Has Twitter Had a Far-Right Bent for Years? Are #TheTwitterFiles a Fraud? The Debate Leads to Strange Words About Me By “Dilbert” Creator Scott Adams and Even Elon Musk Himself
Has Twitter Had a Far-Right Bent for Years? Are #TheTwitterFiles a Fraud? The Debate Leads to Strange Words About Me By “Dilbert” Creator Scott Adams and Even Elon Musk Himself
sethabramson.substack.com
If you work on controversial topics, you draw attention from polarizing people. But my debunking of a major #TwitterFiles meme led to odder interactions than I expected—and some explosive revelations.
A quick comment about your father’s interest in Dilbert: although I am 15 years behind your father, I definitely relate to the cubicle hell of the DEC and IBM days of the 1980’s. Dilbert spoke to me then, even as a manager, that I was not alone in the disillusionment of America’s ‘great’ corporations. They were merely financial machines serving their top executives. I and my organizations were cogs to their benefit. Therefore, I understand the miasma that has middle class in addition to the blue collar citizens that find promise in the fascist trump movement, as empty as it actually is. Adams became rich on Dilbert. He doesn’t have to deliver a good comic product anymore. And he has the luxury of whining in the trump camp, as devoid of truth, merit and integrity as it is.
I laughed at Dilbert comics as much as anybody back in the day. In Canada, we laughed harder as it was so American. The IT industry here can not (and does not) afford to pay for idiots or slackers. We did however see all kinds of cartoonish examples in our southern overlords. The Adams work experience seemed entirely negative while my 35 years in cubicles / offices were filled with successful people who were really good at their jobs and were promoted and well paid. Dilbert was funny not because it was so close to home but rather it was funny to think that people could be like that and not be fired. We were not laughing with the Americans but at them. Again.
I remember "Dilbert" from my ancient past but not as a cartoon! It's been an insult for decades in the UK, synonymous with "idiot", for want of a polite word. There's no sense of amusement with it; it indicates a stupid person who doesn't have the brains to think anything through and is therefore annoying and undeserving of sympathy. Adams is certainly a Dilbert of his own making.
I am so glad to see you use the word Psy-op. I thought you must have thought me nuts to use it. But Seth, three of my closest friends had fathers who were in the CIA during Kennedy's Assassination; and they use that word a lot now days. For 50 years I have had the foreshadowed view of Marshall McLuhan's The Medium is the Message-- but just recently I found the title was a misprint- it was supposed to be the Medium is the Massage- as in Social Media as a Medium being Massaged by its owners until it does not represent one iota of "a kernall of the truth." Check "though few of us things as spectacularly tone-deaf "--- 'The analysis published the Guardian, and the confession by Twitter, renders."
4/17/23 Seth: "The only reason any of us are still here...is because others are."
Is there another platform that allows people to read posts without a login? That's the great advantage of Twitter. I don't want to engage, I just want to be informed.
In my experience, the one who speaks the truth gains surety by the vehemence of the backlash. Unfortunate that Twitter amplifies right leaning accounts, based on your mentions, your views and followers should be growing by leaps and bounds. I agree, the Gonigal reveal is at the embryonic stage of discovery. I was pleased to have so much background on the corruption, thanks to you.
Let's hope Adams has stepped into a pile of quick shit, with his recent racist rant, and is sucked into a rancid hell. He is an unhappy man with a forum. I have politely asked that my local paper, to which I subscribe (paying dearly for the privilege of a free press), remove Mr. Adams "Dilbert" from the comics page. The black community in my city does not deserve anymore hatred than it already has.
if i recall, this overarching twitter story originates from the gop's public campaign that google supressed conservative info in search results.
admittingly, i'm not sure what happened with the 'google is biased against conservatives' campaign but it seems like conservative messaging easily transitioned from google to twitter for the following:
1) many/most the social media/tech name doesn't matter; as a 'mental construct' they all get lumped together as a single entity in the minds of the masses
2) there was a path forward in twitter to corrupt it that was not present at google?
