I am unaware of who uses twitter anymore. Why was once very ubiquitous in my circle of friends is now never mentioned. I dont even have an account anymore. It has maybe 175 million users. That is like Canada and Mexico...
Respectfully, I disagree with the thesis of this piece. In fact, I think over the last 3 to 4 weeks, we have been feeling a return to real life away from the flat, screen-mediated energy that many are so endlessly addicted to, and which drive so much of the “vibes” during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. Consider- Joe Biden’s reality-redefining debate performance (while certainly speculated about beforehand and endlessly discussed afterward in the flat space online ) only landed the way it did with the American people because it was a live broadcast shared simultaneously by tens of millions of Americans. The opposite of the X experience. It was that shared reality of Joe’s performance that then rendered him unelectable, not the endless stream of social media reaction after. Additionally, Trump’s would-be assassin was literally unable to attempt his evil in a post on X. Or TikTok. It had to take place in real life. Even the endless obsession with, “Will Joe drop out or not?” cuts against the thesis of this piece, as evidenced by the fact that it took Joe much longer to make up his mind than it did for the endless army of pundits on X. The perpetually online are going to have to realize that the gestalt of normie Americans is back to 3D time, which is not always linear or inherently cause-effect, as so much of the online world is. I think a lot of the evidence in this piece is symptomatic of people in real life trying to leverage the online space to serve their messaging needs, not an example of the online space dictating what “should” (or even does!) happen in real life.
Without twitter, the Democrats and their mainstream media allies would've been able to lie about Biden's debate performance.
Without twitter, the Democrats and their mainstream media allies would've been able to lie about the assassination attempt on Trump. They're still trying to do so, now.
Elon Musk buying twitter may turn out to be one of the most important acts of any single person in this century.
Without twitter, no one would have an idea about the bloodless coup the Democrats pulled on Biden. In fact, words like "coup" would've been banned under twitter's previous Communist leadership and "fact checkers."
I agree Matthew. I would like to color your thoughts with a little cynicism however. I believe the puppet masters decided that there was no way to continue to hide Biden’s infirmaries through November, given today’s independent news sites and X, etc that they couldn’t control. Better to kill his candidacy early so that KH could slide in and grab the $1M. My cynicism will be further rewarded if they develop a scheme to dump her too with a shrug while claiming “that’s democracy “.
The elites (media, elected politicians, agencies, etc) act as if twitter is real life. I was watching a news program with my father-in-law this weekend, and a big part of a segment was putting tweets on the screen. That seems degraded to me as it simply reinforces what whoever is on twitter says, but largely avoids reporting, talking with people more broadly,etc. I am not enjoying this transition to virtual reality. I feel real resentment at this transition, but it probably has to do with my generation (X).
Social media seems bad for human flourishing, deep thinking, and true engagement with others.
"Commenting has been turned off for this post": Obviously not THIS post, yet, but I find that all too common for other posts. Posting my observations here because it is one of the few places on The Free Press that I am able to do so.
Also, commenting is only open for paying subscribers. I understand the need to avoid trolls, hacks, etc. but substack requires a verified email address and I haven't seen many problems on sites that have freer policies.
He may well get it. Trump has already said that "We Have To Make Life Good" for Musk so I expect SpaceX will get exclusive and lucrative contracts, etc.
Not surprising that the oligarchs are lining up behind him.
Not really, as SpaceX actually has a viable working product.
If anything, the government is pushing Boeing, Lockheed, their ULA Alliance, etc. to get their act together so the space economy is not so dependent on one company.
Musk does smart things with money, as do most American CEOs. We can allow, or encourage, or suffer the fate of socialist nations which for some reason people seem to need to flee.
Its the president's job to make a fertile garden for the economy. A rising tide lifts all boats. Yes, little people will benefit a little, and big people will benefit a lot ... but look at what happens when big people benefit in a capitalist economy, they invest in more businesses, thus rising the tide even further.
Consider Musk made some small money creating and selling a not very popular video game in his teen years. He invested in PayPal, thus rising the tide somewhat. Made money in that, started Tesla and raised the tide further, created SpaceX, then StarLink, then bought and improved X ... this same story goes on with almost all capitalist CEOs, only you mostly never hear about them. I spent my years in semi-conductors, there, the CEOs invest in all these little college-student startups, then turn around and buy those startups for the technology. Look where we are with semiconductors today.
People whine: waa-waa, we have this great imbalance of wealth in the US, almost trillionaires, and desperately poor people mere yards apart ... but our desperately poor in the US are solidly middle class compared to Mexico.
I hope River Page lives long enough to look back on the word "Trumpian" with some sort of bemused shame. And who knows? Maybe he will be reflective enough in the future to realize that he has aligned himself with a profession that has perpetrated one of the greatest hoaxes in all of human history: the notion of journalistic ethics...
The Democratic Party's Twittering Classes... DELENDA EST!
Twatter is no longer wholly run by the more extreme elements of the run of the mill off the rails lunatic left. Musk was correct to rebrand the platform as X. Never mind that fact. You leftists should continue to refer to it as twitter.
Draggggging the way it’s going this was/is applicable & HATING TRUMP isn’t like a loophole.
25th Amendment Section 4
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
I am unaware of who uses twitter anymore. Why was once very ubiquitous in my circle of friends is now never mentioned. I dont even have an account anymore. It has maybe 175 million users. That is like Canada and Mexico...
If Musk owned Twitter in 2020, Trump would be President today; there would have been no 10/7 and no Ukraine War.
