It summarised what the fire chief said in twitter link you didn’t click on.
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Ahh yes forgot he called someone who didn’t want his attempt at hell a pedo
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Yeah not interested in Russian propaganda outlets
Said it about 4 times now.
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There you go, straight from the source.
Great. Missing my point though. Not interested in anything from a Russian propaganda outlet. Not sure i can be clearer.
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CNN is Russian propaganda?
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Don’t think so but your boy is running some interesting lines that the Kremlin would like. Any thoughts on that in the Elon Musk thread or are you just going to harass posters on a pinprick you’re seeing as a machete wound?
Washington: As flames have engulfed large swaths of Los Angeles, Elon Musk has been inundatinghis 212 million followers with posts casting blame for the blazes on Democrats and diversity policies, amplifying narratives that have taken hold among far-right activists and Republican leaders, including President-elect Donald Trump.
At time of writing, Musk had posted or replied to more than 80 posts about the fire, many of which pinned the devastation on liberal policies, in some cases based on false claims or racist ideas, according to a Washington Post analysis.
He downplayed the role of climate change, placing blame on individual female firefighters of colour and lesbian firefighters, including publishing their names and faces. He boosted an hour-long propaganda video by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that claimed the fires were “part of a larger globalist plot” to cause the collapse of the United States; Musk replied simply, “True”. And he repeatedly amplified claims that the Los Angeles Fire Department’s investments in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs cost lives by wasting money that could have been spent on disaster response, suggesting that the destruction could have been mitigated if more white men had been retained.
“DEI means people DIE,” Musk said on X. (The Los Angeles Fire Department did not return a request for comment.)
Musk’s use of X to stoke partisan outrage and conspiracy theories about the disaster underscores how a platform once viewed as a global hub for breaking news has transformed into a megaphone for the political views of its owner. It also shows how the billionaire, who holds no official office but is a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, may use his unprecedented online reach to bolster the incoming administration.
Musk has seized on prominent natural disasters and other news events to promote partisan misinformation. Last year, he responded to Boeing’s safety issues and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s massive global tech outage by bashing the companies’ DEI initiatives. He helped fuel right-wing conspiracy theories that complicated rescue efforts as remnants of Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina.
California state officials say they are struggling to combat Musk’s ability to stoke chaos in a fast-moving crisis. Brandon Richards, who leads Governor Gavin Newsom’s rapid-response communication efforts, said social media accounts such as Musk’s make it more difficult to manage disaster response. When large accounts get involved, it’s a “totally different ballgame” that allows misinformation to quickly snowball, he added.
“You’re not just battling a false narrative on one account,” he said. “You’re battling a false narrative on several major accounts and then all of the people that are regurgitating their content.”
When prominent accounts such as Musk’s spread false or divisive narratives about the state’s response, it can make it difficult for the people affected to find reliable information.
“If people don’t trust their government, but the government is saying you are in an evacuation zone and need to evacuate people, people might not do that, or they might do it too late,” Richards said.
Musk and X did not respond to a request for comment.
X, formerly Twitter, has long been a hub for breaking news about disasters – and, for just as long, a hub for viral hoaxes and unsubstantiated claims about them. In 2012, Photoshopped images of sharks swimming down flooded freeways mingled with citizen journalism and mainstream news articles about Hurricane Sandy.
In the years before Musk bought the company, it had worked to elevate reputable sources and counteract falsehoods, hiring a team of former journalists to curate its “trending” section. Public agencies came to rely on it as a utility to reach the media and public with real-time updates in crises such as Hurricane Ian in 2022.
But since Musk’s 2022 purchase of the site, X has been transformed. The company has cut the bulk of its trust and safety team, replaced professional fact-checking with crowdsourced “community notes” and downgraded posts that link to news articles while elevating those of conservative and right-wing influencers who pay for blue verification check marks once reserved mostly for public figures and the press.
With more than 200 million followers and a habit of posting around-the-clock, Musk has the loudest online megaphone in US politics. A recent Post analysis found that his online reach far outstrips that of accounts for major political figures, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris – and even Trump.
