Because I use FB to monitor “conservative” content, my algorithm is just swimming with emotionally activating and entirely false propaganda like this. [Billy Joel has a medical condition that caused him to cancel.]
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The post also makes it sound like this is an annual tour that Billy is this year declining when this tour has never happened. Post is meant for people who know nothing about Bruce beyond what he said in the UK.
I left FB long ago but when I visit family in rural Georgia the propaganda & conspiracy "facts" litter the conversations. It sounds insane. No doubt in my mind that rural US is largely a Trump cult.
Joel wasn't touring with Springsteen in the first place, but co-headlining with Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart, or Sting in various cities, as he's been for a few years.
Anyone who knows Springsteen knows he almost never has an opening act, period.
This has nothing to do with your algorithm. I don’t do any of that and my feed is swimming in right-wing propaganda and conspiracies too. You’re just seeing the everyday feed for everyone. And that’s the real problem.
There is a history of mixing music and politics from Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Battle Hymn of the Republic to Guthrie, Dylan, the Clash, Public Enemy, RATM and Springsteen.
I was watching YouTube last week and instead of the usual hair products, health products, good causes that I normally see in my ads the algorithm decided I needed to see the following: a cure for Alzheimers from a guy who kept forgetting the topic of his sentences, a crypto scam guaranteed to
bring in lots of money during the coming tough times, some other dodgy health potion and a long ad telling me thanks to the current (unnamed) administration I will be able to buy an assault weapon without a background check, but I'd better hurry because those liberals are coming for my guns....
I stopped watching because I couldn't take any more of those ads, but have since thought what it must be like to see that stuff day in and day out. The next week all was back to normal in algorithm-ville: make-up for women of a certain age and somewhat less dodgy health products.
🇨🇦🇺🇦🤔Tbh,
This is precisely why I don’t use Facebook or Musk’s X:
Both are a cesspool of disinformation filled with bots or plain idiots whose sole purpose is to spread nonsense out of a desperate need for attention.
Goes to show that fact-checking is important. Also, don’t believe everything you hear/read without verifiable evidence.
Don’t repost false talking points.
Lastly:
1) Call your Reps. Specifically tell them what to do e.g. vote NO on the awful spending bill
2) Peacefully protest on 6/6 (D-day) & 6/14
"Music and politics don't mix" is such an absurd statement similar to saying something like I miss when games weren't about politics like when I was a kid and played Metal Gear.
A lot of the rage farming I see on my FB feed are pages with innocuous names like “Country Cookin”- I block as many as I can keep up with. It’ll come in waves, then stop for a while. I’ve also seen way fewer product ads- they’ve been replaced with rage farm content after the election.
Facebook and Twitter are functioning for many users as the Radio Rwanda’s of the 2020s, feeding them with a steady diet of hateful, identity-based propaganda that justifies and encourages political violence. But because each person’s feed is different, it’s hard to know what’s happening.
MAGA/GOP throws everything out there. It doesn't matter to the recipients if it is often contradictory or ridiculous. They seize upon the issues that they want to (and ignore those they don't). That strategy works on that audience.
fb/twitter and much of social media purposely write the most wishywashy TOS so that they can moderate the absolute least because it makes them more money. techbros write algorithms to play on people's emotions and keep them engaged = more money.
GREED KILLS! #RegulateSocialMedia
These companies that profit off of rage farming (I’d argue that rage is their primary product) will claim that they’re just giving consumers what they want. This is the psychology of 10 year olds with the historical memories of goldfish.
I should also say that the three administrators of this group that pumps inaccurate and emotionally-activating content into the FB feeds of 14K Oregonians all have past or present institutional ties to the OR GOP. This is not a group run by randos.
This guy used to be the chairman of the Multnomah County GOP. He now lives in another state, but remains active in OR GOP politics. He’s also the author of this book that mentions the name “Soros” 29 times.
