I can honestly take or leave Twitter—and Facebook for that matter. Every year for Lent, I take off from social media, excepting “business” reasons to login—needed communications, posting articles, etc. It’s actually quite liberating. If I had to give up anything for good, certainly Twitter would be it—I know next to nobody on the site pe…
I can honestly take or leave Twitter—and Facebook for that matter. Every year for Lent, I take off from social media, excepting “business” reasons to login—needed communications, posting articles, etc. It’s actually quite liberating. If I had to give up anything for good, certainly Twitter would be it—I know next to nobody on the site personally and my postings hardly generate any kind of activity—I’m probably not using it well—I’m too lazy to put in hashtags, etc.
All that said, I do prefer Twitter after Musk than before. I far prefer that users are free to say unpopular, vulgar, or even “so-called racist” things on the site than having some leftist-world-view people filter it before I see it. And I say “so-called racist” content because I am now quite numb to that charge, as I think many are. I am not defending Scott Adams—frankly I knew nothing about it before reading about it here. As I understand from what you’ve reported, he’s already suffering repercussions from his statements—justly or not.
But to say that Musk is defending “racism” by supporting Adams, I think goes too far. I think that Musk is more properly trying to defend free speech, especially when it’s made against something as untouchable as race relations. Again, I don’t claim to know the details of what Adams wrote nor the context, other than he was commenting on a survey. The whole thing seems ridiculous to me—first, the survey itself, and second, taking it seriously and wasting time commenting on its results. (That might be Adam’s chief fault in all this.)
I am also neutral on Musk the man personally—I don’t see him as any great savior of the world, but nor do I see him as a great villain. As far as I know, he’s no better or worse than any of the other heads of social media companies.
"I am not defending Scott Adams—frankly I knew nothing about it before reading about it here."
You should watch the video of Adams before taking a position on this or judging if Musk's response was correct or not. He very much was defending him and not just taking an absurd absolutist free speech position.
"Again, I don’t claim to know the details of what Adams wrote nor the context, other than he was commenting on a survey."
Really get into the details on this first to understand why I'm so angry about it that I'm quitting Twitter, urging others to also, and further revising the strategy I was planning for our publishing company.
"I am also neutral on Musk the man personally—I don’t see him as any great savior of the world, but nor do I see him as a great villain. As far as I know, he’s no better or worse than any of the other heads of social media companies."
He's much worse. Don't ignore how much racism and antisemitism has gone up under his watch. He's also absurdly immature.
Maybe I need to do another post about this. I think Musk's free speech absolutism and others' is simply wrong. They take free speech to the extreme of saying there should be no real public consequences for hateful, evil speech. That isn't what the first amendment is about at all. Free speech means the government has no right to censor speech or regulate it beyond libel and slander. It doesn't mean that private companies can't set standards for how they operate and what they allow to be published on their platform.
I'm not really concerned about the specifics of Adam's case, which I could have made more clear up front. My main point was while I am not an "absolute" free speech person myself, I far prefer it to having someone else deciding for me what's proper and correct to post on the site. The other reasons you give for leaving Twitter, BTW, I think are quite valid--mainly, it's a time waster. However, I'm uneasy when I hear about racism charges because it can be very nebulous. What exactly does it mean that racism and antisemitism has gone up? I'm not sure how that could be quantified accurately, especially depending on what is counted, or not counted, for that matter--as racist. That's my concern.
When you see the video of what Adams said it isn’t nebulous at all. That is why you should really educate yourself about a particular incident before choosing to sound off with an opinion that isn’t informed by all the facts. I agree many charges of racism are overblown but this isn’t at all.
There have been legitimate studies of Twitter’s increase in racism and antisemitism and you should check them out before dismissing them.
Okay, just two more points to clarify--one, "nebulous" wasn't referring to Adams. I was referring to the general charge of racism (going up or down). Two, you are correct that I should review the studies before dismissing them, but I wasn't exactly doing that--I was questioning what they used to make their findings. But as you say, I would need to review them before concluding anything.
I also think that we were talking past one another (as often happens on Twitter). As to my side, I was not appreciating your anger about racism and thus questioning the legitimacy of your premise for leaving Twitter. Guilty as charged. If this was enough for you to quit Twitter, that’s your call. Mea culpa, in other words.
