I have waaay too many substack subscriptions but I’m going to go ahead and subscribe to this one too. I’m just going to consider it a Christmas present to myself. Sasha, please, keep it up! Your postings and podcast are really giving me hope that we are, in time, going to manage to climb our way out of this frightening mess. In the meantime you are helping me feel less isolated and alone. I’m especially grateful for your recommendation of “The Psychology of Totalitarianism” by Mattias Desmet. I just finished it and have moved on to “The Origins of Totalitarianism “ by Hannah Arendt. Please allow me to recommend Jenny Holland’s substack page “Saving Culture (from itself).
Sasha, you have delivered a particularly incisive history lesson of how we got from the relative free speech/critical-thinking allowed before (say) 2015 to the fascist/totalitarianism that exists today. Your explanation of how Twitter is used to create a story, cultivate and propagate the narrative, and then let it rain down on all of us as unchallengeable truth is like peaking behind the curtain at the Wizard of Oz. You are challenged repeatedly, “Show me a specific example”. And your weary response, “It is everywhere! I am drowning in it, and you are asking me to show you a frigging raindrop.”
You have painted a portrait of the risks we face that are undeniable. The White House is watching. Apple is threatening. Twitter-verse and the media are baying at the moon. An outsized government response is needed. It is absolutely not hyperbole to say that the future of America and Democracy is on the line…and that Elon Musk has put himself and Twitter squarely in the firing line. You have shown us the battle lines. Now what?
Well then…let’s call their bluff and bust the narrative. Let Musk atone! If Elon and Twitter are to be watched by the political class, then let it happen in the theatre in which all such things happen. I hereby ask that Elon Musk be called before the appropriate House and/or Senate oversight committees in the US Congress. Give him the platform to articulate his vision, our vision, the US Constitution’s vision of freedom of speech. Let the slippery definitions of “hate speech” and “misinformation” be debated there. Musk has teased and promised transparency for things behind the curtain at Twitter. Let him pull back that curtain on live TV. Let him reveal the one-sided nature of the content moderation that we all know has been there. Let him demonstrate what censorship looks like in practice by disclosing just how the Hunter laptop was memory-holed. Let him.
Unfortunately, I think the Democrats are too cowardly and too smart to bring Elon into the US Senate. He would make them look like the craven and despotic fools that they are. Likewise, I fear the establishment GOP might be too careless or clueless to recognize this opportunity to bust the narrative by bringing him into the US House.
But if it were to happen, I think it would be fun. I think it would prove enlightening. I think it might be inspiring. Might I even dream that it could be a pivot in US history? Yeah, I hope.
C’mon Congress, bring Elon in for a debate. I double-dog dare you.
Thing about Musk is that he didn't get where he is by not taking risks and making mistakes. Everyone is acting like Twitter is some sort of holy sacred space for the Biden Democrats and Dr. Fauci. It's the weirdest thing I ever heard. The motto of the early days of the internet was "move fast and break things." That's what Musk is doing and that's the only way to do it. They'll never give him credit, though.
Hopefully, he’ll get credit where it matters...with users and eventually advertisers. User growth and engagement is up, so that’s a good sign.
I’m interested in seeing where the liberals go that are dropping off Twitter. Not so easy to come up with a true alternative. I’m betting the ‘break things fast’ approach will result in an even more compelling Twitter that may draw them back. If it doesn’t, bu-bye!
It’s not possible that the people leading this, and most of their followers, do not understand what they have become. Only a few have had the courage and fortitude to not only reject it, but also to call it out. Sasha, Glenn, Tulsi come to mind.
Hey Sasha, thank-you again for another insightful and compelling essay. I am amazed you have been able to fight this well for so long. It must be exhausting and discouraging at times. I have read the comments also; they indicate great appreciation for your talent also. You are educating and giving hope to many of us.
The Ali Velshi interview, wow. So Musk only wants free speech for those who agree with him. I only know of one account he's blocked, and that was Kathy Griffin, and she was "pretending" to be Musk. *And* she got her account back.
The ease with which these people lie is disturbing, but more disturbing is the ease with which people believe them.
People have the right and the freedom to criticize Musk all they want, and they are doing so. They do not, however, have an inalienable right to work for him. The woke like to conflate these concepts. Twitter's activist employees are simply unable to recognize, acknowledge or value the legitimacy of Musk's authority over his teams of employees. Woke activists generally appear to be unfamiliar with organizational systems in which parents lead children, educators lead students, and bosses set directives for their business organizations.
Unfortunately, the woke activists in way too many corporations are learning that they DO have leverage over their bosses. Musk is showing the way for CEOs too. “Here is my vision. Join me or you are free to go.” Role model for freedom of association.
Agreed! The readiness of universities and corporate executives to fold when the list of Non-Negotiable Demands is presented is shocking and frustrating. It is also destructive to young people who need nothing more than to hear the word "no" for what might be the first time. With respect to the business world, until they see a drop in their profits, caving to activists demands is the path of least resistance.
