Musk As Twitters New Protagonist?
I have been reflecting on my social media usage. I’m sure you know where this is going; like many others have been horrified by the direction Elon Musk is driving Twitter and honestly our society as a whole. Much like Trump, Musk is using Twitter to up the stakes in what they see as a culture war where conservatives feel under siege by mainstream institutions, and Musk, like Trump, is the only one who can protect them. Stratifying us like this is problematic on many levels, as it forces people to choose sides.
One of the most common things I have noticed is many of the people on the right who have never used or engaged the site believe, without any evidence, Musk is improving it. Well, that is not entirely true, their evidence is Musk’s word and the ire his changes are causing liberals and users of the site. But what has changed? Reinstatement of accounts that violated terms of service, attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement and LGBTQ rights, bots flooding the site with hate speech and porn, oh, and attacks on users from not only the new owner who acts as a ref and a player but his hordes of followers.
What part of this sounds like an improvement? The point to them or the fun of Musk owning Twitter is his harassment of the people they do not like. They do not care he is losing advertisements risking bankruptcy or insolvency of Twitter, cutting staff risking system failures; they just like Musk is harassing us, and Musk is in on it, so why stay?
That is something I have been wondering. I love using it as a site for organizing. Twitter has allowed me to network with causes and campaigns I believe in and expand my outreach. Twitter has also helped me connect with like-minded people and keep up with friends. It also works great to get news on current events from sports to protests to you to name it but the direction is making it harder to stay and not only bringing out the worst in others but changing my views on them. I have a harder time engaging friends who I know who cheer on this direction because I can only see the spite behind their reasoning and worry social media is changing us and not always for the better. I plan to stick around, but I worry Musk is using Twitter to calcify and catalyze the divergence of our culture, and too many are happy to go along with it to own the libs.