA, FBI, NSA, DoD and Lord knows what else are just as embedded in every other social media and MSM outfit worth mentioning.
Twitter just happens to be the one we have documentary proof of.
FAIR is an absolutely indispensable watchdog. Everyone who cares about the growing chasm between American supposed values and American duplicitous actions should subscribe.
Still -- Elon Musk should receive Nobel prize for his courage !!
Russia's security concerns and explicitly stated "red lines" have been completely ignored by the US War party and its corporate (de facto, state) media stenographers. US State Dept. “didn't notice” that capitalist Russia has not been Communist for 30+ years.
Of course, the Russia-gate hoax is a huge factor – SAME lying team is in power. A solution -- any discussion on why proxy war against capitalist and democratic Russia must be totally suppressed
We do live in CONTINUUM: FBI and Edgar Hoover’s crimes and surveillance === CIA-FBI and St. Obama, Biden, Clapper, Brennan, Hayden, Mitch McConnell, Pelosi, Schumer === SAME despicable fascist anti-American monstrosities.
And -- a “puzzling and completely irrational” DNC/media/security state propaganda. BUT -- there is a VERY rational reason for that: We are dealing with BIG Lie(s) – Russia-gate immense hoax is directly connected with support for Nazi-dominated US-puppet government of Ukraine.
ANY, even a most rudimentary, public discussion would unravel the lie(s) -- total censorship and prompt defamation of perceived opponents are the ONLY choice for the immensely corrupt Deep State cabal.
A sad thing is that GOP lunatics are equally repulsive and dangerous (a la McConnell, Mark Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Mike Pompeo, Bolton -- happily grunting together while feeding at same donor troughs.
Re this: "• Twitter's "Topics" feature has been artificially amplifying media funded by the US and other NATO powers to manage narratives about the war in Ukraine."
I noticed the manipulation Trending Topics and Tweeted copies of some of it. Suspended account now.
Very useful. imo a bit early to judge but you give a good baseline and indicators of how this will run.
Musk does respond to critique. Hopefully he will read this. And the opponents of free speech have made it certain that Musk will be distracted by hundreds of small directed skirmishes aimed at impeding any progress he may wish to make.
I wished someone would start to focus more on other Social Media platforms, now that we know from Twitter how much it manipulates the information it's users get to see. I have an example from personal experience from Youtube and how it silently deletes/rejects certain comments.
Try the following: go the Youtube channel of Dr John Campbell chose one of his more recent viedeos and add the following comment:
"Dear Dr Campbell, please review the following three studies:
When I added this comment, Youtube accepts it but silently drops it, so you will not be able to find it under your "Your data in Youtube". This is more insidious than to tell you that what you posted goes against any form of policy.
Oh and while you are at it, do read up on how the vaccine shots shift your immune response from IgG1 to IgG4 and how IgG4 was found to positively impact tumor growth, independent of its antigen specificity. Something that sadly surprised Dr. Michel.
Knowledge is power, and so is information. Therefore, always maintain a sceptical approach to what is offered up as knowledge and information -it's apt to be self-serving. There are no fail-safe sources. But if anyone is not aware by now that the US and West "values" are not values but cover stories, is probably also still reading Aesop fables as truth. Values are encapsulated, defined by actions, not mouthings: you are what you do, not what you say you do in theory, or would do "if only them bad guys would play fair", etc.. And according to this metric, the US and West values are - shit.
While I think it is correct that Elon is getting big gov. contracts which potentially compromises him, to characterize Twitter as state media is a bit over-the-top. He sacrificed a great deal of his wealth to takeover Twitter and air out all its dirty laundry, including extensive collab with US gov. Do you think he would continue this collab. after doing so? I find that idea highly doubtful. Particularly because a lot of the examples above are not as cut-and-dried as you portray them.
A lot of the obvious accounts controlled by the US gov, like CIA and whatnot, are just posting mundane recruitment and housekeeping posts. Nothing that could be construed as trying to influence narrative. So state funding labels for those seems unnecessary and obvious.
