Tom Zimbardo Profile picture
Mar 9, 2023 20 tweets 6 min read Read on X
So, there’s this live space right now entitled #Twitterfiles and it’s got 5800 or so listeners. It’s generally insane wingnut conspiracy theory bullshit. Here’s who’s on the panel: Image
As an avid listener of #MriyaReport, I’m often dismayed to think “are there really 10x more wingnut conspiracy theorists than there are who listen to our space?” Because that’s what it looks like. So I decided to investigate
Spaces display Host, Co-Hosts, Speakers, People you follow, verified people, unverified people, in that order. I scrolled down to check out the unverified people. It turns out it only displays the first 1000 people anyway… Image
Ok, I think, let’s check out some of those people. Some have no profile picture and a bunch of numbers after their name. Look at this screenshot of the people then look at the screenshots of their Twitter profiles below, so you know I’m not randomly cherry picking people… Image
Eggy has a cool picture. Eggy sounds fun. Maybe I could follow Eggy and we could be friends. Actually no, Eggy is a bot. You can’t be on a platform for 9 years retweeting stuff and get ZERO follows… Image
Let’s check out JS. JS has no profile picture and looks like a bot. Zero followers and random text after their name. Bot. Image
Let’s check out Redacted. Bot. Image
I thought Ino Nutin would be a real person, due to the name and profile pic. Then I checked him out. Bot Image
Same for Olive, a cute cat picture could be a real person right? Right? Image
SYM looks like a bot and sounds like a bot. SYM is a bot. Image
Gerry on the other hand sounds like a Real Dude. Nope Image
Kasper looks and sounds like a real dude too. One follower since 2010?!? Nope - he’s a bot Image
Goodluck Peace could be a real person, but who joins Twitter in 2009 and DOESN’T FOLLOW ANYONE?

Bot Image
Is Patel real? I am fairly sure he is a robot. Also, check out just how many of these bots are retweeting Tesla positive tweets Image
Is Shonta real? I don’t know. Image
I scrolled up to try and find one that looked real. Based on the name and the cool AI Yoda picture, Raphael looked real. But nope, he’s a bot, retweeting Elon. Image
You can’t say I cherry picked these accounts, as I checked EVERY account in the screenshot. I invite you to do the same if the Space is still up Image
Also, you can’t say “but Tom, those were the dregs of that space, displayed at the bottom”, because there were another 4816 Twitter Accounts BELOW those that are not even displayed Image
Conclusion: some person or persons or behind these nut job conspiracy spaces are using networks of bots to make their space, and their extreme political views and lies appear FAR MORE POPULAR than they actually are.
Why is this important? Because we know that state actors like Russia and China use Bot networks to create division in the west as a deliberate strategy.

It’s also ironic, considering that KimDotCom always says #NAFO are a bunch of bots, when in fact it’s his spaces that are /END

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More from @TomMostlyZen

Aug 2
Here is a thread of poems about psychiatric medicines

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Some by me, some by others

All with AI art by me and Midjourney v6.1

A thread 🧵

/1 - Diazepam
/2

Prozac

I went to the land of Fluoxetine
Many years ago
But it was filled with Alien Flowers
Who decided the fate of all beings
Arbitrarily condemning them to death
So I stopped taking it Image
Read 8 tweets
Jan 9
Naming conventions in psychiatric and neuropsychiatric conditions.

A thread 🧵

There’s lots of ways of naming all the ways our brains and emotions can go wrong or cause us to suffer. One convention is to name them after Dudes.

Know who this dude is?

That’s Alzheimer

/1 Image
There’s a whole bunch of conditions that are named after dudes (and occasionally dudettes) of medicine.

For example, there’s Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Asperger’s, and my personal favorite Munchausen’s Syndrome (see below)

/2 Image
Now, although we stick with these names for historical reasons, it’s actually not a very good way of naming things. Does knowing something is called Addison’s Disease tell you anything about it?

And Addison’s DOES have psychological effects people

/3 Image
Read 13 tweets
May 5, 2023
In the depths of World War 2, the Russians were running seriously low on manpower.

Faced with the possibility of losing the War, the Russians decided to start recruiting Muppets to fight for them

a short historical thread 🧵

/1 Image
The Muppet people once had their own country, but were absorbed by the Russian empire in the late 1700s like so many other ethnic groups.

Though not ideologically Communist, Muppet divisions became particularly feared by the Nazis due to their total inability to blink

/2 Image
During the Battle of Moscow in early 1942, several elements of the Wehrmacht 4th army were completely overrun by Muppet wave attacks.

Traumatised veterans didn’t even speak of the Muppet waves until the 1980s, and even then, most biographers & historians didn’t believe them

/3 Image
Read 5 tweets
May 5, 2023
Once upon a time, in a world not unlike our own, a little parrot lived in a vast jungle. The parrot was happy and was friends with all the other animals who lived there, many of whom he knew by name.

Then one day, a fire started to rage through his home…

/1 Image
The parrot saw the flames coming and quickly flew away. He realised that he could escape the fire, and felt relieved, but then he realised that his animal friends who couldn’t fly were not so lucky, and he worried that many of them might die

/2 Image
Seeing his friends suffering and fleeing for their lives, the little parrots heart was made up in an instant. He had to help them.

He flew ahead of them finding routes through the inferno.

“Follow me!” He yelled above the roaring fire, “this way! Follow me!”

/3
Read 15 tweets
May 4, 2023
Muppets that never actually existed… Image
Dark Crystal muppets that never actually existed… Image
Muppets in the style of HR Giger Image
Read 8 tweets
May 4, 2023
See this photograph of a Ukrainian Azovstal soldier? Well it’s not a photograph, it’s an AI generated image from @midjourney version 5.1

A short thread 🧵 on AI art and propaganda

(I checked with some Ukrainians and former soldiers if they thought this was ok)

/1 Image
Firstly, to my eye, this picture isn’t distinguishable from a real photograph. I’m sure a professional could tell the difference but I can’t.

Secondly, this took less than 60 seconds to make an cost me 6 US cents (I get 200 images a month for $12).

We are in a new age

/2
These people aren’t real either. I’m using this as deliberate positive propaganda to highlight the heroism of Ukrainian people, but you can easily see how less moral actors will use this technology to portray horrible evil lies

/3 Image
Read 11 tweets

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