I remember a friend of mine, who's unfortunately fallen right down the right-wing rabbit hole (as a one-time LaRouche guy, he didn't have to fall very far) telling me that I was wrong and quoting two guys he considers "very liberal" (Taibbi and Greenwald) all the time. in any event, in 2016 or thereabouts, he started talking to me about Adams and taking the putz very seriously. but then he told me that Adams claimed to be an "expert in hypnosis" and thought TFF (The Fat Fuck..sorry, but I am functionally incapable of typing his name) was a master hypnotist.
now, that stirred me because I have a very long, elaborate training in hypnotherapy (at least 200 hours of instruction, with a LOT of experience) and I know about there being many, many people (quite a few in the "media," like Adams) who've taken a quick weekend "course" in hypnosis and then run around describing themselves as experts. now based on Adams's take on TFF, I can promise you that he is precisely one of those so-called "experts." I agree that, to a very particular part of the population, TFF has a certain appeal. but it's not exactly the healthiest part of the population. I don't detect anything like the skills of a group hypnotist or even a "master manipulator." what I see is more like someone who caters to the confirmation bias of very frightened people who themselves are predisposed to believe that he is everything that he isn't, but everything he pretended to be for however many seasons of deeply shitty reality television.
Adams is an idiot, but obviously an idiot of the very, very "useful" variety.
thanks so much for the many thousands of hours you've worked on this stuff, Seth.
i could be wrong, but I've always suspected the RU Botts, contributed significantly++ to the massive increase in violent threats against anyone not a card carrying Cult45 member. WTF did RU want to infiltrate the NRA, an operation that exposed deeply >embedded spies like Dimitri Simes?
iow's What IS the NRA' Holy of Holies?
& yea... we know what the useful morans think of Putin/Russia. A more better question is what do Putin's oligarchs & mafia think of RU Botts influencing USAUSAUSA They were told conventional war would never ever happen again, That Brexit, Poland.. ad infinitum would be THE future. Hence it was open season to loot, rob blind, the RU military industrial complex, that blew back as the mother of all cluster forks in Ukraine.
A quick comment about your father’s interest in Dilbert: although I am 15 years behind your father, I definitely relate to the cubicle hell of the DEC and IBM days of the 1980’s. Dilbert spoke to me then, even as a manager, that I was not alone in the disillusionment of America’s ‘great’ corporations. They were merely financial machines serving their top executives. I and my organizations were cogs to their benefit. Therefore, I understand the miasma that has middle class in addition to the blue collar citizens that find promise in the fascist trump movement, as empty as it actually is. Adams became rich on Dilbert. He doesn’t have to deliver a good comic product anymore. And he has the luxury of whining in the trump camp, as devoid of truth, merit and integrity as it is.
The I'll stay on Twitter till it dies crowd needs to get off. Nothing good will ever come of it.
Once you follow the links Seth provides, it's clear Twitter has a right leaning bias for a L O N G time.
Man, I wish there were cliff notes versions of these articles. It is just so difficult to keep up.
I laughed at Dilbert comics as much as anybody back in the day. In Canada, we laughed harder as it was so American. The IT industry here can not (and does not) afford to pay for idiots or slackers. We did however see all kinds of cartoonish examples in our southern overlords. The Adams work experience seemed entirely negative while my 35 years in cubicles / offices were filled with successful people who were really good at their jobs and were promoted and well paid. Dilbert was funny not because it was so close to home but rather it was funny to think that people could be like that and not be fired. We were not laughing with the Americans but at them. Again.
I remember "Dilbert" from my ancient past but not as a cartoon! It's been an insult for decades in the UK, synonymous with "idiot", for want of a polite word. There's no sense of amusement with it; it indicates a stupid person who doesn't have the brains to think anything through and is therefore annoying and undeserving of sympathy. Adams is certainly a Dilbert of his own making.