The NED is a problem because they have a layer of plausible deniability. They get funding from the US gov and mix it with money from foundations to muddy the waters. They then claim that their board of directors is independent in how it distributes the funds. So while it is plainly obvious that this is a narrative control device of the US gov., it would be hard to prove beyond a doubt that the gov. is directing its funding. This makes labeling its grant recipients as state media problematic.
Also take a look at the article headlines published by Fair.org and you might detect some bias in their reporting. When the Twitter Files revealed extensive collaboration between the media and the government, did Fair do a story on it? Not that I can see on their website. Only a passing mention in this before beginning a partisan hack job which seems to be amplifying the same message promoted by the rest of the mainstream media. Musk is not to trusted.
Well I don't put blind trust in him either, but his actions so far lead me to believe he is not on the side of the establishment. And we should judge a person by their actions shouldn't we?
"...none of the accounts for the US Army, National Security Agency or Central Intelligence Agency are currently labeled as a state or government entity" by Twitter......:"
Well no. That would be because the leaders of the teams supposedly screening for "disinformation" at all these tech companies.......are in fact agents of the security disinformation agencies, on outplacement....from these very agencies!
That fact was revealed a long time ago. Twitter, Facebook etc are a revolving door for disinformation agents of the state. Musk or no Musk, that's the situation.
Musk himself is feeding greedily at the trough of the state, with his space cappers. Its doubtful that he is any less of a "double agent" than Omidyar proved to be at The Intercept.
The media only care about Twitter because that's where mainstream journalists/pundits are. They're very protective of their small bubble, totally oblivious to reality. And the reality is that most people don't give a sh*t about Twitter. They use other stuff - FB, Instagram, TikTok, which are much more dangerous re surveillance and manipulation.
Having said that, I enjoy Twitter. It's fun (in a twisted way) and I can have access to independent journalism and good sources of information. It's just a matter of trying not to be stupid and seeing through the obvious propaganda (I know, the herd can't do this; f**k them).
Here is not a free and fair news source from the mainstream media, all of these outlets of communication are subordinate and controlled by powerful political -economic forces that imposes biased platforms aimed to mastering human domain. Even before the Patriot Act the free press became not essential for a free society and democracy. Government control media and communication, including art, music, Hollywood, even soaps all are means used to control our minds, perceptions and influence emotions.
I would love to see these pro-war/NATO propaganda outlets labeled "US State Affiliated Media". At least I'm not disappointed in Musk--he's acting the way I assumed he would. Until Twitter (or any social media platform) becomes a public utility, we'll get all the propaganda that the owners want.
"So it's not surprising that we find ourselves with a New Twitter that's essentially the same as the old Twitter, just with more tolerance for right wingers and their culture war quagmires."
I'd say even that much is an improvement, considering how many people on the left are considered "right wingers" because they (pick as many of these as you like)...
1. Feel that Lia Thomas competing against cis female competition that she easily trounces isn't fair, along with other examples of why maybe when it comes to sports we shouldn't be treating trans and cis women as literally in the same league;
2. Thought that maybe Ivermectin could be effective against Covid;
3. Looked at the Kyle Rittenhouse case and concluded that he was not, in fact, guilty of premeditated murder since he never shot anybody who wasn't coming after him;
6. Says anything bad about the vaccines or Fauci. The same Anthony Fauci who should, in fact, be prosecuted, although I'm not holding my breath for that.
And I could go on. NGL, I find myself having way more common ground with people who see themselves as on the right than I do with people who see themselves as on the left these days.
That's because if I talk to somebody on the right, we're gonna agree that the Twitter Files are important and the furthest thing from a "nothingburger", we're gonna agree that when Tucker or Jimmy Dore or anyone else says we shouldn't be sending infinite money to Ukraine that they're speaking the truth, we're going to agree that protests such as the Freedom Convoy should not be criminalized, we're going to agree that January 6th, 2021 wasn't a coup and definitely wasn't worse than 9/11, we're going to agree that the aforementioned Fauci is a lying POS, etc.
