in this year In 798, the eminent scholar Alcuin of York wrote a letter to the Frankish and Lombard king Charlemagne to (as always) advise the mighty king on matters of state. He addressed his king and patron in Latin: And don’t listen to those who are used to say the voice of the people, the voice of God, when the commotion of the common people always borders on madness— “Those who keep saying that the voice of the people is the voice of God should not be listened to, for the revelry of the crowd is always very close to madness.”
I do wonder if the old monk would be happy about the enthusiastic new admirers he has gained on Twitter.Many people cite these words as proof that Elon Musk is now infamous call The “vox populi, vox Dei” that came after his Twitter poll — which purportedly guides his policy implementation on the platform — is ignorant. “He stupidly didn’t quote the whole phrase! It’s a warning!” they cried.
But like many half-learned tweeters, they missed important context. While Alcuin is often credited with coining the phrase, it’s clear he was making his point in a common adage. His purpose is firmly anti-democratic. As the early 20th-century author Rolph Barlow Page wrote in his own writings: “Thus Alcuin, while exhorting the lords to be just and merciful to their people, held that the latter should Obey a just ruler with gratitude.”
One suspects Musk might like that explanation. Why doesn’t he? He is not a Democrat. A more modern vox populi reference might be a better fit for Musk’s Potemkin referendum.in the 1976 film The internet, an evening news anchor went nuts and found a gold mine of ratings by becoming “broadcast’s mad prophet.” His show turned into a veritable carnival, with one of the soundtracks being Vox Populi, a segment showing the latest polls. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky anticipated many of the gaffes of cable news to come, but also some of social media and its urges, sexual urges that were all but glossed over by the data.Musk calling vox populi after his poll is almost too perfect a callback The internetAn evening news carnival: a poll devoid of any methodology, masquerading as a meaningful vote on the future of the regime.
I do not think so However, social media condemned it. If the Internet is going to have a future, then we have to figure out how to implement democracy here in an orderly manner. Whatever else there is to say about Musk’s disastrous, fascist-fueled tenure at Twitter, it’s a reminder that other, less benevolent dictatorships that have governed social media haven’t worked — Twitter’s predecessor, as well as Facebook and Facebook. Other corporations, leading us to one disaster after another — and this built-up resentment leaves the public vulnerable to exploitation by capitalist crooks who use democratic aesthetics to disguise their own imperial power.
But before we can see the prospect of a more permanent solution, it’s worth understanding why Twitter polls are so deceitful.
First, Musk’s polls are more like push polls — surveys designed to produce specific results through the use of manipulative or biased questions. In the first of his two polls about unbanning several journalists whom he suspended from the site for criticizing him, he posed the question: “Unban accounts that search for my exact location in real time: now, tomorrow, 7 days later now, longer? He canceled the poll when none of the four options topped 50%, although “now” won the majority with 43%. The next poll offered only two options: now or 7 days …but the cheeky question remains, showing that reporters searched for his exact location when no one else did, which is self-evident. It’s obvious why this framing is mandatory, and Opposed by prominent pollsters and statisticians.
