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…)

  • @AFaithfulNihilistEnglish
    -2•8 months ago

    Yes, Jon Stewart is a neo-liberal. I didn’t really think that was seriously disputed.

    Anything approaching a socialist network was dismantled long ago. There is no left-wing establishment. They were priced out of existence intentionally and then targeted by brutal crackdowns, hostile regulation, buyouts and in some cases straight up outlawed.

    • @glimseEnglish
      4•8 months ago

      I’m sorry but I’m not sure I understand how Jon Stewart and socialist networks relate to what I said.

      I’m saying that if your only option for a network is neoliberal and you have a (socialist) message you want to get out, using that network to do it does not make your a neoliberal.

      • @AFaithfulNihilistEnglish
        2•8 months ago

        If you have a socialist message that network is not going to let you get it out unless it thinks it’s going to be able to sell commercials alongside it.

        If at any point in time that network thinks that something you’re going to say is going to undermine its neoliberal position it will censor you and it has proven that time and time again.

        Your mistake is thinking that you get to use the network to do your message when in reality the network is going to use you to get its revenue.

        If one of the owner bros decides to give you a platform it’s because they are making money on it. Just like neoliberals give platforms to fascists. Neoliberals don’t really care about the ideology as long as it doesn’t threaten their revenue.

        • @glimseEnglish
          2•8 months ago

          … And? If they sell ads, does that make you a neoliberal?

          The analogy falls apart here because socialist message were not censored on Twitter.

          • @AFaithfulNihilistEnglish
            0•8 months ago

            It’s hard to think that you’re being serious with this kind of reasoning.

            You’re drawing some pretty spurious conclusions from what I’m saying.

            They don’t have to censor every socialist message just the ones they think will undermine their position.

            • @glimseEnglish
              1•8 months ago

              It’s not a great analogy to compare tweets to television in the first place but I’m still not sure of a few things:

              • Why bring up Jon Stewart and his political views?

              • Why do you think I’m assuming you meant all socialist messages were censored?

              • What kind of messages do you think were getting censored on Twitter?

              • How does posting pro-socialist sentiments on a neoliberal website make you a neoliberal?