> Organizers of the protests estimated that the protests drew nearly 7 million attendees,[17][18] while a partnership between data journalist G. Elliott Morris and the Xylom, an independent Atlanta-based science newsroom, estimated 5 million to 6.5 million participants. Either estimate would make this one of the largest single-day protests in American history.[19]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2025_No_Kings_protests

You're not comparing like with like.

Today's protests seem aimed around GOTV, rather than opposing specific policies. It makes sense that they wouldn't have the same draw.

The main organising IG account for the protests is https://www.instagram.com/50501movement, with almost 900k followers.

It was literally today that we heard about TikTok banning the account for the Musk movie because it’s politically inappropriate. This is hardly coming out of nowhere.

interesting, did they turn the account back on after 90 minutes?

Come on. You’re not going to organize a political movement over RSS in 2026.

I like that RSS was the best alternative you could think of.

Yes, no matter what happened Meta are responsible and should provide answers.

There’s still an important distinction to make though: if it was automated then the No Kings page was not deliberately targeted for political reasons.

> he has a track record of achievements that no other human has ever come close to reaching.

Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox killed 300 million in the 20th century alone and was eradicated in 1980.

Or maybe Norman Borlaug, who invented a kind of high yield wheat that is estimated to have saved a billion from starvation.

These certainly aren’t the kind of achievements Musk aims for (quite the opposite in fact) but I’d argue they have a far, far greater impact than anything he has even tried to do.

He’s got cooler demos though, I’ll grant you that.

I’ve extolled the virtue and achievements of Borlaug to people on more than several occasions, FWIW.

And a trillion doll hairs!

Doll hairs aren’t worth nothing. Could probably sell them to a doll company for like 40 grand or something.

Gemini and I calculate that the total number of doll hairs ever used in the production of Barbie dolls sums to roughly one trillion (1000 hairs x 1 billion dolls).

Meanwhile I find it strange that people don’t apply any level of critical thinking when shown a demo like this.

My Instagram ads are just filled with Polymarket, Kalshi, brand name casinos... it's endless. It's all low level influencers talking about how much money they're making, how you can bet (and yes, it is betting) any time you have 30 seconds to spare, how easy it makes it all.

I feel like there's been a growing, dark underbelly of gambling addiction since it was legalized online. And it's going to be difficult to walk it back.

(the ones that truly blow my mind are the promo ads for people gambling on buying mystery collectible cards then virtually "ripping" the pack open. Grown adult men paying hundreds of dollars! Absolutely wild.)

Gambling and betting always seem target explotation of people who aren't well off already. Like lottery tickets I worry that Polymarket, Kalshi and the like are ways to further destroy the marginal in an apathetic if not malign political environment. It doesn't seem like anyone is doing anything about it.

I have a theory that the prevalence of gambling, trading, and investing is a natural response to wealth inequality and automation. Wealth has always correlated with risk (e.g. business ownership) but as the prospects for wealth diminish, the amount of risk people are willing (forced?) to take on grows.

An optimistic view could be that in a future where AI drives most of GDP and UBI covers basic needs, well-regulated betting marketplaces could provide an opportunity for people to get ahead (or at least do something) for example by developing algorithms and AIs that do rigorous backtesting and apply institutional-grade risk management strategies.

The pessimistic view is that these marketplaces are just another cause of wealth inequality, they will always extract more wealth than they generate, and there is no place for them in a balanced, healthy economy.

> I have a theory that the prevalence of gambling, trading, and investing is a natural response to wealth inequality and automation. Wealth has always correlated with risk (e.g. business ownership) but as the prospects for wealth diminish, the amount of risk people are willing (forced?) to take on grows.

There was a NY Times article a while back that talked about why Gen Z is so into gambling: they feel the system is so rigged against them that traditional strategies to get safety and security (e.g. get a good job, save, buy a house, etc.) don't work anymore. So they either give up (and focus on short-term consumption) or throw their money at long shots like gambling and crypto, hoping for a jackpot.

> The pessimistic view is that these marketplaces are just another cause of wealth inequality, they will always extract more wealth than they generate, and there is no place for them in a balanced, healthy economy.

That is the truth. They don't generate any wealth, they exist to take a cut on people transferring money unproductively.

This article seems relevant:

Economic Nihilism in Card Games https://mtg.cardsrealm.com/en-us/articles/economic-nihilism-...

The optimistic view where everyone is poor, on UBI, and forced to gamble as an opportunity to get ahead since they can't get jobs anymore.

A number of state governments are working hard to do something about it. The reason it seems like no action is being taken is that they've bribed the federal government to take their side.

>My Instagram ads

That's your one-two punch right there. On Instagram, and viewing ads. Best thing to do is avoid both.

I knew someone was going to post this. Thank you for the startling and brand new to me revelation that both Instagram and advertising are Not Good.

I didn't say it to be rude to you, so I apologize if that's how I came off. I think a lot of these problems don't have real, practical technological or policy solutions. (those solutions could exist in principle, but they're never going to work.) I think all we can do is walk away from these platforms.

Now you know that you were the problem all along!

Oh wow so if I personally quit Instagram every user will stop receiving advertising for these wildly addictive and destructive services? If only I’d known!

As Captain Planet said, the power is yours!

I know several organizations who have surrendered all online presence to social media, primarily instagram. I cannot find their events anywhere else. My dream is to have a fake account that scrapes all accounts I care about and sends just the highlights to me. I am sure that Meta spends an inordinate amount of time preventing this

You must have clicked some at some point, all I get when I have ads on is outdoors gear because I've clicked a few of those ads in the past and my "suggestions" are related to that category.

yea all i see when im there is sweaters and sneakers

Pack ripping was huge during COVID. It is always more economical in the long run to buy singles than to rip packs. Generally speaking, the primary purpose of mystery boxes is to dump slow-moving inventory.

Especially difficult to walkback since bribes are basically legal now because once an industry establishes itself it starts buying off politicians.

> (the ones that truly blow my mind are the promo ads for people gambling on buying mystery collectible cards then virtually "ripping" the pack open. Grown adult men paying hundreds of dollars! Absolutely wild.)

Sounds just like a lot of NFTs.

Gacha games being normalized didn't help this at all either. SMH at all my younger friends that got pulled into this trap.

you can work on your timeline and who you follow, maybe use a vpn, and make sure meta doesn't really know who you are. my timeline has none of that shit.

If I cared enough to go to those lengths I’d just stop using Instagram. I don’t really object to being shown these ads, it’s just wild to me how widespread this all is.

i scroll past ads quickly without reading them. but i would for sure object to being shown those ads. if i spotted something like polymarket i would do whatever i can to avoid it (block the account, tell the algo "no").

> My Instagram ads are just filled with Polymarket, Kalshi, brand name casinos... it's endless.

At least you get actual ads, not a feed full of Twitter and 4chan screenshots overlaid with SKARS AI slop music and wrapped at the top and bottom by a casino ad.

This seems less like a consumer product than a stock market demonstration of the supposed synergies of merging SpaceX and Tesla.

There are legitimate question about the physics of the thing that even the most talented engineers will still come up against.

Will enough people pay, is the question. Yes, they’ll lose some sales. But if they make it up in subscription fees they won’t care.