A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.
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After Watergate Americans learned that a free press could bring down a tyrannical government. So the Right got to work destroying the free press.
Reagan went after the Fairness Doctrine and made it easier for one company to own all the TV and radio stations in a town. The new tech helped destroy the local newspapers.
The more I learn, the more I learn Republicans have been hurting America for decades
Around 55 years, when the southern strategy was enacted to solidify racist support for Republicans.
Before that the parties were more mixed and it was the confederates and robber barons doing the damage. Before that it was the slave owners. And before that it was the colonizers. Before that it was probably whichever tribe had the best growing season or pointiest flint arrowheads.
I’m starting to second guess what the point of progress really is. Are we trying to ride humanity out until the heat death of the universe? Or just the next billion years before the sun boils our oceans away? Another 2000 years so today’s assholes can become deities? 52 more years the the US Tricentennial?
The lethargic, stagnant, apathetic, merciless, ignorant, xenophobic state of humanity in the sci-fi Lord of the Rings fan fiction called Warhammer 40,000 is getting increasingly more prophetic.
Try at least a century. Go listen to some of FDR's campaign speeches, many of them are as relevant today as when they were given.
And after the Panama Papers, they got to work with Khashoggi. After Epstein, they got to work with Twitter
Billionaires should not exist
I would also support a wealth cap at eg. $10M, or a rule to a similar effect
I'd like to see a soft cap implemented that's tied to the nation's average income (I think median would be the most fair, but it's very possible I'm wrong). So for instance, the real median income in 2023 was about 80k according to census.gov. Let's say we cap total wealth at 500x that median which = 40 million, after which taxes make it increasingly difficult to accumulate wealth, and have a yearly earnings soft cap of 100x = 8 million with similar restrictions.
I think that would drastically reduce inequality while still preserving different economic classes, which I think are critical to motivating people into difficult, high-value jobs like engineers and surgeons. Stacking up 500 years worth of income would let the rich stay wealthy, and a soft cap would discourage hoarding and encourage spending which stimulates the economy and spreads money around. If the wealthy wanted to be able to earn more per year or raise the soft cap they'd have to arrange for the average income to go up. Moreover, I that increases across many people at the bottom would move the median more than a few large increases at the top, which would encourage a higher "floor" for earnings.
40 million is about 20 lifetimes.
The thing about lifetimes is you don't need more than one. And surgeons/engineers aren't making 40 million. You certainly don't need that much money to motivate a professional class. Even if money was such a motivator.
There's no reason for anyone to have more than a few million dollars at their command.
And surgeons/engineers aren’t making 40 million.
That's true. I'm just ballparking numbers and gave surgeons/engineers as an example of what I consider difficult, valuable jobs (as far as education etc.). I don't think they are the top paid individuals in America by a long shot.
40 million is about 20 lifetimes.
I think a person living with the best society has to offer (big house, multiple cars, a yacht, luxury trips, personal chef, etc) + setting up their kids to succeed (e.g. buying them a house) could spend 40 million in their lifetime . Obviously those aren't necessities, but IMO enjoying the best society can offer is the hallmark of being in the top tier of a system with economic classes. It's definitely just a ballpark, but I think the purchasing power of 40 million in 2024 dollars is a sustainable cap on wealth that would be immensely better for wealth inequality while still allowing the very successful to enjoy the best in life.
I don't disagree a whole lot with what you said, but I think perhaps you are placing caps based on a middle-class life lived according to necessities + some luxuries like yearly vacations. Honest question, not putting words in your mouth I promise - are you expecting absolutely everyone to live a middle-class lifestyle (which I think makes caps on wealth a much harder sell)?
Good luck getting the politicians in the billionaires' pockets onboard.
"Should not" is immediately countered with "Is, and what are you going to do about it?"
And so far, the answer is nothing.
By being here we are already fighting it.
Lemmy has a total userbase of around 60k, unless it's grown since 2 months ago. Even if every single Lemmy user donated $10,000 each to a cause fighting elon musk, their efforts would STILL be less than a rounding error in comparison to his money.
And twitter userbase vs lemmy userbase is equally laughable.
We're here because WE don't approve of corporate bullshit. But make no mistake. Lemmy, nor we, are any threat to stopping musk. Just like Gen X was never a threat to Rupert Murdock in the 90s.
It may piss you off, but thats the reality. 40 years from now, musk will still hold more power than you ever will. He'll continue to make more money in a second than you'll make in a lifetime.
And I'm not defending him. I'm just stating facts. The people will not do anything to stop him. It would take a coordinated effort, from basically every person on the planet to take him down at this point......and that's not happening.
The people will not do anything to stop him.
Sure seems that way.
Countering with money isn't possible. People need to be mad(der). Barely withholding (or not) violence mad. In the streets mad. Revolution mad.
