In the tower of babel created by social media, complex thinking fell down a rabbit hole. Unhinged and threatening Twitter pile-ons ramp up extremist views. Fair-minded resolutions about not living in a comforting echo chamber of confirming views have been battered into extinction.
One commentator writes; “The future of social media looks increasingly segregated for users’ safety, like rival fans at football. X for the rightwing and the raging; centrists and policy nerds on Bluesky; people who hate politics on Threads or Instagram; Gen Z on TikTok; boomers on Facebook.”
Bluesky, the newest entrant to the game is small but expanding fast as it attracts news junkies and politicos. Twitter X and Zuckerburg’s Meta Threads still number users in gzillions but that may not last for ever.
Bluesky had its official launch after an invitation-only beta period on 4 February 2024 when blissfully Pluto had just dipped a toe into Aquarius with the Sun in Aquarius.
Twitter launched 21 March 2006 has an Aries Sun trine Saturn in Leo and square Pluto – resilient, enduring, tough-minded. There’s also Mars in argumentative Gemini square Mercury Uranus and widely opposition Pluto – for the warrior, ranting and raving tribe.
Meta Threads, 5 July 2023 7pm EDT, a Sun Cancer, also has a super-charged Mars in flamboyant Leo on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Neptune sextile Pluto.
The one to watch ahead is Twitter X which is lurching into tr Saturn Neptune assaulting and undermining its Aries Sun from mid 2025 onwards into 2026 at which point tr Pluto opposes its Saturn for a time of hardship and deprivation into 2027.
Elon Musk, 28 June 1971 7.30am (biography, Rodden B) Pretoria, South Africa, won’t appreciate tr Uranus moving into Gemini since it will oppose his Neptune and conjunct his Saturn from July 2025 into 2026, sending his highly strung nervous system into overdrive with mounting concerns. In 2025 as well the early Lunar Eclipse and later Solar Eclipse will both tug on his Pluto so will be interesting to see what happens to his influence and grip on power. 2026 will be worse with a dead-halt, trapped, scary SA Pluto square his Mars and a seriously undermining tr Neptune Saturn square his Cancer Sun.
Mark Zuckerburg, 14 May 1984 White Plains, New York, no verified birth time, will also face his challenges through the celestial transition, though not as damagingly as Musk. Zuck has his Pluto at zero Scorpio and his Neptune at zero Capricorn both of which have been under pressure recently up to the end of this year. His 2026 looks like a sinker with his SA Mars conjunct his Neptune but he’ll bounce again in 2027.
“In the tower of babel created by social media, complex thinking fell down a rabbit hole….”
It’s so true. It’s got to the point where I can tell during an in-person conversation with someone whether they are active on Twitter. There’s the same bingo card of vocabulary and phrases.
Just happened upon this which is said to be a quote from Ben Hecht, who wrote screenplays for many of Hollywood’s classic films, and contributed to the writing of many, many more. Seemed interesting in our discussion and considerations of how our media impacts culture as a whole:
“ The American of 1953 is a cliché-strangled citizen whose like was never before in the Republic. Compared to the pre-movieized American of 1910-1920, he is an enfeebled intellect. I concede the movies alone did not undo the American mind. A number of forces worked away at that project. But always, well up in front and never faltering at their frowzy task, were the movies. In pre-movie days, the business of peddling lies about life was spotty and unorganized. It was carried on by the cheaper magazines, dime novels, the hinterland preachers and whooping politicians. These combined to unload a rash of infantile parables on the land. A goodly part of the population was infected, but there remained large healthy areas in the Republic’s thought. There remained, in fact, an intellectual class of sorts–a tribe of citizens who never read dime novels, cheap magazines or submitted themselves to political and religious howlers. It was this tribe that the movies scalped. Cultured people who would have blushed with shame to be found with a dime novel in their hands took to flocking shamelessly to watch the picturization of such tripe on the screen. For 40 years the movies have drummed away on the American character, They have fed it naiveté and buncombe in doses never before administered to any people. They have slapped into the American mind more human misinformation in one evening than the Dark Ages could muster in a decade. One basic plot only has appeared daily in their 15,000 theaters–the triumph of virtue and the overthrow of wickedness.”
from
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372942/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_ql_1
This post makes me think of a line from the 2020 book “The Empire and the Five Kings” from modern french philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy: “Trump and Zuckerberg are two blades of a pair of scissors cutting the fabric of truth to ribbons”
Insightful and funny piece from Carole Cadwalladr:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump
I find especially the point 18: “Silicon Valley doesn’t think in four-year election cycles. Elon Musk isn’t worrying about the midterms. He’s thinking about flying a SpaceX rocket to Mars and raping and pillaging its rare earth minerals before anyone else can get there. We need a 30-year road map out of this.”
