Imagine if your favorite neighborhood bar turned into a Nazi hangout.

Smearing Vicks Vaporub in masks? Ravers were masking before it was cool (I can’t hear “on X” and think oh, an online platform). But I digress …

This has been a banner month for X. Last week, the social network’s built-in chatbot, Grok, became strangely obsessed with false claims about “white genocide” in South Africa—allegedly because someone made an “unauthorized modification” to its code at 3:15 in the morning. The week prior, Ye (formerly Kanye West) released a single called “Heil Hitler” on the platform. The chorus includes the line “Heil Hitler, they don’t understand the things I say on Twitter.” West has frequently posted anti-Semitic rants on the platform and, at one point back in February, said he identified as a Nazi. (Yesterday on X, West said he was “done with antisemitism,” though he has made such apologies before; in any case, the single has already been viewed tens of millions of times on X.)

So, we literally have a song titled Heil Hitler from a prominent artist. I’m sure it’s not the first one crafted on American soil, just as I’m sure little Nazi rallies happen with some frequency nationwide, as these guys just love getting together and being racist fucks.

The now-cliche Nazi bar analogy gets brought into specific relief:

In July 2020, the Twitter user Michael B. Tager shared an anecdote that went viral. Tager was at “a shitty crustpunk bar” when the gruff bartender kicked out a patron in a “punk uniform”—not because the customer was making a scene, but because he was wearing Nazi paraphernalia. “You have to nip it in the bud immediately,” Tager recounted the bartender as saying. “These guys come in and it’s always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don’t want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend.” Soon enough, you’re running a Nazi bar.

I’d not heard the origins of the term before, so that was a “fun” thing to learn.

But seriously: What the fuck is going on?

  • jarfil@beehaw.org
    2·
    3 days ago

    Somewhat ironically, Musk’s changes have split 𝕏 in two:

    1. 🔵✔️ The mark of shame crowd: their comments get pushed to the front, they pay to one-up each other and see who can be the loudest Musk kissass.
    2. ⚪ The no-mark people: don’t try to get noticed, fly under the radar, keep finding each other through keywords, get pretty much ignored by the 🔵✔️ crowd… and are happy with that.
    3. 🟡✔️ Verified organizations: few, but unfortunately too many, government and business PR teams, trying to one-up everyone, attracting the 🔵✔️ scourge to their posts, which turns them into trash for ⚪ people. Still work for some announcements, but are useless for meaningful discussion.

    Don’t get me wrong, the “average” public voice is gone, it’s been replaced by influencer wannabes.

    What saves the situation for niche communities, is the BLOCK feature. Just block everyone with a 🔵✔️, follow people you like, and suddenly you find yourself in the Twitter of long ago.

    In the Nazi bar analogy, it’s like if Musk put up a Nazi rune shaped stage in the middle of the bar, everyone with a 🔵✔️ armband is fighting each other to get to the mic on the stage… while it’s all enclosed in a soundproof cage, and random people sitting by the walls keep their conversations to themselves.

    Lots of people have left 𝕏 for that reason, either because they want a fair chance to get their voice heard, or because even being aware of the stage fight disgusts them, and that’s fine. Some have stayed and keep ignoring the stage fight, while the stage fight ignores them, with the rare notification for… another 🔵✔️ to block. Pretty much nobody tries to infiltrate the ⚪ discussions, because they need a 🔵✔️ to get their voice heard above others, but if they get one, then they get blocked.

    This also doesn’t mean there are no Nazis or other awful people among the ⚪ no-marks, but the loudmouths quickly get pulled into the 🔵✔️ cage fight.