I'm officially calling it. Although I won't kill my Twitter page, I'm mostly done posting there.
Yes, it's Elon Musk. I'm not sure if he bought this site because his petty small ego couldn't handle criticism, if he was actually part of a plan to try to manipulate public sentiment to welcome fascism to America, or a little of both, but his latest decisions make me staying on Twitter feel more like watching that friend or family member spiraling out of control. While you hope they pull out of their tailspin, you finally come to the realization they are beyond saving.
There was a nice stretch of Twitter post-Trump, a reminder of what it was like before Trump and the trolls took over in 2016. I was able to have discussions again, my timeline and DM's were relatively civil and I didn't feel icky after spending 10-15 minutes scrolling posts. That all immediately changed after Elon took over.
I have 5 other social pages: Facebook, BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, and Instagram. Of the six total sites, the vast overwhelming amount of threats, insults, and stupidity/bigotry/racism trying to disguise itself as viable political opinions I'm exposed to on any given day are on Twitter.
Since Thanksgiving, I've blocked a total of 487 people on social media, 460 on Twitter. If I remove the Facebook scams where they are trying to convince me my page is about to be shut down, it's 460 out of 462.
The stunning level of racism and bigotry spewed on Twitter today is unbelievable. It's like you're at a convention in a hotel and the hotel is also hosting a KKK/Nazi convention at the same time. It's not just the exposure to racism and bigotry you see coming and going in the hotel halls, but it's also that when you're supposedly in the safety of your own conference room, there's not only the occasional emboldened racist or bigot co-worker who comes by, but it's also a feeling of dread which permeates your existence in the hotel itself. You know it's only a matter of time before you have someone screaming horrible things at you. That's Twitter, and I'm really tired of it.
There is one metric that causes many people to hesitate to quit Twitter, followers. I was at nearly 4000 on Thursday (more on that in a second) and walking away from a following you've cultivated over time is not easy. That's what initially kept me on the site.
When Elon endorsed an anti-Semitic post, and then doubled down on his intolerance, that's when I knew the convention was pretty much over for me. I made the decision that if my newer, lesser three social media pages (Threads, BlueSky, and Mastodon) got to 1000 followers, I'd stop posting regularly on Twitter.
Then came the bizarre interview where he started to swear at the leaders of other major corporations for daring to not advertise with him due to his endorsement of anti-Semitism. That was not a mentally well man. I realized I might need to speed up my decision.
But now we have two things that show me Elon's buying of Twitter might indeed be more about trying to sweeten the appeal of fascism in America. The first was his decision to reinstate Alex Jones, a man who is human feces. This is the guy who insisted the Newtown massacre never happened and encouraged his followers to harass and torment the families of the young victims, something he is already been found guilty of, and now is desperately trying to prevent from paying for. No decent human being would ever think this guy has anything to add to the betterment of humanity.
Then there is this..."event" Elon hosted on Twitter, the one where Vivek Ramaswamy went to the bathroom live. Out of decency, I won't post the audio, but rather a screenshot:
Now I know I will get Far Rightos screaming "You're against free speech." Absolutely not. Alex Jones is more than welcome to go to the town square and scream his thoughts into the air. Twitter is NOT a town square. It is a privately held corporation that already restricts a lot of comments from opinions Elon doesn't like (but far Rightos have NO PROBLEM with that censorship). That aside, Freedom of Speech doesn't mean anyone HAS TO listen to it. That's the Right's fantasy; forcing people to have to listen to and respect their brainless grunting. I've often said the modern Republican thinks 'debate' is them kicking in your front door, going to the bathroom on the floor in your living room, pointing at it with a smile on their face, and screaming "YOU HAVE TO LIKE IT!" No, no I don't. You can't force people to stand in the town square and agree with insanity, nor does anyone have to stay on a social media site and listen to/sponsor this craziness.
These clowns think 'Freedom of Speech' means 'Freedom from Criticism' (unless it's something they don't like!). Rightos, stop screaming your Freedom of Speech is being infringed from the biggest megaphone you can find, and stop expecting others to live by a code you yourselves are nowhere even close to following.
Since Alex Jones was reinstated by Elon on Twitter, my follower count has dropped significantly. I presume this is the people fleeing the site. I have currently 570 followers on the other three sites so that is good enough. I highly encourage anyone to follow me on those sites or on Facebook:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TMGImNotIdiot/
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mattmcneilshow.bsky.social
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@matthewmcneil1
Mastodon: https://mstdn.party/@MattMcNeilShow
Instagram (but I don't use it that much): https://www.instagram.com/matthewmcneil1/
I will keep Twitter open, but I just won't be posting there with any regularity, mainly retweets of other people's posts or the occasional post where I know a person mentioned is mainly on Twitter. I would hope someday that I might revisit this page when someone else finally buys it at a steeply discounted rate from Elon, but I think Elon would rather turn the site off than admit how bad he is at running it.
And Elon, Stop trying to make 'X' happen. It's not going to happen.
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