Had the chance to avoid the violence part before electing someone who flat out said he'd use the military against its own.
Youre only pointing out that not enough people are fighting back, but being here is fighting against billionaire control of social media.
He also controls Starlink, which apparently many new poling places had installed for this election.
We need a nationwide recount. Too many enemies of America have had access to our voting machines.
There should be a petition to vote for banning Twitter in the EU. It's time we take a step against US Oligarchs and their election interference
This is not the world government Star Trek promised me.
This is not what you want to hear, but even in Star Trek Earth had to go through a third world war, and in the devastation it was really the Vulcans who had to step in and basically played nanny for a generation after they were like "oh fuck no those rednecks have a warp drive?"
We will get there I promise. Unfortunately it's going to be painful though. The wheat still has the be separated from the chaff. As a species our old habits need to die. Elon represents those old habits of everything bad in humanity.
Summary of what may have happened: Trump is a Russian asset working for Putin (see American Kompromat by journalist Craig Unger or Active Measures documentary with Hillary Clinton). Trump stole election software in 2020 (sources below).
Starlink, Elon's satellite company was installed in voting machines across the country and may have interfered with vote tabulation. In September, Politco had an investigation finding Russian malware on a state voter registration database. Also, there were malicious fake texts and fake DNC organizations likely fishing voter info connected to Elon who is connected to Russia. Elon and Trump are working together. Elon had results of election on an app 4 hours before official counts had it.
They will release more info admitting their fraud because they are a Russian asset trying to start a civil war here. This is speculation but he has refused to write an ethics statement for transition of power saying he will transition peacefully. JD Vance has also told the EU that unless they allow X unfettered access to the EU (to spread propaganda), they will withdraw the US from NATO- which will prompt wars or takeover either way and weakens Germany, who is entering an election since their government couldn't agree on Ukraine budget.
Also speculation, but please do your own citizen journalism, are reports of widespread ballot rejection, especially for signatures. There are articles claiming already that it is because GenZ does not know cursive - except the signature simply must match your driver's license. It's not a cursive writing test. Avocado toast but with gen z voting fraud. We do not yet have the ballot rejection rates but typically they are around 1% to 1.5%.
https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-voters-struggle-signatures-cast-mail-ballot-problems-2024-11
Crypto is how right wing conservatism got funded here. It's why it took off- it was basically UBI for those men, funded by foreign intelligence for this purpose along with other uses for crypto like dark money, drugs, trafficking, etc. The least informed people we knew were investing in crypto when it was starting, mining bitcoins, couldn't tell you what a stock is yet making bank in crypto trading. Crypto trading, especially memecoins, appears to be an obvious scam to most because it's the stock market without ownership. So why were these 4chan pedophiles and nazis doing so well? Because it was just meant to give them money the whole time. And crypto is great for transferring money internationally from shady organizations to shady people.
The formula is using memecoins which are named with far right catchphrases to give money to far right extremist groups to fund them. The entire meme propaganda campaign, memes, and memecoin names are coordinated so the nazis are attracted to memecoins meant for them but outsiders won't know which are real. Once the government is taken over, they can force their memecoin as the national currency and then rug pull, which is also what Musk is likely going to do to Tesla at the same time into maybe DOGE. The entire point is to bankrupt America for Putin and his cartoon villain cohorts.
"Musk's fear over the U.S.'s spiraling $35 trillion debt pile comes as the bitcoin price has surged—outpaced by the price of the meme-based bitcoin rival dogecoin that's boomed thanks to Musk's backing of the Department Of Government Efficiency, nicknamed Doge."
He doesn't have fear about the debt that Trump added on. He's trying to attack us financially and will use this to justify collapsing Tesla stock.
If you're in Germany, take note. They are coming for you next, your election is soon.
News Links
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/03/trump-infiltrate-voting-machines-georgia-2020.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/ncna1112436
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/01/us-election-software-national-security-threats-00176615
Personal Testimony from the Colluders
https://grabien.com/story.php?id=499986
Joe Rogan says Elon had data for election results on his phone 4 hours before official counts
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-state-tv-airs-melania-trumps-nudes-primetime-1982683
" [Melania, naked] lying on a blue carpet with the U.S. seal, as though the editors of lthe men’s magazine knew something in advance about the future of their model."
They are just confirming she’s their asset.
youtube.com/live/HBPNfAUPz08?si=PZQa_D_wbN9VoA6y
In the first minute:
"Your votes are rigged. We can win New Mexico."
"Too Big to Rig"
"If you can watch your vote counter, if we can bring God down from heaven (he's referencing Starlink), we can win this, win California, win a lot of states."
“If [Trump] loses, I’m f*cked… How long do you think my prison sentence is going to be?”