I am so glad to see you use the word Psy-op. I thought you must have thought me nuts to use it. But Seth, three of my closest friends had fathers who were in the CIA during Kennedy's Assassination; and they use that word a lot now days. For 50 years I have had the foreshadowed view of Marshall McLuhan's The Medium is the Message-- but just recently I found the title was a misprint- it was supposed to be the Medium is the Massage- as in Social Media as a Medium being Massaged by its owners until it does not represent one iota of "a kernall of the truth." Check "though few of us things as spectacularly tone-deaf "--- 'The analysis published the Guardian, and the confession by Twitter, renders."
4/17/23 Seth: "The only reason any of us are still here...is because others are."
Is there another platform that allows people to read posts without a login? That's the great advantage of Twitter. I don't want to engage, I just want to be informed.
In my experience, the one who speaks the truth gains surety by the vehemence of the backlash. Unfortunate that Twitter amplifies right leaning accounts, based on your mentions, your views and followers should be growing by leaps and bounds. I agree, the Gonigal reveal is at the embryonic stage of discovery. I was pleased to have so much background on the corruption, thanks to you.
Let's hope Adams has stepped into a pile of quick shit, with his recent racist rant, and is sucked into a rancid hell. He is an unhappy man with a forum. I have politely asked that my local paper, to which I subscribe (paying dearly for the privilege of a free press), remove Mr. Adams "Dilbert" from the comics page. The black community in my city does not deserve anymore hatred than it already has.
if i recall, this overarching twitter story originates from the gop's public campaign that google supressed conservative info in search results.
admittingly, i'm not sure what happened with the 'google is biased against conservatives' campaign but it seems like conservative messaging easily transitioned from google to twitter for the following:
1) many/most the social media/tech name doesn't matter; as a 'mental construct' they all get lumped together as a single entity in the minds of the masses
2) there was a path forward in twitter to corrupt it that was not present at google?
I remember a friend of mine, who's unfortunately fallen right down the right-wing rabbit hole (as a one-time LaRouche guy, he didn't have to fall very far) telling me that I was wrong and quoting two guys he considers "very liberal" (Taibbi and Greenwald) all the time. in any event, in 2016 or thereabouts, he started talking to me about Adams and taking the putz very seriously. but then he told me that Adams claimed to be an "expert in hypnosis" and thought TFF (The Fat Fuck..sorry, but I am functionally incapable of typing his name) was a master hypnotist.
now, that stirred me because I have a very long, elaborate training in hypnotherapy (at least 200 hours of instruction, with a LOT of experience) and I know about there being many, many people (quite a few in the "media," like Adams) who've taken a quick weekend "course" in hypnosis and then run around describing themselves as experts. now based on Adams's take on TFF, I can promise you that he is precisely one of those so-called "experts." I agree that, to a very particular part of the population, TFF has a certain appeal. but it's not exactly the healthiest part of the population. I don't detect anything like the skills of a group hypnotist or even a "master manipulator." what I see is more like someone who caters to the confirmation bias of very frightened people who themselves are predisposed to believe that he is everything that he isn't, but everything he pretended to be for however many seasons of deeply shitty reality television.
Adams is an idiot, but obviously an idiot of the very, very "useful" variety.
thanks so much for the many thousands of hours you've worked on this stuff, Seth.
I believe Biss and his wife are also connected with people associated with the I AM cult and the origins of QAnon.
i could be wrong, but I've always suspected the RU Botts, contributed significantly++ to the massive increase in violent threats against anyone not a card carrying Cult45 member. WTF did RU want to infiltrate the NRA, an operation that exposed deeply >embedded spies like Dimitri Simes?
iow's What IS the NRA' Holy of Holies?
& yea... we know what the useful morans think of Putin/Russia. A more better question is what do Putin's oligarchs & mafia think of RU Botts influencing USAUSAUSA They were told conventional war would never ever happen again, That Brexit, Poland.. ad infinitum would be THE future. Hence it was open season to loot, rob blind, the RU military industrial complex, that blew back as the mother of all cluster forks in Ukraine.