No, that isn't what he did. It was about company loyalty. I would have fired them too if they were bitching about me publicly. That hurts the business.
Did he ban them from Twitter? That was the question.
And he fired a lot of employees, but the only employee I saw him fire for "disagreeing" with him was one who claimed that Musk was wrong that Twitter didn't work well on Android because *he* had worked on the app. Now, if Musk really thought the app didn't work well on Androids and he now had the employee responsible, did he fire him for disagreeing or for being incompetent at his job?
That was the context of the quote. They said that *on Twitter* Elon Musk was allowing freedom of speech only if it agreed with him. They weren't talking about employees, especially not employees at SpaceX.
And if you read the article instead of just the headline, you would know that was the reporter at CNBC's version of events. That was not the reason the company gave, nor does the company say Musk fired the employees directly.
Exactly. The government, the FBI, they were policing speech, violating the 1st amendment using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube as a filter - they still are.
I thought you said it didn't matter if it was a private business. I'm not sure how Apple got drug into this, other than it's going to land itself in an antitrust lawsuit if it actually tries to boot Twitter from its platform, but I distinctly read you saying that it didn't matter that Twitter is a private business or that Musk is a private citizen. You really do need to make up your mind.
What's scary to me is how many people just happily go along with the narrative. I guess you'd say it's because they don't hear a dissent from that narrative that isn't misrepresented and lampooned. But even still, in my head all it should really take is a little critical thinking to start questioning some things, and pretty soon it unravels. But after this last election i've lost a lot of faith in people. Priorities are completely out of whack.
I think Sasha kinda addressed that. People are busy. They don’t even know a “story” is being told. They think they are just hearing the “news”....if they bother at all. The narrative is so pervasive across media that it is just the air they breathe. But I agree, the end result is scary.
Desmet addressed it as well. It’s really worth taking the time to hear his short piece. He talks about the way contorted ideological frameworks free people from the anxiety of uncertainty that is a fundamental element of being human. Belonging to a coherent narrative shared in lockstep with the larger group shields people from life’s inherent anxiety. Its indifference to or even hostility towards reality is a feature, not a bug.
Yes and he ties it really well to the lockdowns, the confusion and then how there was a mass formation. It took hold and thus far, no one has really disrupted it.
I bought Desmet's book within minutes after hearing him speak the first time. It was from a link you (I think?) posted a month or so ago. I haven't finished reading my current book so his is on deck, but one of the things I'm most interested to know more about is just how much defiance is required to keep the mass formation from tipping into an extreme state. Every authoritarian state has some dissidents, but that's not exactly reassuring.
The sad truth is that most people who reach a point where their fundamental integrity requires that they insist 2+2=4 are people no one knows or remembers. The gulag was full of them; Solzhenitsyn just happened to be one whose powers of expression shook an empire. We remember Dietrich Bonhoffer, Andrei Sakharov, a few others. The vast body of all that loss will always be invisible to us, and so be it. Truth is not a tactic, it's a route to decency and our own humanity.
Still - there's something infectious about the example of seeing what it's like to think and speak for oneself. Part of what makes your writing work so well is that you blend an artistic sensibility and a deep sophistication without ever condescending to or patronizing your reader. It's as if you speak in a voice I can imagine myself speaking. The interspersed video magnifies that effect. What I am trying to say is that it's not just what you say, it's that you say it and how you say it. The culture is trying to give birth to something authentic and human, something that will be a component for the basis of future institutions. We're all in the struggle, each in our own life compartment, but your skill provides a kind of accelerant. It's both inspiring and instructive. Thank you!
P.S. For an interesting example of another person whose voice is extremely powerful in the sense that it provides an illustration/example like yours does, but whose feel is nothing like yours, listen to Wesley Yang's interview with Jeanette Cooper last week. Jeanette is a progressive, politically active woman who is as grounded as a California redwood. She provides another example of how a person can live truthfully and really think for herself. Our cultural immune system is at work!
I keep wondering if rational thought is not also part of being human? Because I get that people are hearing a lot of BS. But don’t their BS alarms start ringing? I have a hard time with the “they are busy and that’s all they hear” explanation...
I'd like to see Elon have a "Council of the Elders." On the "elder" side I'd suggest Jordan Peterson, Victor Davis Hanson, Camille Paglia, Glenn Loury, et al. On the younger side maybe Mattias Desmet, Michael Schellenberger, and Bjorn Lomborg. On the media/political side how about Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Sasha Stone, and Bari Weiss? I know, I'm leaving out a lot of good folks. I'm just thinking of people I'd like to hang with.
I'm reading "The Psychology of Totalitarianism," again, this time making notes. It seems to me that within his writing he presents a foundation on which we can base and evolve our musings and opinions and understand those of others we might not agree with. His philosophy seems coherent yet gentle.
