Small steps make a difference.

i just can't wrap my head around the fact that otherwise normal intelligent people are so fucking addicted to fake validation from fake "friends" that they continue to consume (PAY FOR) bullshit like twitter

Especially when they can get upvotes for free on Lemmy
- 1 upvote = 1 dopamine
- Wait we have upvotes?! I'm only getting downvotes
  Edit: downvotes really??
I'm also continously surprised by how socially codependent people are.
- humans are social creatures by nature but the issue is the way that people go about fulfilling those needs in the most useless, destructive way possible
- As the sociologist Brooke Harrington puts it, if there was an E = mc² of social science, it would be SD > PD, “social death is more frightening than physical death.”
- i wasn't talking about people being socially codependent, i was talking about how people are addicted to bullshit social media to the point that they neglect actual social interaction with the people (i.e. friends and family) who are literally in physical proximity to them. all to amass fake "likes" for their feed
It’s because they’re actually bigots and enjoy being in the company of other bigots who don’t call them out.

$45 million a month. Jesus fucking Christ, imagine the good that kind of money could do. Instead it's going straight to Fascists'R'Us.

Remember when Elon said he'd gladly solve world hunger if someone gave him a plan to do so?
- and then someone did, and he didn't
Even if I was using that money entirely selfishly I could come up with so many better things to do.
- Frankly, setting it on fire would be a better use.
It breaks my heart to think about that.
- This is just an example of what America does every second of every day. Valuing money more than people.
Why do you think Vance is the VP pick? He is Peter Thiel’s bitch, who is Elon’s bitch. They are not even trying to hide it anymore.

That's the issue, Musk and all think they are the resistance. That's why they say "take back America". From the elites, ignoring that they are the rich elites.

Perpetual victim mentality.
Wait is this why we don't have rich people building giant monuments and libraries and art galleries with their names prominently on them anymore? Because they actually think they're the underclass??
Because seriously some of the most fire art galleries I've been to are the ones that are paid for by the worst fucking exploitative billionaires you'll ever read about. Shout out to the Guggenheim, btw
- I mean damn if Rockefeller plaza isn't nice.
  But for sure everyone feels like the victim all the time now regardless of how well off you are. Maybe we are growing immune to shame? I dunno but I miss people like Hershey building a free theater and a nice garden because his employees would strike.
- Pretty much, they wanna be the goodies instead of the baddies, but they don't wanna change anything, so they'll just be the baddies while pretending otherwise
That’s the issue, Musk and all think they are the resistance.
Pretty sure Stephanie was saying the people still using Twitter love to think they'd join the resistance, but won't even stop using Twitter. Not that Elon thinks he's the resistance.
- Yes. And what I'm saying is that Elon and the people still using Twitter think they are the resistance. I'm saying they won't leave Twitter because they think they are the resistance.
Populism 101

Elon made most of his money through companies that heavily rely on government subsidy. He is now funneling this money to someone who will control government contracts. Do not mistake the US for a democracy. It is an oligarchy.

Always has been a country founded by slave owners. The "American dream" is just the carrot to dangle in front of people. "If you work hard, you will make it".
- It did used to be true. Sort of. Upper middle class used to be attainable

Any Lemmy instances block links to X? I'd like to see less of it on here. It's just truth social with deeper pockets.

Damn that would be so cool
A good solution is to take screenshots so it only counts as one visit instead of everybody viewing the post driving traffic to Twitter.
Or better yet, Mastodon / federated microblogging platforms.
Connect on Android has a few very cool features like keyword/community/domain blocklist!
- Thanks! Already use connect and haven't tried this. I'd prefer it on the instance side for greater impact, but this is nice. I already use it to block instances and communities but didn't realize it could filter links.

One thing I've learned is that "committed to donate" does not equal "has actually transferred and paid the actual money"

So it's just a headline to try and drum up other donations until the receipts are made.

This is a good point. Musk, like Trump, is well known for making huge promises that amount to nothing. He wouldn't even own Twitter if a court hadn't forced him to make good on his promise to buy it.
Maybe it'll be like the Twitter bid and we'll see a lawsuit in which everyone loses.

That's 45 people a month that wouldn't have to ever work again in their entire lives and maybe even their kids if they invest it smartly. Or ya know, lift hundreds of families from poverty each month. Instead it shall go into Trump's crime empire, money go BRRRR.

Keep on scrolling

Thank goodness for Twitter, he lost $1.7 billion per month in the first year (including valuation) so now he has less to spend on Trump.

I deleted my Twitter account the day he bought it. Haven't used it a single time since.

Never used it besides random thot media posts I wanted to check out. Everything else has been rehosted.
Facebook was the longest to quit just like most people say. It's the only way I communicate with my nan, or marketplace, or etc. Even that for me was... 6 years ago now?
They know they could get around it in reality. We all lie to ourselves in different ways and accept certain things while ignoring others. It's how humans survive, but let's not lie to ourselves at least lol. The raindrop thinks it caused the flood and all that.
Samesies.

