Guest Post by Jeffrey A. Tucker
Since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, it’s been quite a wild ride. Thousands of doctors and scientists have been unbanned and are now speaking. Same with journalists. Accounts that posted against Covid restrictions and mandates are now unthrottled. Brownstone’s account is now at 31K and my own personal reach is up some 175 percent.
Of course, this is also infuriating. When we needed these voices the most was during the biggest attacks on liberty in our lifetime. Now that the powers that be have been forced by public opinion to dial back their oppressions, these voices can speak again. It’s good that the truth is getting out there but imagine the kind of difference it would have made for these 33 months if there had been no blocks on information from the start?
It’s a creepy feeling to know based on disclosures so far that I was certainly throttled. It did not matter what I posted, it got no traction. The censors – meaning certainly the government – learned over time that there might be too much provocation associated with outright bans. Turning down the dial on reach was a better way.
Of course during this entire period, the same platform also invited you to pay for reach. Throw them a few bucks and they will give you some eyeballs. When the money runs out, you are back to where you were. You couldn’t prove the throttling. You just sensed it in your bones but when you complained about it, people would throw it back at you: you just fail to admit that your content is unworthy!
In any case, now we know. There were FBI agents embedded all over the platform. The White House and various deep-state actors were pushing Twitter to censor. After a while, it became the main job of the platform to block reach rather than actually doing what they are supposed to do.
Twitter is quasi-free now but what about the rest?
For years, my Facebook account has been irrelevant to me. I don’t even know why I bother using it at all. We know for sure that Facebook has been subject to the same controls that once affected Twitter. Same goes for LinkedIn and Google, of course. No doubt about that. My typical post sits there with almost no reach at all.
What I’ve not known is whether I’m targeted directly or my account has long been restricted by virtue of keywords and content. As everyone knows, I shifted my life 3 years ago to post entirely about the invasions of life, liberty, and property that commenced in 2020.
I did this not because I wanted to abandon other research projects but rather because Covid became a window into the nefarious works of the ruling class I had long opposed. Plus few others seemed willing to speak out. Most of my own ideological set was predisposed to “leave this subject to the experts” and thus went silent. I went the other direction.
That decision killed my reach on Facebook. There was nothing I could do about it so I decided just to forget it. But this morning, a friend had a great idea. He suggested that I post a cute animal picture with no other comment other than to say it is a test. I did this very thing and posted the following picture.
The results: an explosion of reach! Out of nowhere it was like the old Facebook, with comments and conversations and shares, plus many hundreds of likes. Absolutely amazing! At least for me, this test suggests something important. Zuckerberg is surely flagging accounts but the main means of control is content. Say something that means something and your post disappears from feeds. Post something stupid and irrelevant and you can have all the views you want.
Of course Facebook’s business is selling your content in order to sell ads. That’s it, nothing more. But as a tool of state control of the public mind plus surveillance, it is extremely useful to state actors. And in the last three years, it has served this purpose very well. The platform is not dead, contrary to what seemed true, but rather directed toward a particular purpose. It’s not just selling ads. It’s selling an anodyne impression of a neutered public mind.
To be sure, if some website offered a deal to users – you post pics of lunch, cats, and flowers, and we give you ads – and it worked, fine. That’s normal terms of use. That’s not what is going on. Via explicit and implicit pressure, combined with irresponsible management, Facebook turned over its entire business model to government to deploy on behalf of regime interests. The customers and stockholders were the victims.
What applies here is also true for YouTube, Instagram, and all the rest of the mainstream platforms, which constitute the vast swath of social media content in existence. I like the alternative platforms but they are small players by comparison. The freedom and reach we get today on Twitter is beautiful but how long can it last? Is this a brief window that is opened before it shuts again?
Nothing has changed on the rest of them, which means that nothing has changed with regard to the state-directed censorship that took over our lives three years ago. That’s a terrifying reality, and especially so for intellectuals and writers who imagined some years ago that these tools would be a gift for making a difference in the world.
I’m inclined to think that the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter is a fluke – a lucky one to be sure but the strange exception. He should watch his back. The main drive to control the conversation and shape the public mind is still with us: bad actors working to limit criticism of themselves and their policies. It is just as intense now as it was at the height of the lockdowns and drive for universal vaccination.
We’ve never needed the First Amendment more than we do now. And just when it became most necessary, it failed. We should all hope for victory in the lawsuits going on against the government but what does victory mean? Who or what is going to make sure this does not happen again? We still don’t have a clear answer to that but it is the burning question especially since it is all still happening right under our noses.