I have a friend who is an actor who has been in a lot of stuff you all would know. He's barely D-list, but he's had lines/characters in some pretty big shows. That said, he only has a few thousand followers. His Twitter presence the past few years has simply been Democratic talking points. Everything is political except when he's self promoting a show he is on.
Over the summer we had him and his wife over and got to talking -- I had said to my wife I was going to avoid politics not because I disagree with his per se but mostly because I can't stand discussing it anymore. We were having a nice afternoon until he asked why I wasn't posting on Twitter anymore. I explained that it made me feel bad about life, about things I used to like/love in pop culture and how it's too political for me.
His wife swatted him and said, "see! this is what I'm telling you!" and went on about how his Twitter activity has made him manic and how he hates all the things he used to love (including acting). This led to a bigger conversation about how he as a straight white male character actor can't get roles like he used to even with all the credits he had to his name. He was basically relegated to doing self tapes in their bathroom because casting directors who used to call him in for stuff stopped calling. He was upset about the loss of his livelihood.
I couldn't hold it in anymore and I said, "Well dude, you're out there online all day stumping for the people who want you to go away and not get parts anymore." He sat back and exhaled, "I know, but if I don't support the Democrats publically my chances of getting cast in anything are zero". This is a real conversation folks -- I'm not amping up the drama.
He began to tell me he wanted to get on the DM list that circulates filled with Democratic celebs on Twitter because that's the list you want to be on. People like Debra Messing, Alyssa Milano, Patton Oswalt, Mark Ruffalo, Judd Apatow, etc. He claims there is a list where they receive talking points from the Democratic party and decide on that day's topics. I have no idea if this even exists and if it does Elon should have access to the DM's and he should expose it.
My friend then told me he waits to see what topic those actors are pushing that day and then he retweets them in the hopes it elevates him in their eyes. Like Patton Oswalt is going to see some rando actor on Twitter who has been in a few things and will call up a studio head and shout, "Hire this man immediately!" The thought behind why he needs to amplify their voices is insane. It's not necessarily that he agrees with the outrage/topic du jour, it's he wants to be discovered as being on their team and that will hopefully allow him to get more work again.
Just sitting there my wife and I were dumbfounded because hearing someone talk about how important their Twitter presence was to their career prospects sounded completely insane. This is a normal guy with some acting talent who is obsessed with parroting Democratic talking points in the hopes he lands a role on a TV series again.
Since Elon has taken over my actor friend has written around 10 posts that are his goodbye Twitter posts -- then he shows up 24-36 hours later retweeting Democratic talking points and eventually posts another "Goodbye Twitter" post. His behavior on there is not healthy or okay. And guys, this is a normal person in real life -- I try not to judge him for this because he's bought into this bubble and thinks if he leaves it he won't get work anymore because the Democratic big brother/sister gatekeeping Hollywood jobs is always watching him and his few thousand followers.
Twitter has been a plague. It's made nice people like my friend insane. If you can get him off talking about politics and Twitter he's actually fun to be around, but once the topic becomes politics and Twitter it's like talking to a completely different person.
And yes, he has replaced Trump with Musk as the party demanded. He has listed his username on Vine, Mastodon, etc. as the party demanded.
I hope Elon can hold firm. Apple and Google are going to abandon Twitter. Disney will stop advertising there too. They're going to be pressured to freeze him out in the hopes of hurting him financially that he sells it back to one of them at a loss and they can go back to the echo chamber. Because don't believe for a second they are okay mentally or physically without Twitter -- the left are hooked on it and they are still there. They're just afraid to post a lot because they think Big Brother/Big Sister is watching and will cancel them for supporting the platform. The only thing they are allowed to do on there right now is to bash Elon and say "Goodbye Twitter, it's been fun!" despite the fact that nothing there has changed. The only hate speech I've noticed is aimed at Elon.
Need a new Hollywood. There is an audience to be had for good non-woke entertainment. Need someone will equal parts balls and capital to create a real alternative. Elon, when you’re finished fixing Twitter, I’ve got an entertainment project for ya!
Wow, a sad commentary. It makes me admire all the more those on the left who have had the guts to stand up and push back. How many more are like your friend- living in terror, while vigorously supporting those who terrorize him?
I think he's scrambling. The industry has changed in a few years and he thinks the way in is to try to get a seat at the "cool table" because he's posting about Raphael Warnock all day despite the fact he lives in NYC and the Democrats have already won control of the Senate. It's performative. So much of Twitter is performative. The same way Instagram has harmed millions of young girls and women, Twitter has diseased millions of minds of adults. And it has without a doubt destroyed the entertainment industry outside of a few rare cases of shows/creators that don't bend the knee.
I’d really like to know who put Mark Ruffalo and Alyssa Milano in charge of Hollywood opinion. Really, that alone should speak volumes to those tagging along. Alyssa Milano?
It's a ludicrous hodge podge group of actors who are trying to turn activists. While I'm not sure I buy my friends assertion that there's a coordinated group dishing out Dem talking points that they all take turns amplifying from the party, I do see that people believe that agreeing and retweeting with these celebs on there will help their careers in the entertainment industry.
