The tragedy of Laurence Fox isn’t that he’s offensive, it’s that he thinks he’s free. Thinks he’s leading some great resistance, when really he’s just another digital serf performing for platforms that exploit not only his labour, but his entire Self. - ThreadSky

eliothiggins.bsky.social • 38 days ago

The tragedy of Laurence Fox isn’t that he’s offensive, it’s that he thinks he’s free. Thinks he’s leading some great resistance, when really he’s just another digital serf performing for platforms that exploit not only his labour, but his entire Self.

Reposted from Dan Sohege

God bless the person who donated a fiver, because somehow it makes this even funnier than if he has raised nothing.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/laurenc...

Comments

georgeadamson.bsky.social•38 days ago

🤣

58deg.bsky.social•38 days ago

I just found out that he was married to Billie Piper. Did no one say "blink twice if you're being held against your will" during the ceremony?

clarissaoakes.bsky.social•38 days ago

You are what you tweet.

fernmonkey.bsky.social•38 days ago

He should have stuck to playing the sidekick's sidekick.

fitzk.bsky.social•38 days ago

Any system that relies on the public exploitation and mockery of the mentally ill for its profits is deeply unethical.

peternimmo.bsky.social•38 days ago

Like Neil Oliver, he already had a perfectly good job

k1tc4t.bsky.social•38 days ago

It honestly sounds exhausting

datestamp.bsky.social•38 days ago

That's a really interesting take, more intelligent than my theory that he's Jeremy Hosking's court jester.

eliothiggins.bsky.social•38 days ago

Effectively, it's the same thing.

ldw1.bsky.social•38 days ago

Ignore him. It’s what he’d hate most.

eliothiggins.bsky.social•38 days ago

The worst existence of all for digital serfs.

fhayesmccoy.bsky.social•38 days ago

And he wasn't a bad actor. If he'd stuck to his trade, got beyond his inherited status and continued to grow and learn, he might have been happy, and could have added something useful to a world that - now more than ever - needs the catharsis and empathy drama engenders.

eliothiggins.bsky.social•38 days ago

He doesn’t own the land he stands on. Twitter, YouTube, etc, none of it’s his. He rents space on platforms that survive by extracting every last drop of attention from people like him. And in return, he offers up his self.

eliothiggins.bsky.social•38 days ago

His anger, his scandals, his personal identity, they've all become content. Each outrage gets chopped up into clips, quotes, engagement metrics. He performs fighting the system, but he's feeding it. In fact, he's feeding himself to it.

eliothiggins.bsky.social•38 days ago

That’s the Serfdom of the Self: you don’t just give your labour, you give your entire being. You turn yourself into a brand, perform it daily, and watch as the algorithm decides your worth.

wirristdasvolk.bsky.social•38 days ago

"Serfdom of the Self" makes for a great title of a book about the social media environment of our time.

eliothiggins.bsky.social•38 days ago

He relies on the backlash. Needs the controversy. Every ban, every scandal, every pile-on is proof he’s still visible. If the machine forgets him, he disappears. So the performance never stops. It consumes him, all the while presenting exploitation as opportunity, as freedom.

pifflepockle.bsky.social•38 days ago

He should start an OnlyFans of himself wanking over Billie in Doctor Who.

rickchasey.bsky.social•38 days ago

https://www.gurwinder.blog/p/the-perils-of-audience-capture

eliothiggins.bsky.social•38 days ago

This is the reality of the new world: there’s no freedom, only freedom’s phantom. A performance of choice on land you’ll never own, for an audience you’ll never control, in a system that feeds on your self.

seesure.bsky.social•38 days ago

In the words of the prophet, Bill Hicks, 'we are free, to do as they tell us, we are free to do as they tell us ".

ceramicscientist.bsky.social•38 days ago

You are starting to sound a lot like John Trudell and his halluci nation vs a lie nation.

sueryan66bskysocia.bsky.social•38 days ago

He is just another privileged white man who thinks he has the right to be nasty and divisive, and then becomes shocked and angered when people push back and say no.

nicolaspurr.bsky.social•38 days ago

Hey @eliothiggins.bsky.social — would love to see a longer piece on this published somewhere. A useful framework. And perhaps, just perhaps, something to help draw people away from the darkness. Would be helpful for me to use in conversations.

dankaszeta.bsky.social•38 days ago

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