The worst thing Elon Musk has done in his life

Yesterday, Elon Musk did possibly the worst thing he has ever done in his life: he has ordered the Twitter administration to stop moderating covid misinformation. Nothing he could do short of starting a war could be more destructive and I am not all that sure that a war, even, would be more destructive. This utterly ends any claim he has towards concern with the future of humanity: he is either incompetent to guide humanity or so careless of humanity that he is willing to allow and encourage the spread of a disabling and sometimes lethal disease.

He wishes he were Heinlein's Delos D. Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon, but it seems to me he is closer to the Dr. Baines of James Blish's Black Easter, who hired the black magician Theron Ware to let 48 major demons out of hell for the lulz.

O my people!

Over On Our Sister Blog, a Discussion of Issues of Twitter and Mastodon

First, general issues: https://shinycroak.blogspot.com/2022/11/on-twitter-and-mastodon-first-thoughts.html

Second, problems of ideology: https://shinycroak.blogspot.com/2022/11/twitter-and-mastodon-ideological.html

Third, practical problems of Mastodon: https://shinycroak.blogspot.com/2022/11/twitter-and-mastodon-practical-problems.html

Fourth, prospects and reflection: https://shinycroak.blogspot.com/2022/11/twitter-and-mastodon-prospect-and.html

What I find most discouraging is how short the sections on ideology and prospects are. The problems I am describing are well understood and not complicated, but ideology and unwillingness to commit resources to resolve them stand in the way.

Shadow, and other tweets

• The shadow behind this election, and every election since the Citizens United election in 2010, is money in the electoral system. Without it, the cranks would be reduced to screaming in corners.
• The only way they can make Dobbs stick is to disenfranchise women.
• There do seem to be an awful lot of fash on Mastodon. Pushed into dark corners, but they're there. And the limited filtering tools means you can't entirely shush them.
• The Democrats pulled off a historic upset. Yay Democrats! But Congress is still balanced on a knife-edge, and the Supreme Court is still dominated by religious fanatics. // Gonna be a rough few years. // Oh, and shout-out to the women and young people who made it happen!
• Headlines we will never see: TRUMP JOKES ABOUT ASSAULT ON OPPOSITION LEADER'S FAMILY, THREATENS VIOLENCE AGAINST POLITICAL OPPONENTS.
• Many of the fascists we call idiots are just playing dumb. They’re perfectly competent at taking over things and trashing them.
• Exactly how does this work? Businesses aren’t going to pay money to be advertising next to Nazi propagandists, even if the House harasses them.
• Would they rather have smart people who are at least decent if a bit clueless or dumb people who hate them in charge? // American anti-intellectualism is a mighty thing and a mighty stupid thing.
• Why would blacks vote for a racist party? Well, if one looks at German history, there were Jews who supported the Nazis.
• I suppose there will be a lot of unhappy men who can’t find girlfriends and wives in Ohio.
• I wonder if Twitter is even going to last the year. If it just turns into gab or whatever who is going to come here?