I’ve heard that moneied interests are paying Twitter and now reddit behind the scenes to ruin their respective communities. It’s because every time something happens that shakes the foundation of who’s in charge, it’s always a social media coordinated public effort behind the push for change. The most recent one I can think of is the Twitter-fueled women’s rights movement in Iran. Or even the push to get progressive names like AOC elected.
So now we have rich interests paying CEOs to sabotage their own companies in order to better maintain the status quo.
I know this concept falls squarely into conspiracy theory territory, but with Twitter and reddit, both once bastions of progressive organization, going to shit at the same time, and threads popping up with the messaging that they explicitly want to avoid news and politics, you can’t help but wonder if there’s a concentrated effort behind the scenes to break up communities that are actually starting to make a difference.
I mean what makes far more sense is that interests rates have skyrocketed, which means VC money dried up, which means these platforms that haven’t made money in over a decade suddenly have to figure out how to run themselves.
It’s not just Reddit and Twitter, it’s YouTube and Twitch also.
It also might have something to do with the people running the show are now being tasked with real work and it turns out they aren’t good at their job.
Yeah I think this is the Occam’s razor explanation that makes more sense. And why might Reddit be doing such a similar thing so soon after twitter? Spez has said he’s in touch with Elon and admires his business decisions. Simple as that.
For those in control … there is no more terrible thing than to have all your workers talking amongst one another to discuss how terrible their situation is and what they could all do about it.
It’s the same in prison … if the guards and management keep everyone in control by isolating them all. Once the inmates start talking to one another, they start to conspire and plan on what to do about their situation. If they plan long enough, they’ll figure out how to do illegal activity, find specialty items or contraband … give them more time and they’ll start trying to figure out how to break out of their situation.
Then when things go too far and all sorts of illegal activity is taking place and people are trying to break out … the guards and managers will shake up the prison and breakup the communications system they were all using.
It doesn’t sound too outlandish. The destruction of Twitter seems to attract some replacement from the far-right groups, Threads is already gaining far-right pages promotion and Reddit is still in the phase of destroying a once very influencial community. And all in the same time as the beginning of the US electoral campaign. It really aligns with a concentrated effort
Yeah there used to be a time when, in order to qualify for renting or buying a dwelling, candidate had to prove to the housing industry that they earned three times the amount of rent or mortgage. Is that still a thing?
Everyone needs to read "Hell's Angels" by Hunter Thompson.
There's a chapter where he lays out the economics of being a biker/hippie/artist circa 1970.
An Angel could work for six months as a Union stevedore and make enough to hit the road for two years. A part time waitress could afford an apartment for herself and her musician boyfriend.
When Ronald Reagan took office, 'middle class' was defined as one Union salary job supporting a family of four, and $1 million was considered a vast fortune.
By the end of Bush Sr's term, 'middle class' was two jobs to keep the family going, and $1 million was what a rich guy paid for a party.
enjoy the freedom of not needing an employment to live, and presumably free public transport letting you go anywhere at any time without needing to think about access to fuel or parking or how to feed and house yourself while you travel
Worse, actually. My net at $58,000CAD got me $3,600/mo. If I wanted a simple 2bd today it would be now two thirds of my take-home. The friend who rents my guest bedroom has become my roommate over the last few months as they’ve been unable to find a place that’s even vaguely reasonable.
Maybe for some fucking dignity? Maybe because people deserve some life alongside their survival?
A working person who’s in their career should be able to afford more than a one bedroom apartment. That second room could be for hobbies, a work-from-home office, a guest bedroom, a library, whatever. And that’s just in an ideal situation but what if they’re a single parent(could be for any reason including something completely unavoidable like their spouse passing away for some reason) who needs a room for their child? And while I’m on about it, those people are a couple who would share a bedroom so then what? Pretty much every single person needs personal space away from their partner from time to time and the shared bedroom ain’t it.
Rich people don’t need boats or luxury vehicles yet they always seem to find excuses for that but having a 2bd apartment is considered irresponsible spending and that’s horseshit. It’s not the employee’s job to debase themselves in every aspect of their lives so someone who clearly can’t manage a business effectively can pretend they have any skill in doing so.
I lived with my parents, then I lived in a shared apartment, then I lived in a studio apartment, I had dignity and life. You don't need 3 rooms per person, you don't need a yacht, you don't need servants. If you can afford them good for you, but holy privilege demanding that as if it was a bare necessity.
Congrats for you. Here’s the thing, the reason we can’t all have enough to be comfortable isn’t because life is hard, it’s because the resources are kept from us by thieves we hilariously call “elites”.
I’m sorry that I want a better life than scraping by. I’m sorry I don’t love the taste of boot the same way you do. I’m not asking for a mansion you fucking donut. I didn’t ask for servants or yachts or any of that shit. I’m asking for literally one more room and for good reasons which I have already outlined. If you can’t win the argument without completely making shit up then accept the loss and back down.
We are earning it. This generation is the most productive one ever and yet all the value we create is being increasingly funnelled to executives who do next to nothing.
Wages are stagnant as hell and rent and shit is going up by astronomical amounts even for units that haven’t really changed operating costs in years just because.
Quit sucking boot and stand up for yourself, damn. The rich aren’t going to reward you for this.