X’s user base is far smaller than those of some other social media sites, like Facebook, but it has long held outsize influence in breaking news and politics. Musk’s newfound role as one of Trump’s closest advisers has increased the weight of what he says on the platform. Musk posts far more about politics now than he did in the past: nearly 40 per cent of his posts in October and November focused on electoral politics, according to The Post’s analysis, a sharp uptick compared with previous months.
While the bulk of his posts on X are one-word replies or emojis, Musk is increasingly using the platform to wield political influence with the masses. Since Trump’s reelection – Musk donated at least $US277 million ($450 million) to the campaign – the billionaire entrepreneur has triggered a huge political fight by pressuring Congress to scrap a compromise spending bill; rankled the president-elect’s advisers by criticising a cabinet pick to his millions of followers; and clashed with far-right activists on H-1B (foreign worker) visas.
Musk has also become increasingly vocal on a range of national news events, at times spreading false information to millions of people.
During the presidential election, Musk stoked a conspiracy theory that because Michigan had registered more voters than there are eligible voting-age adults, it indicated mass fraud in the swing state, a claim that got 32 million views. The assertion was debunked by state election officials, who said federal law requires the state to keep voters on its rolls until they have missed two elections.
Musk claimed after Hurricane Helene that private relief flights to North Carolina were being blocked by the Federal Aviation Administration, a claim refuted by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
On Thursday afternoon, the Southern California wildfires topped X’s trending “news” tab, with a post from Musk the first to surface when users clicked on it. Of the top four posts, including Musk’s, three were from conservatives blaming Democrats for the destruction. In a post, Musk downplayed the role of climate change, faulting “overregulation” and “bad governance” for a disaster that scientists say is probably linked to climate-change-fuelled effects on California’s atmosphere.
Many of Musk’s posts matched themes gaining traction with Trump and far-right activists. The president-elect accused Newsom of failing to control the fires. Musk joined in, saying: “New government is needed for California”. In response to a post about the Los Angeles Fire Department by right-wing X account Libs of TikTok, Musk said the department had “prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes.”
Social media experts said the discourse on X around the Palisades fires stands in contrast to that around previous disastrous events.
“X used to be the place to go to for accurate information in emergencies,” said Renée DiResta, a research professor at Georgetown University who studies online influence. “But changes to how the platform curates content and the increasing prevalence of economically motivated ragemongers have made it far less useful for that.”
But even as X has become less reliable in some respects, it remains the de facto online hub for real-time news on fast-moving crises, said Isabelle Frances-Wright, director of technology and society at the nonprofit Institute for Strategic Dialogue. That’s thanks in part to pullbacks from news and politics by rivals Meta and TikTok and the declining influence of mainstream media. So when the discourse on X revolves around blaming certain groups for natural disasters, that can have a real impact on public perception.
“A lot of people who are generally disconnected from civic or public events, the time when they tune in is around these major crises,” Frances-Wright said. “So the way these events are framed, particularly when framed around the broader failings of politicians or political parties, can really shape people’s view of the country longer-term.”
The Washington Post
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Oh dear. The leopards, they’re everywhere!
Steve Bannon condemns Elon Musk as ‘racist’ and ‘truly evil’
Ex-Trump adviser denounces tech CEO’s embrace of some forms of immigration and vows to ‘take this guy down’
“In an escalation of discontent among the highest-profile far-right followers of Donald Trump, his former adviser Steve Bannon has called Trump’s newest favorite, Elon Musk, “racist” and a “truly evil guy”, pledging to “take this guy down” and kick him out of the Maga movement.
In an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper in Italy, excerpts of which were published this weekend by Breitbart, Bannon criticised Musk’s embrace of some forms of immigration and vowed to ensure that Musk does not have top-level access to the White House.
“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down,” Bannon said. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it – I’m not prepared to tolerate it any more.”
He added: “I will have Elon Musk run out of here by inauguration day”, which falls on 20 January. “He will not have full access to the White House. He will be like any other person.”