Granted, there are people on the left who agree with most or all of that stuff too, but if you pick a random person who is at least nominally a lefty and try to talk to them about these issues, there's at least a 50/50 chance that you'll get somebody who worships Fauci, who believes that all white people are born racist and that we should spend every waking moment trying to be "less white" (whatever the fuck that means), who thinks that anybody they've been told is a white supremacist must be one and therefore should be lynched, who hates Assange for "giving us Trump", who unironically repeats Azov Battalion slogans, who wants the book thrown at the truckers because they believe all the smears against them, etc.
But, regardless of all of that, here's what I find interesting. Interesting in a sad and depressing way, but still interesting.
If Musk is, in fact, still in bed with the establishment and not in any hurry to get up, get dressed, and flee back to his own house while vowing that he'll never get that drunk again...then that means he, like Trump, is doing most of what the establishment wants him to do. He is helping the establishment out an awful lot...but no matter how much he does for the establishment, all it takes for him to be portrayed as worse than a quintillion Hitlers is for him to even *slightly* go against the establishment by saying "Yeah, I think President Trump should be allowed back on Twitter." Just like all it took for Trump to also be portrayed that way was for his rhetoric to be anti-establishment even if his actions were pro-establishment, or for him to make hawkish decisions but stop short of being as hawkish as the Deep State and MIC wanted him to be.
Also similar to how AOC didn't vote the way Pelosi wanted her to on the Iron Dome funding, and how Pelosi dressed her down on the House floor even though her vote wouldn't have made the slightest difference to the outcome. Not even purely *symbolic* opposition to the establishment is tolerated. At least not on the side that supports Democrats.
Caitlin, thank you for this comprehensive review of the twitter files. I’m looking forward to your report on fb, google, Microsoft, et al. And check out Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi on Substack for more insights.
Of course.
More to the point, you can bet dollars to dog turds that the CIA, FBI, NSA, DoD and Lord knows what else are just as embedded in every other social media and MSM outfit worth mentioning.
Twitter just happens to be the one we have documentary proof of.
Meet the new boss...same as the old boss...
FAIR is an absolutely indispensable watchdog. Everyone who cares about the growing chasm between American supposed values and American duplicitous actions should subscribe.
Still -- Elon Musk should receive Nobel prize for his courage !!
Russia's security concerns and explicitly stated "red lines" have been completely ignored by the US War party and its corporate (de facto, state) media stenographers. US State Dept. “didn't notice” that capitalist Russia has not been Communist for 30+ years.
Of course, the Russia-gate hoax is a huge factor – SAME lying team is in power. A solution -- any discussion on why proxy war against capitalist and democratic Russia must be totally suppressed
We do live in CONTINUUM: FBI and Edgar Hoover’s crimes and surveillance === CIA-FBI and St. Obama, Biden, Clapper, Brennan, Hayden, Mitch McConnell, Pelosi, Schumer === SAME despicable fascist anti-American monstrosities.
And -- a “puzzling and completely irrational” DNC/media/security state propaganda. BUT -- there is a VERY rational reason for that: We are dealing with BIG Lie(s) – Russia-gate immense hoax is directly connected with support for Nazi-dominated US-puppet government of Ukraine.
ANY, even a most rudimentary, public discussion would unravel the lie(s) -- total censorship and prompt defamation of perceived opponents are the ONLY choice for the immensely corrupt Deep State cabal.
A sad thing is that GOP lunatics are equally repulsive and dangerous (a la McConnell, Mark Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Mike Pompeo, Bolton -- happily grunting together while feeding at same donor troughs.
yes, much yes.
Re this: "• Twitter's "Topics" feature has been artificially amplifying media funded by the US and other NATO powers to manage narratives about the war in Ukraine."
I noticed the manipulation Trending Topics and Tweeted copies of some of it. Suspended account now.
Very useful. imo a bit early to judge but you give a good baseline and indicators of how this will run.
Musk does respond to critique. Hopefully he will read this. And the opponents of free speech have made it certain that Musk will be distracted by hundreds of small directed skirmishes aimed at impeding any progress he may wish to make.
I wished someone would start to focus more on other Social Media platforms, now that we know from Twitter how much it manipulates the information it's users get to see. I have an example from personal experience from Youtube and how it silently deletes/rejects certain comments.
