We would be in your debt!

bfv is a legend because of that thread.

Wishing you well sir, whoever and wherever you are!

Hunting animals and animals hunting people have always been staples of his. If these are reflective of anything, I think it’s incidental. He’s always been turning those tables, but the only emergent theme for me has been absurdist rather than political. If he was Trying to be political I think I’d notice because it would stop being as funny.

Third option: Maybe your observation says more about the world he deposited these latest comics into...

Oh you know....

(SPOILER ALERT): Each one is better than the last. The first one is a classic absurdist Larson punchline, but you can tell he's still getting used to his digital tools. Feels like it would have looked better as one of his classic ink drawings. The second one is really funny, and the picture itself is beautiful. I feel like you could frame it as art, -it feels very atmospheric, alive, and "now". Actually like it better than a lot of his ink drawings. The third one initially hit me as the least funny because instead of a caption beneath the frame, there is a title, which kills the joke. If you just look at the scene ignoring the words beneath and it hits you what they're doing, that is downright hilarious, but it's supposed to dawn on you as you view it, -you shouldn't read it in the title. Ended up being funniest by far.

I don't think I'm cancelling Kanye either. Ignoring isn't cancelling, right?

And suddenly, 25 years later:

https://www.thefarside.com/new-stuff

Yeah, people are people. Call me crazy, but I don't feel like the answer to one of our collective vulnerabilities is to exploit it to the max :)

Maybe we should even take extra care that that not happen...

Yeah. Engagement needs a "governing philosophy" to keep the worker bees in line with minimal effort, and freedom is a great one.

Propaganda used to build the propaganda machine. We're getting recursive here.

The tough part for me that needs to be acknowledged is that some of these networks (well mostly Twitter) I find very useful for getting the best information from actual experts. If you are extremely proficient you can put a lot of effort into curating your follow list to build better news channels than our modern news platforms. Instead of NYT, CNN, Wall Street Journal, etc, you have a superior custom-made panel of experts who actually inform those other platforms (or write for them).

But I feel like using it productively like that is akin to making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, and running into an Imperial blockade if you don't.

I think that might be framing it perhaps a bit too kindly. I don't think they're supporting this (and they are) in the name of freedom as much as in the name of engagement, unfortunately for us. Even beyond easy onboarding. They know these propaganda networks exist, and they want them there.

I do think though that when it comes to individual developers (who don't matter for the purpose of culpability here imho), you're right and you do get more of the "in the name of freedom" line, but even then...I bet a subset of those espousing philosophy find it is an incredibly convenient one morally... :)

Is Twitter imposing a cost on society when they support disinformation and propaganda so they can extract value from society in the form of engagement?

To me, it doesn’t matter. When 50% (or whatever) of the “people” you are engaging with around a given topic do not exist and are paid propaganda channels, Something has gone wrong and “the deal” has been broken. Twitter is representing to me that these are people.

There's a large swath of society that no longer parses the content of debate. They put it on a scale and count the exclamation points. They have created a fact-free zone where the subject at hand no longer matters, what's important is the opinions that agree with yours and how deeply you all hold them.

For some of these followers, bringing facts into their political street fight is downright offensive. Like it could not possibly be a more odious or corrupt thing to do.