The mass shooters, the conservative media who attack the victims and spread misinformation, and the online trolls to engage in targeted harassment afterwards, are not three separate phenomena. They're three legs of a stool that together represent a terrorist movement
— Pat Dennis (@patdennis) May 7, 2023
Aric Toler of Bellingcat found the socials of the Allen Premium Outlets shooter. Prior to the publication of these images, several right-wing orgs and media figures were baselessly speculating that this person was not a neo-Nazi but instead a cartel member because he was Latino. https://t.co/wwwJdndJUG
— steven monacelli ?? (@stevanzetti) May 8, 2023
New: Mauricio Garcia's social media trail touched neo-Nazi content and misogynist incel filth.
But he also referenced Tim Pool, VDARE, Libs of Tik Tok and Nick Fuentes. A Trump-era cluster of hate:@hannahgais, me, Rachel Janik and @MeganSquire0:https://t.co/W4hDuXm6Jd
— Michael Edison Hayden (@MichaelEHayden) May 9, 2023
Throw the stone and hide your hand…
Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik appears to have removed "stochastic terrorist" from her twitter bio pic.twitter.com/lF4syzJYU7
— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) May 9, 2023
The far-right over the last 24 hours:
1. There's no evidence the Texas shooter was a neo-Nazi
2. Okay, he had neo-Nazi patches on his tactical vest but that was IRONIC
3. Okay, he might have been a neo-Nazi but it was government mind control that made him that way pic.twitter.com/BSSKOrR96b
— Max Burns (@themaxburns) May 9, 2023
Mauricio Garcia was radicalized by far-right neo-Nazi ideology, and he probably expected he'd be praised as a true blood-and-soil martyr. Instead, the same far-right MAGA extremists Garcia died for are labeling him a false flag Antifa liberal.
— Max Burns (@themaxburns) May 9, 2023
Part of what makes stochastic terrorism work is the short-circuiting of root cause analysis of stochastic terrorism. Hence the widespread reality denial by far-right media figures that the Allen mall shooter's social media posts indicate he self-identified as a neo-Nazi.
— steven monacelli ?? (@stevanzetti) May 9, 2023
"haha actually our literal neo-nazis come in all shapes and colors. owned, libs." https://t.co/97NNjD1Q69
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) May 8, 2023
"Nazis are bad I guess, but BLM and antifa…(THREAD 1/56)"
— MAGA tears for four more years (@dangergypsy99) May 8, 2023
TFW you try for a hit tweet and accidentally admit out loud that you’re a Nazi. https://t.co/yUFyUR1CH5
— The Fig Economy (@figgityfigs) May 8, 2023
He's who Republicans are in their dreams. https://t.co/E0hLl16jgN
— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) May 9, 2023
War for Ukraine Day 440: Russia Once More Bombards Ukraine While Celebrating Their Alternative History of WW II
japa21
I have decided that if the right wants to blame mental illness for all the shootings, then they are really admitting that having their ideology is a mental illness.
ETA: I despise the term far-right as if there is an actual range of right wingedness. Everything is the same for the right. There is no longer any differentiation.
cain
Great post – and of course they are going to attack the victims and deny reality. It’s the usual playbook. I saw something about how Texas governor Abbott looks even more like a dumb stooge with him talking about mental health and so on.
Wanna bet that next week will be another mass shooting?
cain
@japa21: agreed – right wing is right wing. The GOP is pretty much right wing.
Funnily though, they do love to call the rest of us all far left – including the FTFNYT.
Chief Oshkosh
@japa21: Also, too, as one protestor’s sign said: “If the problem is the mental ill, why do you want to give them guns?”
Phylllis
Is it possible that malls, theaters, other places of commerce becoming ghost towns will bring about the change needed?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Because Freedumb!
Mike in NC
Greg Abbott’s mug should be on wanted posters hanging in every post office in Texas. Domestic terrorist who edges out DeSantis for being the worst POS governor in the country.
