Twitter Fires Thousands of Censors
Without content moderation, who will moderate content that makes me angry?
I’ve been fired a few times in my life. At one job, I got the boot less than 24 hours after receiving a merit-based raise. Pretty sure that one kicked off my gradual hair loss. And a few years later, I got pushed out of a job I really loved because nobody wanted to click on my posts (I refused to support a politician they liked, can’t think of his name), so my web traffic plummeted. No clickbait, no clicks, no bucks, no job.
That’s why I’m torn about the massive wave of layoffs hitting Twitter today. Getting fired sucks, sure, but this method of handing out pink slips seems pretty standard these days:
You think this is bad? If Musk really wanted to be savage, he’d fire them by sliding into their DMs.
There was a time when I would’ve sympathized with the people getting laid off from Twitter. That time was before I joined Twitter.
I’m not going to jump up and down with joy about my former oppressors hitting the bricks, but I’m not crying into my sweater either. If somebody censors you, lies to you, lies about you, and generally treats you like a mortal enemy for disagreeing with him, are you supposed to feign concern when he’s fired?
What’s the average annual salary at Twitter? A hundred grand, thereabouts? Those folks should have enough saved up to afford San Francisco rents for another month or two.
And what happens now? Will Twitter fall apart without all those crucial employees? Can a social media platform survive without “trust & safety” hall monitors to constantly remind you what you can and can’t say?
The journos certainly aren’t taking it well. You doin’ okay there, MSNBC’s Ben Collins?
That’s all this is. These tech reporters and “disinfo” specialists just lost all their power. They were big fish in a little pond, until a South African dude with a particular taste in memes threw in a stick of dynamite. The bird app was the source of their status, but suddenly their friends there are gone and they don’t exert any control over it.
Say a prayer for all the journos who can no longer get you suspended from Twitter for pissing them off.
Tee-hee!
I’ve been following politics for a while now, but the argument you’re about to hear is a new one on me.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEO CONTAINS CHRIS HAYES SPEAKING
So if I don’t vote for the Democrats, they might go away forever? Tell me more!
Does this argument apply to, say, Nancy Pelosi? Being an elected Democrat in the Bay Area is effectively a lifetime appointment. San Francisco is under one-party rule. Isn’t that bad too? Doesn’t Pelosi have a lot more power than some state governor? Shouldn’t the voters throw that bum out?
Hello? Chris, are you there?
Meanwhile, elsewhere at that open-air asylum:
Wait, what? If the Dems lose next week, I’ll never hear from Michael Beschloss again?
Joe Biden just got done saying that if you don’t vote Democrat, political violence will sweep America. For once, he’s right:
I look forward to the vigorous condemnation we’ll never hear from Biden or any other Democrat.
Speaking of that addled old coot, he’s doing just fine. Why do you ask?
Amerkfurd? Is that what he said? Whatever. The important thing is that he’s spreading the White House’s insanely dishonest message. Now that we all know everything is good and not bad, the Dems will win the midterms for sure. Great job, Grandpa Joe!
John Fetterman can’t hold a spoken conversation unless he sees the other person’s words on a screen. (And even then, he’s no great shakes.) I was under the impression that an automated system was doing the transcribing.
Not so, apparently:
Wait. So in order for John Fetterman to understand what people are saying to him, he needs a living human being to sit there and type it out for him? How’s that supposed to work once he’s in office? Will an aide follow him around the halls of Congress with a laptop, typing out one side of the conversation and then showing it to him so he can reply?
Maybe he can put together a setup like this:
Gisele is a tiny little lady, she’ll be fine up there. Just give her an iPad and a Fresca.
TGIF (Talking Geraniums Invade Fresno), and thanks for reading my daily AD-FREE newsletter. If you like what you just read, please subscribe so I can keep writing it. The only thing keeping me from sleeping next to a bridge abutment is you.
I think twitter's robocensors are still suspending accounts for nebulous crap, alas.
But it was interesting to watch this week, that so many users freaked out at the *prospect* of being on a site that wasn't biased in their favor. Like, welcome to how the rest of us have felt for about a decade!!
"Talking Geraniums Invade Fresno". Good. Let the geraniums invade Fresno. Ever been to Fresneck? The place, literally, smells like shit. I was there for a week because of my job, and that was my first thought getting off the plane? "what the hell is this smell? Did the plane taxi thru shit or what?" Nope, that was Fresno. I get out of my car in Portland, I smell pachouli, moss and weed. Oh, and hobo stank. That's Portland. At least in Portland it rains a lot.
Look, if you vote for Fetterman you're voting for his wife. Admit it. The plan was, is, continues to be for him to be replaced by his wife by the governor... if the governor is a D. I heard that race is close as well. But what if the R guy beats the D guy for Gov, then what? Chaos, and I am all for chaos and shenanigans out in the open. Bring it on.
(I don't know the names of the candidates in PA for Gov., and I don't care enough to look it up, because I don't live there and one thing is absolutely true about ducks: we are hella lazy.)
In these dying days before the election, this is all I can say about Biden: anyone who will lie to you this brazenly, and expect you to nod along like everything is OK, that person has zero respect for you. Also, I absolutely expect violence on next Wednesday morning. I expect it, and a part of me welcomes it. I want my opponents to show their genuine selfs to the world, in all their ugliness. I don't wish for anyone to get hurt, and that is where I hedge. I do not want violence, at all, I want peace. But I know this about Libs/Lefties/Corporate D's: they are the worst of sore losers. Like south american soccer fans. But worse.
Dear Twitter Employee who is now looking for work: Good. Did you really think that you could show off all the finery of working for The Bird, what with fine dining, massages, bands playing, and all that, then expect to still have a job? I don't know who made that post to TikTok, it might not have been you. But that sent the message that you are arrogant and elitist and arrogantly elitist. Everyone is enjoying this moment of schadenfreude.
That's all I got.