Monday Mood [DOT 9/10/23]

9/10/23 MegMegMcGee 20

So the other day I opened up my laptop and there’s a hairline crack in the screen. Didn’t drop it, didn’t sit on it, it’s just been sitting on my dresser, chillin’. It’s under warranty and the insurance plan so I can send it back for $49 and they’ll either fix or replace it.

Anyhow, the point of that excerpt is that if I don’t write a DOT at work, I’m at home on my iPad and frankly it’s a pain in the ass to toggle and copy links etc. So we might have some short DOTs this week.

Twitter is unusable and I am just mad about it. Besides you guys, I had a good little friend community over there and now it’s just worthless information and Nazis.

Misinformation about Israel and Hamas is spreading on social media
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/misinformation-israel-hamas-spreading-social-media-rcna119345

Israel Updates:
Israel-Hamas war live: 260 bodies recovered from music festival, says Israeli rescue service
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/oct/08/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-palestinian-attack-october-2023-gaza-conflict-hostages-latest-news

Sprots!

Kelvin Kiptum smashes men’s marathon world record in Chicago
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/08/sport/kelvin-kiptum-mens-marathon-world-record-chicago-spt-intl/index.html

Today in Neature!
‘Freak of nature’ tree is the find of a lifetime for forest explorer

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/10/08/tree-hunter-watt-ancient-cedar/

Have a good day Deadspliters!

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20 Comments

  1. …I don’t actually have a twitter account so I’ve never really looked at the interface in a way that makes me understand what the difference is…but if it’s at all helpful I believe that one thing some have found successful to unfuck a lot of the shenanigans has been to build “lists” to recreate feeds they can still curate into something more like they used to have _ avoid having to look at the mess of “for you” or whatever…but…it sounds like might still force you into the side of things you don’t want to be if you do anything that involves clicking through & not browsing

    …but there are…in at least some browsers…apparently still combos of plug-ins & extensions (& possibly proxies but I haven’t gotten into it enough to know) that, a bit like “old reddit” enable people to browse any use twitter while looking at something that still looks basically like it used to before the fuckery…down to still having the little blue bird icon & everything

    …if any of that sounds like it might be worth giving a whirl let me know & I’ll cast about until I hit on who/where it was I saw someone bragging about having cracked it & see if I can figure out how they went about it?

  2. I bought a laptop like 12 years ago (maybe longer) and got the unlimited warrantee. Asked the guy right at the store, of I drop kick it, I can return it? He said I can return it no matter what. So, when it would start slowing down, I’d copy my info and smash it, getting somewhat creative with the smashing, overtime. Ended up being able to extend it. The best warrantee I ever purchased.

  4. I will say that Bluesky feels a bit like time-traveled Twitter in a good way. Of course, it’s much smaller and still a walled garden so you can’t move a whole community in that direction. But it is much better than trying to defend the barricades against the Musk-approved Neo Nazi hordes and (also Musk-approved) limited functionality. I agree that a well-curated Twitter was the best possible social media experience but imo it’s too far gone now and I won’t be coming back.

    • As always, third-party candidates likely won’t matter that much BUT it’s funny because this was always a far more likely outcome than RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vax and White Nationalist Variety Show suddenly picking up steam even with the most right-leaning centrist Democrats. That class of voter sucks but they’re among the last demographic that would be like “yes, neo Nazi eugenics is excellent, please sign me up.” They’re literally D voters because they DON’T like the sideshow! 

      It’s not unlike the DeSanctimonious slide: Candidate on surface view seems appealing to audience but once you learn literally anything about them, they immediately begin to leak support, and the more you learn, the less you like.

      (Edit to include: It’s funny and not surprising in the least that Mango Unchained’s team understood the what and why behind RFK Jr. way better than the press that acted like he was a real D contender or spoiler. None of this is hard to grok unless you’re really trying not to understand the assignment.)

  8. As Twitter gets worse and worse, it’s worth noting that the right wing 5th Circuit has issued a nutty activist injuction banning much of the executive branch from telling social media companies about disinformation and propaganda efforts, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/03/tech/cybersecurity-and-infrastructure-security-agency-social-media-lawsuit-injunction/index.html

    It’s worth adding that this isn’t just shielding Republican activists. Russia, Iran and China also have robust disinformation programs that benefit from the right wing activist judges.

    Also, the right wing push to stop agencies from simply telling social media companies about disinformation — this isn’t even about any actual sanctions — comes at a time when right wingers are insisting that Trump and his team have First Amendment rights to carry out a criminal conspiracy.

    They’re arguing that criminal speech is legal and legal speech is criminal.

     

    • Yeah. It’s just like the My Pillow guy whose sales are through the roof!

      One might think that a business model based on serving fascists isn’t exactly a winning plan.

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