Echinocentric @Echinocentric@social.cleverlibre.org

Musk has cancelled Santa Claus

😂 😂 😂

UPDATE: Judge dismisses election contest brought by Arizona state Sen. Sonny Borelli (R) & Mohave County voters seeking to throw out Maricopa County's votes in the governor's race. The case will continue as a civil lawsuit challenging election procedures. https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/arizona-gubernatorial-election-contest-borrelli/

Thank you, Philly! The mask mandate for schools is returning on January 3.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/philadelphia-schools-will-require-masks-us-covid-cases-spike-2022-12-15/

#COVID #COVID19 #PublicHealth #BringBackMasks

So it looks like Elmo is shadow banning everyone who won't pay him $8 a month for "free" speech.

Things just seem so crazy today.
I mean, can you imagine say in the 1930s if the richest automobile executive in America was also a media owner who used his platform to encourage anti-Semitism and allied himself with a foreign dictator waging a territory-expansion war in Europe?

Today on @Wired I argue that we, by which I mean narrowly the media, but more broadly everybody, have fallen into the same trap with Elon Musk as we did with Donald Trump. We've played into their strategy of making the story about them, which means that media coverage serves to feed the pro- and anti- camps and obscure what's actually going on instead of illuminating—a, simple, stupid hack that turns us into the opposite of what we're supposed to be.
https://www.wired.com/story/donald-trump-elon-musk-media/

@chuckwendig
I love this sentence: "I don’t need to regale the entire stretch of the Musky Reign so far, but the short and sweet is, a billionaire narcissist with skin thinner than shaved prosciutto stretched precariously over a honeydew melon is, nearly every hour of every day, cocainedly shoving more and more of Twitter into the shit-tubes."
I need to work in "cocainedly" into more conversations.

The kids are alright.

“Some drew in sketchbooks. Others painted with watercolors. One closed their eyes to listen to the wind. Many read intently… Dostoevsky’s “Crime & Punishment,” Spiegelman’s “Maus II” & “The Consolation of Philosophy.” They have a fondness for works like “Player Piano” by Vonnegut. Arthur, the bespectacled PBS aardvark, is their mascot.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/style/teens-social-media.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Trump selectively banned from White House briefings numerous journalists who reported unfavorably on his presidency. It's probably time we recognised who #ElonMusk models himself after. It's not ambiguous anymore. They are the same.

#Musk #Twitter #BirdSite #AaronRupar

I’ve been on Twitter since 2008. Could be over at any moment.

Olbermann is gone too. This was his last tweet.

It was clear from the jump Musk didn’t understand the site he’d bought, but I’m still a bit surprised he doesn’t grasp that journalists are the main reason Twitter was more relevant than any number of other similar platforms. Can easily imagine looking back on this as a tipping point.

Apparently “free speech absolutist” means suspending anyone whose free speech he doesn’t like.

My essay on billionaires, media, and Twitter ownership from a week or two ago is holding up.

““…We're in a similar historical moment now. Modern media, from social media to mass media like Fox and the NY Post, have played a role in the rise of neofascism…”

“What we need is to strengthen democratic institutions to reflect the will of the people, as a counterweight against rightwing billionaires.”

https://deepnarrative.substack.com/p/twitter-is-being-used-by-a-billionaire

Unfortunately, things on Twitter are playing out generally as expected. This too often happens as a result of rightwing billionaires owning our major media outlets.

Mastodon/the fediverse is looking like a good place to carry on pro-democracy discourse.
#twittermigration #democracy #media

Elon Musk is a fascist.

A revealing moment for Glenn who supports banning journalists he doesn't like.

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1603554085109653507

Three weeks ago

"We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it."

Mary Oliver
#Quotes #EmotionalIntelligence