[ExI] Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley

[John Clark]

On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 9:47 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:


*> >…If somebody's only news source is TwitterX then the only way they can
>> judge the accuracy of a story that they have read on **TwitterX is by
>> comparing it with other stories that they have also read on TwitterX…*
>
>
> *> Ja of course.  But everyone has a voice on TwitterX now.  So it
> provides rebuttals to its own stories. *
>

*But thanks to Elon Musk's algorithm those rebuttals are going to be buried
and difficult to find, especially if they are rebutting something that Musk
himself has said.  *


> *> News agencies give a unified picture, which is distorted. *
>

*That depends. When the New York Times makes a factual error** they make a
big deal out of it, they apologize and print a retraction. When was the
last time you saw Fox or Newsmax or OAN do something like that? The only
time I can recall Elon Musk admitting he was wrong was when he apologized
(groveled) and said he went "too far" when he said He Who Must Not Be Named
was on the Epstein list.*

*>…And the richest man in the world's algorithm triumphs yet again…*
>
>
>
> *> That makes it sound like a bad thing. *
>

*That algorithm is a very good thing for the richest man in the world, but
it's a very bad thing for anybody who wants to know what's really going on
in the world.*

*> We have a great example of an epic fail: the New York Times and
> Washington Post won Pulitzer prizes for their deeply sourced and relentless
> coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election.  Later it was
> discovered that the stories were fake news: Russia didn’t interfere in that
> election. *
>


*Yes they did! Every one of the 17 agencies that make up the Intelligence
Community concluded that Russia DID interfere in the 2026 election. And so
did the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report in 2020. And so did
the 2019 Mueller Report, and he found that Russia DID hack Democratic
emails and make them public. And  Russia DID conduct a social media
influence campaign in 2016 in an attempt to get He Who Must Not Be Named
elected.  And there were contacts between Russian officials and campaign
associates of He Who Must Not Be Named. And many Russian entities were
indicted for these activities.*

> *>… reporters that BOTH extreme left-wing AND extreme right-wing people
>> hate with a vengeance. *   *John K Clark*
>
>
>
> *> There are more than two wings, and no one cares much about the extreme
> wings anyway: those guys hate everything. *
>

*That sounds like you're talking about He Who Must Not Be Named, anger is
his primary emotion, every speech he gives is full of hate for somebody or
something.  And he's always whining about how the world has treated this
son of a billionaire SO very very unfairly. *


> > *Below is what the Canada ad said, vs what Reagan actually said:*
>
>
>
> Canadian ad:
>
>
>
> *“When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks
> like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and
> jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works—but only for a short time.
> But over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American worker and
> consumer. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries
> and the triggering of fierce trade wars. Then the worst happens: Markets
> shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of
> people lose their jobs.”*
>
>
>
> What Reagan said in 1987:
>
>
>
> *You see, at first, when someone says, ``Let's impose tariffs on foreign
> imports,'' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting
> American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works -- but
> only for a short time. What eventually occurs is: First, homegrown
> industries start relying on government protection in the form of high
> tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and
> technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then,
> while all this is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs
> inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of
> fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher
> trade barriers, and less and less competition. So, soon, because of the
> prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and
> poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink
> and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people
> lose their jobs.*
>
>
>
> *Ja, it was edited. *
>

*It was obviously edited so it would fit into a 60 second
commercial because in the unedited version Reagan makes an even stronger
case against tariffs then he does in the edited version!  *


*John K Clark*





>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20251024/8cb8c697/attachment.htm>