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Journalist Maria Ressa named Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk in speech at Hay literary festival in Powys
“Tech bros” such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are “the largest dictators”, Maria Ressa, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2021 for her defence of media freedom, has said.
The American-Filipina journalist has spent a number of years fighting charges filed during then president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, but said Duterte “is a far smaller dictator compared to Mark Zuckerberg, and now let me throw in Elon Musk”.
Speaking at the Hay literary festival in Powys, Ressa said Zuckerberg and Musk have “proven that we all, regardless of culture, language, or geography, have far more in common than we have differences because we’re all being manipulated the same way”.
Social media platforms have the ability to “change the way we feel”, she said, which in turn “changes the way we see the world and changes the way we act”.
Ressa said conversations about identity politics online have caused similar instances of polarisation across the world. These debates encourage “the kinds of questions that we think are our free will” – but they are not, Ressa said.
At the time of Watergate there about fifty major media companies in the USA. The law limited the number of TV and radio stations any one group could own. Today there are six big players who control news and information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership
Similar deal in Australia, the media diversity laws were axed by the conservative government and we’ve been seeing the consequences since.
Isn’t “deregulation” wonderful?
And all six have Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street on their boards. They’re the same investment companies that sit on the boards of nearly all major US corporations, due to the investments they make with our retirement accounts.
You guys have retirement accounts?
Civil service still provides pensions.
Since Reagan started taxing Social Security, 401k and IRA became the most common. Most businesses offer some degree of matching contributions to a 401k, so that’s free money. IRA offers a higher return, so there’s an annual contribution limit to prevent exploitation. Both are tax deferred. Roth IRA is ideal, with a tax free withdrawal after retirement, but also has the lowest annual contribution limit. It’s best to start one as early as possible, and maximize annual contributions.