Citizen Alan
@japa21: Agreed. A true “moderate Republican” would be a Republican who votes with his party on most issues but votes against extremist Republicans he disagrees with even if it means voting with the hated Democrats. No such Republicans exist. Creatures like Susan Collins brand themselves as “moderates,” but if there was a Republican bill capable of passing to make bonfires out of trans children and Mitch McConnell needed her vote to make it happen, she would happily be there.
Sure Lurkalot
@japa21:
No way we could have known the feller was mental when we sold him the gun without a background check, but he sure showed us. Shame about all those innocent dead people.
BretH
@Citizen Alan: harsh, but oh so true.
BretH
Remember, everyone is a Good Guy with a gun.
Until they’re not.
Michael Bersin
Transcript of a public comment from Monday night’s Warrensburg, Missouri City Council meeting – one of the individuals wanting to shut down a Pride Festival/drag show at a private venue in Warrensburg on June 3rd:
“…I want to start off by reminding everyone here that our children are our future. They are our heritage. God states in his words that every child is a gift and every child is a reward.
We live in a society where our children are constantly being told they have to believe a particular way, otherwise they are wrong or perhaps they are a bad person or even a hater.
Some would argue that we here today, we might be haters, fearmongers, or the dreaded homophobics because we don’t bow down and agree to the senseless immoral, perverted, corrupt garbage that is being thrown around and forced on us.
We, in fact, we embrace the right to choose. We’re speaking on behalf of the children. We also embrace reality. Normal moral and ethical living. Living is right, living right is not rocket science, it’s common sense. And like the most of us in this room I think we’re strong in that part. [….]
We are here as a group of citizens. We are committed to standing for the voiceless, our children, the ones who don’t have a voice in these days.
We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, no matter what names, titles, or ridiculous ideologies others may speak against us or throw our direction. We are fully aware who we are through god who created us.
We are looking for solutions and so that’s where you all come in. We want safeguards put in place. We want accountability where there should be accountability. We want our children protected against EXPLOTATION.
We don’t come with a lot of feel good stories about our experiences with last year’s drag queen show. However, we did come with evidence that they are being exploited.
Photos of minor children at last year’s event were handed to you last, at the last meeting as well.
We want our children protected from an agenda that is hell bent on grooming our children. We want our children’s minds and their lives protected in these very vulnerable years.
[….]
We are committed to standing strong until this battle is won, until we see action from you on behalf our minors. We want to see an ordinance. We’re not going away, guys.”
Addressing Bigotry – Warrensburg, Missouri City Council Meeting – May 8, 2023 – part 4
Each speaker in the public comment part of the agenda was allocated three minutes.
eclare
@Phylllis:
I have wondered for a while when businesses would get involved for gun control. Mass shootings hurt their bottom lines.
Baud
@Michael Bersin:
Dude, so don’t go to the show.
Omnes Omnibus
No, her brow would be furrowed and she would have been conflicted about it, but she would be there. And the important part is that she would be there. A “reluctant” vote counts just the same as an enthusiastic one.
JPL
This is OT
but why would UGA after being in the news for drag racing and the death of an employee and a star foot ball player, and a the star Quarterback arrested while drunk, decide this is a good time to turn down a White House Visit.
wtf
cain
@Baud: au contraire senor Baud – it should be flooded with folks glaring angrily at these bozos and dressed as angry clowns to boot. They think drag queens are bad? Wait till they get a load of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxLFXnj9Nz8
SpaceUnit
These daily shootings embody the unchained id of the Republican Party. They love the fact that others are horrified and utterly helpless to stop them. Psychopathic assholes.
Ohio Mom
Maybe a bit off topic: Jordan Neely, the man who was choke-holded to death on the NYC subway, had autism and schizophrenia — two diagnoses listed in the DSM, psychiatry’s “Bible.”
Republicans/the right wing love to blame the committing of violence on mental illness but the truth is, people with mental disabilities are disproportionately the victims of violence (both from the police and I’d guess you’d call them civilians).
eclare
@JPL:
I just googled. The reason the spokesperson gave sounded like total BS. If I were on that team I would be pissed.
