By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, 350 South Madison Avenue, Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, United States. With droning airplane.
Patient readers, I am in the process of wrestling the latest HICPAC meeting into submission; disappointingly but unsurprisingly, they plan to stick with their baggy blues. So this is an open thread. However, let me describe my recent experience with social media–
On Twitter (“X”), I forgot the cardinal rule that the moderators (or the moderating algorithms) don’t understand hyperbole, especially when it involves violent rhetoric, and got banned until I removed the offending, hyperbolic post. When I went to do that, I got caught up in an endless captcha look — VPN? Cookies? — and got really banned for trying the captcha too many times (appearing to Twitter’s version of Skynet, no doubt, like a bot).
So I thought I would try BlueSky (as opposed to Threads, which is The Zuckerberg™, ick, no). As readers may know, there’s a good deal of triumphalism from liberal Democrats about leaving Twitter and moving to BlueSky, which they hope will cause Twitter’s demise (a little premature, given that BlueSky’s global user base is — to the extent the numbers are any good at all — 20 million, while Twitter’s is 611 million).
So I created a Blue Sky account, whereupon BlueSky presented me with a timeline, and asked me to “like” seven posts, to train their algorithm (there is indeed a second timeline for posts only from accounts I followed, but I hadn’t followed any yet).
The first poster for me to like, at the top of the timeline: AOC.
I scroll down a little: Taylor Swift.
Oh.
BlueSky, eh?
Anyhow, I went through the process, and actually found some accounts I could follow (e.g., Trisha Greenhalgh), so I wasn’t off social media entirely. (I also have a Mastodon account, but at least on the reader I use, the threading is just impossible, so it’s hard to use.)
In a week, Twitter decided my captcha count was below the bot threshold, and so I logged in, and, chastened, removed the offending post.
And I must say, I’m glad to be back; I have some quiet little neighborhoods on Twitter I couldn’t rebuild anywhere else. Moreover, if you’re a professional doomscroller, as I suppose I am, Twitter is the far superior platform (not that platforms are good, they’re bad). Twitter is a firehose; BlueSky is a garden hose. The “hellsite,” as its users fondly call it, is like a world city, like Manhattan; BlueSky is like a provincial town (and I don’t mean like an “under-rated destination”). Even if Twitter is owned and run by a ranting thirteen-year-old tech boy billionaire hopped up on whatever it is he’s hopped up on. Of course, if you want your mellow unharshed, BlueSky is the place to be.
Adding, when BlueSky numbers level off, as they will, we will have a good-ish proxy for the actual size of the TDS-afflicted population; a million so far. An interesting result! (I predict that, once again, the PMC will find that they simply lack the class power to achieve their political goals.)
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Israel’s song, to the tune of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know”. (Best appreciated if you first listen to the original song, linked below, because 1) It’s a great song! – 1996 Grammy winner, 2) It helps to know the original lyrics, the meter, and the staccato cadence)
YOU OUGHTA GO
We want you to know
This isn’t personal
We sure wish you well
Because in fact you’re….
…An older version of us
Sorry to kick up a fuss
But we’ve come down on you in War Theater.
We’re sure you’ll find a new home
Maybe in London or Rome
We’ll recommend a really excellent Realtor
Cuz the land
Where you’ve lived
Wasn’t yours
It was giv-
-en to us
By the God
That we heard
In our heads
In a burning bush.
And every time
We call His name
Don’t you know
That He tells us
Again and again
That it’s time to push
It’s time to push
Cuz you’re still around!
And we’re here
To remind you
Even though
Long ago
That we went away
The Nakba
Was a kinder
Event than what’s next
If you try to stay
You
You
You
Oughta go.
You had a good run
For many years
We had some problems
We thought you should know.
Did you forget about us?
There isn’t much to discuss.
Sorry we came in the middle of dinner.
Germany wasn’t too kind
A new home we’d look to find
And your home really looked like a winner.
Cuz the land
Where you’ve lived
Wasn’t yours
It was giv-
-en to us
By the God
That we heard
In our heads
In a burning bush.
And every time
We call His name
Don’t you know
That He tells us
Again and again
That it’s time to push
It’s time to push
Cuz you’re still around!
And we’re here
To remind you
Even though
Long ago
That we went away
The Nakba
Was a kinder
Event than what’s next
If you try to stay
You
You
You
Oughta go.
Cuz the joke
Hitler spoke
Wasn’t cool
It was cruel
And we longed
For a state
Just for us
Anywhere.
We got invitations.
But every time,
We scratched our heads
‘Bout offers that we had
We thought, “Let’s force our way in.
“To your Palestine.”
So we’re here
To remind you
Even though
Long ago
That we went away
The Nakba
Was a kinder
Event than what’s next
If you try to stay
You
You
You
Oughta go.
We’re here
To remind you
Even though
Long ago
That we went away
The Nakba
Was a kinder
Event than what’s next
If you try to stay
You
You
You
Oughta go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPcyTyilmYY
Blue Pill, Red Pill, or Jagged Little Pill?
Good choice.