Instead of Twitter being a place where people are comfortable being themselves, they are pretending to be something else in the hopes of being recognized by the elite and eventually joining the elite.
Any the fact that they consider Debra Messing, Ruffalo and Milano the elite is just as sad as people on the right thinking Scott Baio is some paragon of truth and purity.
They're actors. We shouldn't even be listening to their views on this stuff. I'd rather hear from some grown ups.
Hey Fred, your phrase the “cool table” reminded me that once cool places like RollingStone are now nothing but a sad old age home for ancient and pretentious wokesters.
Here is one of their recent headlines “
With Herschel Walker, the Stupidity Is the Point”. Astonishing. When was it cool to be on the side of all three branches of the federal government? To be on the side of the Fortune 50? To be in the side of the 1%?
Don't even get me started on Rolling Stone. They've lost their compass completely. I used to admire Jann Wenner for what he created there. Now it's basically a pamphlet. I can't believe you go from supporting Hunter S. Thompson to this. They may as well let the NY Times buy them and include them as a glossy section in the Sunday edition.
Thanks for sharing. Tell your buddy to look up Nick Searcy, Jon Voight, Gina Carano, etc. for work as they play to their own tune. I quit regularly browsing all social media this past spring and it is wonderful as I have found such refreshing things and people over here in Stackworld - you know, like having constructive discussions with people you may disagree with :-D.
That clip from Network with Ned Beatty remains quite possibly, my favorite scene from any movie from all time (except of course for the scene from Fritz the Cat..."awww Fritz...you aint BLACK enough..." ). I certainly loved the "I'm mad as hell" scene as much as anyone else, but the the Ned Beatty scene...absolutely unrivaled. Flawless. Sickening.
Great piece again today. PLEASE keep up the good work. Vigilance, as they say...
Thank you. I know it really well and love it too but for some dumb reason I had written "Primary forces of nature" even though I know it's "primal forces of nature."
Sasha - another great work. I absolutely love seeing this community of readers grow. Your work is worth the price of admission alone but the comments section is priceless. While some think this might just be an echo chamber, I view it as pure validation. Many of us have been a minority in a sea of blue. Unable to openly speak or capable of articulating what, or how we feel. This is the best Substack subscription ever! Thank you
Hey Jim, I have also challenged myself to be careful about falling into an ‘echo chamber’. It makes sense that people of a like mind will gravitate toward certain writers; that can’t be avoiding easily. But here is what I will try and I ask you to consider also; if I see the writing here to be what I think is inaccurate or untruthful, I will call it out explicitly.
We do need to challenge each other so as not to become the monolith that exists on the Left. Iron sharpens iron. But Sasha just nails it! Like she is organizing the thoughts that are already tumbling around in my head. 😵💫
Great insight Sasha. Allow me to offer an adjacent perspective. Twitter has been in cahoots with our beloved government for over a decade toppling Ghadaffy and Mubarak; Twitter has no content, just moderators which is very expensive. No content = no cashflow, therefore, in considering the government partnerships of the past we have to assume they are using government servers. Could this be why the blowback is so high-energy? Me thinks so...
I rejoined Twitter after Elon purchased it, and have been having a blast. I'm trying to be balanced in what I like and follow, because I don't want to end up in an echo chamber, but I'm having a hard time finding many rational thinkers on the left. I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone has.
Also, Elon is a riot. Too bad I missed Trump because I imagine he was fun too.
Find me @realsashastone - it's a protected account for now because I get a lot of abuse still. Lots of great minds on there: Bret Weinstein, Meghan Murphy, Walter Kirn, Matt Taibbi...
I have waaay too many substack subscriptions but I’m going to go ahead and subscribe to this one too. I’m just going to consider it a Christmas present to myself. Sasha, please, keep it up! Your postings and podcast are really giving me hope that we are, in time, going to manage to climb our way out of this frightening mess. In the meantime you are helping me feel less isolated and alone. I’m especially grateful for your recommendation of “The Psychology of Totalitarianism” by Mattias Desmet. I just finished it and have moved on to “The Origins of Totalitarianism “ by Hannah Arendt. Please allow me to recommend Jenny Holland’s substack page “Saving Culture (from itself).
Hi Ann, so glad to find a fellow Substacker with waaaay too many subscriptions haha
Sasha was one of the first, she’s amazing 🤩
I just finished Desmet’s book last week. Insightful read.
Hitler, Orwell, Quint, oh Musk!
Sasha, you have delivered a particularly incisive history lesson of how we got from the relative free speech/critical-thinking allowed before (say) 2015 to the fascist/totalitarianism that exists today. Your explanation of how Twitter is used to create a story, cultivate and propagate the narrative, and then let it rain down on all of us as unchallengeable truth is like peaking behind the curtain at the Wizard of Oz. You are challenged repeatedly, “Show me a specific example”. And your weary response, “It is everywhere! I am drowning in it, and you are asking me to show you a frigging raindrop.”