A good reminder on what really is driving Elon Musk. He isn’t necessarily concerned with X as a business. It’s a vanity project for his Mercury conjunct Ascendant that needs to be heard. He will keep that going even if it will ultimately be him and bought bots (there’s a story from an ex-X employee on how his tweet from NFL – I think – didn’t get enough likes and hey were told to change the algorithm).
It also gives indirect insight on Jeff Bezos’s controversial decision to intervene with “WaPo’s” editorial line. He is in a space race with Musk. He must be seething right now.
I’m told that his companies run/control the whole internet & mobile phone technologies across the whole of Africa. That’s a lot of power on a continent being picked over by all the worlds big powers.
@Jo, thank you, m the investigative journalism is what I’m looking at Substack. But I suppose I’d treat it much like traditional media commentary: I remember loving the aspect in the early 2000’s , but I’ve rarely commented in the past 10 years or so, because the journalists are certainly not reading, and the conversation is unproductive. These were the first spaces taken over by the populist right in Finland, Finns Party MP was even running a moderating company.
In your latest article, you’d said, “In the tower of babel created by social media, complex thinking fell down a rabbit hole.” Now, I feel that is the single, most lucid summing-up of what’s going on the world, today. Thank you for writing such great articles! Also, if it’s of interest, please consider taking a look at Mr. Trump’s, key nominees?
Here are the fixed star interps for Meta Threads:
Heliacal Rising Star, Aldebaran….”guided by your principles & integrity.”
PARANS: Ras Algethi rises as Mars culminates…”wanting to live by a moral code. Arcturus sets as Mars on IC….”an aggressive leader.”
Zuben Elgenubi sets as Mercury on IC….”spokes person for a group.”
Bellatrix on IC as Moon rises….”compassion, seeking to help others.”
This group doesn’t seem to be as antisocial as Bluesky Public.
Here are the fixed star interps for BLUESKY PUBLIC:
Heliacal rising star….Acumen….”Suffering at the hands of others.”
PARANS: Capulus culminates as the Sun sets….”To be harsh with others.”
Pollux sets as Mercury rises…..”To take the contra argument.”
Blue-sky is being run by the Dorsey twitter “be kind” mob. Same old cancellation and life long bans, particularly for any woman saying people can’t change sex.
@Wendy, I think you will continue loving X, then. There, you will have all the blessing of St. Elon to express yourself, since apparently, this particular issue is very personal to him. For me, a cis woman who has never truly understood any of the “moral panics” among Anglophones, whether it was Satanic heavy metal music, bisexuals, or most sex/gender divide, but loves news, this place seems welcoming enough.
(Also, I would very much like an astrological look on “moral panics”, and why these seem to be such a thing in the Anglosphere, when even the birth place of Calvinism, Switzerland, seem to not play, with their amazingly talented ESC winner Nemo being out as non-binary and that being cool with people in the Continent.)
Except it’s not a “moral panic” (given the discussion on this by most people, certainly here in the UK, is not and has never been about “morality”) – it has had strong impacts on hard fought-for (by the left, mostly, back in the day) legal rights that yes, a lot of women have become complacent about, not to mention democracy, fairness, fundamental human rights and particularly, regulatory capture, which has been pretty obvious to those who have been paying attention over the last decade and understood the wider implications of what’s happened here. It certainly isn’t solely a right wing issue, given many on the left (and a fair number of LGB people) noticed the implications of what many see as an absurd, anti-reality, wholly sexist ideology many years back, well before the right grabbed it with both hands as it had been left an open goal by the so-called left . Maybe we should look at the astrology about blind spots and fond narratives, and how the seeds of political change are sown. I think this particular issue is the tip of a rather murky iceberg about complacency, crumbling, out-of-touch institutions, religiosity among the supposedly non-religious and, as I say, fond narratives by those who still don’t seem to realise that they have become the out of touch establishment, unfortunately leaving the door wide open for those like Trump, Farage et al to manipulate. The vile threats issued to some female journalists over on Bluesky for not being “true believers” of this backwards, sexist “cause” should perhaps give pause for thought as to whether or not it makes it any “kinder” a place in reality than Musk’s X.
Maybe adding Fediverse social media like Mastodon or Pixelfed as well?
