The Night Twitter Died

I was told, as a young'n, that life frequently exists on the level of mundane. Rarely are there supposed to be so many generation defining chaos moments. When 9/11 happened, previous generations talked about remembering where they were when Kennedy was assassinated. Lest we forget 9/11 came on the heels of the dot com bust, I assumed there would be some sort of stability or consistency in the coming years and decades. After all, aside from Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement, my view of the post Kennedy assassination world seemed relatively tame and consistent; especially in the economic view.  

Now don't get me wrong, I'm completely ignorant to most "things." I'm uneducated to a certain point. And I'm a child of the 80s, so I grew op in a time fairly far removed from the immediate couple of decades following the assassination of Kennedy. 

The reason I bring these thoughts up, is how simple the past always seems to be. Regardless of what the truth of "time" is, the past always seems to have been simpler, so I take my opinions with a grain of salt. 

The timeline, or my existence, of life post 9/11 has been filled with a slow slide into authoritarianism. Constant chaos and give aways to the rich have resulted the slow erosion of social norms, the rape of the middle class, and the destruction of democracy. 

I am under no illusions that 9/11 caused a majority of the issues I feel we face today, but it's an easy sign post to follow. I firmly believe, and i suppose doing so goes against what i've written above, that our modern political divide stems from Nixon's resignation. In resigning, Nixon let off his fellow republicans from holding him accountable. From that moment, no republican has ever had to hold themselves accountable for their actions. Perhaps if the world would have seen how republicans acted towards Nixon's abhorrent and anti democratic actions would have led to a generation of individuals who questioned the outlandish, and constantly proven wrong, republican claims. The war on drugs, Reaganomics, sex education, free speech, and the second amendment are just a few of the unchecked lies the right has propagated and continued to run on for, in some cases, half a century.

If one believes in fact and honest reporting, one can find a never ending supply of proof to the failures of republican governance and and policies. The wheels of the fallacies and fable makers seem to have been greased by the ascension of conservative miss-information networks like Fox News. Coupled with the never ending mega funding by megalomaniac oligarchs who's unchecked wealth has become a firehose of funding and the slow decent into an undereducated masses our fragile democracy seems to bleed out in front of all to see.

The acceleration of fall has come into focus more recently.

I remember when I decided it was time to jump on board the twitter train. It was April of 2008. More specifically after the 16th or so of the month when James Karl Buck was arrested in Egypt only to be saved by a tweet. "Arrested."

Perhaps i'm returning to my roots again, by starting this blog, but in my infinite delusionality I thought i would need this help, and most likely soon. Still in the juvenile stage of facebook which I had been using daily for nearly five years, social media seemed to have the promise of breaking down the information freedom wall. There was no way to silence the voices behind the behemoth juggernaut media conglomerates like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. No longer could a single editor nix a story because big money was hushing them up. Whistle blowers could speak of injustices from safer positions. The simple cellphone could become the giant slayer that the muckrakers of yesteryear were. 

Delusional

I quickly realized the addictive nature of twitter. Instant access to anyone else. The feeling that your voice could be heard. Nothing but the truth. 

Combined with Facebook, there was no way the "man" was going to prevent the truth from coming out. 

As we are all aware, the next decade would see scandal after scandal plague Facebook and the continuing growth of twitter as a podium for hate speech, fascism, and literal attempted coups. Following the 2016 United States election, I decided social media was no longer a force for good—at least in its current guise. So I left. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter; all turned off and deleted. For me this was a major step, it felt like giving up my voice. In actuality, i never had a voice since i never had a blue tic. 

Over the past six years, I've watched in horror as Facebook and Twitter, combined with YouTube, Fox News, and the myriad of other "free" conservative propaganda outlets have spread a poison across the globe. Despite the constant let downs from Facebook and Twitter to remove the ability for ne'er-do-wells to use these platforms to spread their hate, I held out hope. After all, top journalists the world over used twitter as a platform to fact check, report, and disseminate information. Small do-gooders cropped up across twitter to track celebrity jets, report on jailings, aide defense from invading Russian forces, to name a few. 

Still, Facebook continued as if the only actual truth was that of the right. However, to Twitter's credit, they tried to keep decorum. With the exception of donald j trump (and nearly every republican and the entirety of the republican propaganda arm), most bad actors were kicked off the platform. Republicans, conservatives, and individuals who don't appear to be be able to distinguish the difference between freedom of speech and authoritarianism complained of their voices being silenced. There was even a report that circulated claiming both twitter and facebook had created algorithms that could identify and mute hate speech, however these systems un-ironically resulted in a vast majority of conservative individuals being labeled and banned. Given the never ending quest for dollar over good, neither company implemented such a solution. 

While I have no hope that facebook, or Meta as it is now called, to right itself, this past month has proven Twitter needs to be destroyed as well. 

After Elon Musk's $44 Billion purchase and privatization of Twitter less than a month ago, most conservative voices applauded the return of free speech and the death of censorship. Musk himself even tweeted that he would never silence anyone, including the high schooler who tracks his private jet and posts its location on twitter for the world to see. I never believed it. But the group raining down cheer and praises on Mr. Musk are all individuals who confuse freedom of speech with "what i say is gospel, you are wrong." Musk's attempts to make twitter profitable started out disastrously from day one. Musk introduced verified accounts for $8 a month, resulting in verified accounts posing as major corporations and individuals posting controversial issues. Many liberal celebrities changed their names to Elon Musk, Coca Cola admitted its products were problematic, Nintendo posted a picture of Mario giving the finger, and Eli Lilly said it would cap insulin prices at $20. Of course, all of these tweets were not produced by the actual companies, but individuals who had coughed up eight dollars to pretend to be something else. Perhaps these were all done in good fun, but when you are trying to make a company profitable, causing an advertiser on your platforms stock to lose billions of dollars in market share because no one can trust who is who, seems like a bad idea. 

Again, I called for my friends and anyone who would listen to sign off and delete the app. 

While Elon removed the $8 certification plan, he began laying off and offering buyouts to Twitter staff. In a matter of days entire departments crucial to the success of Twitter were barren. Publications reaching out for comment were met with answering machines or phones that never stopped ringing. The internet began hearing whispers of silenced tweeters muted channels, and even accounts who's tweets wouldn't be seen by the world. 

Delete the app. Get off Twitter. 

And then, Thursday December 15, 2022.

Following a claim, by Elon, that one of his younger children were followed and accosted (from my understanding no physical harm came to anyone), Elon would ban any and all accounts the reported on his whereabouts. As a result, Mr. Musk and Twitter suspended @elonjet and its creator, Jack Sweeney. Elon, nor his offspring were on the plane when this occurred. It also goes against the freedom of speech and anti censorship the Elon seems to care about. As usual, Mr. Musk is a fraud. 

Following Mr. Sweeney's suspension, 23 journalists from The New York Times, Washington Post, and other major publications who had been reporting on Mr. Must and Twitter (many form more than half a decade) were also suspended or banned. When asked for comment, neither Musk nor Twitter were available. 

Twitter is dead. There is no reason to use it now. In fact, anyone using Twitter is essentially claiming it is ok for those in power to silence anyone they disagree with. Elon's actions are taken directly from the Fascists playbook. It is time for anyone who has a conscience or cares about democracy leave twitter.

If you can't trust who is who and any dissenters are silenced, it is not free speech. 

Twitter, as far as its ones and zeros are concerned may be mostly the same product it was when I joined in 2008; but like all weapons, in the hands of the wrong people it is not worth its existence. 

Twitter is dead. May you all help me to burry it.