You have painted a portrait of the risks we face that are undeniable. The White House is watching. Apple is threatening. Twitter-verse and the media are baying at the moon. An outsized government response is needed. It is absolutely not hyperbole to say that the future of America and Democracy is on the line…and that Elon Musk has put himself and Twitter squarely in the firing line. You have shown us the battle lines. Now what?
Well then…let’s call their bluff and bust the narrative. Let Musk atone! If Elon and Twitter are to be watched by the political class, then let it happen in the theatre in which all such things happen. I hereby ask that Elon Musk be called before the appropriate House and/or Senate oversight committees in the US Congress. Give him the platform to articulate his vision, our vision, the US Constitution’s vision of freedom of speech. Let the slippery definitions of “hate speech” and “misinformation” be debated there. Musk has teased and promised transparency for things behind the curtain at Twitter. Let him pull back that curtain on live TV. Let him reveal the one-sided nature of the content moderation that we all know has been there. Let him demonstrate what censorship looks like in practice by disclosing just how the Hunter laptop was memory-holed. Let him.
Unfortunately, I think the Democrats are too cowardly and too smart to bring Elon into the US Senate. He would make them look like the craven and despotic fools that they are. Likewise, I fear the establishment GOP might be too careless or clueless to recognize this opportunity to bust the narrative by bringing him into the US House.
But if it were to happen, I think it would be fun. I think it would prove enlightening. I think it might be inspiring. Might I even dream that it could be a pivot in US history? Yeah, I hope.
C’mon Congress, bring Elon in for a debate. I double-dog dare you.
Thing about Musk is that he didn't get where he is by not taking risks and making mistakes. Everyone is acting like Twitter is some sort of holy sacred space for the Biden Democrats and Dr. Fauci. It's the weirdest thing I ever heard. The motto of the early days of the internet was "move fast and break things." That's what Musk is doing and that's the only way to do it. They'll never give him credit, though.
Hopefully, he’ll get credit where it matters...with users and eventually advertisers. User growth and engagement is up, so that’s a good sign.
I’m interested in seeing where the liberals go that are dropping off Twitter. Not so easy to come up with a true alternative. I’m betting the ‘break things fast’ approach will result in an even more compelling Twitter that may draw them back. If it doesn’t, bu-bye!
Of course, my TSLA stock would sink further in the short-term due to more Elon distraction. LOL
“Welcome to the fight, Mr. Musk. This time, I know our side will win. “
I don’t have words to express how deeply I hope you are right.
I hope I'm right too. It's better than ending with: forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown. And it might go that way.
It’s not possible that the people leading this, and most of their followers, do not understand what they have become. Only a few have had the courage and fortitude to not only reject it, but also to call it out. Sasha, Glenn, Tulsi come to mind.
Hey Sasha, thank-you again for another insightful and compelling essay. I am amazed you have been able to fight this well for so long. It must be exhausting and discouraging at times. I have read the comments also; they indicate great appreciation for your talent also. You are educating and giving hope to many of us.
I echo this. You are indeed giving hope.,,and hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things (Shawshank). Thank you for your seeming tireless efforts.
The Ali Velshi interview, wow. So Musk only wants free speech for those who agree with him. I only know of one account he's blocked, and that was Kathy Griffin, and she was "pretending" to be Musk. *And* she got her account back.
The ease with which these people lie is disturbing, but more disturbing is the ease with which people believe them.
People have the right and the freedom to criticize Musk all they want, and they are doing so. They do not, however, have an inalienable right to work for him. The woke like to conflate these concepts. Twitter's activist employees are simply unable to recognize, acknowledge or value the legitimacy of Musk's authority over his teams of employees. Woke activists generally appear to be unfamiliar with organizational systems in which parents lead children, educators lead students, and bosses set directives for their business organizations.
Unfortunately, the woke activists in way too many corporations are learning that they DO have leverage over their bosses. Musk is showing the way for CEOs too. “Here is my vision. Join me or you are free to go.” Role model for freedom of association.
Agreed! The readiness of universities and corporate executives to fold when the list of Non-Negotiable Demands is presented is shocking and frustrating. It is also destructive to young people who need nothing more than to hear the word "no" for what might be the first time. With respect to the business world, until they see a drop in their profits, caving to activists demands is the path of least resistance.
He fired employees who publicly disagreed with his Twitter posts. Look it up.
No, that isn't what he did. It was about company loyalty. I would have fired them too if they were bitching about me publicly. That hurts the business.
Did he ban them from Twitter? That was the question.
And he fired a lot of employees, but the only employee I saw him fire for "disagreeing" with him was one who claimed that Musk was wrong that Twitter didn't work well on Android because *he* had worked on the app. Now, if Musk really thought the app didn't work well on Androids and he now had the employee responsible, did he fire him for disagreeing or for being incompetent at his job?