Respectfully, I disagree with the thesis of this piece. In fact, I think over the last 3 to 4 weeks, we have been feeling a return to real life away from the flat, screen-mediated energy that many are so endlessly addicted to, and which drive so much of the “vibes” during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. Consider- Joe Biden’s reality-redefining debate performance (while certainly speculated about beforehand and endlessly discussed afterward in the flat space online ) only landed the way it did with the American people because it was a live broadcast shared simultaneously by tens of millions of Americans. The opposite of the X experience. It was that shared reality of Joe’s performance that then rendered him unelectable, not the endless stream of social media reaction after. Additionally, Trump’s would-be assassin was literally unable to attempt his evil in a post on X. Or TikTok. It had to take place in real life. Even the endless obsession with, “Will Joe drop out or not?” cuts against the thesis of this piece, as evidenced by the fact that it took Joe much longer to make up his mind than it did for the endless army of pundits on X. The perpetually online are going to have to realize that the gestalt of normie Americans is back to 3D time, which is not always linear or inherently cause-effect, as so much of the online world is. I think a lot of the evidence in this piece is symptomatic of people in real life trying to leverage the online space to serve their messaging needs, not an example of the online space dictating what “should” (or even does!) happen in real life.
Without twitter, the Democrats and their mainstream media allies would've been able to lie about Biden's debate performance.
Without twitter, the Democrats and their mainstream media allies would've been able to lie about the assassination attempt on Trump. They're still trying to do so, now.
Elon Musk buying twitter may turn out to be one of the most important acts of any single person in this century.
Without twitter, no one would have an idea about the bloodless coup the Democrats pulled on Biden. In fact, words like "coup" would've been banned under twitter's previous Communist leadership and "fact checkers."
I agree Matthew. I would like to color your thoughts with a little cynicism however. I believe the puppet masters decided that there was no way to continue to hide Biden’s infirmaries through November, given today’s independent news sites and X, etc that they couldn’t control. Better to kill his candidacy early so that KH could slide in and grab the $1M. My cynicism will be further rewarded if they develop a scheme to dump her too with a shrug while claiming “that’s democracy “.
The elites (media, elected politicians, agencies, etc) act as if twitter is real life. I was watching a news program with my father-in-law this weekend, and a big part of a segment was putting tweets on the screen. That seems degraded to me as it simply reinforces what whoever is on twitter says, but largely avoids reporting, talking with people more broadly,etc. I am not enjoying this transition to virtual reality. I feel real resentment at this transition, but it probably has to do with my generation (X).
Social media seems bad for human flourishing, deep thinking, and true engagement with others.
"Commenting has been turned off for this post": Obviously not THIS post, yet, but I find that all too common for other posts. Posting my observations here because it is one of the few places on The Free Press that I am able to do so.
Also, commenting is only open for paying subscribers. I understand the need to avoid trolls, hacks, etc. but substack requires a verified email address and I haven't seen many problems on sites that have freer policies.
Why is it stilled called Twitter and not X ? Is this a projection into the past the good old times ?
When Trump wins, Elon Musk deserves the first Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He may well get it. Trump has already said that "We Have To Make Life Good" for Musk so I expect SpaceX will get exclusive and lucrative contracts, etc.
Not surprising that the oligarchs are lining up behind him.
Like Solyndra and the biden administration give aways? To name just one.
Not really, as SpaceX actually has a viable working product.
If anything, the government is pushing Boeing, Lockheed, their ULA Alliance, etc. to get their act together so the space economy is not so dependent on one company.
Musk does smart things with money, as do most American CEOs. We can allow, or encourage, or suffer the fate of socialist nations which for some reason people seem to need to flee.
Yes, but is it the president's job to "make life good" for particular people, rather than general welfare of all of us?
Its the president's job to make a fertile garden for the economy. A rising tide lifts all boats. Yes, little people will benefit a little, and big people will benefit a lot ... but look at what happens when big people benefit in a capitalist economy, they invest in more businesses, thus rising the tide even further.
Consider Musk made some small money creating and selling a not very popular video game in his teen years. He invested in PayPal, thus rising the tide somewhat. Made money in that, started Tesla and raised the tide further, created SpaceX, then StarLink, then bought and improved X ... this same story goes on with almost all capitalist CEOs, only you mostly never hear about them. I spent my years in semi-conductors, there, the CEOs invest in all these little college-student startups, then turn around and buy those startups for the technology. Look where we are with semiconductors today.
People whine: waa-waa, we have this great imbalance of wealth in the US, almost trillionaires, and desperately poor people mere yards apart ... but our desperately poor in the US are solidly middle class compared to Mexico.
I hope River Page lives long enough to look back on the word "Trumpian" with some sort of bemused shame. And who knows? Maybe he will be reflective enough in the future to realize that he has aligned himself with a profession that has perpetrated one of the greatest hoaxes in all of human history: the notion of journalistic ethics...
The Democratic Party's Twittering Classes... DELENDA EST!
Twatter is no longer wholly run by the more extreme elements of the run of the mill off the rails lunatic left. Musk was correct to rebrand the platform as X. Never mind that fact. You leftists should continue to refer to it as twitter.
Draggggging the way it’s going this was/is applicable & HATING TRUMP isn’t like a loophole.
25th Amendment Section 4
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
You have to wonder... did they gang up and threaten JB with the 25th. Resign, or we will drag you out. Embarrassing!
Still want the 25th amendment to be put into play. Months of a no name inner circle is not acceptable for democracy.
Or God forbid worse. It’s becoming like a dystopian zombie movie.
Musk’s version of Twitter has come of age now that Biden (maybe? Or who?) resigned the presidency via a cyber post-it note.
Says it all.
It certainly does.