My favorite:
Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know (Live at David Letterman, 8/17/1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS3oLs1JF50
With a young Taylor Hawkins on drums.
Great clip! I pulled this from the comments:
“I was in the audience for this. We had no idea who Alanis Morissette was (I don’t think anyone did at this point), and I remember being terrified by the intensity on stage. It was loud, angry, and passionate as can be, and watching this now, I realize I witnessed an epic musical performance. This is awesome, and I wish I had been able to appreciate it at the time, but I’m not sure Alanis wanted it that way. I think she wanted to scare us. She did.”
Same as happened to me but until now I’d assumed the broken captcha page was due to my legacy browser. No VPN here. Quite honestly, you have to wonder if this isn’t a form of soft banning which Twitter had a history of. Not as sure about X but I’m also not sure Musk is as in charge as he’d like to be.
This bit is hilarious:
“So I created a Blue Sky account, whereupon BlueSky presented me with a timeline, and asked me to “like” seven posts, to train their algorithm (there is indeed a second timeline for posts only from accounts I followed, but I hadn’t followed any yet).”
Bluesky is already at its inception messing with any real data stats. Too funny. But sure, I’d trust them. / ;)
Shorter: we only feed people what they tell us they want to see, no critical thinking required. (The poor dears.) / ;)
Tried the challenge again for old times sake and got in!
Can’t post, can’t message, can’t change settings but I’m free to read anything anyone else tweets on that most perfect of all perfect platforms.
Still have no clue why I was suspended.
It could be buggy code. I notice what works and doesn’t – including which browsers it will run on – changes frequently. They laid off a lot of their engineer staff so things may be a bit shaky behind the scenes. I have to go through eight clicks to change the display to ‘default’ every time I log in.
A lady in my church just emailed to say she couldn’t do the homeless shelter task she had promised because she had learned her brother had just died unexpectedly. He was in his 60s and had very recently had a bad case of covid. I know hope springs eternal but covid is not over.
Speaking of The Swift, I just browsed the magazine section at Barnes & Noble and counted at least 25 periodicals featuring that esteemed personage on the cover. I wonder what the articles can find to say about her/it.
> Twitter is a firehose; BlueSky is a garden hose.
BlueSky is Paul George; Twitter is Kawhi.
(TikT alternate.)
I think X is a great site to read if you find good accounts to follow and ignore the “For You” tab. I do sample that too when the mood strikes, for the occasional nugget that appears.
People who flee X calling it too toxic would benefit, in my opinion, by sampling journalism from the early days of the country. From the time when Jefferson said that given a choice, he’d rather have newspapers with no government than government with no newspapers.
They don’t want to benefit, they want to live in a bubble. My PMC friends have been talking about this for about a week now. They told me “the Trumpers have their echo chamber like Fox News, Newsmax, Twitter, Parlor, why can’t we have one too.”
It seems what they really want is to hide. They hate Musk about as much as they hate Trump. The ones I know think Musk will use Twitter to find them so they can become targets for Trump and his army. They think they are in danger and might be arrested or killed. One said he has already contacted attorneys because he’s afraid they are coming after him due to what he said about Trump’s NIH pick on Twitter.
I know that sounds nuts, but that’s what they believe. This is all Project 2025 stuff that has been pounded into their heads to scare the living shit out of them by various so-called news people and DC democrats who they love and worship.
If you run into one, don’t try to talk to them. They are an unhappy and sour bunch who are not pleasant to anyone not under their umbrella. I told them they were doing the digital equivalent of stuffing their heads up their behind which isn’t the best way to find the truth. I was admonished, and I’m being kind when I use that word. I won’t attempt to talk to them again.
Adding: these are the same people who believe Jan 6 was a coup against the United States, they really were going to hang Pence, the vaccines were/are sterilizing, Russia/Putin is controlling Trump and half the GOP, Dr. Fauci has done more for humanity than any other human being, Rachel Maddow is a top-notch journalist, and Adam Schiff would be a great president, even though they would prefer Michelle Obama.
Isn’t it amazing Screwball?
I’m assuming your some kind-of progressive, perhaps even a liberal of sorts, or a leftist… something. Yet despite being on paper mostly matching policies with our fellow ‘loving’ liberals, were probably considered deplorable degenerates in their eyes. So they happily burn their bridges.
The PMC culture will kill the Democratic party and I’m not sure if they can course correct in time. That reputation of being elitist is sticking and not going away. Once enough of the middle, working class bleeds out of the party, they are finished.
“ the PMC will find that they simply lack the class power to achieve their political goals…”
What would those “goals” be, again?
Looks to me that, other than the own goal of Ex-Harris and both houses of Congress, the PMC still serves the ruling elite, happily bolsters genocide and the MICIMAC, and sends its scions off to the Ivy League for a nice turd polishing. And wealth continues to flow, faster, upward and inward.
Re intro–all Greek to me. NC–a classy crew–the preferred social medium around here. And of course there’s always RL.
Latest ShoeOnHead- Downfall of The Democrats | The Truth About The 2024 Election (37:04): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkUkEvf7Ma4