So Musk's freedom of speech only applies to Twitter? That makes no sense.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/17/spacex-fires-employees-after-internal-letter-criticizes-ceo-elon-musk.html
Why does it make no sense?
That was the context of the quote. They said that *on Twitter* Elon Musk was allowing freedom of speech only if it agreed with him. They weren't talking about employees, especially not employees at SpaceX.
And if you read the article instead of just the headline, you would know that was the reporter at CNBC's version of events. That was not the reason the company gave, nor does the company say Musk fired the employees directly.
Because like or not first amendment never ever applied to private business. You dont like a private business go somewhere else.
True, but the government cannot launder its unconstitutional behavior using private business either.
Exactly. The government, the FBI, they were policing speech, violating the 1st amendment using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube as a filter - they still are.
TWITTER IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS. Why must Apple advertise on it? You just played yourself.
You're outmatched here, man.
This isn't about Apple ads. This is about Apple booting Twitter from the app store at the behest of the government
At a minimum, Musk has a colorable antitrust argument if Apple does that.
It isn't about forcing Apple to advertise on Twitter, which would be outrageous.
I thought you said it didn't matter if it was a private business. I'm not sure how Apple got drug into this, other than it's going to land itself in an antitrust lawsuit if it actually tries to boot Twitter from its platform, but I distinctly read you saying that it didn't matter that Twitter is a private business or that Musk is a private citizen. You really do need to make up your mind.
What's scary to me is how many people just happily go along with the narrative. I guess you'd say it's because they don't hear a dissent from that narrative that isn't misrepresented and lampooned. But even still, in my head all it should really take is a little critical thinking to start questioning some things, and pretty soon it unravels. But after this last election i've lost a lot of faith in people. Priorities are completely out of whack.
I think Sasha kinda addressed that. People are busy. They don’t even know a “story” is being told. They think they are just hearing the “news”....if they bother at all. The narrative is so pervasive across media that it is just the air they breathe. But I agree, the end result is scary.
Desmet addressed it as well. It’s really worth taking the time to hear his short piece. He talks about the way contorted ideological frameworks free people from the anxiety of uncertainty that is a fundamental element of being human. Belonging to a coherent narrative shared in lockstep with the larger group shields people from life’s inherent anxiety. Its indifference to or even hostility towards reality is a feature, not a bug.
Yes and he ties it really well to the lockdowns, the confusion and then how there was a mass formation. It took hold and thus far, no one has really disrupted it.
I bought Desmet's book within minutes after hearing him speak the first time. It was from a link you (I think?) posted a month or so ago. I haven't finished reading my current book so his is on deck, but one of the things I'm most interested to know more about is just how much defiance is required to keep the mass formation from tipping into an extreme state. Every authoritarian state has some dissidents, but that's not exactly reassuring.
The sad truth is that most people who reach a point where their fundamental integrity requires that they insist 2+2=4 are people no one knows or remembers. The gulag was full of them; Solzhenitsyn just happened to be one whose powers of expression shook an empire. We remember Dietrich Bonhoffer, Andrei Sakharov, a few others. The vast body of all that loss will always be invisible to us, and so be it. Truth is not a tactic, it's a route to decency and our own humanity.
Still - there's something infectious about the example of seeing what it's like to think and speak for oneself. Part of what makes your writing work so well is that you blend an artistic sensibility and a deep sophistication without ever condescending to or patronizing your reader. It's as if you speak in a voice I can imagine myself speaking. The interspersed video magnifies that effect. What I am trying to say is that it's not just what you say, it's that you say it and how you say it. The culture is trying to give birth to something authentic and human, something that will be a component for the basis of future institutions. We're all in the struggle, each in our own life compartment, but your skill provides a kind of accelerant. It's both inspiring and instructive. Thank you!
P.S. For an interesting example of another person whose voice is extremely powerful in the sense that it provides an illustration/example like yours does, but whose feel is nothing like yours, listen to Wesley Yang's interview with Jeanette Cooper last week. Jeanette is a progressive, politically active woman who is as grounded as a California redwood. She provides another example of how a person can live truthfully and really think for herself. Our cultural immune system is at work!
I keep wondering if rational thought is not also part of being human? Because I get that people are hearing a lot of BS. But don’t their BS alarms start ringing? I have a hard time with the “they are busy and that’s all they hear” explanation...
We need more brave (rich) freedom fighters.
Sasha...you are the best here! Your Trump article was the best I've ever read...pls keep it up....when I read you I have hope!
Tom
Thank you!
I hope Elon knows about Mattias Desmet. He would be a great advisor.
They seem like they'd get along.
I'd like to see Elon have a "Council of the Elders." On the "elder" side I'd suggest Jordan Peterson, Victor Davis Hanson, Camille Paglia, Glenn Loury, et al. On the younger side maybe Mattias Desmet, Michael Schellenberger, and Bjorn Lomborg. On the media/political side how about Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Sasha Stone, and Bari Weiss? I know, I'm leaving out a lot of good folks. I'm just thinking of people I'd like to hang with.