Ksmiami
@japa21: arrest them all. We cannot go on as a nation with those that would destroy it to rule over the ashes.
cain
@JPL:
Maybe they were told to turn it down.
JPL
@Ohio Mom: Today I had on the View and one of the hosts mentioned this along with the fact that a military man killed him. She was visibly upset.
Okay just looked it up and it was Sunny Hostin.
eclare
@Ohio Mom:
Oh those are two really tough diagnoses and can cause erratic behavior. A friend of mine’s son was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia after multiple arrests starting in his late teens. He is on disability and medication, but he also has an advantage Jordan Neely didn’t: two parents who had the determination and means to be fierce advocates. Jordan was on his own.
JPL
@cain: hahaha That didn’t work.
Danielx
@Citizen Alan:
But her brow would be extremely furrowed!
Michael Bersin
@Baud:
They’ve been told that repeatedly. They don’t buy it. They picketed last year.
This year they’ve taken it to the city council with demands that it be shut down. The venue and the drag show producers have reportedly received threats of violence. The Show producers cancelled the family friendly generic drag shows (fancy costumes, makeup, lip synching pop and show tunes) and made the entire event 18+. To no avail in satisfying the pearl clutchers.
Frankensteinbeck
@SpaceUnit:
Yep. They rush to pass even more permissive gun laws after shootings just to rub our nose in it.
different-church-lady
It’s frightening to think what Hitler could have done with social media.
bbleh
Oh I am just SO tired of Republicans using the term “mental illness” to “other”-ize mass killers (and thereby constrain the debate) when they neither have nor ever had any intention of devoting resources to dealing with real problems of mental illness (not to mention mass killing with firearms). It’s disingenuous and despicable. (Oh wait, Republicans, goes without saying.)
Jeffro
@Mike in NC: it is a very, very close call as to which of those two is more of a psycho. I’d love to see more national coverage of all the hurtful and hateful things Abbott and DeSantis are inflicting on their own citizens, all just to “own the libs”.
different-church-lady
@SpaceUnit: Anything that keeps the boot stomping on the human face is okay by them.
different-church-lady
@bbleh:
The GOP is going to do exactly the same amount to help with mental health as they are going to help women affected by abortion bans: a negative amount.
Danielx
@cain:
Feral clowns, like juggalos?
different-church-lady
@Michael Bersin:
Fixed that for you, assholes.
Renie
OT George Santos has been charged by the Justice Department under seal and has to appear in Court tomorrow in Eastern District on Long Island. McCarthy had said he would have Santos resign if he was charged but now he is saying he will have him resign if he is found guilty.
RSA
Apparently Republicans also want to let mass murderers off with a “Not guilty by reason of insanity” defense. Maybe an unexpected consequence.
geg6
@Danielx:
More like a bunch of Its. One It is bad enough but imagine an army of them. Stephen King would be proud.
Scout211
A little positive palate cleanser:
The Army will rename Ft. Hood in honor of Gen. Richard Edward Cavazos.
different-church-lady
@Renie:
“Well, only if he’s found reeeeeeally guilty…”
Jackie
@cain: “Wanna bet that next week will be another mass shooting?”
That’s a terrible bet to offer.
I refuse to bet on the odds of more innocent lives being massacred. Sadly, we know there will be more mass shootings.
Brachiator
@cain:
Dumb stooge. Sad, but accurate description. Abbott and his ilk aren’t even trying. Just pro forma excuses and renewed admonitions to pray for the victims.
Ruckus
@cain:
If they are the far right, everyone to the left of them IS the far left.
cain
@Danielx: if the clown shoes fit.
JPL
@cain: Not by Kemp cuz he’s already being attacked by the feral hogs.
I will say that I know Tech folks laughing right now.
cain
Someone should yell “Hey Abboooottt!” like Lou Costello – and ask him if 14 year olds should be armed while playing hide and seek in case some home owner decides to take shots at them.
