Tokyo ‘Twitter’ Rose - Bigfooting the Bad Takes
There are so many bad takes about Elon Musk and Twitter - watch me bigfoot ‘em
When I wrote last year how Elon Musk had purchased Twitter to attempt to destroy truth and turn the social media platform into a Russian propaganda channel, I was patted on the head by the patriarchy. ‘There there, little girl, he’s just a dumb bunny.’
I have been underestimated my entire career, allowing me to fly under the radar as I stealthily steer thousands daily toward the light of truth.
I knew I was right - Musk is working on behalf of foreign enemies and in conjunction with domestic traitors. It was a land grab in an information war, with the goal to annihilate and obfuscate truth.
In that story, I showed how other countries had killed media platforms on their way to authoritarian capture, so we shouldn’t be so surprised.
I had quite a realization today as I did something I rarely do - engaged with a hate terrorist paid to try to discredit me and my podcast team. I am an expert in their techniques, having been a target for many years, but I rarely engage. They are time sucks getting paid by the tweet. I usually block and move on, and focus on doing the labor of democracy.
But I had a trying week and was in no mood to see the same old criticisms of my partners - who, by the way, are not only excellent disinformation researchers, they are soldiers in an unseen war. There is nobody I’d rather have by my side as we fight the fascist creep.
So I pointed out to the anonymous account with 18 followers all its bullshittery and was hastily blocked. Then it dawned on me - this was the entire purpose of Twitter all along.
To give fascists and fakes the same weight as the truth tellers, and in fact, tip the scale toward the fascists and fakes.
It was always the point. Creating unreality and forcing people to live in it is necessary component of fascism. It’s a way to train people to not believe their eyes and ears - its purpose is to erode trust.
As I wrote a few weeks ago when I reported on Justice John Paul Stevens’ dissenting opinion in the Citizens United case, where he warned that giving corporations personhood would doom us:
“Such an assumption would have accorded the propaganda broadcasts to our troops by ‘Tokyo Rose’ during World War II the same protection as speech by Allied commanders. More pertinently, it would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans.”—Justice John Paul Stevens, in his dissent in Citizens United v. FEC, January 21, 2010
Please read that again:
“Such an assumption would have accorded the propaganda broadcasts to our troops by ‘Tokyo Rose’ during World War II the same protection as speech by Allied commanders. More pertinently, it would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans.”—Justice John Paul Stevens, in his dissent in Citizens United v. FEC, January 21, 2010
If I have to use the Teletubbies repetition approach to drill my points home I will.
Twitter has afforded the harassers and hate terrorists, the Nazis and Insurrectionists on outsized advantage in this war against truth.
Those of us who do this work under our own names, risking everything, are continually harassed by bullies, who are continually platformed despite their years-long violations of TOS.
Something’s gotta give, and it ain’t gonna be me.
After all, Bette Dangerous is where propaganda goes to die.
We’re killing it.
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More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
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