{"id":18109,"date":"2024-11-21T21:35:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T21:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18109"},"modified":"2024-11-21T21:35:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T21:35:27","slug":"substackeratis-grave-concerns-about-white-house-big-tech-collusion-have-disappeared-with-elons-ascension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18109","title":{"rendered":"Substackerati\u2019s \u2018Grave Concerns\u2019 About White House\/Big Tech Collusion Have Disappeared With Elon\u2019s Ascension"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

from the (sub)stack-of-hypocrites<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

For years, a vocal group of self-described \u201ccontrarian\u201d Substackified pundits warned about a supposed \u201ccensorship industrial complex\u201d involving collusion between the White House and social media companies to set content moderation policies. There was just one problem: it wasn\u2019t even close to true<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, with Elon Musk owning ExTwitter and Donald Trump heading back to the White House, we have a situation that actually matches what those contrarian chroniclers claimed to fear: powerful tech moguls with direct ties to the administration in a position to influence online speech. Suddenly, the grave concerns about \u201ccreeping authoritarianism\u201d have evaporated. The double standard couldn\u2019t be more blatant.<\/p>\n

So, I figured it was worth calling out the hypocrisy<\/a>, and MSNBC kindly gave me the space to do so:<\/p>\n

\n

The so-called<\/em> Twitter Files<\/em><\/a>, hyped by<\/em> Elon Musk<\/em><\/a> and handpicked journalists, were touted as smoking-gun proof of a vast conspiracy between social media and the government to violate the First Amendment. Testifying before Congress, these reporters called it a \u201cgrave threat\u201d and evidence of \u201ccreeping authoritarianism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Flash forward to today.<\/em> Donald Trump is heading back to the White House<\/em><\/a>. And Musk, owner of the social media company X (formerly Twitter), is a top donor, surrogate and soon-to-be government \u201cefficiency\u201d overseer. Musk has openly used his platform to boost Trump, attack his opponents and shape the political narrative. The collusion between government and Big Tech is no longer a conspiracy theory \u2014 it\u2019s out in the open.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet suddenly, all those grave concerns about the threat to democracy have evaporated. Most of the same voices who warned of shocking government overreach in the pre-Musk Twitter era are either silent about this turn of events or they\u2019re in wild celebration of the Trump-Musk alliance. This reveals the issue wasn\u2019t a matter of principle; it was a matter of party.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The limited space in the MSNBC piece prevented me from delving into the additional hypocrisy around how swiftly Elon Musk banned a reporter and links related to the leaked JD Vance dossier. This action was an even more extreme version<\/a> of what GOP pundits have baselessly claimed Twitter did with the New York Post\u2019s Hunter Biden laptop story.<\/p>\n

Yet, even as the completely exaggerated claims<\/a> about what happened with Twitter and the Hunter laptop are still regularly brought up by the MAGA faithful, the story about Elon and the Vance dossier disappeared after, what, two days?<\/p>\n

But, really, the piece takes aim at the Elon\/Trump enablers. The Sophist Substackerati who position themselves as brave truth tellers, standing up to government overreach: the Matt Taibbis, Michael Shellenbergers, and Bari Weisses of the world, who all seem to have forgotten what they were saying not too long ago about the hallucinated story of coziness between the White House and social media.<\/p>\n

\n

Taibbi<\/em> called it<\/em><\/a> \u201ca grave threat to people of all political persuasions.\u201d Shellenberger called it \u201cthe shocking and disturbing emergence of State-sponsored censorship.\u201d A reporter from The Free Press \u2014 a publication created by Bari Weiss (another Twitter Files reporter) \u2014 Rupa Subramanya, testified in one of these hearings warning that the American government was<\/em> heading down a dangerous path<\/em><\/a> of censorship, calling government connections to social media \u201ccreeping authoritarianism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

But, oh, how things have changed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Elon Musk still owns X. Donald Trump still owns Truth Social. These are two social media networks that can drive the news and conversations about important events in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unlike before, when there was conjecture (without evidence) of grand conspiracies and connections between the White House and important social media companies, now it\u2019s completely explicit and out in the open.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet, all talk of the \u201cgrave threats\u201d and \u201cshocking and disturbing\u201d connections between the White House and social media have disappeared entirely. Shellenberger has called the new administration \u201ccathartic.\u201d Taibbi has posted numerous articles celebrating the results of the election. The Free Press has a bunch of articles praising the new Trump administration and<\/em> celebrating<\/em><\/a> how the election was \u201ca win for a new generation of builders like Elon Musk.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The \u201cTwitter Files\u201d pundits built their brands on a false narrative of anti-establishment rebellion against the \u201celite\u201d trying to control social media. But when faced with the real thing, they\u2019re too busy high-fiving each other to care. Their \u201cgrave concerns\u201d about government collusion with Big Tech have suddenly evaporated now that the administration and the tech mogul are their ideological allies.<\/p>\n

Or, as I note:<\/p>\n

\n

Turns out for the \u201cTwitter Files\u201d crew, \u201ccreeping authoritarianism\u201d isn\u2019t so creepy when it\u2019s your team doing the creeping.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s a lot more in the piece, but I want to point out why it\u2019s so important to call out this hypocrisy. I know that there are a bunch of cynical \u201ctoo savvy for school\u201d folks who always respond to things like this by saying \u201cwhat, it surprises you that they were full of shit?\u201d<\/p>\n

No, it doesn\u2019t surprise me at all. I\u2019ve been calling out this kind of nonsense for years. But people who don\u2019t follow this stuff closely don\u2019t know this<\/em>. There are so many times where I hear something these nonsense peddlers pushed over and over again pop up in the mainstream media or among random people who just assume what they\u2019re saying is accurate.<\/p>\n

Calling out the hypocrisy isn\u2019t to impact those in the Intellectual Derp Web. They have their captured audiences and have made it clear they don\u2019t give a shit. But it\u2019s important to remind everyone else what the grift is here. The cluelessness, the gaslighting, and the utter nonsense they spent years spreading for clout. Some of us recognize it for what it was.<\/p>\n

We need to keep telling people and reminding people so that everyone else knows it\u2019s bullshit too.<\/p>\n

\n

\tFiled Under: bari weiss<\/a>, censorship industrial complex<\/a>, contrarians<\/a>, donald trump<\/a>, elon musk<\/a>, hypocrisy<\/a>, matt taibbi<\/a>, michael shellenberger<\/a>, nonsense peddlers<\/a>
\n\t
Companies: truth social<\/a>, twitter<\/a>, x<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Source: <\/em> politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the (sub)stack-of-hypocrites dept For years, a vocal group of self-described \u201ccontrarian\u201d Substackified pundits warned about a supposed \u201ccensorship industrial complex\u201d involving collusion between the White House and social media companies to set content moderation policies. There was just one problem: it wasn\u2019t even close to true. Now, with Elon Musk owning ExTwitter and Donald […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}