Douglas Rushkoff is a media theorist, author, and host of the Team Human podcast, who has been advocating for human-centered technology since the early '90s. He believes venture capital turned social media into a strip mall, but that its fundamental values can be reclaimed and re-invented.
“It was a wonderful chaotic thing,” Douglas says about Twitter. “It was not a mean, treacherous, troll-baiting, horrible thing … the bias was towards collaboration, cooperation, and certain social norms that emerged naturally. It didn't turn fucked-up and evil until the platform became about monetizing things."
Today on Revolution.Social, Doug and Rabble discuss how the internet became an advertising-driven hellscape; what platform cooperatives could look like if workers owned the means of digital production; and why Mastodon failed where it should have succeeded. They also discuss te reo Maori Twitter, diVine’s anti-AI slop stance, AGI mythology, Peter Thiel’s craziest ideas, and why professional journalists are losing to professional liars.
00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:44 Renaissance vs. Simulation
00:08:29 Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus
00:12:29 Ev Williams' $4.3 Billion Problem
00:16:05 Jack Dorsey's Original Sin
00:19:43 Platform Co-ops
00:24:09 Interest-Bearing Currency and AGI
00:26:22 Peter Thiel's AI Monarchy
00:33:32 Do People Want Social Media to Be Social?
00:38:06 Te Reo Maori Twitter
00:40:40 diVine and Medium
Follow Rabble on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rabble.nz
Follow the podcast: https://episodes.fm/1824528874
This episode was produced and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm, and executive produced by Alice Chan from Flock Marketing.
To learn more about Rabble’s social media bill of rights, and sign up for our newsletter, visit https://revolution.social/
