Thread by @JimmyFalunGong

it's time for a thread

so check this out. I've got about 7,000 followers on Twitter. I'm very happy about that, right?

I take pride in my posting, I certainly do less of it now that I've got a podcast, but whatever

and then I've got 346 patrons - way more than I ever thought I'd have. I put a lot of work into my show and I really enjoy creating, so I'm happy people respond to it

now, if we could postulate a "Twitter follower to patron conversion" ratio, I'd have a rate of around 4.88%, right?

and like, I know it's kind of gauche to talk money, or metrics, or success, or whatever, but I think it'll become important, as we'll see

now, if we look at a show that I consider pretty organic, Rev Left Radio, they've got 69,400 twitter followers to 1,589 patrons = 2.29% conversion rate, right?

the more successful the show, the higher the conversion rate, like both as a function of its popularity and a dual cause/effect right

there are some really weird outliers, however. a lot of them. but one sticks out to me

check this out. Radio Free Amanda has 58,876 twitter followers and 243 patrons - a conversion rate of 0.4%. that's right, not 4%, but 0.4%

but the thing is, this just sounds like an unsuccessful show, right? but then what's with the 59k twitter following then?

then, if you drill down into the Twitter analytics, there are multiple days in 2020 when she gained a thousand new followers a day, with an average growth rate of like maybe around 100/day. wild, viral growth, right

that's the other thing, too. as far as I can tell, her show doesn't have free content - it's only on patreon? as far as I can tell. so something's not adding up

in fact, the growth is pretty steady - about 4,000/month over a year's time. I don't think that's the normal rate and pattern of growth, though I'm no big city analytics expert

anyone have an idea why her accounts might have these discrepancies?

would that it were just for studying arabic in college

though "studied arabic in college" would be a good euphemism

actually, re Carl Zha, that's 400 patrons to 74k followers - about that same 0.5% like w/ Radio Free Amanda. go figure.

hmmmm hey look at this

(thanks @LLinecook )

the National Security Agency, you say?

now, for those of you who went to college, when a federal agency funds a scholarship program, are they doing it out of generosity?

and what else does the NSA get up to?

so if you knew someone who went to college, got a scholarship paid for by the NSA, and then pivoted into running an explicitly marxist podcast (that apparently people don't even listen to), would you hesitate at all?

like, even a little bit?

and what would the purpose be?

well, C. Wright Mills, author of the Power Elite, toward the end of his life, was concerned about "the creation of a obfuscatory surrogate left"

if you look at the history of infiltration from the labor wars to the CPUSA through civil rights and into COINTELPRO, you'd know that (while staying rational and grounded) you're usually not far off to stay about as noided as possible

also, I misspoke. Amanda's scholarship was funded by state dept. after that, she worked for the NSA's k-12 program

which is actually two different vectors, though they would work in tandem, right?

the point is not "whomst among us doesn't have something sus in our closet" but no, actually, the overwhelming majority of us don't.

and it's particularly weird to see the 'thought leaders' on the left who do

a lot of people have pointed out the insane epistemological shift that's happened where the Left (such as it is) hasn't provided any resistance to really disturbing developments, like vaccine passports, or rising food prices.

well,

all I'm saying is that it's not that the Left is discredited, but perhaps it's been, you know, mislead greatly, for many years now, and going back, well, about as far as you care to go

at the end of the day, you know, it's not really about Amanda, or Zha. I mean, who really knows, right?

it's really about how when things get really bad, we only have each other. just, I can't stand to see the Left taken for suckers.

thank you god bless