Musk became one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders, and certainly his richest, during the Republican’s ultimately successful campaign to regain the US presidency, spending reportedly about $270m and being rewarded with a place at Trump’s side ever since.
After his victory Trump tapped Musk to help lead an advisory group theoretically dedicated to cutting US government spending by up to $2tn, a quarter of its entire budget.
But Musk’s embrace of H-1B visas, which allow companies – such as Musk’s own SpaceX and Tesla – to hire skilled professionals and engineers from outside the US, has been taken badly by other Maga acolytes who are opposed to nearly all forms of immigration. Musk, who was born in South Africa, has himself held an H1-B visa.
Elon Musk and the new world order: the hijacking of the global conversation
Read more
“This thing of the H-1B visas, it’s about the entire immigration system is gamed by the tech overlords. They use it to their advantage. The people are furious,” said Bannon, whom Trump fired from his White House position during his first administration but who later reinvented himself through his War Room podcast as one of the chief evangelists of the Maga movement.
Bannon further widened his aim to attack Musk’s fellow tech giants Peter Thiel and David Sacks for having South African heritage.
“He [Musk] should go back to South Africa,” Bannon said. “Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, we have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?”
Arguing that Musk’s “sole objective is to become a trillionaire” and calling him a proponent of “techno-feudalism on a global scale”, Bannon said, “I don’t support that and we’ll fight it,” adding: “He won’t fight. He’s got the maturity of a little boy.
“He will do anything to make sure that any one of his companies is protected or has a better deal or he makes more money.
“His aggregation of wealth, and then – through wealth – power: that’s what he’s focused on.” Guardian
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desperately trying to suppress the news that he’s not actually a gamer
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It’s literally video from the fire chief, did you believe it was doctored or AI?
Fire chief talked about the failures of govt.
she ended up throwing the Mayor under the bus due to funding cuts etc.
Are you still defending Democrat Newsom and the mayor?
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This is the Musk is a Twit thread, take your point scoring elsewhere or refer to the relevant subject as it pertains to this latest climate event - ie Musk’s amplification of lies which are affecting rescue operations
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If the fire department is run by the city, what has Newsom got to do with it? Ahh sorry forgot, he is a Democrat so obviously guilty as charged.
I don’t know the politics or history between the mayor and the fire chief but in a disaster this size it is not surprising that people are wanting to avoid being held responsible for the whole calamity.
Maybe before too much blame is apportioned, get the fires out and have a proper review and it should be run like a Royal Commission.
So tell me HD are you in favour of raising taxes to fund additional infrastructure and public works and on things like the fire department?
- edit, yes this should be in the other thread.
Take this stuff to the US politics thread, FFS.
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I think Russian propaganda like RT will post whatever aligns with the Kremlin’s interests, sometimes that information is innacurate, biased and worthless and sometimes when reality and the Kremlin’s interests happen to align it’s accurate. RT posting something does not by itself mean that information is wrong. If I have an opinion based on information from CNN and then find out RT posted the same information, I am not going to change my opinion on that alone. I haven’t harassed anyone don’t be ridiculous.
This is the Musk is a Twit thread, why are you avoiding the question about his relationship with Putin and his current geopolitical fuckkery that opens doors to chaos specifically suited to Putin’s machinations? I don’t give a ■■■■ about your sources, or a spat between public officials. You can read all the Russian prop you want, it’s not relevant to the thread unless you can make a connection or otherwise to Elon, and you keep pressing on an irrelevant issue in the meantime.
I didn’t avoid anything, my above point about RT goes for Elon and anyone else as well obviously. Elon having an opinion or spreading information that is also shared by RT does not mean he is colluding with Russia or that he’s spreading Russian propaganda. RT posts a lot of stuff including retweets of news from other more trustworthy sources. RT posting/retweeting information is not evidence in and of itself that the information is wrong.
The connection to Elon is Houli was having a discussion with Barry and others about who Elon was blaming for the fires and posted a CNN interview with the fire chief in support of his position and it was dismissed because it had been posted by RT.
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I feel your pain. Beggars belief that anyone would monitor RT in order to post gotcha content here.
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