Why does Elon think he would go to prison though? For what crime?
youtu.be/Zmc0EN8XAY8?si=5u_mJNte37r4JmUb
Trump:"Our little secret is having a big impact"
If Trump was so sure the election was rigged and they were going to turnover every state including California, then why hasn't he asked for a recount in all the states with representatives that didn't get elected that he thought would be? Shouldn't he be suing for recounts? He did it last time. Why doesn't he want an investigation this time?
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-victory-speech-full-transcript-1981234
"we are now winning in Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Alaska, which would result in us carrying at least 315 electoral votes. But that, but it's much easier doing what the networks did or whoever called it, because there was no other path. There was no other path to victory. We also have won the popular vote, that was great"
"the number of victories in the Senate was absolutely incredible and we did tele-rallies, we did tele-rallies with each one of them, and sometimes we did two or three for, and it was amazing to look at all of those victories. Nobody expected that. Nobody."
"And I want to thank Mike Johnson, I think he's doing a terrific job. Terrific job.." (Mike Johnson is who he said he has a little secret with and is Speaker of the house, and the house will decide, if Trump is found to have committed election fraud, if he should still be president).
"Oh, let me tell you, we have a new star. A star is born, Elon. No, he is. Now he's an amazing guy. We were sitting together tonight. You know, he spent two weeks in Philadelphia and different parts of Pennsylvania campaigning. You know, he sent the rocket up two weeks ago and I saw that rocket and I saw it coming down. I saw it. It was when it left. It was beautiful, shiny white. When it came down, it didn't look so pretty. It was going 10,000 miles an hour and it was burning like hell. I said, 'What happened to your paint job?' He said, 'We've never made a paint that could withstand that kind of heat.' And, but I saw it come down and turn around. And it was, you know, it's like 22 stories still, by the way, it looks a little smaller than that, but it's big. And it came down and down and you saw that fire burning and. And I'm saying only Elon could do this. It must be an Elon." (he means Elon stole the election with Starlink and he loves them now)
"And you know, when we had the tragic Hurricane Helene. And it hit it, particularly it hit North Carolina. They were really devastated. The water. This was big water. As big as we've ever seen, water hurricane. It built lakes out of nothing, fields became lakes. And the danger was unbelievable. And the people from North Carolina came to me and they said, 'Would it be possible at all possible for you to speak to Elon Musk, we need Starlink.' I said, 'What's Starlink?' It's a form of communication. So I called Elon. And I'll tell you what he had, and it was very dangerous. People would die. They had no communication. All the wires were down. I called Elon Musk. I said, 'Elon, you have something called Starlink. Is that right?' 'Yes, I do.' 'What the hell is it?' He said, 'It's a communication system that's very good.' I said, 'Elon, they need it really, really badly in North Carolina.' He got that there so fast. It was incredible."
"And we also have a man, Dana White, who has done some job. He's a tough guy." (Dana was Joe Rogans source about Elon's app)
Dana White: " I want to thank the boys Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin' with the Boys. And last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan. And thank you, America. Thank you. Have a good night."
Trump: "We have more liquid gold, oil and gas. We have more liquid gold than any country in the world. More than Saudi Arabia. We have more than Russia."
"They said, 'He will start a war.' I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars. But this is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. Together, we're going to unlock America's glorious destiny. We're going to achieve the most incredible future for our people."
"Yesterday, as I stood at my last stop on the campaign trail, I'll never be doing a rally again, can you believe it? I think we've done 900 rallies approximately from. Can you imagine? 900, 901 or something. A lot of rallies. And it was sad. Everybody was sad. Many people. I said, 'This is our last rally,' but now we're going on to something that's far more important because the rallies were used for us to put, be put in this position where we can really help our country.
Journalist Michael Wolff leaked audio on the above podcast of Epatein saying how well he knew Trump, even during Trump's presidency. There's no evidence to support that Epstein was owned by Russia, but that Trump was so indiscriminate with him shows that he was probably indiscriminate in Russia and/or with Russian agents as well.
Imo it's possible Epstein tried to leverage a pardon from Trump for not spilling the beans and he got House of Cards'd
Link to just the audio clips: https://www.thedailybeast.com/this-i-why-i-am-releasing-the-jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-tapes-author-michael-wolff/
I believe this is a free YT link for the full Active Measures doc but I haven't watch it through fully to verify
Trump says he may put Elon in his cabinet as a “Secretary of Cost-Cutting.” Simultaneously, within hours of his inauguration, he plans to enact a "Digital Bill of Rights" banning online censorship. I wouldn’t be surprised if Elon is appointed as the "Social Media Czar" instead.
I don't think a "Putin link" is necessary to build a justification.
