Not using the account any more. Twitter can be at least mildly amusing and diverting. It could even be a place to go push particular ideas. But my experience of being censored means that I’ll not be back – I think.
Not that I was censored for political views, this is not some form of shadow banning or anything. It’s that those who censored seem to have no idea at all about how English English works. How the language is fairly rambunctious, uses hyperbole and sarcasm to make points often enough. Knowing the language one is censoring seems to be a minimum necessary requirement.
In short, I’ll not be back because I’m not interested in having my conversations censored by fuckwits.
the language is fairly rambunctious, uses hyperbole and sarcasm to make points often enough
Hyperbole and sarcasm?
fuckwits
Rambunctious?
Good. The better aspects of social media (and there are some) are easily outweighed by the unsavoury willingness of many users to fling poo at others, or complain about those others doping the selfsame thing.
Never used it. I had a bad feeling from the start. The limited character allowance meant that it would always lean towards the facile at best. As time went on, my initial reluctance to engage became ever more prescient. It’s a cesspit. I’ve got better things to do than get myself covered in shit.
The only SM I use is Instagram. There is some fun and interesting stuff on there ad well as pretty East European ladies. I evade political things, but some of the historical posts can’t avoid them. One poster whom I follow has some right twats as followers and I’ve decided to finish with him as a result. Which is a pity.
BUT it is the nature of the Interwebs. Those of us who were on it in the late 80s and early 90s will remember what a cesspool bulletin boards and Usenet could be.
That’s why I like Twitter.
Not that I was censored for political views
Candidly, you were. Moderation exists to prevent people like yourself – people who contradict established narratives – from using social media to find an audience. Blue checkmarks are held to entirely different standards and can be as rambunctious as they like.
This is also why PayPal added you to the rapidly growing list of people who are not allowed to collect money via PayPal due to their non-lefty political orientation.
The point is to achieve the same sort of establishment control over the internet that they enjoy over the MSM. They’ve been extremely successful in this overall.
I’ve avoided all social media though I follow a few blogs like this one. I once has a pseudonymous Faecepoo account but that was years ago to test the privacy settings on the wife & kids’ accounts. I sometimes follow links posted to Twitter comments to see what the fuss is about but it soon gets blotted by the blue bird saying log in or eff off.
I can’t say I feel lonely by not participating. When I first was able to wander through the Internet in the early 90s, Usenet was at the same time somewhat scary, but vastly entertaining and educational at the same time. That all changed pretty much from the day AOLers got on and, though it was inevitable, it’s rather sad that that descent of discourse has led to the current, as you say, cesspit.
TG
By the way the Blue Bird.
Click on Log In
Click on X in the corner and it goes away for a while.
Annoying but painless
Ah, some other people remember abUsenet, good days 🙂 Of course, lots of groups were moderated back then too, but it was on a group by group basis and usually you had to really act up to get the banhammer.
Really you are just complaining about a common feature of American life. By our standards it is prudish, mimsy, and has never (at least in my lifetime) approved of vigorous free speech. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Yanks abroad raise their eyebrows in astonishment at the British/Aussie tradition of a robust liberty in the use of English. I’ve even been told explicitly “I’d be fired if I said that sort of thing at work.”
Our problem is that these ‘orrible ‘abits have invaded Britain and we don’t even have the constitutional defence from government censorship that Americans can appeal to. (Not that I suppose they’ll be able to appeal to it for much longer.)
Britons may say “fuck off” a bit too often but Americans say it far too rarely.
Thing about Usenet, in the early days, was the necessity of passing surmounting the technical hurdle of getting on it. Which largely defeated the arts grad mouth breathers. Unfortunately, Android has given easy access to the internet to retarded kindergarden goers so the mean IQ of the users of any social media site is room temperature or below. You’re selecting for people whose time is of little market value.
My favourite Usenet group was “Barney the Dinosaur, Kill, Kill, Kill” which consisted of rants about actors in purple dinosaur suits.