Also pininterest and bumble or something which had celebs controversial statements and poetry..Instagram now with many trending it is becoming argumentative like twitter and facebook….all forced algorithms to keep them profiting…so has YouTube comment section
No doubt gen z is dumping all social media esp European gen z..for telegram which has specific ..own group or watsapp own group or Snapchat kind. Just friends group ..no controversies no algorithm
@Rachena, Pinterest is amazing, basically just mood boards for visually orientated people. I’ve personally loved fashion and history of fashion since I was a child and Pinterest is great for those references. I also do genealogy, and while Pinterest boards tend to be for some Gaelic principalities long forgotten, I have found surprisingly valid content there, too.
It’s telling that while I’ve had an account since 2014, I only really got into Twitter following Trump’s first victory, and I deleted the app in the morning of November 6th. I had thought of it for numerous times after Elon took over, but stayed for Ukraine content and the fact Finnish X managed to stay “normal” for quite a while when you muted the usual suspects after the acquisition. But this year, I saw all the features I loved, such as being able to get my “Breaking News” and related content from one platform deteriorate. For instance, I remember that during Hurricanes Irma and Harvey the # brought me to some pretty amazing content from people on sites. During Milton, all I got was commentary from obvious engagement farms. In addition, there were literal Nazis commenting on anything my favourite contributors in Finnish wrote.
After doomscrolling for most of the week leading to Elections, I finally reached the breaking point on November 6th. And, to be honest, it wasn’t people who celebrated Trump. It was the doom and gloom my algorithm showed me, a presumed Liberal, from accounts that seemed to be Liberal, as well.
I went essentially without any text format SoMe for a week – I do have some Facebook groups that are active this period, and as an original beauty blog addict I have many people I follow on IG – then started to look at my Bluesky account I’d neglected for a year or so. And I liked what I saw! So many of the people who I really enjoyed on Twitter but almost didn’t see on X despite following and commenting were there, or transferring.
So, right now, Bluesky seems like my “go to” text form space. But as said, since I’m a tailend Gen X (I guess about 3 months from being an official Xennial), and a 3rd house NN/Venus/Uranus just loving to connect through technology, I’ve seen the whole evolution of SoMe from the first boards, and still have several places I hang out at.
I’ve had a Twitter account since 2009 and am about to dump it. I used it mainly for professional reasons but found I liked following a number of English philosophical cat accounts that brought me joy (George the Stourbridge Cat, Rolf the Warwick University Cat, the Vicarage Cat), plus Ukraine news and January 6 investigations). I hope they will also migrate to Bluesky, as I just have, or Threads. But I find social media such a time hog. I like Substack but so much of the content is paid-only. As a journalist myself I don’t begrudge writers seeking payment but how many can you afford to subscribe to? I’m subscribing only to the select few I can afford.
Can anyone tell me if Elon Musk’s time been confirmed ?
@Helen, I think it comes from his mother Maya. Absolutely the type of a model/socialite who would have written down the info when their babies were born back in the early 1970’s, and then consulted an astrologer or seven.
Also the Onion just bought the Alex Jones empire at a judicial auction with the help of Sandy Hook parents who have lost their children to a mass murderer and were defamed by him. The Onion will make the Alex Jones legacy anti-MAGA. The resistance lives.
No, a judge said yesterday there were transparency concerns in the bidding process and put the sale on hold.
The judge said he’s not accusing the parties of doing anything improper but noted that the backup bidders didn’t even know the winning bid and weren’t given a chance to increase their bid.
Breaking…the onion bid is under criminal investigation and infowars restored to alex jones.
References, please! Yes, infowars reopened since the original bid ”won” by “the Onion”. Hardly decided… hearing date likely to be announced next week for judicial review about bid award by Murray.
‘https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/onion-infowars-court-1.7385221’
Nothing about criminality in the cbc article.
Mercury retrograde shadow, reviewing a previous decision…
Great news about Musk. He is clearly overplaying his hand. He apparently met the Iranian ambassador at the UN. What a fool.
I would add Substack to the list of friendly and humane social networks.
@André Substack is more of a blogging platform, though? Many of my favorite OG-Twitter follows had/have Substack. I’ve read their articles there, but never really commented there.
Substack is like a newsletter/blog but it also has Notes which is very similar to Twitter. There’s also a capacity to do podcasts and videos also. It ticks a lot of boxes.
It also doesn’t censor important voices though it has said if you’re posting deeply disgusting, harmful content or have Nazi views, you will get banned. But a number of investigative journalists have been using it to expose corruption, whereas the mainstream media won’t touch the content/evidence they have found.