This poor girl got shot in the head during hide and seek:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65539174
ETA
@different-church-lady:
Kids are getting gunned down just playing games outside – they aren’t safe anywhere.
Jackie
Colin Allred has competition. I really like Allred, but I also really like Gutierrez. I guess we’ll have to see who Texan Democrats prefer.
“Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D), a longtime lawmaker whose district includes Uvalde, Tex., intends to join the U.S. Senate race to challenge Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in 2024, according to three people familiar with Gutierrez’s plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has not yet been made.“
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/09/texas-us-senate-cruz-uvalde-gutierrez/
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Santos is being targeted because he’s Jew-ish
Baud
@cain:
Well, seeing how that woman in Texas just stole a machine gun..,
Brachiator
@bbleh:
Conservatives divide gun owners into two groups. Patriots are one group, and criminals and the mentally ill are the other. Patriots must have their guns, and nothing can be done about the others.
I don’t think I have ever heard a conservative talk about mental illness and gun deaths from suicide.
cain
@Baud: I understand she got arrested – I can only assume they retrieved the machine gun. The owner should be slapped with a fine.
cain
@Brachiator: You forget non-whites who do not get the protection of the 2nd amendment, or the NRA, or the police.
Jackie
This article is from 2019:
Trump made it easier for the mentally ill to get guns when he rolled back Obama regulation
“In 2017, Trump quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.”
“President Donald Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings by insisting Monday that “mental illness pulls the trigger not the gun,” but shortly after taking office he quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.
Trump did so without any fanfare. In fact, the news that Trump had signed the bill was at the bottom of a White House email that alerted the media to other legislation signed by the president.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1039301
Jay
@cain:
Amber Nicole Herring, 25, was taken into custody by Bexar County deputies Monday. She is being charged with possession of a prohibited firearm/machine gun, as well as theft of a firearm. The machine gun, however, has not yet been found, according to the business.
sdhays
Just a reminder that Greg Abbot promised to stop all rape in the state of Texass when he passed his vigilante dumbass abortion ban last year(?). His sincerity on addressing mental illness is equally farcical.
The man is depraved. He’s the high priest of necrophilia cult.
Michael Bersin
@different-church-lady:
Bingo. That, too, was mentioned by a supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community who spoke before the city council.
rikyrah
😠😠😠😠
rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) tweeted at 2:39 PM on Tue, May 09, 2023:
Just so we are clear: @CNN is about to do a town hall with @realDonaldTrump, a twice impeached man who openly cheered an attack on our government, and who was just found GUILTY of Sexual assault; defaming the same woman; and lying about it. This is YOUR guy @GOP. 1/2
(https://twitter.com/rolandsmartin/status/1656021135782289451?s=02)
BR
While we are on the topic of authoritarians, the mask is completely off from Musk and Dorsey. Not that it was every really on. I do not get how people can continue using services from these people.
Chetan Murthy
@BR: what did Dorsey do? Sorry, I mean, to rip the mask off ?
rikyrah
rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) tweeted at 2:39 PM on Tue, May 09, 2023:
And to the 53% of white women who voted for @realDonaldTrump, don’t act like you never knew. He bragged about it on the @accesshollywood tape. Add sexual assaulted and defamer to @kaitlancollins introduction of him, Chris Licht. He’s long been a liar. 2/2
(https://twitter.com/rolandsmartin/status/1656021137376124928?s=02)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Chetan Murthy:
Don’t know the specifics BR is referring to, but he’s been friends with Musk for years and willingly sold Twitter to him. Birds of feather flock together
ETA: Then again, Dorsey has recently said that Musk isn’t the right person to run Twitter and told the guy running the Musk private jet tracker to keep doing what they’re doing. Tried searching on news via Google and can’t find anything
BR
@Chetan Murthy:
Dorsey started posting redpill / qanon type stuff on bluesky. (Not that this would be at all surprising given his history with Musk, crypto, the Hawaii pro-Russia grifter whose name I have thankfully forgotten, and much more.) Musk of course has continued his slide into the deepest horrible side of the Internet.
