Presumably, you recognize the guy on the left (Elon Musk). The guy on the right is Mark Cuban. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, February 5, 2024, Cuban is "battling" with Musk by way of traded insults on X (formerly known as Twitter). Maybe The Journal will let nonsubscribers read the article; I don't know. Here is a brief introduction to the conflict described:
Tired of watching Elon Musk attack the principles behind workplace diversity, the billionaire Mark Cuban joined the fray to defend what is known as DEI.The two have spent the past month trading jabs on Musk’s X, a social-media platform that has long been full of unfiltered emotions and angry mobs ready to pounce. Their tenors differed greatly: Musk seemed more like a schoolyard bully, Cuban an earnest high-school debater.
I am not, really, all that interested in documenting or commenting upon any "battle of the billionaires," and that includes the Musk-Cuban debate on DEI principles (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). Cuban is defending them. Musk is doing the opposite. The debate on DEI is an important one, but here is the statement by Cuban that I thought was most worth noting:
"Twitter isn't real life ..."
Online locations are never "real life." Amazingly, many of us seem to act like the opposite is the truth. As anyone who has read my earlier blog posting (Where Are You?) will know, I think we are putting the "real world" in peril, by investing our attention, energy, and effort into interactions in what one corporation would like us to call the "metaverse."
I care a lot about "politics" (particularly in the way I define it, as another name for "self-government"), and "politics," for me, certainly includes efforts to reduce and eliminate income inequality, and to reclaim our power from the billionaires. I believe we live, most immediately, in a "political world" - a "real" world that we create, ourselves, by our individual and collective action.
Putting our time, effort, and money into "Twitter," or into any of the other myriad locations we can find in the "metaverse," is to squander our ability to realize our genuine opportunities, and to avoid genuine dangers.
What about that Musk v. Cuban battle? Cuban is right in what he says, when he tells us that "Twitter isn't real life."
Cuban is not, however, apparently acting on his own observation. He is "battling" Musk on Twitter, and since that isn't "real life" he seems to be wasting his time - or, alternatively, he isn't really serious.
Let's listen to Cuban, and do what he "says," instead of following the example of what he is actually doing. Let's not make the same mistake Cuban is making, thinking that trading words on some social media platform (mainly "gotchas" and "insults") is going to achieve the changes we need to make.
Changes are needed, and we need to make those changes in "real life."
Check the weather map. There's not that much time left!
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