Since this was posted on Mastodon: OP, consider to post this on

!best_of_mastodon@sh.itjust.works

too, if you like.

Btw, cool that Stephen King joined the Fediverse. I didn’t know that.

Might wanna reread that name
- Wow I didn't know Stephen King transed their gender
- Dammit!!! 😂
https://sh.itjust.works/post/21984634
- This is exactly what I was afraid of.
If you were a fan of that community they'll reopen it if you're willing to moderate*

He couldn't even end world hunger.

Imagine how many people could be debt free with a fraction of that...

Weeelllll, priorities may be just a bit different when living in a territory annexed by the literal Nazis. Not using Twitter doesn't really just have the same urgency as the Gestapo rounding up your neighbors.

Not that I'd be caught dead using Twitter, especially now that that reich-wing manbaby and waste of perfectly good carbon Musk owns it. I created an account ~15 years ago because I had to test the Twitter integration of a thingamajig at work, but I never used it for anything else. I did read some Twitter stuff in the early days of the Ukraine invasion via one of the frontends, but so much of it was garbage that I stopped bothering after a while

You really don't want to be using the social media that's effectively run by the same people as the gestapo. It's super likely to be controlled at this point, and thus not effective for activism or otherwise underground action/defense in a fascistic country
You want to be on a more uncontrolled internet place, where communication can be more effective. Communication and coordination is vital

Even if they did leave, SpaceX/Starlink and Tesla are dumping money onto him. He'd still have plenty of money to throw at the guy with the least progressive tax plan.

He could have less, though.
- This. This i like.
- I don’t see how. Worst case, he just owes the loans instead of also paying salaries.
Don't buy a Tesla, don't use Starlink, checkmate Musk!
- You sonuva bitch. I’m in.
He doesn't make money on Twitter. He loses money. Twitter is only valuable for the users it has, and that's not monetary.
- So if people leave, he loses even more money.
- That is to what I was alluding.

Ah, now I understand all the layoffs.

I deleted my old account when he rebranded it to ecks.

I prefer Xitter 💩

Elon wondering how much he gotta pay to get Trump back on Twitter, and so far, that’s not enough.

Good thing Tesla's board gave him those billions

when you cancel your Disney+ subscription to switch to Trump+

https://video.canadiancivil.com/w/u3g4529zGuTmKTZW5ENPqT

Eh, it's really the only big social media that leans right .

“leans”
What about Facebook or LinkedIn?
- Both Meta and LinkedIn are:
  ✅ big
  ✅ "leans" right
  Math checks out, boss
- I'm guessing they meant "right" in the US view, which means two drinks away from executing the lesser races. In that mindset Facebook and LinkedIn would be center (and communist in the rare occurrences where they ban someone for being racist)
I find Facebook to as well.

The problem with this kind of talk is that it refuses to acknowledge how much of X's traffic - all the social media traffic - comes from outside the US now, from non-English speaking countries who don't care about your bullshit, so long as the platform keeps working for them. Americans are having a very hard time with that.

So you shake your finger at the people whose language you speak, but it doesn't matter if all of them decide you're right and drop the platform. There will still be millions of users. Your shaming act is not appropriate.

Even ignoring that, a lot of these people have no business model without X, specifically. I've heard tons of them moan about not finding another platform like it. You need both reach and the ability to post furry wolf cock drawings without consequence. These parasites would all have to drop their bullshit and go get punchclock jobs if they didn't have X, they would have to give up their parasocial position over others without it, which means no amount of your liberal white woman shaming is ever going to be enough.

The really ugly truth is that all the normal-ass people who don't make their money online have abandoned X already, all that's left is this huge army of grifters and whoever is still there for the porn. It makes me mad, because I deliberately left the site before Elon even breathed a word about buying it, but it follows you everywhere like a disease wanting a host.

All these pricks went to Mastodon and brought their Twitter shit with them. They even bullied somebody into giving them an algorithmic feed. Now Mastodon is shit, too, and this woman is part of the problem. Shut up. Stop farming attention and leave an inch of space for the people who don't want to be part of your personal business model. Fuck you, as well, lady. Fuck all you parasocials.

Why vote when faced with such enemies, right? Why donate to a political cause when somebody with more money is donating to another one? Why do anything in life when somebody is doing more or doing it better?

What a title

Why open your eyes to the reality that the system they built for themselves never has and never will serve you, but only the already rich and powerful, and that maybe its time to look outside of it for solutions, when you can be super fucking obtuse???
- Well yeah, do that, put you still need to vote.
- No. I'd rather whine about my impotence online while contributing to the system and do fuck all about the situation. Because why do anything outside of the system? It's a drop in the ocean. I'm just an ant among millions. Nothing I do inside or outside the system will amount to anything.