MomSense
NAZIs it never ceases to be shocking that we are dealing with NAZIs again.
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): well, for sure I agree that Jack’s a fascist and has been for years — from long before he sold Twitter to Melon. I just wondered what the proximate cause was of this recent unmasking.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@cain: It would be ironic if her name is Kelly?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@BR:
Oh geez….
I don’t think Bluesky is a good Twitter replacement
ETA: Do you have screenshots? I think only registered users can view Bluesky. I can’t find anything about when I google search “Jack Dorsey redpill bluesky”
@Chetan Murthy:
Gotcha
bbleh
@Brachiator: yes, they are outside the epistemic bubble, and even mentioning them is a personal attack that must be either ignored with truly Christ-like patience or answered with violent anger.
Albatrossity
@different-church-lady:
I second this motion, and nominate this sentence for a rotating tag.
Brachiator
@MomSense:
There is also a fetishizing of evil. Some young men, and eccentric billionaires, get off on celebrating Nazis, the Mob, the Spartans and other hyper masculine avatars who represent pure amoral power.
If you questioned these dopes about actual Nazi ideology, they would not have a clue.
Unfortunately, some of these dopes cross the line from passively worshipping evil to wanting to cause actual harm.
YY_Sima Qian
Mauricio Garcia was yet another reactionary racist targeting Asian Americans. As the Sinophobia, “Yellow Peril” & “Red Scare” are continually ramped, it won’t just be Chinese Americans who fall victim (it hasn’t been). It will get worse through the election season.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
Hitler and his henchmen were masters of the social media of their day.
Brachiator
@cain:
For many conservatives, blacks and Hispanics are automatically included with “criminals.”
Frankensteinbeck
@BR:
Definitely not a surprise. Twitter might have had anti-harassment rules, but Jack was always lackadaisical about them.
raven
@Brachiator: We just watched the first episode of “White House Plumbers” on HBO Max and, even though I know all about it, it is hilarious. Liddy was off the hook.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Besides newsreels, radio and propaganda cinema, there’s a reason Hitler’s Germany invested so much, even though it was in its infancy, into television production and public dissemination. Fascinating hour long documentary.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Jackie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: With furrowed brow of course.
kmeyerthelurker
@Phylllis: that is a tough quandary, because if we do avoid public places we are giving in to that terror, which I absolutely do not want. But at this point I am willing to consider any options to help turn this tide. It just makes me so sick to my stomach.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I’m looking forward to fucker carlson’s show returning to twitter. I just watched his return announcement video. He’s such a bastion of journalism.
NotMax
@Jackie
Long suspected Collins has a variety of furrowed brow appliques, much as Carl Reiner’s Alan Brady had toupees on The Dick van Dyke Show.
BR
@Frankensteinbeck:
What I find frustrating is that there was a coordinated effort to pump up bluesky by a bunch of folks who tried to claim that the open alternatives like Mastodon and such were bad for vague reasons (some claimed without evidence that bluesky is better for BIPOC which I think it’s clear it’s not given Dorsey and I can say personally it isn’t for me) while crypto bros have gone all in on bluesky and pepe the frog coin (I’m told).
Bill Arnold
Video, May 9, “a representative from the Texas Department of Public Safety”:
We do know that he had neo-Nazi ideation. He had patches. He had tattoos.
BR
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Let me try to dig it up. I saw screenshots from a few days ago of Dorsey pushing that stuff but I didn’t save it.
Scout211
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I want to know how the idiot will make money doing a Twitter broadcast.
Will Elon pay him? Will they sell subscriptions to his
podcasttwittercast and then split the money?Tucker has at least $25M to lose if he violates his employment agreement and/or loses his lawsuit claiming Fox was mean to him. Elon doesn’t seem flush with Twitter bucks right now.
Where will the money come from? Who will pay?
Brachiator
@raven:
Yeah, I also have good memories of the actual events, but am interested in the HBO series. Sounds wild.
Ken
They forgot the FEC’s 1,456-page request for information regarding possibly-illegal activity by Trump’s “Save America” PAC. I guess they’re being cautious because he’s still got over a month to respond.
