If the Twitter/X thing teaches you one thing, let it be this: Twitter was a neoliberal place. Then Elon Musk made it into X, a fascist place. Once again, neoliberalism laid the foundations of fascism. But that’s not the (whole) lesson… Neoliberal folks are still using X, calling it Twitter to make themselves feel better, and pining for the good old days. And there’s the real lesson: When neoliberalism turns into fascism, neoliberals will adapt to life under fascism. Right, class dismissed.

source

(We really need a better way to crosspost from mastodon…)

  • the post of tom joadEnglish
    16•8 months ago

    i think youre misunderstanding the point they’re trying to make, but then again they’re not expressly clear who they’re talking about either and “neoliberal” is a term that means different things based on how we’ve been using it etc etc.

    If the Twitter/X thing teaches you one thing, let it be this: Twitter was a neoliberal place. Then Elon Musk made it into X, a fascist place. Once again, neoliberalism laid the foundations of fascism.

    I suggest they’re referring to the ownership of Twitter, not twitters users here. Twitter was owned by neolibs (they assert) and sold to Elon. They’re saying Elon is making X more fascist, not speaking about the userbase.

    Neoliberal folks are still using X, calling it Twitter to make themselves feel better, and pining for the good old days.

    And there’s the real lesson: When neoliberalism turns into fascism, neoliberals will adapt to life under fascism. Right, class dismissed.

    Now he’s moved to the userbase, which is confusing and muddles things up a bit. but his point here is the neolibs are the ones who stayed on X even after fascist users started coming in due to a fascist ownership. They complain, but they get by, because (and this may now just be my projecting my own thoughts) neoliberals have 0 morals and 0 insight.

    You said you aren’t there anymore. I think this means you’re exempt.

    Anyway that’s what i got from it

    • @glimseEnglish
      9•8 months ago

      I stopped being active on Twitter long before the sale for unrelated reasons but I’ve popped on from time to time because I still have friends on there who don’t use other platforms.

      I take issue with the “everyone who stays is complicit” argument in the same way I have issues with the “everyone in Alabama is a racist magat” because it completely ignores why people actually stay - community and connections.

      Unless you can convince your entire circle to switch to a different platform all at once, the move is painful. I get it.

      • LukeEnglish
        0•8 months ago

        Those aren’t comparable situations IMO.

        People can’t just pack up and leave because they disagree with their neighbors in real life, that takes money which not many people have a surplus of, especially in Alabama. That’s not a choice.

        Using Twitter is completely different, it costs nothing financially to stop going go a website. Your point about the social aspect and need for community is not wrong, but also if one values their social connections with fascists and fascist-enablers… well… I think you see where I’m going with that. That is a choice.