AnimeIsTrash posted:

u still beat off to that libertarian chick you kept on posting OP?

Turtle Watch posted:

Panfilo posted:

As many know, Elon Musk purchased Twitter and as of late has opened the floodgates for right wing reactionaries who were previously banned to come flooding back into Twitter. This has been seen as a virtual "reprisal" of sorts, where the people who thought they were unjustly kicked off Twitter not only got to come back, but they are reveling in smug glee about leftists getting kicked off/driven out of Twitter.

Not surprisingly the nonexistent moderation and cultural shift in demographics have seen some stark changes on Twitter. Whereas before I'd see some pretty intense back and forth in threads, it's shifted in the direction of Facebook in tone:

There's far more echo chambers now than before. Now I totally get it didn't take Musk taking over Twitter for people to get rape threats, death threats, unsolicited dick pics, etc. But it has gotten even more ridiculously polarized than even before. And much like it's Facebook predecessor it seems to fall into the same disingenuous patterns.

The "I'm not touching you!" discourse" - So one thing people praise SA for among online communities is the understanding that moderation has to have nuance to it. The description people gave to me about this is that even if you have 500 explicit rules for behavior people will deliberately skate around them and rules lawyer their way into trolling. So moderation has to look at intent, and since right wing reactionaries operate in bad faith the only way to really get rid of them is to cut through their bullshit. With the changes to Twitter, it has allowed the proliferation of immense numbers of bad faith posting, but paradoxically it seems like they wouldn't be very well equipped to fight back. You see this quite a bit with arguments about the Colorado Springs shooting in particular. They'll all but directly say that the victims had it coming, but when you call them out on it they'll start sea lioning about you needing to prove they posted something direct about it. Ditto for throwing the "groomer" phrase around. They'll mean it in a very specific way, and when you try to pin them down about it they'll dance away like a bunch of eye floaties in your vision. One thing I've also been observing here is what happens if you do the same thing right back at them. It turns out they are typically unaware of what is going on and get caught in a "loop" when that happens.

The Internet Troll - Right wing social media discourse is by and large driven by trolling, particularly as of late. It's not so much about proving themselves right or coming up with productive solutions but instead "owning the libs". A lot of the toxic masculinity wrapped up in conservatism gets projected online. This manifests as a pattern where caring about others, empathy, vulnerability, uncertainty, etc are seen as weakness and attacked. Currently a common target has been people upset that Musk bought Twitter. These people get portrayed as weak cowards, unjustly protected by Twitter's previous administration and now fair game. I definitely saw this pattern play out early on in SA as well-simply caring about, well anything would get you mercilessly mocked. Strength was associated with both apathy and misanthropy. That said, I find conservatives themselves pretty quick to call others bots and trolls (similar to the NPC meme a while back). They can be surprisingly thin skinned as well. I noticed that being suitably annoying and persistent they can start whining that you are harassing them, and block/mute you.

Pronouns in bio- This is another puzzling and annoying thing I saw happen over the past few years on Twitter. If a person has pronouns listed in their bio there's almost a race to see who can dismiss them for it. It's such a weak, played out dig at someone. Now mind you I'm not shocked at how cruel and crass people can be online but rather... Disappointed in how uncreative they are about it. How do they expect you to respond to this? The same way we respond to a skunk flipping it's tail up menacingly?

Unless posted:

yep, but it tracks if you follow the thread and its previous incarnations

i’m feeling a definite chill on posting things about unpacking far right stuff as they keep rearing their head on every single echelon of political and business power, but it’s cool to notice it and write about it if you have the kind of legal that can handle the constant onslaught of their weaponized judiciary

…

the times has an interesting piece about the nypd’s new deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism



https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/nyregion/rebecca-weiner-nypd-intelligence-unit.html

Unless posted:

i think it’s myopic and ineffectual to lump both american parties together

the bush years woulda been vastly different if the supreme court ruled different in bush v. gore, added bonus of shaping policy that accepted anthropocentric climate change 23 years ago

friends of mine have been shot at in their homes by these people

Unless posted:

i missed it

i coulda sworn bush was president all year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw_USyFqFMY

lol @ that youtube news video being older than your regdate

croup coughfield posted:

keep honking, im unpacking

Pentecoastal Elites posted:

tristeham posted:

so much to unpack...

