"It's the Town Square of the World"
After a crazy month where Elon Musk has agreed to buy Twitter with a commitment to content moderation reform, why I decided to dust off the handle and get back on the platform.
I’m back on Twitter. Before getting into the reasons why I ultimately reregistered my account, I want to reiterate a couple points. First, I don’t completely trust Elon Musk. Second, I am not of the belief that the sale to Musk is a certainty to close. I think jumping back in before we officially have a newly enacted content moderation policy is a risk. It’s one that I’m willing to take.
In my last Twitter-related post there was some sentiment in the comments that this whole Twitter/Elon ordeal is just a distraction, potentially even by design. I think there is possibly some credibility to that and it’s important to keep that in mind. Whether I (or anyone) has a social media account is not important in the grand scheme of things.
I don’t give a f*** cause Twitter’s not a real place.
Dave Chappelle
We have negative real GDP, CPI at a 40 year high, and a central bank that has orchestrated a slowdown without actually raising rates in any meaningful way (as I’ve predicted numerous times here and on SA). We have a global supply chain structure that has a level of fragility that wasn’t well understood 2 or 3 years ago. Because of that fragility, food shortages are likely going to become a real issue. We have an unelected Dr. Evil-like super villain who has spent decades infiltrating the global governance structure, who wants the filthy masses eating bugs, dependent on digital permission systems, and definitely not using decentralized currencies.
The point is we have a lot of serious problems that are far more important than the memes I want to see or being able to tweet like a Masshole during Patriots games. Still, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about a potential return to the platform since Musk’s offer and I decided to poll a select group of friends and family to collect opinions from people I trust.
I was careful to split the sample ideologically. About 40% were what I’d consider conservative. About 40% were what I’d consider liberal. And the rest were more independent/libertarian. I was incredibly surprised by the results. Only about half of the responses were a straight up yes or no; of which “yes” took a commanding majority. The headline of this piece is a direct quote from a respondent.
Much of the responses ended up being larger discussions about why I left to begin with. From those conversations, the overall takeaway is that Twitter is still what it was a year or two ago. Your experience on the platform is highly dependent on how you curate it. If you go looking for arguments, you’ll find them. If you stick to what appeals to your niche communities, it’s basically the same as before.
So with all that said, here are the 3 biggest reasons why I’m back:
I miss it. Pure and simple. I genuinely enjoyed my experience on Twitter because I followed my friends and people who have shared interests. Also, there is nothing like live tweeting a playoff game. Even if I ultimately resorted to flexing on my kid to make fun of how much the Greek Freak travels.
I do believe the time is right. Whether Musk’s sale goes through or not, the seeds have been planted and things already appear to be changing at Twitter. Frankly, “the truth” has momentum and I think its important to let it be known that loud is not necessarily indicative of majority. That works both ways. I really do enjoy Flote but in joining that platform did I simply trade one echo chamber for another?
Self-silencing is just another flavor of censorship. Twitter shouldn’t be a cultural echo-chamber. If I want Twitter to be a melting pot of ideas, I should at least try to help make it be that.
Point 3 garnered an eye roll from my wife. That probably puts it in the 6-7 out of 10 range on the insufferable scale; which is right where I like to be. In any case, if you want to follow me on Twitter. I’m @faybomb.
I don’t anticipate I’ll be spending much time talking about Twitter now. Unless, of course, something wild happens. If the deal falls apart, for instance, I’m sure I’ll have thoughts. Otherwise, it’s back to business here at Heretic Speculator.