To want Elon Musk to stay the fuck out of U.K. politics?

[Birdscratch]

And German politics and just focus on the President he’s already paid for and turning X into a toxic wasteland.

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He's weaponising the abuse for his own ends and I don't believe he gives a flying fuck about what's happened to the girls. His "highlighting" of the issue to promote his own power is an insult to all the girls and women who've experienced abuse.

Exactly that. How embarrassing it must be for anyone who’s fallen for it.

X isn’t as big as Facebook or Insta and is dropping in numbers of individual active users. The difference is that the media use X for stories and amplify its reach. The site would die within a few months if media ignored it.

The media’s increasingly using BlueSky. Moderate users are defecting there in droves.

Very much - sort of proves Farage has a backbone…

No they aren’t. 100:1 users between X and Bluesky. Just like threads and Mastodon - and truth Social - it won’t go anywhere because people tend to flock together….

MySpace had 115 million users in 2008 before it shrunk. X has 368 million currently. It could go but I doubt it

At least a quarter of the people you know….

Never tweet your hero.

Yes, it’s very, very funny that Farage sucked up to Musk and Musk responded by trashing him but British politics is STILL none of Musk’s business. Even when it comes to who should lead Reform.

It feels like a lot of users on twitter are bots or dead accounts. You can tell by the amount of reaction to posts. High profile accounts have been moving to Bluesky and saying they have much more engagement there.

Farage will be wishing Musk would keep his nose out now!

No it's not

It's a random self-selected sample of mumsnet users which doesn't represent anything in the real world or anywhere else

Totally agree. But this morning Farage was praising Musk for his interference. Reform supporters have been doing the same. Now they realise Musk is nothing more than the richest troll in the world and he has just made them all look ridiculous.

Perhaps politicians of all parties could speak as one and tell him to get lost.

Well exactly. I think the danger lies in those who don’t have either the intention or ability to separate what is being said and who is saying it. Or indeed each seperate comment that person makes. People do not have to buy wholesale into anything. It’s like people are seeking new religions, new gods as well as new devils.

People are talking about manipulation, about misinformation. But all these things are a two way street. For manipulation to occur people have to leave themselves vulnerable to manipulation. In order to be left open to misinformation one has to have abandoned the importance of intellectual curiosity and critical analysis. Humans create gods and demons, or more accurately, they manifest them.

In 1958 Aldous Huxley gave a fantastic interview over the future of politics, how with the advent of TV politics would be less about the political ability of the political leaders but more about how they were advertised. We have effectively entered an era of celebrity politics. This has been a slippery slope we have been on for decades and it will only accelerate as people obtain their own media outlets/platforms they control. In centuries past, we had the church, they guarded entrance to paradise, they could excommunicate you, ultimately they could imprison you if you were considered heretical (Facebook jail anyone?) or kill you (delete your accounts/cancel you) We are going to see this more and more.

Yes we can demonise Musk (and the many others who exist now and the greater numbers who will exist). But it is us who are ultimately the kingmakers. We need to start thinking differently, we need to consider everything. Ultimately we need to take responsibility for ourselves. People are concentrating on the wrong things. We are obsessed with celebrity (who we are increasingly being manipulated into seeing as gods/demons). We are obsessed with black and white. We need to understand life is poetic not empirical.

We are at a crossroads, the devil has already appeared, it’s up to each individual whether they sign a pact for an easy life or keep on our journey using everything within us to create our own futures. Both options have a cost, what are we willing to pay, our souls or the risk of travelling alone,

Agree 100%

Not being able to understand the very simplest statistics must be a bit of a handicap for you

Brave New World that has such monsters in it. Monsters who take Ketamine instead of Soma.

You’re missing the point really. Take out the fact it is Musk and whether you like him or not. You’re happy for a foreign billionaire to not only fund a UK political party but use their social media company to push their content and narrative. Can you not see how that is dangerous in the long term?

There are a lot of Reform supporters on MN. I guess they liked Musk up until he turned on Farage a few hours ago.

It could help Farage in the longterm. If he sticks to what he said about Tommy Robinson and doesn't cave in to Musk if Musk only wanted to donate to Reform in return for TR being a member.

True. Although some Reform supporters back Yaxley-Lennon. They are probably not who Farage truly wants in his PLC, but he is still happy to take their cash.

Or there's only 13 of then with 150 usernames each!

Who knows

I see it as a wonderful breath of fresh air in a political system that is fucked for everyone. No political party was doing and saying things that most of the public wanted. Musk is saying them. Reform is saying them.

this box is not being shut any time soon and I say bring it on.