8mo ago

First came the bots, then came the bosses - we’re entering Musk and Zuck’s new era of disinformation

www.theguardian.com

First came the bots, then came the bosses - we’re entering Musk and Zuck’s new era of disinformation | Joan Donovan

News @lemmy.world

HellsBelle @sh.itjust.works

8mo ago

First came the bots, then came the bosses - we’re entering Musk and Zuck’s new era of disinformation | Joan Donovan

www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/2024/nov/12/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-disinformation

19 comments

Seriously, all this crazyness with the US election has given me newfound sympathy for the people of Russia.
Americans literally have every respectable news source available to them, and they still get brainwashed by these buffoons because they only get their news from facebook, tiktok, fox news, and shit. They choose to be ignorant.
The Russian people at least have the excuse that they're literally living under a dictator and are fed bullshit everywhere they look. They have to actively and at the risk of their security seek out valid sources for what's actually happening.
Imagine if every news channel in the US was just Fox News. I guess we might not have to imagine it for much longer...
- Americans literally have every respectable news source available to them, and they still get brainwashed by these buffoons
  The "respectable news sources" have been fully co-opted by buffoons for decades.
  The NYT lied us into Iraq while fearmomgering against Mexico. The WSJ gulled us into the Housing Crisis and Crypto scams. The WaPo praised Victor Orban and Ahmed Chalabi and Bong Bong Marcos long past their obvious expiration dates. The Economist cheered on everyone from Francisco Franco to Javier Milei.
  And now that Trump is once again in the driver's seat, the mass media response is to simultaneously downplay the coming horror and denounce LGBT and Latinos for his win.
  Imagine if every news channel in the US was just Fox News
  Compare FOX News in 1996 to MSNBC in in 2024. Rachael Maddow of yesteryear would be fucking horrified at what she's saying today.
  
  And the smaller press were bought out or folded, because apparently people don’t read their news on paper anymore, which is sad.
  That’s ok though because people can directly tweet live happenings… oh wait
  So anyway, the large social medias are crippled one way or another; and there are few paid journalists outside the influence of the top 10 news corps in the USA
  It’s a bad time to have an information blackout, or one controlled by a very few
  
  The “respectable news sources” have been fully co-opted by buffoons for decades.
  Yep. It's probably not as cartoonishly ridiculous as things might be under Putin, but given the capitalist framing all of them are in, they don't have to be that ridiculous.
  It all goes back to Chomsky - set up an extremely narrow range of permitted opinions, and "allow" vigorous debate, only in that range and marginalize anything outside that range. Rinse, repeat.
Well hopefully these two fine old gents will remain happy and healthy to a ripe old age. I certainly hope nothing terrible and swift befalls them. Yep.
How do you think Trump won, why did he didn't get committed for his crimes and how he got his following? We are already in the age of disinformation and the fact this article claims its just begging shows how bad it actually is.
Entering?
- 5 years from now 10 million civilians have been executed by the MAGA death squads.
  MSM: "we might be close to entering a time where mass murder could happen at some point in the distant future"
The funny thing about their silly little agenda is that it just straight up doesn't work if we all ignore them, which begs the question WHY THE FUCK IS ANYBODY GIVING THESE GREEDY CUNTS THE LIGHT OF DAY!? Stop using their shitty platforms, stop talking about them like they are special, stop giving them a pedestal to stand on. Let them shrivel and die in agonizing anonymity like the narcistic parasites that they are.
- I completely agree. Just look at the frontpage of Lemmy and the "big" social media instances, they are dominated by things we hate. Yet we are forced to endlessly discuss and react to the stream of BS instead of taking action.
  
  And what action do you suggest?
I thought I was being paranoid but this might've started at my company. Every now and then my company has these team meetings that talk about our orgs purpose and mission. That's pretty par the course for my company since it's military centric and we're supposed to have a connection to our customer base. The most recent meeting, a couple weeks after the election, just felt off. It had almost nothing to do with our business and seemed like it was just hero worship and idolizing military life. It would've fit much better in a high school recruitment session.
- Exactly what started at your company?
  Bots? Billionaires manipulating social media?
  
  I think they mean like, a certain attitude/work culture has begun to rapidly form, not the title stuffs

19 comments