Excellent list. How about adding Douglas Murray?
Absolutely.
Doug rocks.
Also his buddy Andrew Doyle,
Absolutely! Excellent idea.
I'm reading "The Psychology of Totalitarianism," again, this time making notes. It seems to me that within his writing he presents a foundation on which we can base and evolve our musings and opinions and understand those of others we might not agree with. His philosophy seems coherent yet gentle.
I have a friend who is an actor who has been in a lot of stuff you all would know. He's barely D-list, but he's had lines/characters in some pretty big shows. That said, he only has a few thousand followers. His Twitter presence the past few years has simply been Democratic talking points. Everything is political except when he's self promoting a show he is on.
Over the summer we had him and his wife over and got to talking -- I had said to my wife I was going to avoid politics not because I disagree with his per se but mostly because I can't stand discussing it anymore. We were having a nice afternoon until he asked why I wasn't posting on Twitter anymore. I explained that it made me feel bad about life, about things I used to like/love in pop culture and how it's too political for me.
His wife swatted him and said, "see! this is what I'm telling you!" and went on about how his Twitter activity has made him manic and how he hates all the things he used to love (including acting). This led to a bigger conversation about how he as a straight white male character actor can't get roles like he used to even with all the credits he had to his name. He was basically relegated to doing self tapes in their bathroom because casting directors who used to call him in for stuff stopped calling. He was upset about the loss of his livelihood.
I couldn't hold it in anymore and I said, "Well dude, you're out there online all day stumping for the people who want you to go away and not get parts anymore." He sat back and exhaled, "I know, but if I don't support the Democrats publically my chances of getting cast in anything are zero". This is a real conversation folks -- I'm not amping up the drama.
He began to tell me he wanted to get on the DM list that circulates filled with Democratic celebs on Twitter because that's the list you want to be on. People like Debra Messing, Alyssa Milano, Patton Oswalt, Mark Ruffalo, Judd Apatow, etc. He claims there is a list where they receive talking points from the Democratic party and decide on that day's topics. I have no idea if this even exists and if it does Elon should have access to the DM's and he should expose it.
My friend then told me he waits to see what topic those actors are pushing that day and then he retweets them in the hopes it elevates him in their eyes. Like Patton Oswalt is going to see some rando actor on Twitter who has been in a few things and will call up a studio head and shout, "Hire this man immediately!" The thought behind why he needs to amplify their voices is insane. It's not necessarily that he agrees with the outrage/topic du jour, it's he wants to be discovered as being on their team and that will hopefully allow him to get more work again.
Just sitting there my wife and I were dumbfounded because hearing someone talk about how important their Twitter presence was to their career prospects sounded completely insane. This is a normal guy with some acting talent who is obsessed with parroting Democratic talking points in the hopes he lands a role on a TV series again.
Since Elon has taken over my actor friend has written around 10 posts that are his goodbye Twitter posts -- then he shows up 24-36 hours later retweeting Democratic talking points and eventually posts another "Goodbye Twitter" post. His behavior on there is not healthy or okay. And guys, this is a normal person in real life -- I try not to judge him for this because he's bought into this bubble and thinks if he leaves it he won't get work anymore because the Democratic big brother/sister gatekeeping Hollywood jobs is always watching him and his few thousand followers.
Twitter has been a plague. It's made nice people like my friend insane. If you can get him off talking about politics and Twitter he's actually fun to be around, but once the topic becomes politics and Twitter it's like talking to a completely different person.
And yes, he has replaced Trump with Musk as the party demanded. He has listed his username on Vine, Mastodon, etc. as the party demanded.
I hope Elon can hold firm. Apple and Google are going to abandon Twitter. Disney will stop advertising there too. They're going to be pressured to freeze him out in the hopes of hurting him financially that he sells it back to one of them at a loss and they can go back to the echo chamber. Because don't believe for a second they are okay mentally or physically without Twitter -- the left are hooked on it and they are still there. They're just afraid to post a lot because they think Big Brother/Big Sister is watching and will cancel them for supporting the platform. The only thing they are allowed to do on there right now is to bash Elon and say "Goodbye Twitter, it's been fun!" despite the fact that nothing there has changed. The only hate speech I've noticed is aimed at Elon.
Need a new Hollywood. There is an audience to be had for good non-woke entertainment. Need someone will equal parts balls and capital to create a real alternative. Elon, when you’re finished fixing Twitter, I’ve got an entertainment project for ya!
Twitter is the new McCarthy.
Wow, a sad commentary. It makes me admire all the more those on the left who have had the guts to stand up and push back. How many more are like your friend- living in terror, while vigorously supporting those who terrorize him?
