Bunch of Twits

I don’t know who needs to hear this, and they won’t hear it from me, but it doesn’t matter if Elon Musk restores all the banned accounts in his “amnesty” program, at all, or anything else he does with his shiny new Twitter.

Here’s why. No one has to use Twitter. Literally no one.

Look, I’ve benefitted from Twitter more than any of you. My partner worked there for many years. It was good for her career and for our family’s comfort. We are very lucky, very privileged. We’re not crazy rich, or anything. But, mostly because my partner is very smart with money and has made great career choices, we are better off than many people. I am filled with gratitude, when I think about this, in spite of my feelings of guilt.

But Twitter has always been a dumpster fire. That thousands of passionate, highly-skilled employees spent their days and nights trying to put out that fire and place emphasis on the many positive uses of the site, for more than a decade, doesn’t change the fact that the fire is still raging. It’s like that coal mine fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, burning now these sixty years. Unquenchable.

To use Twitter is to hate Twitter. Maybe you also love it, but that’s on you. I left the site earlier this year, or last year (I can’t really process time anymore). May as well blame Twitter for that, too. I left because I am really bad at social media. I am one of those people whose worst tendencies are brought into full bloom by social media. It could be that everyone’s worst tendencies are brought out by social media and my worst tendencies are just worse than other people’s. But it created a toxicity in me that I am far better for having actively tried to squelch by quitting first Facebook and then Twitter.

Yes, Twitter had gotten somewhat better, the more active its censors. This is a fundamental truth of social media—its benefits are proportional to how actively its users’ speech is policed. “Free speech” on the internet does not work the way it does IRL. I know I’m blowing your mind right now.

Or maybe it does—in the real world, when we come across a group of fascists marching around most of us will leave quickly. A few will stay and taunt them—I often find myself in this angry group before I give up. The rest will find a kinder, chiller place to hang out. If Twitter has been a place you’ve enjoyed, in part, or used for your job, well, you know, shit happens.

Because NO ONE HAS TO STAY. No one has to use Twitter. Just walk away, people.

I hear Tumblr’s making a comeback.