And many people are okay with that and just want to believe that all anyone really cares about are cute pictures of animals.
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People still use Facebook? I thought it had gone the way of MySpace. They’d already jumped the shark long before they decided to rip off the Second Life app and rebrand as Meta.
Only socialist agenda supporting mental defects and grandmothers with mentally defective but government compliant “adult” children still use Fascistbook.
I have had mental defects scream at me, demanding I use Fascistbook. I just tell them I was booted off for violating the socialist big-failure government mandated agendas of the day.
Then stand back so I don’t get hit with defective brain parts as their heads explode.
I have had people tell me they are required to use Fascistbook for work. I just tell them that their clocks are broken because they don’t know what time it is. Then when they check their clock app and find it appears to be working, I tell them that the app won’t tell them it is time to find a different place to work.
Ten years ago, I created a community facebook page to share a bunch (probably hundreds of thousands) of pictures my father sent to me and others over his 90+ years.
At this point, I rarely upload new photos, but roll the old albums up as it seems appropriate. (Three weeks ago a young black man (31) died suddenly and his mother, an old friend, sought out pictures of him and, guess what? I had a bunch because my father liked to take pictures of everybody all the time.)
This recent activity on the page causes all my “followers” to come see what I’m uploading and I get a “surge” of viewers, messages and worst of all? Continuous messages from Meta Business Suite telling me how many more customers I could attract with just a little bit of advertising money sent to them.
But, the demographics on the “insights” page should support your claims about who is using Facebook.
Closed Facebook account 10 years ago fuck jewbook.
Never trusted Gurggle from its earliest days (remember how the Nazis searched the records in every village in Germany as well as countries they later conquered to identify those they wanted gone?) and never trusted any of those following on the coattails of Gurrgle.
Only because the cats out of the bag on that one.
Try posting facts about the link between FTX and Ukraine funneling money to the Democrats or facts about the war and you will guarantee an instant ban. Don’t pretend Twitter is a bastion of free speech or that Musk is some white knight.
Yeah this guy is a bit off. Elon is hero! Right….. and I’m sure his story of rags to riches is 100% legit. Anyone could have started their own car manufacturing business and fly electric missles to mars.
To me the funnies part of the article was in the 2nd paragraph where ‘they had to back of the tyranny because of public opinion’. Is there anyone who still believes any of these demons cares about the public or the opinion of the masses? Also if I’m being honest I think it’s safe to say the masses have no business trying to form an opinion because they are incapable of critical thinking to begin with.
Don’t use Twitter either.
I joined Twitter when EM started opening the worm can. Watched it for a while…and gave up. I don’t think it is just malicious throttling that stifles a blossoming of interesting discussions about topics that have meaning. One of the biggest sellers to get those all-important loves is to say something so utterly banal and pointless that cringe worthy hardly encompasses the vacuity of it.
You see a post like, “How many people think Elon Musk is cool?” Or, “Anyone out there wish we had a better government?” Tens of thousands of carnival barkers grabbing your sleeve and demanding your attention. Because reach is what it is all about. This isn’t Plato in the groves of Academia, all too often it is someone with a megaphone and not much to say.
I didn’t close my Twitter account because I want to encourage more transparency and open dialog, and he has done something great in his release of the Twitter Files. But I don’t post to it or follow anyone. I just wish it was more.
What we need now, for those who are old enough to remember, is an Information Age Newton Minow declaring social media a “vast wasteland.”
I don’t post to Twitter anymore because many people in my industry lean left and I prefer to be a grey man.
Twitter has a very useful purpose though. This author, Jeffrey Tucker is a prime example.
Around May of 2021 he posted a thread in which he questioned much about the covid dialogue. I mentioned on here at the time that there were hundreds of replies mostly telling him to shut up, wear a mask, and get a shot. But around a year later that same type of post was getting a lot of agreement.
Depending on who you follow on Twitter you can see this. On TBP we lament that people won’t wake up. But I’m seeing a much greater number of people posting comments in agreement with people on our side, much greater than ever before.
That’s positive news!
“…as a tool of state control of the public mind plus surveillance, it is extremely useful to state actors. And in the last three years, it has served this purpose very well.”
– Jeffery Tucker
Served and serves those purposes cosmically fucking great you mean. Global surveillance with Pestilential mindfuckery by Fecesbook beyond the dreams of the Gestapo and KGB, comrades.
Musk = In-Q-Tel. Long term limited hangout. He’s at the end of his usefulness to the Deep State.