That’s great, dude. Why you gotta be such a spiteful little bitch towards everyone else? The information on why not everyone has those opportunities is out there so really you’re either trying to defend a corporation’s right to fuck ocer employees or you’re genuinely so stupid and emotionless as to not understand how any of this works or care to learn at all.
And oh wow, a whole house, eh? Sounds kinda greedy. What’s next, a mansion? Four cars? Seriously, some self-awareness would god a long fuckin’ way here, dude.
Yeah, a whole house. And you didn't find me complaining why two bedroom apartments were so expensive when I was single. Just the one car, since public transport is quite good around here. Thanks for asking.
here in sweden most cities have some amount of municipal housing, where you can get a family-sized apartment for like $1200 equivalent, or a studio apartment for $300-400
it's almost like socialism works, and it works so fucking well that they have to legally restrict the municipal housing from being more than like 17% of the housing supply lest it nuke all private landlords from orbit
My wife got into that lularoe shit. We set a limit, which she promptly blew past. You just had all these people, including the owners, telling you to buy buy buy.
They prey on people's insecurities. They take advantage of them.
Call my wife stupid, I'm sure someone will because this is Lemmy where everyone is self righteous, but I think you don't really understand the power of manipulation these companies wield until you see it firsthand. It's actually really sad and dangerous what they do to people. And my wife has a successful career and makes 6 figures, we don't need the money, but they still had her convinced she had to do this. I thought it would be a side hobby for her, but they were not kind to her. (Well, they were, but only to get money.)
I remember trying to warn her that the company makes money when she buys, not when she sells. I don't think it sunk in, and let's face it, that's how retail works in general. But with regular retail, you control what you get - Lularoe just sent whatever quantity of leggings, blouses, dresses, etc you ordered. You had no control over the patterns. I'm not sure if you even got to pick what sizes you received.
Early on I helped, but I got tired of spending time and energy so she could sell one pair of leggings. She went to a few group sales things and would spend hours sitting there, plus all the prep and tear down time, plus gas, all to sell like three things. She only went to two of those.
A host of other companies jumped in to help, for a price. Website. Square. Stamps.com.
We still have some in the basement. I want to burn it, but we donate some to charities now and then, and occasionally neighbors and friends will come raid it (we give it to them free). We started watching the documentary on Amazon about it, but never finished. My wife was just too angry.
One meeting we went to before she got into it had the head of Lularoe on video conference. She talked about having "600 new arts each week", ie 600 patterns. That comment runs through my head every time I see a particularly ugly lularoe pattern.
Ehhh at least I got a new camera out of it, for taking pictures of the stock.
I joined the antimlm sub on reddit for a while hoping for advice and info, but it was just a very negative sub, mocking people and no helpful advice. I unsubbed after a few weeks. Fortunately my wife eventually figured it out.
You're not going to stop people from doing this by showing them numbers. You have to realize it's an emotional thing. They are preying on emotions. You have to find a way to fight that.
Most people are susceptible to scams like MLMs otherwise they wouldn't keep running the same scam. It doesn't mean you're smart or dumb, you just may not be aware of the social engineering and manipulation tactics they use or lack an effective skeptical epistemology to avoid accepting claims without good justification. Most people who are in a cult don't realize the organization they are in is a cult. I have an otherwise very intelligent sibling who fell for the essential oils MLM scam. They often use tactics and language similar to cults: in group/out group tribalism, indoctrination, isolation, love bombing, fear and hate mongering, etc.
It really is hard. A guy I used to work with is in one DEEP. He hits up former coworkers and even their friends on Facebook trying to lure them in. I had a few conversations and genuinely tried to reach him but it's just impossible. It eventually came to the point that, when he was talking about all the money he made (2k in a few hours work (this one time)), I told him to send his 1099 and if it beat my W-2 I would join him.
I’ve been fussed at by my ex and a few of her friends for NOT supporting the “insert product” sold by friend x. Last one was Wine. This nasty ass shit gave me a headache from the taster, and you want me to spend $25 a bottle because, and i quote, “love red wine and it all tastes the same anyway”. Its a horrid spiral of preying on emotions and hopes and dreams, worsened by that one friend who happens to be up high enough in the mlm foodchain to make a ton of money “first” on all current and new mlm ventures.
I don’t have the wife anymore (unrelated) and I’ve dropped the friends that force mlm. I don’t miss them.
I think it's analogous to the joke where you say: "I'd call you a monkey but that'd be an insult to monkeys"
MLMs are legal and pyramid schemes are not. I don't know the legal details but I imagine it's because of the tricky pay scheme and that people are losing money and that the fact that MLMs can't be called pyramid schemes due to some weird rule is laughable because they seem worse.
Yes. Basically, both work similar but an MLM is an actual business while a pyramid scheme just fakes to be one.
Take Tupperware for instance. Independent of its structure as a customer you get a real product / service. There is an actual transaction between a customer and a company (reseller). A customer does not need to be part of the MLM.
In a pyramid scheme the money comes directly and only from its participants. It just redistributes it. As long as the scheme grows this works until it eventually collapses.
I forgot tupperware was (...or still is??) an MLM scheme. I remember hearing about "tupperware parties" when I was a kid and thinking adults needed better toys, like Legos or something.
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