The 'vibe shift' was a leveraged buyout
Media ownership matters
Vincent Bevins
Do you think that in the second quarter of the 21st century, reporters walk the Earth, observing concrete reality and assembling truth from scratch? We don’t have the resources for that. Just like everyone else, journalists look at their phones — but then they call two guys at think tanks funded by weapons contractors to confirm.
My own assertion... is that the “vibe shift” was the unconscious cognitive effect of hanging out on Twitter after Musk’s acquisition. It was experienced, and only needed to be experienced, in the minds of the US American media class. One of the main skills required of contemporary journalists is the ability to detect which way the wind is blowing, to carefully trace the hidden boundaries of discourse. For those who spent too much time on his platform over the last four years, Elon made the left appear less popular (in the middle-school sense).
https://open.substack.com/pub/northsouthnotes/p/the-vibe-shift-was-a-leveraged-buyout
(((Baslow)))
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2026-08-17 18:31:42 UTC
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"content": "The 'vibe shift' was a leveraged buyout\n\nMedia ownership matters\n\nVincent Bevins\n\nDo you think that in the second quarter of the 21st century, reporters walk the Earth, observing concrete reality and assembling truth from scratch? We don’t have the resources for that. Just like everyone else, journalists look at their phones — but then they call two guys at think tanks funded by weapons contractors to confirm.\n\nMy own assertion... is that the “vibe shift” was the unconscious cognitive effect of hanging out on Twitter after Musk’s acquisition. It was experienced, and only needed to be experienced, in the minds of the US American media class. One of the main skills required of contemporary journalists is the ability to detect which way the wind is blowing, to carefully trace the hidden boundaries of discourse. For those who spent too much time on his platform over the last four years, Elon made the left appear less popular (in the middle-school sense).\n\nhttps://open.substack.com/pub/northsouthnotes/p/the-vibe-shift-was-a-leveraged-buyout",
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