A lot of people I know are leaving Twitter. I am interested in how the schools will handle this as a lot of them use Twitter for their daily announcements.
1 Like
Never joined twitter. But apparently the new fact checking is happening, Specifically in relationship to the increase in SS payments and the positioning of the āwhyā of the increase. Now thatās progress.
2 Likes
Now if only they would fact check things that actually hurt people ā¦ like conspiracy theories shared by Musk.
16 Likes
Like inflation? The Steele dossier, the Covington High School kids, Lafayette Square and who clear it and whyā¦like that?
4 Likes
Twitter is both the primary marketing tool for my (very niche) business and the most important source of business intelligence. I follow about 900 accounts, though I mute quite a few that post too much personal stuff (or just too much period), and have around 6000 followers, including at least 100 journalists, so itās a great way to get quoted in the press, especially if you are highly reactive to new developments, so become the go to person on an obscure topic. Completely different to something like LinkedIn for example, where very little is time sensitive.
Interestingly, S18 uses it in much the same way for his professional interests (housing policy) and built a sizable audience and network through Twitter during college. He got 1000 likes and 200 retweets on a recent tweet, calls from national newspapers etc.
However much of an idiot Elon Musk is, I think it would be very hard to switch to another platform.
1 Like
I have been on twitter for a long time. I mainly got on there because I follow(ed) two sports/hobby that are not mainstream and it was the best way to gain information on them. In 2016 I started following politicians to gain more information.
I will say these days I will see news from either FB, Twitter or Tiktok before other places. Of course many things I see I then google to see if true or to get a more in-depth story.
Yes, social media often lets you know that some news is happening. But sometimes, the news is that some fake news is being pushed through social media. Sometimes, even if it is true, the way it is presented in social media often gives too little information to understand what it is about, even if there does not appear to be an intention to mislead.
3 Likes
That is why I said I will check to see if something is true.
All media is slanted in some form or fashion. Or how much time/space it is given. Then even depending on who is consuming said media will have their own biasā from their past experiences.
This why one should always check multiple sources and learn about different shortcuts the media does. Go watch John Oliverās show on youtube and you can see some in-depth examples.
I leave you with this there is no way I am taking Kevin from HS word as gold because I grew up with Kevin and that guy is an idiot.
I have even seen true news posted on social media to look (unintentionally) like fake news. E.g. āheard on NPR that ā¦ā. There was nothing on NPR about that, which made it suspicious. Turns out it was a true story from a local radio station that was an NPR affiliate, but the person posting it did not notice the difference between NPR and the local radio station that often broadcasts NPR.
2 Likes
You can literally see anything and everything on the internet. We have all been there.
1 Like
Speaking of NPR, they have a story right now about Elon Muskās German Tesla plant being environmentally unsustainable due to high water use and current drought conditions. Locals there are pretty mad at him of course. Maybe when he said he wasnāt going to turn Twitter into a hellscape, itās because he has other IRL hellscape scenarios on autopilot right now.
And speaking of Autopilot. I love most things about our Tesla but definitely not the criminally incompetent self-driving feature. Wish heād focus his brilliance on that instead of Twitter or āsolvingā Ukraineā¦
7 Likes
Actually, they are continuing to make great progress on a very difficult challenge. Iām not sure how much exposure there is due to positioning of the autopilot, but I see commercials all the time of Detroit designed cars where the drivers take their hands off the wheel. Not sure if Tesla or Waymo gets there first (very different sensor approaches) but itās interesting none the less.
It appears Tesla might be the first self-driving vehicle manufacturer to face a criminal investigation:
Sad for the people who died because of these exaggerations.
The past 10 years or so are replete with these kinds of lies. And now that he (and the Saudis!) have Twitter, letās see how much coverage the Prince of Free Speech gives to these and other claims against him and his companies.
5 Likes
Iām sure you donāt want to rush to judgment so letās just see how it plays out. The bigger, and more interesting question is how laws handle issues involving autonomous vehicles from any manufacturer. Do they need to be 100% fool proof, or only just as good as human drivers (a pretty low bar actually). The interesting thing is that autonomous vehicles are so heavily instrumented that what the driver and the car did should not be in question.
No need to rush to judgment. Just check out any recent article to see what a flop this is:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/15/tesla-autopilot-crashes/
And there is no rush to judgment, as you call it, to point out the existence of a criminal investigation. If Elon, who smoked weed during an investor call, wants to defend this, by all means. I know he is a right-winger, but perhaps truth matters? Much like his pathetically withdrawn attack on Paul Pelosi.
3 Likes
Read the article. Nothing really new to me, Iāve been following AV developments for years. There are lots of different datasets out there that compare accidents by mile driven etc that are interesting as well. With any new tech, I appreciate good oversight.
If Musk wants an occasional doobie who am I to say no? I donāt want to be a buzz kill ( to quote a past pres who, I believe, was known to be quite the puffer) 
Wow, forgiving death and weed!
1 Like
Not really. Iām not rushing to judgement, listening to all sides of an argument, and allowing people an occasional doobie. I guess that makes me quite the renegade. So funny.
Posts which deal with politics, particularly partisan politics, should be limited to the politics forum.
3 Likes
Iāve resisted commenting about this purchase of Twitterā¦but Iām going to give my opinion. Musk spent a ton of money to acquire Twitter. This same money could have been used for any number of worthy humanitarian causes. I havenāt researched, but does Musk contribute to such things? Yes, I understand itās his moneyā¦but I have issues with the very very wealthy using their money for a power grab and, in my opinion, this is what this purchase is.
10 Likes