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@ Free-floating Intelligence
2024-11-28 07:21:51Article by Milosz Matuschek, first published on "Freischwebende Intelligenz".
When the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville traced the French Revolution, he noted that free publicists and authors had become the leading politicians in the mid-18th century. They alone, penniless, without status, rank, title or formal power, became the only ones who still possessed authority. It is no secret that all power, especially in a democracy, is based on media power and public opinion. Revolutions can begin when intellectual forces regroup. The US elections also mark a turning point. It was primarily the media mainstream, the previous classic kingmaker, that lost out. In recent years, it has increasingly retreated into the trenches of its own ideology, preferring to listen to philanthrocapitalists with crazy ideas for shaping the world, woke social engineers and the studies of a thoroughly corrupted scientific community.
The "cultural hegemony" is marked in blue, by the way This “cultural hegemony”, which also manifested itself in educational institutions and the cultural sector, has now been pulverized. It was the X/Twitter platform and its new owner Elon Musk, among others, that have undermined mainstream power and created a space for broader and deeper debates alongside the narrow corridor of the media cartel. Musk himself is one of the biggest influencers in the world, no one has more followers on Twitter than him (204.6 million). The mainstream used to be the kingmaker, now it's the richest man in the world and his platform. Is that progress?
Musk is now being rewarded with a leadership role in a new government agency: The Department of Government Efficiency, or D.O.G.E. Doge is also the abbreviation for the largest memecoin, a sweet, virtual dog currency, the Doge Coin, which Musk has mentioned from time to time and had also already brought into play as a currency for Tesla. He has also named rockets after Doge.
Media power, meme culture, political power, all mixed together in a somewhat bizarre, semi-serious way. Everything is as American as ever. Many journalists in this country will now have to google “meme culture” and “DOGE”, preferring to stare at mainstream polls predicting a Harris victory. At the same time, Bitcoin is soaring to new highs. (Hopefully you read my piece on Bitcoin from the summer when I suggested you buy Bitcoin now (As of that time: 58,239 dollars per unit. As of press time today: 91,082 dollars).
It's a nice synchronicity when the uncensorable Bitcoin erupts at the same moment as the mainstream echo chamber implodes. Free money and free information belong in the hands of the citizen. But the citizen must also reach for it, otherwise others will. Companies are now increasingly buying into Bitcoin, with Blackrock recording billions in inflows into the Bitcoin ETF in the last few weeks alone. The next wave will come from the government. El Salvador has already declared Bitcoin the reserve currency. Trump is toying with the idea of creating a Bitcoin stock as an official reserve. Bitcoin was meant to be the asset class, which was out of the reach of governments. What will change, when they’re buying into it big time?
Musk is currently the de facto custodian of freedom of expression in the world, the protector liberae orationis mundi. How openly will he deal with critical information about himself or the Trump administration? Every “savior” has a life cycle. Liberators have often become new oppressors. Whether with free money or free information: in none of these centers of power should individual interests be allowed to dictate the direction. But this also means that freedom can only be realized where it is perceived. If citizens do not use the tools of freedom themselves en masse, others will. Freedom then remains just an option that is not redeemed, but merely delegated to the next savior.
Trump and Musk are just creating a new power conglomerate. Politics and billionaires with the will to shape things, everything as usual. From Soros & Co. to Musk & Co. For the field of free information, this means that as long as citizens are not on completely uncensorable platforms that are not controlled by anyone, they are working in the data silo of Musk & Co. They are active in the gig economy of the public opinion market and can be switched off and dimmed down at any time. Whether identity, content or followers: everything belongs to Musk. The necessary next step on the way to a truly free marketplace of ideas is solutions in which the citizen is the actor and not the product being sold.
Only when decentralized money and decentralized information are gathered in the hands of citizens and form a powerful block against power centers of all kinds, and a spirit of light-filled transformation can unfold, will a new golden age begin.
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