I think he's scrambling. The industry has changed in a few years and he thinks the way in is to try to get a seat at the "cool table" because he's posting about Raphael Warnock all day despite the fact he lives in NYC and the Democrats have already won control of the Senate. It's performative. So much of Twitter is performative. The same way Instagram has harmed millions of young girls and women, Twitter has diseased millions of minds of adults. And it has without a doubt destroyed the entertainment industry outside of a few rare cases of shows/creators that don't bend the knee.
I’d really like to know who put Mark Ruffalo and Alyssa Milano in charge of Hollywood opinion. Really, that alone should speak volumes to those tagging along. Alyssa Milano?
It's a ludicrous hodge podge group of actors who are trying to turn activists. While I'm not sure I buy my friends assertion that there's a coordinated group dishing out Dem talking points that they all take turns amplifying from the party, I do see that people believe that agreeing and retweeting with these celebs on there will help their careers in the entertainment industry.
Instead of Twitter being a place where people are comfortable being themselves, they are pretending to be something else in the hopes of being recognized by the elite and eventually joining the elite.
Any the fact that they consider Debra Messing, Ruffalo and Milano the elite is just as sad as people on the right thinking Scott Baio is some paragon of truth and purity.
They're actors. We shouldn't even be listening to their views on this stuff. I'd rather hear from some grown ups.
Hey Fred, your phrase the “cool table” reminded me that once cool places like RollingStone are now nothing but a sad old age home for ancient and pretentious wokesters.
Here is one of their recent headlines “
With Herschel Walker, the Stupidity Is the Point”. Astonishing. When was it cool to be on the side of all three branches of the federal government? To be on the side of the Fortune 50? To be in the side of the 1%?
Don't even get me started on Rolling Stone. They've lost their compass completely. I used to admire Jann Wenner for what he created there. Now it's basically a pamphlet. I can't believe you go from supporting Hunter S. Thompson to this. They may as well let the NY Times buy them and include them as a glossy section in the Sunday edition.
Here is a recent Substack from John and Glenn on subject of racism against whites in theater. https://glennloury.substack.com/p/cruelty-in-the-name-of-antiracism/comments
Thanks for sharing. Tell your buddy to look up Nick Searcy, Jon Voight, Gina Carano, etc. for work as they play to their own tune. I quit regularly browsing all social media this past spring and it is wonderful as I have found such refreshing things and people over here in Stackworld - you know, like having constructive discussions with people you may disagree with :-D.
That clip from Network with Ned Beatty remains quite possibly, my favorite scene from any movie from all time (except of course for the scene from Fritz the Cat..."awww Fritz...you aint BLACK enough..." ). I certainly loved the "I'm mad as hell" scene as much as anyone else, but the the Ned Beatty scene...absolutely unrivaled. Flawless. Sickening.
Great piece again today. PLEASE keep up the good work. Vigilance, as they say...
Thank you. I know it really well and love it too but for some dumb reason I had written "Primary forces of nature" even though I know it's "primal forces of nature."
Sasha - another great work. I absolutely love seeing this community of readers grow. Your work is worth the price of admission alone but the comments section is priceless. While some think this might just be an echo chamber, I view it as pure validation. Many of us have been a minority in a sea of blue. Unable to openly speak or capable of articulating what, or how we feel. This is the best Substack subscription ever! Thank you
Hey Jim, I have also challenged myself to be careful about falling into an ‘echo chamber’. It makes sense that people of a like mind will gravitate toward certain writers; that can’t be avoiding easily. But here is what I will try and I ask you to consider also; if I see the writing here to be what I think is inaccurate or untruthful, I will call it out explicitly.
Agree wholeheartedly.
We do need to challenge each other so as not to become the monolith that exists on the Left. Iron sharpens iron. But Sasha just nails it! Like she is organizing the thoughts that are already tumbling around in my head. 😵💫
Great insight Sasha. Allow me to offer an adjacent perspective. Twitter has been in cahoots with our beloved government for over a decade toppling Ghadaffy and Mubarak; Twitter has no content, just moderators which is very expensive. No content = no cashflow, therefore, in considering the government partnerships of the past we have to assume they are using government servers. Could this be why the blowback is so high-energy? Me thinks so...
Ah interesting! I hadn't thought about that.
For all of his faults, the one public service Trump provided was supplying the stimulus for the left to let the mask slip.
Having tasted the power of censorship, they sure as hell ain't gonna give it up.
Great post Sasha.
I rejoined Twitter after Elon purchased it, and have been having a blast. I'm trying to be balanced in what I like and follow, because I don't want to end up in an echo chamber, but I'm having a hard time finding many rational thinkers on the left. I'd appreciate any suggestions anyone has.
Also, Elon is a riot. Too bad I missed Trump because I imagine he was fun too.
Find me @realsashastone - it's a protected account for now because I get a lot of abuse still. Lots of great minds on there: Bret Weinstein, Meghan Murphy, Walter Kirn, Matt Taibbi...
Thanks!
I already had Brett, Walter and Matt.
I elected to follow your Awards Daily. How has that work held up since you pointed out to the Hollywood crowd that the Emperor has no clothes?