Thread by @PnictogenHorses

I'm awaiting an event in the near future; I'm not quite sure how it's going to play out, or how quickly. but I suspect that the fiasco of @elonmusk's ownership and right-wing politicization of @Twitter will mark the end of a global illusion, perpetuated on the Internet.

(cont'd)

the illusion was that the #Internet was somehow equivalent to #democracy itself. merely being on the Internet, in this social illusion, was like participating in democracy. the idea was that "everyone" had a voice of equal weight and importance to every other voice.

(cont'd)

nobody bought into that illusion, or put more energy into sustaining it, harder than @jack Dorsey and @Twitter.

it's a lie. access to the #Internet is a matter of money, just like everything else in this authoritarian, capitalist society. the rich get *more Internet*.

(cont'd)

yes, @Twitter and @jack and @paraga and now @elonmusk can all play around with the illusion that here, a private citizen with a single Twitter account has the same importance and the same *reach* as a big-name politician or corporate executive or celebrity journalist.

(cont'd)

if you're rich and socially privileged, like @elonmusk or @BillGates or @JeffBezos or any other capitalist online, you can put far more money and time into Internet activities than a private citizen like myself. they can multiply their voices by thousands and millions.

(cont'd)

recall @AndrewYang and the #YangGang? that was a like phenomenon—one man with lots of money, none of it honorably earned, was able to *buy himself* political fandom and an Internet faction on his side. @elonmusk and @mtaibbi and countless other celebrities do the same.

(cont'd)

there's never been any democratic equality on Internet and social media—it's merely the same games of power and money and social dominance played out on a different stage that overlaps with all the others. in an earlier era, @elonmusk would be stinking up radio and TV.

(cont'd)

but those earlier forms of mass communication—newspapers and other print media, radio and television broadcasting, movies and videotape—didn't offer the hope of near-instantaneous back-and-forth intercommunication that the #Internet offers. you can't talk to a TV!

(cont'd)

I mean, you *can*, but you wouldn't achieve very much. it's clear that capitalism has viewed the #Internet largely as a TV you can talk to—as if there were a complaint box attached to your living-room set, and you could have arguments with it if you wanted.

(cont'd)

it was meant to keep the people distracted and let them feel "engaged" while big important people like @elonmusk and @mtaibbi and @bariweiss and all their @GOP friends were off making the real decisions. that's typical of authoritarians; it's like petitioning a king.

(cont'd)

@TheRabbitHole84 or @jborg_arts or other @elonmusk lackeys pestering the Great Man™ to do them favors on @Twitter is just like the old practice of petitioning a king; you're supposed to feel flattered that you're even allowed to do it at all. it's not *democratic*.

(cont'd)

but that's roughly how capitalism and corporations have hoped to manage the #Internet—they've wanted it to be a mere complaint-line. the lords and masters of society could do what they please, and the Internet was there for people to have meaningless arguments about it.

(cont'd)

but something happened that the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi / @GOP gang didn't count on—nor all the other Very Important People™ who've wanted to keep the Internet as trivial and noisy as possible.

they found that they couldn't assert themselves here. they failed to impress.

(cont'd)

they thought they had full control of medium and messaging, and yet...other voices and other messages carried further than theirs.

it's probably been quite *dismaying* to the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi / @ShellenbergerMD crowd—the fact that they're not winning arguments.

(cont'd)

because @mtaibbi &c. are bigots they can console themselves with a lot of conspiracy theories about that—blaming Democratic spies or antisemitic stereotypes or Sinophobic tropes or whoever else for getting in between themselves and successful control of "the narrative".

(cont'd)

but the game hasn't worked for them, and while the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi crowd is yet to concede defeat on the @Twitter front, the plain fact is that they're *not* in control of "the narrative" on Twitter, even though they run the place, and that must cause them anxiety.

(cont'd)

as a result I think it's likely that the era of pseudo-democratic participation on the #Internet and #socialmedia (on @Twitter at least) is soon coming to an end. powerful people are realizing that they exposed too much of themselves here; they were too easy to attack.

(cont'd)

they banked too heavily on their money and their extreme degree of social privilege to give them the advantage in all arenas—but on the Internet, on @Twitter especially, they've been humiliated.

and I wonder what the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi crowd are going to do about it.

(cont'd)

it's not likely to be anything *good*.

~Mona Drafter of Pnictogen

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