A hand gesture that culminates remarkably like a Nazi salute but begins with a hand on the heart might have been some novelty, something not intended as a Nazi salute. 1/
A longstanding fascination with the number 420 is pretty weak tea as evidence, even if 4/20 is Hitler's birthday. 2/
Support of AfD in Germany doesn't mean you are a Nazi sympathizer, even if that party has neonazi connections. 3/
Circumstantial evidence could always be coincidental. But as circumstantial evidence piles up, the probability of coincidence declines. 4/
Sure it could all be a gag! Trigger the libs! 5/
But that's just a different interpretation of the basic claim, that jokingly or not Musk has some longstanding interest in communicating support of Nazi-ish things. (And the support of AfD doesn't seem too jokey?) /fin
AI is has become a cargo-cultish shibboleth among politicians. Was for the Biden Administration, is for the Trump Administration, the UK is going whole hog.
( On the UK, see this excellent piece by @williamcb.bsky.social https://williamcullernebown.substack.com/p/big-tech-in-the-uk )
Are there any efforts in European countries / the EU to supplant US-based communications platforms?
we can't see the future. our base case always has to be muddling thru — turbulence sure, but things mostly remaining as they mostly have been.
but if we crack, if we really do take a turn towards political violence, disappearings, camps, in retrospect it will seem we were astonishingly well warned.
given the success of $TRUMP and $MELANIA, what if somebody tried making a memecoin called $DOGE?
man, we’re going to have the mother of all tourism booms when people learn that those on temporary visas are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, so it’s like “The Purge” for them. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/ ht @qjurecic
it's weird how bitterly some self-styled centrists have turned against Elizabeth Warren. they don't use the snake emoji, but there's this self-flagellation about having supported her, and so (allegedly) alienated the tech boyz to whom they are now cozying. i guess it's her fault too they went Nazi. 1/
they don't so much blame Bernie, though of course they say his ideas are far too "left" and helped damn the Democrats electorally. but Bernie is popular, even among the supporters of the people to whom they are ingratiating themselves. and he didn't feminize anything. so it's much quieter. /fin
Media orgs think by being "neutral" on obvious matters like did Elon Musk give a Nazi salute they avoid alienating conservatives. They don't get Trump's basic appeal, that he just says it, he's not parsing. They alienate the modern right more by pandering to it than by just saying wtf happened. 1/
Of course there would be blowback if they did just say wtf occurred. But blowback is from movement elites and media. Grassroots might be seduced by their influencers' cynical outrage, but there's at least a shot they take seriously what occurred rather than recoil from the cringe dissimulation. /fin
the problem with entirely skipping the C step in the M-C-M' circuit is this: Sure, thanks to financial innovation, M-M' can yield a lot of M'. But if it becomes a trend, you may find that it can't actually buy all that much.
just deleted an instagram account i never really used. still, it felt good.
i’m not sure whether it’s state-owned media or state-owning media, but whichever of those, that’s what X is now.
i mean, who was born on April 20? just a coincidence? https://observer.com/2024/04/elon-musk-number-420-tesla-twitter/
an important precedent to set will be impeaching a Supreme Court justice for false and tendentious readings of the Constitution. it’s one of the few checks we have on them, since they arrogated to themselves the power of judicial review.
vibes are confected and promoted by pundits. they only shift in right-wing directions. they serve to promote preference falsification. just don’t.
will it ever be a vibecession under Trump?
(no shade to @kylascan of whom i am very fond. it’s just how the vibes of vibes have shaken out.)
i’d feel more secure about Amendment 14, Section 1 if they hadn’t substantially nullified Amendment 14, Section 3, with very little pushback or complaint because even though their decision defied the text’s clear intent (Congress is supposed to cure, not find), it seemed advisable politically.
@selmins 🎵sometimes i feel like
AI is watching me! 🎶
donut holes are all around us, all the time.
the making of a donut simply reveals one.
melania is like david bowie incognito today.