Try the following: go the Youtube channel of Dr John Campbell chose one of his more recent viedeos and add the following comment:
"Dear Dr Campbell, please review the following three studies:
Class switch towards non-inflammatory, spike-specific IgG4 antibodies after repeated SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.ade2798), "An immune evasion mechanism with IgG4 playing an essential role in cancer and implication for immunotherapy" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32819973/) and "Rapid Progression of Angioimmunoblastic T Cell Lymphoma Following BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine Booster Shot: A Case Report" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8656165/)."
When I added this comment, Youtube accepts it but silently drops it, so you will not be able to find it under your "Your data in Youtube". This is more insidious than to tell you that what you posted goes against any form of policy.
Oh and while you are at it, do read up on how the vaccine shots shift your immune response from IgG1 to IgG4 and how IgG4 was found to positively impact tumor growth, independent of its antigen specificity. Something that sadly surprised Dr. Michel.
Knowledge is power, and so is information. Therefore, always maintain a sceptical approach to what is offered up as knowledge and information -it's apt to be self-serving. There are no fail-safe sources. But if anyone is not aware by now that the US and West "values" are not values but cover stories, is probably also still reading Aesop fables as truth. Values are encapsulated, defined by actions, not mouthings: you are what you do, not what you say you do in theory, or would do "if only them bad guys would play fair", etc.. And according to this metric, the US and West values are - shit.
While I think it is correct that Elon is getting big gov. contracts which potentially compromises him, to characterize Twitter as state media is a bit over-the-top. He sacrificed a great deal of his wealth to takeover Twitter and air out all its dirty laundry, including extensive collab with US gov. Do you think he would continue this collab. after doing so? I find that idea highly doubtful. Particularly because a lot of the examples above are not as cut-and-dried as you portray them.
A lot of the obvious accounts controlled by the US gov, like CIA and whatnot, are just posting mundane recruitment and housekeeping posts. Nothing that could be construed as trying to influence narrative. So state funding labels for those seems unnecessary and obvious.
The NED is a problem because they have a layer of plausible deniability. They get funding from the US gov and mix it with money from foundations to muddy the waters. They then claim that their board of directors is independent in how it distributes the funds. So while it is plainly obvious that this is a narrative control device of the US gov., it would be hard to prove beyond a doubt that the gov. is directing its funding. This makes labeling its grant recipients as state media problematic.
Also take a look at the article headlines published by Fair.org and you might detect some bias in their reporting. When the Twitter Files revealed extensive collaboration between the media and the government, did Fair do a story on it? Not that I can see on their website. Only a passing mention in this before beginning a partisan hack job which seems to be amplifying the same message promoted by the rest of the mainstream media. Musk is not to trusted.
Well I don't put blind trust in him either, but his actions so far lead me to believe he is not on the side of the establishment. And we should judge a person by their actions shouldn't we?
"...none of the accounts for the US Army, National Security Agency or Central Intelligence Agency are currently labeled as a state or government entity" by Twitter......:"
Well no. That would be because the leaders of the teams supposedly screening for "disinformation" at all these tech companies.......are in fact agents of the security disinformation agencies, on outplacement....from these very agencies!
That fact was revealed a long time ago. Twitter, Facebook etc are a revolving door for disinformation agents of the state. Musk or no Musk, that's the situation.
Musk himself is feeding greedily at the trough of the state, with his space cappers. Its doubtful that he is any less of a "double agent" than Omidyar proved to be at The Intercept.
The media only care about Twitter because that's where mainstream journalists/pundits are. They're very protective of their small bubble, totally oblivious to reality. And the reality is that most people don't give a sh*t about Twitter. They use other stuff - FB, Instagram, TikTok, which are much more dangerous re surveillance and manipulation.
Having said that, I enjoy Twitter. It's fun (in a twisted way) and I can have access to independent journalism and good sources of information. It's just a matter of trying not to be stupid and seeing through the obvious propaganda (I know, the herd can't do this; f**k them).