Lol. Usenet. I remember the airgun and brewing groups. Major falling out about the most trivial things.
That and Agent.
I suspect you’ll be surprised at how much time you’ve gained by ditching Twitter.
GETTR is a great alternative. Pretty much the same functionality and no censorship. And it’s actually used, unlike Truth Social. They recently celebrated their one-year anniversary.
Would be nice if both the left and right used it, but it is what it is.
I never understood Twitter. I have an account by it never use it.
What kind of quality exchange can you have when everyone is restricted to a couple of sentences?
Neither myself nor my partner have ever had anything to do with any social media group. We have no regrets.
dearieme: Dip you toes into Todd Dorsey & The Missus “Needles & Delaney” tales. They are on-line at storiesonline and there is a self published book of the first three at Amazon. Small town USA with plenty of sexless fucks. Has acquired a large following.
Fbfjfjjgdh, Tim Pool would disagree with you about TruthSocial. He’s on most of the social media sites. He’s not left wing, but more in centre than right wing. And he’s seen the interactions on TruthSocial and he reckons there are way more responses from real people than on Twatter.
It’s not about language. I’m convinced you first get put on a “conservative” list, and then they watch carefully for technical violations that are not enforced otherwise.
I’m with David Cameron on this one. Too many Tweets makes a Twat.
I waste too much time on line as it is….
@SadButMadLad
I respect Tim Pool but as with many millennials he buys into hype about a lot of things. I also don’t see Mr. Pool going too outside of his social bubble unless he’s interviewing a mainstream guy like Rogan. For instance, he would have that Jack Murphy guy on a bunch, and for some reason though that Freedom Toons guy was worth his time. Pool is very much a corporate journalist in terms of his innovations. Yes, he isn’t nearly as biased as the mainstream, but his analysis is often very in the weeds rather than applicable to the outside world. Just look at every opportunity he takes to dramaticize the news and compare stories to some Marvel movie he likes. It gets annoying and I lose brain cells when he does that.
TruthSocial messed up when they gave all the new members a 1-2 month waitlist period. I hung in there, but most people wrote it off as a gimmick because of that. As a platform alone, it’s a decent site, but GETTR has much more long-term potential. I met the CEO Steve Miller and some employees at an event in NYC and they just seemed more serious about their product.
By the way, I saw FreedomWorks has linked to a bunch of Worstall articles from Washington Examiner, so he can definitely find an audience there.
But yeah, Twitter is full of bots. There are services you can literally pay to get thousands of fake followers on your account. One of the major factors that tells me there will be a major shift in the advertising industry with the next 10 years.
And as stubborn as Worstall is against this, he would be very successful as a podcast host. Could be the Jordan Peterson of economics if I may be so bold.
I have a twitter account which I use almost exclusively to remind Peston that he is a c**t.
Sad to see you go, you were a lot of fun
Thanks for this Ottokring!
TG
By the way the Blue Bird.
Click on Log In
Click on X in the corner and it goes away for a while.
Annoying but painless
Fbfjfjjgdh, Tim Pool is just an entrepreneur. His grown his business from nothing to become quite a good news channel in just a few years. Any social media site that is successful means Twitter and FaceBook get some proper competition.
We might disagree about TruthSocial and Gettr (I’ve only used Gettr a bit but it wasn’t an rambunctious as Twitter so I haven’t continued to use it), but hopefully both grow. But I do agree with you that Mr Worstall would be great as a podcast.
@ SadButMadLad
Totally agree Tim Pool’s achieved a lot, especially considering he had a very unorthodox route to becoming a journalist. He also has balls to deal with all those swatting attempts.
The more free-speech platforms the merrier, I say.
This is so sad – I used to enjoy watching Richard Murphy living rent free in your head
Naturally up to you, but I would suggest that twitter is part of an overall engagement strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7y6EOGY87U
ABC — ALWAYS BE CLOSING!