Add into this that far too many people get their *news* from sites like facebook which means they literally do not know what is actually going on in the world and believe the toxic lies that keep them on the platform longest.
We should sue zuck/elon for the social damage they have done.
Thank you for consistently shedding light on this. It makes it very hard for me some days working in the OR legislature, esp. given the Democrat supermajority, to understand why leadership is so focused on bipartisanship.
I make alt facebook accounts so I can comment on things without being targeted, and new accounts, with nothing liked, maybe some engagement, gets the worst fucking content and conspiracy shit, all with thousands of comments, so a casual would think "oh yea that's popular"
Because each person's feed is different AND the major platforms (not this one) have removed almost all transparency for outside researchers and journalists.
it's also probably why young white supremacists with institutional GOP ties are used by campaigns.
i know of a few that visited TX specifically to be instructed by
GOP/religious/gas and oil orgs.
What’s crazy is that this isn’t even an America exclusive thing. Facebook has probably caused and promoted genocides through similar postings in other countries
Both are damaging, and my position since their inception has been that most of us should have avoided their lure in the first place. But they saturated culture, and early joiners grew their power for them—power that now can't be reined in except by opting out. But even attrition can't stop them now.
As a high school history teachers i taught about the Rwanda massacre. My students just couldn't believe they could advertise is on the radio and call them cockroachs.
aside from anything else i find the universe where Joel only just discovered that Bruce Springstein is political to be quite amusing but then these people think born in the USA is patriotic so i dont know why im surprised
I see garbage like this in my feed all the time. A vast majority of it is pretty much bot/AI created bullshit with culture war aligned names(Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Robert DeNiro, Elon Musk, etc.) shared from multiple pages.
And I block it, but it just keeps showing up under other fake pages.
I see all that crap when I check my FB for family news. I think most readers neither believe it nor disbelieve it. Rather they think it's fun to bandy it about and share with their friends, as though it were true.
It never ceases to amaze me - although it shouldn't - that the legit explanation is right out there in the open and trivial to find, yet people go for the conspiracy theory. Emotionally-activating is the draw, right? Ugh... just bonkers. (Note to self: (re)read more Lakoff.)
My Facebook feed has, up until a few months ago, been friends & family, local history and Trader Joe’s. And then one day it transmuted into fascist & racist sewage that I report, but which are apparently vibrant viewpoints. Never engage except to block and yet it’s come back 10-fold.
"Joel has been diagnosed with NPH, a condition where fluid accumulates in the brain, leading to symptoms like balance and vision issues."
I wish people would do some simple research.
My husbands NPH was discovered via a scan for a neck lump.Then it all started making sense. In two years he has gone from working as a commercial construction foreman to a hospital bed in our living room. I wish Mr Joel and his family the best in his journey.
Thank you for the kind words. I planned for everything except for one of us to get sick at 60.Still counting my blessings as so many in this world are facing much hardship. Peace to you and yours.💐
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Anyone who knows Springsteen knows he almost never has an opening act, period.
They are:
Always full of shit
This is precisely why I don’t use Facebook or Musk’s X:
Both are a cesspool of disinformation filled with bots or plain idiots whose sole purpose is to spread nonsense out of a desperate need for attention.
Don’t repost false talking points.
Lastly:
1) Call your Reps. Specifically tell them what to do e.g. vote NO on the awful spending bill
2) Peacefully protest on 6/6 (D-day) & 6/14
I want Led Zeppelin back
GREED KILLS! #RegulateSocialMedia
We should sue zuck/elon for the social damage they have done.
"I'm just fulfilling a need. After all, they keep coming back for more."
And not one GOP elected is followed from that account.
i know of a few that visited TX specifically to be instructed by
GOP/religious/gas and oil orgs.
But then they found that limiting violent and hateful rhetoric limited their profit potential and it was so much easier to just suppress research.
And I block it, but it just keeps showing up under other fake pages.
I wish people would do some simple research.