Often, if they are not killing anyone, fascists are lumbering dopes who can’t get out of their own way. Elon Musk gave us yet another example.
Our Elon put in a new transparency feature that ended up being a bit too transparent for the MAGA crowd. TwitterX introduced a new feature, “About This Account,” which allows others to see where an account is based, when they joined TwitterX, how often they have changed their username, and how they downloaded the TwitterX app. It’s that first feature that turned out to be the big problem.
It seems that a lot of the MAGA influencer accounts on Elon’s Hellsite are not American, from places such as Nigeria, Thailand, Eastern Europe, and Bangladesh. And, of course, Russia:
This is one of the big accounts boosting Tommy Robinson, Farage and Reform and ‘English Patriots’.It’s Russian.
— Mark Chadbourn (@chadbourn.bsky.social) 2025-11-24T09:29:45.655Z
It only took a few hours for Elon to realize this was a total disaster for the online right, that people could see so many accounts that were foreign-based, so he shut down the new feature. However, not before people downloaded some screen-grab receipts. Various people shared threads listing major MAGA accounts that are foreign-based.
My thread on accounts I found:bsky.app/profile/trum…
Along with the usual lol at the MAGAs for being fooled, there was also a more serious aspect to all of this.
Let’s see if one single pundit who said there was some great realignment of American sentiment with this last election, based on what they saw on the Nazi-owned platform overrun by foreign actors, offers any retractions or corrections for their gullibility.
Okay, here’s where I jump in with both feet. For whatever reason, a lot of the Very Serious Thinkers of the Great American Discourse didn’t run when Elon opened TwitterX to the Nazis (I have my theories). So, while the story to some might be how the MAGAs were manipulated by foreign actors for a variety of nefarious reasons, the members of the punditry who believed that TwitterX gave them an inside take on the pulse of America were having their brains boiled by bullshit.
These people tend to be more in the middle and hold their own opinions in high regard, like Matt Yglesias and Noah Smith. Also, the absolute most important thing for these people is that progressives are big sillies and out of touch, and the right isn’t nearly as bad. This is a sacred ideal that over the last 15-20 years has become harder and harder to defend.
Now, it seems, that at least some of the opinions these people with way too much influence on political opinion (especially among Democratic party elites) were shaped by bad actors posing as Americans from thousands of miles away. Hard to tell how much policy this stuff influences, but ever since the 2024 election, it was quite clear that it influenced some in the Democratic Party’s thinking.
Probably bad that very serious pundits will tell you that Twitter is still the place to be and then base their opinions on what "everyone" in America thinks on the vibes from there
— Aaron Cynic (@aaroncynic.bsky.social) 2025-11-23T23:24:19.314Z
When people roll their eyes and ask why this stuff matters, all that tells me is that for a lot of us, it’s not enough that we hear the roars off in the distance. We need to see Godzilla wrecking the buildings. In this case, probably not good for our politics that so many influential writers were scammed by foreign grifters.
The last word goes to Townes Van Zandt, singing about a different kind of catfishing.
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