It's enough that Musk is a bilionaire controlling the platform and intefering in it: that thing is not a fair platform of communication, it's algorithimically shaped to make it a Propaganda vehicle and there's no point in frequenting a place whose function is to make you think and do what others want you to think and do.
This desperate attempt at a finding a "Russia excuse" is a massive Americanism reminiscent of McCarthism and generally boils doing directly or indirectly a self-serving excuse from politicians from "moderate" parties who have spent the last 2 or 3 decades serving interests other than those of their voters and who now are reaping the natural results of that, and they want to blame anybody else but themselves. When the rationale "by an amazing coincidence" entirelly absolves the people putting it forward and doesn't come with strong proof, it's bullshit until further evidence for it emerges. We saw a lot of that shit parroted by Democrat tribalists here in Lemmy right after their loss in the Presidential Elections in the US - the fault was from everybody but they themselves.
I don't really know how much Russia interferes with Twitter or with the various elections the West (I'm pretty sure they at least try, but there are so many interested in making it seem huge and shifting all the blame to it, that what we common humans with no access to intelligence brefings hear about it is too thick with propaganda to be trusted), but then again the same goes for Israel and other countries and even individuals with enough means to pay for it (or ownership of media vehicles) who have an interest in shaping the outcomes, especially multi-millionaires and billionares - remember the massive role of Cambridge Analitica in Brexit, and they were paid not by Russia but by wealthy Americans.
What I'm saying is that ultimatelly it's the being a Propaganda outlet that matters and the "whose propaganda" is irrelevant: none of those actors are doing their manipulative "opinion forming" for my best interests and their chosing to use such techniques tells me that they see other human beings as nothing more than puppets on their strings, so they're not the kind of people one can trust in any way form or shape.
Personally I droped Twitter following the whole Brexit thing and well before Musk, though the latter did made me actually delete my account rather than just leave it there unused.
Yeah, to US libs it's always Putin and never the thousands of radical fascist talk show hosts on AM radio or the Salem Media Group beaming out of NYC. That's because liberals voted for the 1996 Telecommunications Act that gave corporations the power to buy up all the media outlets and push that shit. When you point that out, they try to play the "marketplace of ideas" card...that liberal/leftist shows would be there instead if they made money. They just dont know who they're dealing with, and they never learn.
I think their double standard on media manipulation is derived from them being absolutelly fine with some people mass-manipulating others but not with other people doing it, which if you think about it is another aspect of the same kind of take that Trumpist muppets have: such an such should be done to "them", but when it's being done to "us" it shouldn't happen.
People whose thinking is based on Principles and who at least try to not be tribalist, tend conclude that it's the act itself - the manipulation - that is the morally and ethically wrong thing quite independently of who are the perpetrators or the victims.
The funny thing specifically with US libs is that it's exactly the turning of their media into Propaganda Outlets, which they themselves supported and used, that sewed the fields for the harvest that Trump is harvesting: it destroyed people's confidence in the traditional media opening the path for manipulation via social media and for the kind of populism that Trump uses - "strong man" saying whatever he thinks people want to hear quite independently of it being true or not, in a very assured way and using everyday language (even rufian language) which massivelly contrasts with the style of deceit prefered by liberals.
Liberals: We want to obsess over Putin's fascism!
Leftists: We have fascism at home!
Liberals: Putin brought fascism to our homes?
Leftists: Jesus Fuckin' Christ...
Q: What's the difference between Lemmy MAGAs and Lemmy Leftists?
A: Nothing! All they ever post is fantasies about "liberal tears".
Tell your friends its time to switch to Mastodon
Because Twitter (X or Xitter (pronounced as Shitter)) is enshittified years ago
We need the big companies that people follow to start switching. Also my country uses Twitter for government info and alerts and I hate it
Serious information should also not be spread through memes. Lemmy homes are always filled with shitposts, try to upvote more serious content and less memes.
It's not Twitter anymore, it"s Xitter...
Pronounced "shitter".
Who do you think has been controlling your information feeds all along?
Television? Newspapers? Hell, even the town crier only told you what his masters wanted you to hear.
I fucking hate living in a time where a breakthrough in media was achieved recently.
It always ends in tears. A lot of tears.
If Bruce Wayne (and subsequently Batman) was real, would he be on Reddit or Lemmy?
I feel like he would be running his own instance called The Bat Cave.
If Bruce Wayne was real I would hope that he got shot in the face while beating up the poors and his wealth confiscated in a 100% estate tax.
Okay there, Penguin.
Lots of people are migrating over to an alternative site but they're doing it after the election, having normalized fascism up until that point by ignoring all the calls to leave it for the previous two years. Fucking thanks a lot, folks
Based, and truth bombed
I am always so disappointed to see how many people are still on that cesspool. It's not even a good experience unless you pay, and even then it is still toxic as fuck.
And if you must post Twitter shit, crop out everything but the content.