Mitch Wagner

Elon Musk’s Free-Speech Charade Is Over

Musk’s “‘free-speech absolutism’ was mostly code for a high tolerance for bigotry toward particular groups, a smoke screen that obscured an obvious hostility toward any speech that threatened his ability to make money.”

Adam Serwer at The Atlantic:

Conservatives built an entire body of jurisprudence around the First Amendment’s protection of corporate speech when large corporations were reliably funding Republican causes and campaigns…. But once some corporate actors decided it was in their financial interests to make decisions that the GOP disliked, conservative lawyers then turned around and argued that speech was no longer protected if it was used for purposes they opposed.

…

For them, free speech is when they can say what they want, and when you can say what they want.

… “traditional fact-checking and counterarguments are the least effective means of combating conspiracy beliefs…” but ”’fact-based inoculation’ – a kind of information vaccine where people are primed to spot misinformation before they are exposed to it – significantly reduced conspiratorial thinking…. “ Conspiracy theories: How Cranky Uncle aims to inoculate people against anti-scientific thought (The Sydney Morning Herald)

The Lisa Personal Computer: Apple’s Influential Flop (Kottke)

“What’s the Healthiest Way to Handle a Creeping Feeling That the World Is Ending?" (Kottke)

Customize Your AirPods Pro for Even Better Sound (Kottke)

I shot this photo at Lake Murray using the pano setting on the iPhone. It came out a little wobbly.

We watched “Executive Suite” (1954). The powerful head of a nationwide furniture company drops dead on a Friday evening without naming a successor, and five vice presidents fight for the presidency over the next 24 hours. Features the highest high tech of its era: person-to-person calls, intercoms and telegrams. Pretty good movie.

Slouching is bad for your back, unless you’re in bed with a cat in your lap.

When Picard and his posse took their stations on the bridge, I expected them to land in their seats and go “oy” like a bunch of old Jews.

When Picard and his posse took their stations on the bridge, I expected them to land in their seats and go “oy” like a bunch of old Jews.