Panfilo posted:

As many know, Elon Musk purchased Twitter and as of late has opened the floodgates for right wing reactionaries who were previously banned to come flooding back into Twitter. This has been seen as a virtual "reprisal" of sorts, where the people who thought they were unjustly kicked off Twitter not only got to come back, but they are reveling in smug glee about leftists getting kicked off/driven out of Twitter.

Not surprisingly the nonexistent moderation and cultural shift in demographics have seen some stark changes on Twitter. Whereas before I'd see some pretty intense back and forth in threads, it's shifted in the direction of Facebook in tone:

There's far more echo chambers now than before. Now I totally get it didn't take Musk taking over Twitter for people to get rape threats, death threats, unsolicited dick pics, etc. But it has gotten even more ridiculously polarized than even before. And much like it's Facebook predecessor it seems to fall into the same disingenuous patterns.

The "I'm not touching you!" discourse" - So one thing people praise SA for among online communities is the understanding that moderation has to have nuance to it. The description people gave to me about this is that even if you have 500 explicit rules for behavior people will deliberately skate around them and rules lawyer their way into trolling. So moderation has to look at intent, and since right wing reactionaries operate in bad faith the only way to really get rid of them is to cut through their bullshit. With the changes to Twitter, it has allowed the proliferation of immense numbers of bad faith posting, but paradoxically it seems like they wouldn't be very well equipped to fight back. You see this quite a bit with arguments about the Colorado Springs shooting in particular. They'll all but directly say that the victims had it coming, but when you call them out on it they'll start sea lioning about you needing to prove they posted something direct about it. Ditto for throwing the "groomer" phrase around. They'll mean it in a very specific way, and when you try to pin them down about it they'll dance away like a bunch of eye floaties in your vision. One thing I've also been observing here is what happens if you do the same thing right back at them. It turns out they are typically unaware of what is going on and get caught in a "loop" when that happens.

The Internet Troll - Right wing social media discourse is by and large driven by trolling, particularly as of late. It's not so much about proving themselves right or coming up with productive solutions but instead "owning the libs". A lot of the toxic masculinity wrapped up in conservatism gets projected online. This manifests as a pattern where caring about others, empathy, vulnerability, uncertainty, etc are seen as weakness and attacked. Currently a common target has been people upset that Musk bought Twitter. These people get portrayed as weak cowards, unjustly protected by Twitter's previous administration and now fair game. I definitely saw this pattern play out early on in SA as well-simply caring about, well anything would get you mercilessly mocked. Strength was associated with both apathy and misanthropy. That said, I find conservatives themselves pretty quick to call others bots and trolls (similar to the NPC meme a while back). They can be surprisingly thin skinned as well. I noticed that being suitably annoying and persistent they can start whining that you are harassing them, and block/mute you.

Pronouns in bio- This is another puzzling and annoying thing I saw happen over the past few years on Twitter. If a person has pronouns listed in their bio there's almost a race to see who can dismiss them for it. It's such a weak, played out dig at someone. Now mind you I'm not shocked at how cruel and crass people can be online but rather... Disappointed in how uncreative they are about it. How do they expect you to respond to this? The same way we respond to a skunk flipping it's tail up menacingly?

Panfilo posted:

Been following the protests this past week on Twitter and observing conservative reactions. There's an interesting schism going on because some of them just really hate Jews so the idea that "dirty" leftists are fighting with Jewish students is amusing to them. They're imploring other conservatives not to intervene because they're hoping these protests alienate Jews from leftists and collectively weaken their enemies.

Still others simply see satisfaction in leftists being the target of violence. It's similar to their takes on the George Floyd protests; the protestors are dum dums who don't know what they're protesting, they couldn't find Israel and Gaza on a map, they're simultaneously poor and rich, entitled, gonna get away with everything yet gonna be in jail forever, etc etc.

People have been cheering on 'frat boys' attacking protestors and I guess it's just a new iteration of proud boys in a way, a group that serves as a stand in for the wishful thinking of reactionary viewers in the peanut gallery. They wish so badly to be among those who get to crack some skulls but since they themselves don't have the actual resolve they have to experience it vicariously by those undaunted by consequences.