Useless Thread

[bustaheims]

The US still confuses me.  I understand that mid-term elections generally do not go well for the currently elected party but I'm just baffled that losing the House to this Republican party is still being viewed as a victory. 

Raphael Warnock can't win an election against a guy like Hershel Walker.  How is this still a good thing.  The Democrats bar for satisfaction is so damn low.

I read somewhere that 88% of evangelicals in Georgia voted for Walker and not the guy that is actually a pastor. So, you know, there's that.

 

[herman]

Haaave you met Gerry Mander?

 

[OldTimeHockey]

The US still confuses me.  I understand that mid-term elections generally do not go well for the currently elected party but I'm just baffled that losing the House to this Republican party is still being viewed as a victory. 

Raphael Warnock can't win an election against a guy like Hershel Walker.  How is this still a good thing.  The Democrats bar for satisfaction is so damn low.

Participation Awards.

 

[Kin]

The US still confuses me.  I understand that mid-term elections generally do not go well for the currently elected party but I'm just baffled that losing the House to this Republican party is still being viewed as a victory. 

Raphael Warnock can't win an election against a guy like Hershel Walker.  How is this still a good thing.  The Democrats bar for satisfaction is so damn low.

I think it's a combination of exceeding expectations vs. what a lot of pundits said would happen and what some polls were showing as well as the fact that a lot of people said that with the way Republican states were gerrymandering their congressional districts it would be near impossible for the Democrats to win the house until the next census. Instead, it looks like if some Democratic states redraw their own districts the Democrats very much can win going forward.

Admittedly that still doesn't address the issue you're talking about concerning the outright lunatics in the Republican party but I feel like most people have sort of come to grips with the fact that the state of American politics is what it is and one of the reason Republicans are like that is because a lot of Americans are like that.

I'd like to feel superior to that but considering who some people up here apparently think would make a good Prime Minister...clearly there's some real cultural rot going on. 

 

[Bender]

The US still confuses me.  I understand that mid-term elections generally do not go well for the currently elected party but I'm just baffled that losing the House to this Republican party is still being viewed as a victory. 

Raphael Warnock can't win an election against a guy like Hershel Walker.  How is this still a good thing.  The Democrats bar for satisfaction is so damn low.

I mean things are still up in the air - they can still hold on to some semblance of power. And the thing is the midterms almost always punish the incumbent, and considering how the GOP has all the tailwinds right now, even though they helped create a lot of the mess that the Biden admin is currently dealing with, the Dem numbers really aren't that bad all things considered.

But I mean, yeah the Dems (and by proxy, the centre to left) need to stop the self-loathing and stop with the nice guy schtick and the circular "holier than thou" firing squad. They feel like the doormat dweeb vs. the jock footballer who's an idiot but knows how to get people cheering. The Simpsons had this right a billion years ago

https://twitter.com/dhm/status/503194692805472257?s=20&t=SWtJ2pLEhDdBEEo18rbP4Q

 

[Bullfrog]

My son turned 13 this year. Sign that he's getting older: I asked him what he'd want for Christmas presents. He answers: "a bar fridge for my room so I can have nice cold drinks while gaming."

haha

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/donie/status/1592859900941852674

 

[bustaheims]

Sacrifice your entire life to Twitter or leave!

 

[Peter D.]

I love watching this entire Twitter fiasco as an outsder/non-user.

Musk just doing whatever the heck he wants with his new $44 billion toy.  Hardcore users on the complete opposite side of Musk's ideologies getting all worked up as a result threatening to leave the platform.

As someone who has never liked the premise behind Twitter, I'm loving watching it all burn down.

 

[Kin]

I have to be honest, I don't love the idea that Musk's "ideology" seems to be that people should be more subject to racist, homophobic and transphobic abuse. And "doing whatever he wants" sure seems to involve a lot of people losing their jobs.

I was never the biggest twitter user but I think it's kind of a bummer seeing what's happening to a place that a lot of people liked because of one guy's ego.

 

[bustaheims]

I have to be honest, I don't love the idea that Musk's "ideology" seems to be that people should be more subject to racist, homophobic and transphobic abuse. And "doing whatever he wants" sure seems to involve a lot of people losing their jobs.

I was never the biggest twitter user but I think it's kind of a bummer seeing what's happening to a place that a lot of people liked because of one guy's ego.

Same. Though the speed and thoroughness which the platform is crumbling is quite breathtaking. The fact that his destruction of Twitter is also taking down Tesla is also something to behold.

 

[rdowdall]

I have to be honest, I don't love the idea that Musk's "ideology" seems to be that people should be more subject to racist, homophobic and transphobic abuse. And "doing whatever he wants" sure seems to involve a lot of people losing their jobs.

