Like I Was Saying...
So the news broke this evening that Elon Musk owns Twitter.
One of the first things he did was settle all family business. Then, either he asked or fired the CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, Head of Legal Policy, Trust, and Safety.
I don't relish in anybody losing their job, especially in this economic climate, but these firings needed to happen.
When it comes to Twitter, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I know very few people that use Twitter. On the other hand, now, twenty-three percent of the US population say they use Twitter. But in recent years, Twitter (and, to some extent Facebook) has been very involved in our lives.
In the past few years, anything trending seemed to affect how things ran in our society.
If a few people Tweeted about anything, it would drive the Social and Media narrative depending on the issue; one Twitter account = a million people. This became evident when Corporations started getting boycotted for things they supported or didn't. Twitter gave boycotts power.
And Cancel Culture was born.
One side seemed too used to bludgeoning one side with impunity.
Once one side started to argue against what was happening, Twitter would silence any dissent.
So Twitter, in essence, became a giant echo chamber for one side.
Well, Elon didn't like this and decided to buy the company and bring some sanity back to the water cooler, if you will.
I agree with Elon that Twitter should be free (to some extent) and that all sides should have a seat at the table.
That the idea of "wrong think" is terrible. There's just a different way of thinking.
Are there terrible ideas? Of course, there are, but we can't, as a free society, police every bad or wrong opinion. What we can do is ignore them and move on.
There does come the point when we may need to pay attention to an idea because it can harm people, but there has to be a mechanism for that. After that, people can be hyper-aware.
What irked me about Twitter banning is that idea from Animal Farm, All Pigs (ideas) are equal, but some Pigs (ideas) are more equal than others.
It's funny, and I remember reading Animal Farm and thinking that belief was from a bygone era. But, of course, this was communism, and we were actively fighting that idea, and no way would it take hold in a free society.
But it did, in my lifetime, in a software company in California, the land of sunshine and beaches. How weird is that?
Either way, I'm glad Elon bought Twitter. I'm happy he did what he did. I hope it works out for him and he returns the platform to some semblance of normalcy.
Will I get back on it again?
Eh, I'll probably deactivate my account again after the mid-terms. One thing I like about Twitter is that I can get news faster, and like a car accident happening in slow motion in front of my eyes, I can't look away.