I was curious as to what exactly would be the effect of Elon Musk taking over Twitter.

Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in a few tech companies! I also subscribe to the UN's Principles for Responsible Investment (unpri.org). Even then I let my Luddite tendencies run amok.  Yeah, it's fun asking Microsoft why our products are shit, yet we have a monopoly at the shareholder meetings...

But the real reason I am writing this is that Twitter has become crap since Elon Mush has taken it over. I guess when you have a family that made its money in blood diamonds investing in your projects you can go wild and make shitloads of money

On paper

The problem with this bubble is that it is tulipmania waiting to explode, but there are probably darker forces behind the bubble, as in the surveillance state.

So, you might want to start making posts about how much support gun control, in fact banning guns sounds really good, if you are a ardent gun rights supporter because just remember who REALLY invented the internet. AND IT WASN'T AL GORE OR , EVEN, MORE IMPORTANTLY, TIM BERNERS-LEE!!

The origins of the Internet date back to the development of packet switching and research commissioned by the United States Department of Defense in the late 1960s to enable time-sharing of computers. The primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for the interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the 1970s to enable resource sharing.

Yeah, somebody is way ahead of the hackers, but that's another thing.

And it doesn't really matter since I am not keen on social media, especially if I am not connecting with the people I need or want to connect with.

 And I'm not on twitter.

It seems that Mush's buying Twitter may be the end of the line.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/13/twitter-lose-users-elon-musk-takeover-hate-speech

More reasons you need to be concerned about monopolies and oligarchs

 Yet another interesting interview by Russell Brand on why you should be worried about the current situation:

Wanting strong data protection laws isn't "privilige": it's sanity.

The billionaires made money on your information. And it all gets scarier.

What are you doing on Social Media? Why are you there?

 I've been wanting to do a post on this topic for a really long time since I find it amusing how most of the right wingers are paranoid about their government, but have no problem with big business-oligarch crowd.

Here's the difference: government is supposed to be under citizen scrutiny. Private entities like businesses aren't--unless the government regulates them.

Russell seems a little slow on the uptake since nothing he is talking about here is secret. In fact, this stuff is all an open secret.

So, if you don't want your activities traced, you might want to get away from social media and big tech.

As Russell points out, the Internet was created by the US Department of Defence (DARPANET).

Sorry, Al Gore and Tim Berners-Lee, you can't take credit for internet.

Tucker Carlson calls for Breaking Up Google!

 No wonder he's under attack by the "left".

 

I started watching him because of the covid thing. I don't agree with him a lot of the time, but he does give an alternative take on the stories in the news. Greg Gutfeld is fun to watch as well.

Sky News Australia is also an interesting view.

Why would I like these sources? It was because the US Main Stream Media was too sycophantic to the Biden-Harris ticket and uncritical of the Covid thing.

Anyway, it's amusing to watch Tucker mention breaking up Google. It would get really interesting if they went all the way. I mean breaking up Bezos' monopoly, which included WAPO. And how exactly did Facebook make all that money?

By selling your information.

That's what makes these companies really frightening by trashing our rights: especially the right of privacy. They are the basis of something called surveillance capitalism.

He could also talk about how weak US Data Protection laws happen to be, which is why those trashy background check sites exist. But even more importantly, failure to have strong data protection laws are what allowed for surveillance capitalism to make billions off of our data without our consent.

Or the ability to correct mistakes in that data.

Socialism isn't making money off of the work of others, that's capitalism. And surveillance capitalism is making money off of people's data. And it's making some people very rich.