51·
9 hours agoBy funding you mean resuming advertising on the platform, right?
yes.
RoundSparrow @ .ee
Stephen Alfred Gutknecht
Professional in social media since 1985, created / sold social media server apps at age 15. Traveled the world to study media ecology.
“Finnegans Wake is the greatest guidebook to media study ever fashioned by man.” - Marshall McLuhan, Newsweek Magazine
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Cake day: June 29th, 2023
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I think the USA has taken a deep dive in international standing since January 2025, and Reddit is a USA-flavored USA-centered content publisher in terms of front page community. Things were pretty anti-USA with all the support of Israel in 2024, but now in 2025 with Elon Musk being the center of all USA society attention every minute of every day, sites like Reddit are being turned away from (or people only reading to mock the USA) - where the HiveMind is extremely USA technology consumerism / technology lifestyle worship.
For example, I never witness anyone on Reddit criticize Apple Computers for funding Twitter / X in 2025. It’s tech addiction as the primary religion on Reddit. And I think those outside the USA are sick of that machine lust / machine mind behavior of Elon Musk, Zuck, Amazon, etc.
“Technopoly is a state of culture. It is also a state of mind. It consists in the deification of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology.” ― Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, 1992
9·15 hours agoDamned anti-vaccine activists.
I don’t blame them. In a society that worships the Apple iPhone and iPad and things that only fit in the length of a single screen, meme-speak and 3-word reaction commenting, it’s inevitable that entertainment mocking would eclipse science understanding. Carl Sagan said this in his 1995 book shortly before his death… that “10-second sound-bites” (meme-speak, Twitter-length junk) would drown society in the future if not changed. His 1995 warning has proven true since 2012.
Damned anti-vaccine activists.
I mean, who exactly educated these activists and everyday Apple iPhone users about information warfare? The most sophisticated devised by humanity? People were eaten-alive by Moscow information predators.
Look at the timing of this story, one year before the Wuhan Pandemic was front page, but nobody can seem to escape meme-think to discuss serious evidence. The activists didn’t stand a chance, they were scalped by Putin’s meme army since 2013.
Russian trolls blamed for spreading anti-vaccination propaganda
By Lia Eustachewich New York Post
Published February 17, 2019 2:01pm ESThttps://www.foxnews.com/tech/russian-trolls-blamed-for-spreading-anti-vaccination-propaganda
This is what pisses me off. Most of these sicknesses could be easily avoided, yet the lack of education from many clueless people
The most clueless ones are arrogant and entirely avoid researching factual evidence of a conspiracy (with evidence conspiracy, not a bullshit “trust me bro” conspiracy) that was published by well-known reputable universities: George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University authenticated the factual evidence.
I guess since smartphones and Twitter were the venue for the evidence, social media users just can’t see past their meme addiction to simple-think and reaction-thinking and seriously discuss the fact-based conspiracy evidence. I’ve been trying to grasp why in 2020 onward this wasn’t a constant topic of discussion! Wuhan China is world famous, why isn’t this public notice about Russia discussed (constantly!)?
August 24, 2018 - Measles Russia
The second it’s validated and becomes public knowledge, it’s no longer “privileged” knowledge and no longer makes them feel special for “knowing” a “secret truth”
Ahh, the (2 thousand year old) Bible verse Romans 11:33 theory of James Joyce’s work ;)
15·2 days agoBut democratized tech doesn’t guarantee democratic outcomes.
Far from it. We really need a major confrontation of the audience, information warfare needs to be educated to every single person of every age. Continuing education about science and mythology needs to continue, as people continue to flock to fiction and abandon non-fiction in every area of life.
People just can’t be serious about democracy and LOL and meme away their nation, the USA (where I live), it’s been absolute crisis since 2014.
“Everything in our background has prepared us to know and resist a prison when the gates begin to close around us . . . But what if there are no cries of anguish to be heard? Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles? What is the antidote to a culture’s being drained by laughter?” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, 1985
Conspiracy theorists: crickets
Agreed, FACTUAL EVIDENCE of a conspiracy theory is collected by reputable Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University and crickets. People flock to conspiracies with no evidence, but once one appears with authentic validation… nothing.
Troll accounts that had attempted to influence the US election had also been tweeting about vaccines, a study says. Many posted both pro- and anti-vaccination messages to create “false equivalency”, the study found. It examined thousands of tweets sent between 2014 and 2017. Vaccination was being used by trolls and sophisticated bots as a “wedge issue”, said Mark Dredze from Johns Hopkins University. “A significant portion of the online discourse about vaccines may be generated by malicious actors with a range of hidden agendas,” said David Broniatowski from George Washington University. The researchers reviewed more than 250 tweets about vaccination from accounts linked to the St Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA). In February the agency was named in a US indictment over alleged election meddling.
Important Reminder
August 24, 2018
All across the world every major news site covered this story in August 2018. Even Fox News covered it.
12·3 days agoThe clergy are failing all of humanity in not calling out the hate patterns in the middle east from all across the world. People need to stop grey-rocking Malala and promote her teachings.
“If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?” ― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, October 8, 2013
“In his pocket he kept a poem written by Martin Niemöller, who had lived in Nazi Germany. First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” ― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, October 8, 2013
9.9xxx years before October 7, 2023.
It’s the influence on people’s behavior that’s far more my concern than the self-awareness they have in terms of what they say (what you hear them say). Absolute addicts to technology rarely discuss their extreme addictions. You can witness the behavior all over in public since year 2010.