I was never the biggest twitter user but I think it's kind of a bummer seeing what's happening to a place that a lot of people liked because of one guy's ego.

Same. Though the speed and thoroughness which the platform is crumbling is quite breathtaking. The fact that his destruction of Twitter is also taking down Tesla is also something to behold.

I just want to see how much this affects his personal wealth.  Can he go from billionaire to millionaire?

 

[bustaheims]

I just want to see how much this affects his personal wealth.  Can he go to billionaire to millionaire?

I would expect he's diversified his investments enough that he's insulated enough there - but, with the ego he's displayed of late, I'm no longer sure of that.

 

[rdowdall]

I just want to see how much this affects his personal wealth.  Can he go to billionaire to millionaire?

I would expect he's diversified his investments enough that he's insulated enough there - but, with the ego he's displayed of late, I'm no longer sure of that.

I think that is what I will find interesting.  Can ego such as this cost you financially, or is it possible to protect yourself to the point where you really can do and say whatever you want and have no repercussions?

 

[Kin]

I think that is what I will find interesting.  Can ego such as this cost you financially, or is it possible to protect yourself to the point where you really can do and say whatever you want and have no repercussions?

Feels like there's probably a huge middle ground between those two points though. Like, Musk will almost certainly lose billions and billions of dollars because of Twitter and still be incredibly wealthy.

 

[Arn]

I love watching this entire Twitter fiasco as an outsder/non-user.

Musk just doing whatever the heck he wants with his new $44 billion toy.  Hardcore users on the complete opposite side of Musk's ideologies getting all worked up as a result threatening to leave the platform.

As someone who has never liked the premise behind Twitter, I'm loving watching it all burn down.

About a decade or so ago I actually really liked twitter. It had a fantastic British hockey fan group and I was working in the media sphere so it was a great way of interacting with people I wouldn?t otherwise have.

But it really has turned into a cesspit.

Tbh it should have required everyone to be verified so that if abuse was posted they could be traced.

But that probably speaks to a wider ?the internet and/or social media should be regulated? debate.

 

[bustaheims]

I find Twitter is still great for finding out about breaking news stories, sports stuff, etc., but it's no longer a place I post or interact with many people. It's essentially become a headline ticker.

 

[Kin]

About a decade or so ago I actually really liked twitter. It had a fantastic British hockey fan group and I was working in the media sphere so it was a great way of interacting with people I wouldn?t otherwise have.

But it really has turned into a cesspit.

Tbh it should have required everyone to be verified so that if abuse was posted they could be traced.

But that probably speaks to a wider ?the internet and/or social media should be regulated? debate.

I think that idea is always going to be a double-edged sword though. Like, yes, I think a lot of the nastiness and abuse would probably be mitigated if people actually had to stand behind their words. On the flip side though the anonymity of the internet has always meant it's been a place where people can maybe be freer than they otherwise would in real life. For some that might not mean much but for people living under oppressive governments we wouldn't want them to put their safety at risk just to use a particular platform.

To me the thing about Twitter at it's best was that it could be many different things. News, the ability to talk about sports as they happen and just outright silliness and comedy accounts.

 

[bustaheims]

I think that idea is always going to be a double-edged sword though. Like, yes, I think a lot of the nastiness and abuse would probably be mitigated if people actually had to stand behind their words. On the flip side though the anonymity of the internet has always meant it's been a place where people can maybe be freer than they otherwise would in real life. For some that might not mean much but for people living under oppressive governments we wouldn't want them to put their safety at risk just to use a particular platform.

Yeah. It's definitely a slippery slope, which is a big part of why so many platforms struggle with disinformation, spreading hatred, etc. There are no good blanket solutions. The content moderation they've tried is hugely flawed - either it's an algorithm that can easily be worked around because it's only looking for specific words and phrases, or people with biases or who aren't native speakers of the language. It gets most of the worst of it, but a lot of stuff gets overlooked or doesn't meet whatever standards are supposedly in place. And, of course, a lot of that has gone out the window on Twitter since the start of the Elon era (not that it was the best before).

As long as there are crappy people out there, there's going to be crappy stuff posted on social media, unfortunately. And, it's going to get amplified by other crappy people. Without really stripping away the usefulness of the platforms, I'm not sure there is a good solution.

 

[Bender]

Just throwing this out there, but Elon has claimed the algorithm hasn't changed... except I see so much more pro Elon content and pro right wing content than ever. Somehow Kyke freaking Rittenhouse was at the top of my feed.

I think Elon basically has an obsession with being king of the Internet and we're watching Hubris destroy a company in real time.