Here is not a free and fair news source from the mainstream media, all of these outlets of communication are subordinate and controlled by powerful political -economic forces that imposes biased platforms aimed to mastering human domain. Even before the Patriot Act the free press became not essential for a free society and democracy. Government control media and communication, including art, music, Hollywood, even soaps all are means used to control our minds, perceptions and influence emotions.
I would love to see these pro-war/NATO propaganda outlets labeled "US State Affiliated Media". At least I'm not disappointed in Musk--he's acting the way I assumed he would. Until Twitter (or any social media platform) becomes a public utility, we'll get all the propaganda that the owners want.
"So it's not surprising that we find ourselves with a New Twitter that's essentially the same as the old Twitter, just with more tolerance for right wingers and their culture war quagmires."
I'd say even that much is an improvement, considering how many people on the left are considered "right wingers" because they (pick as many of these as you like)...
1. Feel that Lia Thomas competing against cis female competition that she easily trounces isn't fair, along with other examples of why maybe when it comes to sports we shouldn't be treating trans and cis women as literally in the same league;
2. Thought that maybe Ivermectin could be effective against Covid;
3. Looked at the Kyle Rittenhouse case and concluded that he was not, in fact, guilty of premeditated murder since he never shot anybody who wasn't coming after him;
4. Refuses to parrot the narrative on Ukraine;
5. Refuses to accept Robin DiAngelo as a prophet full of infinite wisdom https://taibbi.substack.com/p/on-white-fragility
6. Says anything bad about the vaccines or Fauci. The same Anthony Fauci who should, in fact, be prosecuted, although I'm not holding my breath for that.
And I could go on. NGL, I find myself having way more common ground with people who see themselves as on the right than I do with people who see themselves as on the left these days.
That's because if I talk to somebody on the right, we're gonna agree that the Twitter Files are important and the furthest thing from a "nothingburger", we're gonna agree that when Tucker or Jimmy Dore or anyone else says we shouldn't be sending infinite money to Ukraine that they're speaking the truth, we're going to agree that protests such as the Freedom Convoy should not be criminalized, we're going to agree that January 6th, 2021 wasn't a coup and definitely wasn't worse than 9/11, we're going to agree that the aforementioned Fauci is a lying POS, etc.
Granted, there are people on the left who agree with most or all of that stuff too, but if you pick a random person who is at least nominally a lefty and try to talk to them about these issues, there's at least a 50/50 chance that you'll get somebody who worships Fauci, who believes that all white people are born racist and that we should spend every waking moment trying to be "less white" (whatever the fuck that means), who thinks that anybody they've been told is a white supremacist must be one and therefore should be lynched, who hates Assange for "giving us Trump", who unironically repeats Azov Battalion slogans, who wants the book thrown at the truckers because they believe all the smears against them, etc.
But, regardless of all of that, here's what I find interesting. Interesting in a sad and depressing way, but still interesting.
If Musk is, in fact, still in bed with the establishment and not in any hurry to get up, get dressed, and flee back to his own house while vowing that he'll never get that drunk again...then that means he, like Trump, is doing most of what the establishment wants him to do. He is helping the establishment out an awful lot...but no matter how much he does for the establishment, all it takes for him to be portrayed as worse than a quintillion Hitlers is for him to even *slightly* go against the establishment by saying "Yeah, I think President Trump should be allowed back on Twitter." Just like all it took for Trump to also be portrayed that way was for his rhetoric to be anti-establishment even if his actions were pro-establishment, or for him to make hawkish decisions but stop short of being as hawkish as the Deep State and MIC wanted him to be.
Also similar to how AOC didn't vote the way Pelosi wanted her to on the Iron Dome funding, and how Pelosi dressed her down on the House floor even though her vote wouldn't have made the slightest difference to the outcome. Not even purely *symbolic* opposition to the establishment is tolerated. At least not on the side that supports Democrats.
Caitlin, thank you for this comprehensive review of the twitter files. I’m looking forward to your report on fb, google, Microsoft, et al. And check out Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi on Substack for more insights.
I disagree with Caitlin often but this time she’s spot on. Musk can’t play both sides and expect to win, and he’s too smart not to know it.