Jackie
@Scout211: According to Musk there is no such deal. Which lying liar to believe…?🤔
https://www.rawstory.com/tucker-carlson-musk-2659988368/
Jeffro
@rikyrah: we should roll out the laundry list EACH and EVERY time this vile person is mentioned. Go Roland!
Ohio Mom
@eclare: Yup, parents with at least some financial resources; education enough to be able to navigate systems and understand fine print; and the sense of entitlement that comes with being at least middle class, so they have the gumption to demand supports, make all the difference.
Your friends’ story also jives with the observation that we replaced mental hospitals* with jails.
I’ve seen line graphs to that effect, there’s a line from the upper left to the lower right representing the population of mental hospitals , and a line crossing it, going from the bottom left to the top right representing the incarcerated population. A big X.
* We probably wouldn’t call them mental hospitals anymore, if we recreate them we will call them something like Behavoiral Health Centers or something similar. I don’t know when or why Behavoiral Health became the jargon but it did.
BR
@Chetan Murthy:
Yeah, I think the key takeaway for me is that one should be very skeptical of BS claims being made in favor of billionaire-backed sites like bluesky, post.news, hive, or of course twitter, facebook, nextdoor, etc.
Lots of money and reputation on the line and willing reporters who want clout and will throw in with a billionaire. Something has real changed in the tech world like Anil Dash has written and we *should* believe our eyes and no longer extend trust to these platforms:
https://www.anildash.com/2023/02/27/tycoon-martyrdom-charade/
Scout211
Now that’s funny. As I commented yesterday, I’m rooting for ego injuries.
Chetan Murthy
@BR: Oh, inDEED. For myself, since I don’t use any of these networks (I read stuff on them, but only selected individuals and Josh Marshall’s twitter lists), I don’t much care about them. Though, as a transaction-processing researcher and troubleshooter, I *am* interested in whether these guys (all of these guys) have managed to build actually-scalable systems (or designs).
I know that when I looked at Nostr (Dorsey’s “other twitter-alternative network”) it was clear that sucker couldn’t scale. I mean, just *infantile* protocol design. And Mastodon isn’t really much better. I haven’t found a detailed-enough description of Bluesky’s protocol, to be able to analyze it.
Somehow, I have a feeling none of these guys will actually design something that will scale to the size of Twitter. Somehow ….
tokyokie
@MomSense:
Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich fell about 987 years short. That present-day Nazis fail to grasp that only demonstrates their willful ignorance and inherent stupidity.
Baud
@Jackie:
Musk can’t afford it.
RaflW
@BR: Yeah, Musk is doing his “this is strange” stuff with the nutballs who say the Texas outlet mall killer is some sort of false flag antifa addled not-Nazi despite the tattoos and social stream.
And the Apartheid Asshole’s App will be hosting Tucker’s new show.
I am weaning myself best I can. I unfollowed 600+ accounts today and locked my account so only current followers can see anything about me. Working up to deleting my acct when Tuckums starts airing.
eta @Jackie: Huh. Musty’s site is getting more and more trolly and terrible. Even if the fox-fired foil food scion is just there because he can be, it’ll mark a level of toxicity I can no longer accept.
BR
@Chetan Murthy:
While as a community run network Mastodon probably will never really reach the scale of twitter, I don’t know if it matters. I have found it like the early blog era when there was far less trolling online and have found it to be my regular destination for the last 6 months. I can’t even believe I just wrote 6 months — I have been using Mastodon daily for that time. Lots and lots of cats and other animals along with interesting people and news and other stuff from around the world.
Omnes Omnibus
@BR: FWIW I don’t care for Mastodon, and Spoutible as has been a damp squib so far. I doubt the Twitter phenomenon can be replicated.
BR
@RaflW:
Well if you do join Mastodon one tip that is worth knowing is to pick a server that is less crowded like beige.party or sfba.social and follow a few people like @[email protected]ocial who are very active so you can discover interesting folks (since there’s no algorithm).