Off topic, but TheSaker.is is shutting down at the end of February.
Most people do not realise that religion plays this role, the banning of other viewpoints. When you live in a religious society and have to navigate with these views, you become careful sharing your views. Religion no longer fills this function of policing the thoughts of people. A new way of policing has to be found. This is the new policing, social media. It took Christianity 1500 years to ‘convert’ the heathen of the west. Then the break started with Protestantism, when the feminine was banned. Since then, it has been downhill to a majority with no religion. A new religion had to be created and that is why we are seeing the rise of these new faiths, New World Order, Climate change, LGBTQ, COVID hysteria. If you do not offer a good worldview to the younger generation, they will find their own.
and to think we didn’t know how well off we were when all we had to worry about was pedophile priests and pregnant nuns.
It took catholicism 1,500 years to subvert the people of the world. FIFY
2 Timothy 1:15 KJB… “This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.”
Phygellus and Hermogenes; must be the world’s first catholics… 🙄
The farther one turns from Paul the farther one turns from Christ.
Bible based Christianity hardly bans the feminine. It simply recognizes her for being the one duped by the devil; because of that, she is not to have dominion over the man. Many women actively supported Paul’s ministry and he gives credit where credit is due. For example:
Romans 16:1-2 KJB… “I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.”
Dumbest opinion I’ve ever read on TBP.
Least surprising comment I’ve ever read on TBP.
” imagine the kind of difference it would have made for these 33 months if there had been no blocks on information from the start? ”
Hmmmmmm……..,not only did I imagine but found many sources of information,TBP for example.
Imagine if folks just tried a little harder then a few basic social sites what they might learn!
Here is obligatory cute animal picture to be sure me post goes up!
Who doesn’t love a otter with a cone?!
Social media is a lot like being in middle school and passing notes instead of listening to what the teacher has to say. At least it used to be that way a long time ago, but cannot vouch for today’s classroom.
One of my favorite pictures to post to grab the attention of family and friends on Facebook. The reaction of my 6-month-old son to his very large and loud grandfather speaks to everyone who knows/knew my father.
I created a community page on FB a decade ago to share some black and white photos of the area and people in the area which my father, an amateur photo enthusiast whose pictures are extraordinarily good for an amateur leave it at that, had taken, developed in his closet/darkroom, and mailed to me with ten to twenty page letters accompanying them. The page was a big hit with the Southeastern Missouri crowd where up I grew (no prepositions at the end!) and within a few months I had hundreds of people eager to look at old pictures of themselves and their ancestors collected in some of the oddest collections of handmade books and pamphlets imaginable.
So, Facebook doesn’t appear to appreciate the steady stream of people who enjoy the photos and memories but do not want to buy anything. Facebook begs me to buy a bit of advertising to expand my reach and I decline. So, Facebook throttles down the news feed for my page.
So, yes… I toss that picture of Dad and my son up and it grabs the attention of the Facebook bots and people respond and come to the page to see what sort of delightful old picture album I’m putting up for them all to see. I donated the lot of it to the county library and made myself digital copies with their machine, so down here in the suburbs of the sticks, podunk nowhere, history has gone undercover on Facebook and masquerades as photos which the bots have not learned to read.
Yet
Of course, I also have all sorts of rabbit and chicken pictures as well.
I used to use Nextdoor. It was great for certain neighborhood things. Lost pets/lawn guy reviews etc. Once the covid scam started and people starting contradicting the official narrative, Nextdoor booted them for spreading covid “misinformation “. I was one of them. I never used profanity or insulted anyone. That was early on. A few weeks ago I messaged Nextdoor explaining that what I posted back then to get me kicked off has now been shown to be the truth. They said after reviewing my situation I was not eligible for account reinstatement. Fucking douchebags.
They did you a favor. Its a spy app, it also told you whom you could trust and whom who couldn’t. Be thankful.
It’s like the weekly shopper that goes right in the circular file after you get it from the mailbox.
At least YouTube is a bit better.
Auntie saves them for kindling and wrapping stuff.
Facebook can be a tool. We get a lot of business from there and local news (lost dogs, road reports, trading/selling). Yes they’re collecting data but if you’re reading this…
It is easily habit forming so you have to beware.
I did a search (duck duck go) yesterday for something and one of the results was a porn site. This has never happened before. There was no relation to the search terms
Exactly… it is a tool, but it can also be used as a tool against you if you are not careful.
The bots are not our friends, but they are useful.
DDG hasn’t been our friend for a couple years now. There are other search engines.
Same as it always was