Google and Meta aren’t controlling propaganda. They’re just trying to make ad dollars.

Propaganda is something you lose money doing, because you’re spending money (or using influence) to change minds.

They never had the power to say no to the government. The government was more restrained in telling them openly and in public what they should say. But, they mostly obeyed in advance, slanting all their stories in a way that was “patriotic” more than it was truthful.

Rogan says a lot of dumb shit, but I don’t think he’s a “free agent propagandist”. I don’t think he’s being paid to say that dumb stuff, at least not directly. I think it’s more that he either believes it or he thinks it makes for podcasts that people will download / stream. I don’t think that a Swedish media giant paid him a huge sum in order to spread propaganda, I think they did it because he had a huge audience and they thought that by making him exclusive to Spotify they could corner the market on podcasts. Luckily they were completely wrong.

The Russia Today / Tenet Media event did show that some right wing podcasters accepted money to knowingly or unknowingly launder Russian propaganda. But, these were much smaller podcasters than Joe Rogan. And, it shows that instead of the major 3 networks being forced to spread American propaganda, in the current media landscape there are so many smaller podcasters that not only can the US government not control the media, they can’t even prevent foreign countries from buying airtime.

IMO the whole podcast space is a free for all. There’s paid-for propaganda, but only some of it is American. Not all the top podcasts that Americans listen to are even American.

2006-rabbit is somewhat right. It’s a lot easier to do propaganda over a handful of radio and TV stations than when anybody can host their own podcast.

Can you imagine the hellscape the USA would be in if media was just 3 major networks? Trump has already shown how willing he is to use his power to control what’s allowed on TV.

If you’re going at the speed of light minus 1 m/s and you turn on a flashlight, the beam emitted by the flashlight will be travelling at the speed of light, according to your measurements. Time passes slower the faster you travel.

Recruit an offensive line entirely of ex-sumo wrestlers

After the first play they’re completely exhausted and unable to continue.

Sumo wrestlers are good at sumo wrestling. Those are matches that last between 2 and 30 seconds, after which the wrestler gets about an hour to rest.

Offside is essential to keep the game interesting. Otherwise you just have a big dude who hangs out next to the goal all game and you just launch the ball up to that dude whenever you get possession. There’s no strategy, no passing, no running with the ball, no dribbling, just launch it to the big guy.

Good job, may your quest succeed.

There’s a reason why things are popular. People like it.

The only drawback is that to make a “Billboard #1” type hit, you need extremely broad appeal. So, often it’s stuff that nobody hates instead of something that people who know a certain niche genre absolutely adore. You’re unlikely to get a jazz song as a #1, or a twangy country song, or any song with lyrics that any group might find offensive,

I’m going to attack the other side of the graph.

• 1973: Stevie Wonder, Higher Ground Catchy lyrics, very funky, heavy use of the Wah pedal
• 1977: Fela Kuti, Opposite People Africa’s take on funk music. Screw western norms of 5 minute songs. Have 10 minutes of jamming before the vocals even come in.
• 1967: James Brown, Cold Sweat One of the first funk songs, downbeat on the 1s, one chord groove, lots of improvisation, bass forward, lots of focus on the groove and not the lyrics, etc.
• 1967: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Ain’t no Mountain High Enough Delicious Motown, but in particular focus in James Jamerson’s incredible bass line
• 1959: Take Five, Dave Brubeck 1960s jazz with a 5/4 beat
• 1965: Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash, Streets of Laredo A “modern” cowboy remake of a folk song that goes back centuries

The only music that was released in my teens that I like is stuff I never heard until I was maybe 30. I look back and think it was such a shame that I missed that era when it was current/new.

My dad was like that, but the music he liked was from 1750 to 1830 or so. If there’s no cello, he’s not interested.

For me, my favourites are from the funk era. I don’t think I knew that kind of music existed until I was in my 20s. Now it’s my go-to kind of music.

I can find “new bangers”, but there’s also a whole lot of “holy shit, the kids have absolutely no taste in music”, which I think is a often what the olds think of new music. I think that’s the typical drop you see on the graph as people get older.

OTOH, to me the absolute worst era of music was the popular stuff coming out when I was 5-20 years old or so. That era just sucked. As a kid my general impression was “Holy shit, my peers have absolutely no taste in music”. It was only years later that I actually discovered music that was made during that time that I had never heard about. So, I suppose there was some good music back then, but it wasn’t the stuff that was on the radio, on TV, in the movies, etc. The best era for music, IMO, was 10-20 years before I was born. And, it isn’t even music my parents introduced me to. They had pretty poor taste in music too, and never played that stuff. I only found out about it decades later by exploring music on my own.

I wonder how you could adjust the whole graph based on connections to friends.

When people are under 10, they don’t have that much agency in choosing music. They just listen to whatever their parents listen to, or whatever their parents put on for them. In their teens they start getting to choose music and have a lot of classmates and friends who can be sources for hearing new music. In their early 20s that continues with university and/or first jobs. But, after a while that tails off and people have smaller social circles so they are introduced to fewer new things.

That could also explain why music from before people were born is somewhat popular. It’s something you might have been introduced to by your parents, or possibly by friends in your teens or 20s, or maybe something you discovered on your own later. When you’re 40+ you still might have people introducing you to music that existed before you were born, but you’re probably not being introduced to the new music very much. And if you are, it’s the popular stuff, which often sucks in all eras. Maybe if you have teenaged kids you hear what they like at some point, but that’s a small window, and often what they like is the popular gunk.

Including the economy. Access to the Atlantic, exclusive access to the Gulf of Mexico, and controlling almost all access to Mexico would mean its economy was much bigger than Arizama.

What time is it in Washconsin?

Fuck you they were. They wanted to sell you a computer so that you’d install Office. They never wanted you to do whatever you wanted with it. They intentionally changed internal APIs to break third party software that they didn’t want people using. This is also the era where they were constantly spreading FUD about Linux, convincing people that merely using Linux meant you were legally liable for patent infringement, etc.

If I were some powerful corporate exec, I’d be paying someone whose job it was to make sure something like this never happened, or if it happened it was at least never recorded.

I mean, even before the viral “Developers developers developers developers” chant he was a nasty, sweaty mess.

Any unusual players spotted or missing?

I think I might have seen Jorginho.