Chetan Murthy
@BR: A long long time ago, there was Friendster. It failed to scale, and basically that was why Friendster died. It became a cautionary tale in the Internet App world, with people explicitly thinking about how to avoid Friendster’s fate. Twitter came close several times, but got lucky (and they were able to hire people from Google who know what they were doing).
By “scale” I don’t mean the size or throughput of any single instance. I mean of the entire Mastodon network. And the thing is, if Mastodon is going to be successful, there *must* come a point when (so to speak) “all of AOL logs on”.[1] And that’s when we get to find out whether Mastodon prepared for scale. I don’t think they have, based on my analysis of the replication protocol (ActivityPub).
But we’ll see.
[1] if “AOL doesn’t log on” to Mastodon, then eventually it’ll die. B/c the value of a social network (I’d argue) follows Metcalf’s Law (value is square of # of endpoints). It’s simply too valuable to be biggest — both for users and operators of that network.
BR
@Chetan Murthy:
Maybe so, and it indeed may die someday. But there are a few key people for me who have moved over in a way that can’t be replicated elsewhere, like people in the weather and climate community (such as the legendary Ben Kuo who set up his own Mastodon server and now has public safety, weather, transportation, etc. feeds that are more reliable than the garbage twitter is putting agencies through) and the non-cryptobro tech community, and such. Maybe someday they will leave, or maybe they will persist just like Balloon Juice has.
RaflW
@BR: Oh, I joined the c.im instance quite a while ago. I just haven’t developed the habit of checking very often. The bad/good news is that I stop by here more as I’ve dialed back twitting.
gwangung
@BR: Only white people would buy the notion that bluesky was better than mastodon for BIPOC folks.
The same type of people who give BIPOC folks trouble on Mastodon are the ones flocking to bluesky.
Redshift
@bbleh: When they blame it on mental illness, they really mean “you’d have to be crazy to do that, and crazy is just unpredictable, so nothing can be done.” Saying “mental illness” instead of “crazy” is just misdirection. Or sometimes they’re more direct and say the cause of “evil,” which nothing can be done about either.
So it’s not hypocrisy that they do nothing about mental health (not that they care about hypocrisy anyway.)
But America has 22 times more fun deaths per capita than Europe. Yes states have much higher gun violence than blue states. Do they hate America so much they believe we have 22 times more mental illness than Europe? That we’re 22 times more “evil”? That red states are more evil/crazy than blue ones?
Because if it’s not the guns, that’s what they’re saying.
Chetan Murthy
@BR: *grin* In a way, you’re like me: when I use something, I don’t actually care if others use it or not: as long as *enough* people use it to keep it going, that’s enough for me. I don’t care about what blows up, what doesn’t. But when I analyze technologies, it does matter, b/c a technology like social networks — when they blow up they get more valuable and have more impact on society. So if Mastodon stays small, it cannot become the place that journalists publish their material, b/c almost by definition such a place *must* blow up, be viewed by the movers and shakers (and the next few ranks down) all around the world. Otherwise journos cannot afford to publish there (everything takes effort/work, and that’s money).
But whatever. It’ll be interesting to watch. I only take a … clinical interest in these things: the only reason I use twitter is for Josh Marshall’s lists.
BR
@gwangung:
That’s the funny thing. I saw a ton of posts by bluesky advocates making that claim, then it got repeated by some “tech journalists” who were just reporting it as gossip, then some BIPOC folks started discussing it as a way of saying “things can always be better” and then it got repeated as if it were true with no real evidence. Meanwhile folks like me and others were saying “I don’t get it, I haven’t been targeted by anyone here” but nobody noticed. It’s fine, people can go where they want.
What I care most about is seeing the billionaire run or funded platforms fall apart before summer 2024 when they can be used to throw the election.
Suzanne
@Redshift:
Yes. They use “crazy” to mean “bad” or “shocking”, as opposed to “delusional” or not accurately perceiving reality. But there are plenty of sane criminals. There are plenty of rational incentives for crimes. Immoral, yes, but rational.
