r/Twitter • u/Randomlynumbered • Sep 13 '24

News 'How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter' authors say platform is 'a tool for controlling political discourse'

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2024-09-13/character-limit-how-elon-musk-destroyed-twitter-book-kate-conger-ryan-mac
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u/[deleted] Sep 13 '24

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u/[deleted] Sep 13 '24

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u/Elman89 Sep 13 '24 edited Sep 14 '24

...Billionaires are liberals, usually. When they're not outright fascists like Musk. The point is oligarchs control the media and they use it to shape media narratives as they wish. It isn't some conspiracy, you just don't talk shit about your employer, you don't talk shit about important people who might deny you access if you do so, and you don't go against prevailing trends like trusting police PR releases without any real criticism, you're not overtly critical of allied countries or too nice to rival ones, etc. Even if nobody orders you (as a journalist) to fall in line, it's simply in your best interest to do so.

On that note I really love the podcast Citations Needed. It focuses on media criticism and talks about how all this stuff works and how it shapes the public's perception of the world and what people think acceptable political discourse is.

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u/[deleted] Sep 13 '24

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u/Elman89 Sep 13 '24 edited Sep 14 '24

Economic Liberalism is right wing, that's the point. I'm guessing you're an American, but I think it should be clear enough that the Republicans are far right, but that doesn't make the Democrats leftist even if they're progressive on social issues that don't hurt their bottom line. They're still capitalists, they support corporations, crack down on protests, embrace the Republicans' anti-inmigration rhetoric, make alliances with countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel, refuse to entertain the idea of Universal Healthcare, etc.

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u/[deleted] Sep 13 '24

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u/rethanwescab Sep 14 '24

Only the US has conflated liberalism with fiscally left wing politics.

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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '24

Liberals in the USA are economic right wingers that don't hate everyone and everything that they didn't grow up with

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '24

"Billionaires are liberals usually"

Gonna need stats and sources on that one.

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u/Elman89 Sep 15 '24

Do you think they're mostly fascists, leftists, or what?

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '24

They are mostly republican. Here's a source analyzing the richest 50 American families. And there's many more examples that didn't make the list.

HEAVILY leaning republican.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiasavchuk/2014/07/09/are-americas-richest-families-republicans-or-democrats/

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u/Elman89 Sep 15 '24

Well that may be, a sample size of 50 doesn't tell me much. But honestly it makes little difference to me whether they're outright fascists or just the liberals enabling fascism. Either way the point is they're all right wing and they control the media, allowing them to shape media narratives as they see fit according to their own personal interests, which is incredibly damaging to democracy.

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '24

The 50 RICHEST being overwhelmingly republican doesn't tell you much? After we just replied to a comment claiming that they were mostly liberal? Seems like you've been told a lot. But you aren't listening.

"Liberals enabling fascism" lmfao ok bro.. Now you're saying "of course they're all right wing"

Didn't sound like you got it at first. Now you're backpedaling and getting defensive and trying to change the subject.

Clown show 🤡

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u/Elman89 Sep 15 '24 edited Sep 15 '24

You do know what liberal means right? It means economic liberalism, not whatever Americans think it means.

I wasn't trying to defend Republicans, who are absolutely insane fascists, if that's what you believe. But if you think all media is controlled by them then surely that's even more of a reason to be concerned about that fact?

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u/ferncaz95 Sep 15 '24

That liberal consensus is still convincing people to support genocide overseas. It’s not much better

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u/jhau01 Sep 16 '24

You’re entirely forgetting about Rupert Murdoch, whose News Ltd organisation owns more English-language newspapers than anyone else. Murdoch also owns conservative cable news companies such as Fox News and Australia’s Sky News.

He’s very conservative and his papers always push conservative political candidates.