The thing is…. I would not be surprised if I learned that most mass shooters have a mental illness. American prisons are probably the biggest psychiatric care system in the world. I just don’t give a shit, because the GOP isn’t being serious or solution-oriented about it.
If you really wanted to reduce crime and improve population mental health, you’d house everyone, no questions asked. You’d have nutritious food, easily accessible. Healthcare would be free at point of service, easy to access, and of good quality. You’d probably have a guaranteed basic income and limit work hours, so people could spend more time taking care of themselves and the things that are important to them. But, since the GOP opposes all of that, I can only conclude that they don’t give half a shit about crime reduction or improvement in population mental health.
Jackie
@Suzanne: I posted an NBC link up above that reminds folks that TFG rolled back Obama regulations that made it harder for the mentally ill to purchase guns in 2017. Here it is again:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1039301
mrmoshpotato
LOL!
Sister Golden Bear
It’s all fun and games until mass murderers get linked to back to you.
sab
I am so old that I didn’t know what stochastic means. I had to look it up and I stlil don’t know what it means because apparently it means nothing. Which in my world means it doesn’t mean anything. So why the phuck does it have a label?
Maxim
@sab: My understanding of the way it gets used in “stochastic terrorist / terrorism” is that instead of saying “Will no one rid me of this [particular] troublesome priest,” someone like TFG says stuff like Mexicans are rapists, Wuhan flu, journalists are the enemy of the people, etc. But if anyone who hears those statements goes out and targets a specific [individual they perceive to be a] Mexican or Chinese person, or a certain journalist, well, that’s not TFG’s fault. Can’t blame him.
It’s just random enough to create a veneer of deniability, on the one hand; and on the other, it creates fear in every person in the affected groups, because any one of them could be targeted at any time.
Jay
@sab:
Stochastic social science theory is similar to systems theory in that events are interactions of systems, although with a marked emphasis on unconscious processes. The event creates its own conditions of possibility, rendering it unpredictable if simply for the number of variables involved. Stochastic social science theory can be seen as an elaboration of a kind of ‘third axis’ in which to situate human behavior alongside the traditional ‘nature vs. nurture’ opposition. See Julia Kristeva on her usage of the ‘semiotic’, Luce Irigaray on reverse Heideggerian epistemology, and Pierre Bourdieu on polythetic space for examples of stochastic social science theory.[citation needed]
The term “Stochastic Terrorism” has fallen into frequent use[42] with regard to lone wolf terrorism. The terms “Scripted Violence” and “Stochastic Terrorism” are linked in a “cause <> effect” relationship. “Scripted Violence” rhetoric can result in an act of “Stochastic Terrorism.” The phrase “scripted violence” has been used in social science since at least 2002.[43]
Author David Neiwert, who wrote the book Alt-America, told Salon interviewer Chauncey Devega:
Chris T.
@Citizen Alan:
I can hear her quavery voice now: “I had reservations about McConnell’s chosen Witchfinder General, but I spoke to him and he assured me he wouldn’t be grinding their bones for his bread, so it will be fine.”
evodevo
@raven: Yep..us too…and that scene with Liddy’s kids on the stairs – I immediately thought of Sound of Music lol
Paul in KY
@eclare: A dude was acting like a weirdo on the subway. Imagine that! And he was murdered by some busybody.
Paul in KY
@different-church-lady: We’d probably all be wearing lederhosen…
Hob
@sab: If you looked it up and decided it doesn’t mean anything, then maybe you looked it up wrong? The word has a simple literal meaning: something that’s determined by randomness and probability. And the phrase “stochastic terrorism” also has a pretty simple and relevant meaning: a terrorist movement that isn’t organized in terms of recruiting anyone directly, because they know that if they just keep blasting out enough hate and delusional ideas, it’s inevitable that some random nutjob will go do their bloody work for them.
Paul in KY
@Chris T.: You could probably make a youtube video of her and using her recorded words to splice up her ‘saying’ that. Colbert could do it!