Thanks Alec, I appreciate that. Seriously, though: check out video of what Adams said to see why this was such a big deal that he lost all the newspapers, his syndicator, and his book deal. And why it's so obvious, unambiguous racism. This isn't leftist overreacting. This is something that anyone Left or Right or Center with a basic understanding of racism can see. Thus, the fact that Elon Musk can't see it is just so galling to me that not only am I personally leaving Twitter and advocating others do so also, it's cause me to totally reevaluate and change our social media strategy for this publishing company. I was previously going to be encouraging you and the other authors to spend some time growing your Twitter following and networking there. Now? No more - there are other social networks that will be much more effective for our purposes.
I can honestly take or leave Twitter—and Facebook for that matter. Every year for Lent, I take off from social media, excepting “business” reasons to login—needed communications, posting articles, etc. It’s actually quite liberating. If I had to give up anything for good, certainly Twitter would be it—I know next to nobody on the site personally and my postings hardly generate any kind of activity—I’m probably not using it well—I’m too lazy to put in hashtags, etc.
All that said, I do prefer Twitter after Musk than before. I far prefer that users are free to say unpopular, vulgar, or even “so-called racist” things on the site than having some leftist-world-view people filter it before I see it. And I say “so-called racist” content because I am now quite numb to that charge, as I think many are. I am not defending Scott Adams—frankly I knew nothing about it before reading about it here. As I understand from what you’ve reported, he’s already suffering repercussions from his statements—justly or not.
But to say that Musk is defending “racism” by supporting Adams, I think goes too far. I think that Musk is more properly trying to defend free speech, especially when it’s made against something as untouchable as race relations. Again, I don’t claim to know the details of what Adams wrote nor the context, other than he was commenting on a survey. The whole thing seems ridiculous to me—first, the survey itself, and second, taking it seriously and wasting time commenting on its results. (That might be Adam’s chief fault in all this.)
I am also neutral on Musk the man personally—I don’t see him as any great savior of the world, but nor do I see him as a great villain. As far as I know, he’s no better or worse than any of the other heads of social media companies.
"I am not defending Scott Adams—frankly I knew nothing about it before reading about it here."
You should watch the video of Adams before taking a position on this or judging if Musk's response was correct or not. He very much was defending him and not just taking an absurd absolutist free speech position.
"Again, I don’t claim to know the details of what Adams wrote nor the context, other than he was commenting on a survey."
Really get into the details on this first to understand why I'm so angry about it that I'm quitting Twitter, urging others to also, and further revising the strategy I was planning for our publishing company.
"I am also neutral on Musk the man personally—I don’t see him as any great savior of the world, but nor do I see him as a great villain. As far as I know, he’s no better or worse than any of the other heads of social media companies."
He's much worse. Don't ignore how much racism and antisemitism has gone up under his watch. He's also absurdly immature.
Maybe I need to do another post about this. I think Musk's free speech absolutism and others' is simply wrong. They take free speech to the extreme of saying there should be no real public consequences for hateful, evil speech. That isn't what the first amendment is about at all. Free speech means the government has no right to censor speech or regulate it beyond libel and slander. It doesn't mean that private companies can't set standards for how they operate and what they allow to be published on their platform.
I'm not really concerned about the specifics of Adam's case, which I could have made more clear up front. My main point was while I am not an "absolute" free speech person myself, I far prefer it to having someone else deciding for me what's proper and correct to post on the site. The other reasons you give for leaving Twitter, BTW, I think are quite valid--mainly, it's a time waster. However, I'm uneasy when I hear about racism charges because it can be very nebulous. What exactly does it mean that racism and antisemitism has gone up? I'm not sure how that could be quantified accurately, especially depending on what is counted, or not counted, for that matter--as racist. That's my concern.
When you see the video of what Adams said it isn’t nebulous at all. That is why you should really educate yourself about a particular incident before choosing to sound off with an opinion that isn’t informed by all the facts. I agree many charges of racism are overblown but this isn’t at all.
There have been legitimate studies of Twitter’s increase in racism and antisemitism and you should check them out before dismissing them.
Okay, just two more points to clarify--one, "nebulous" wasn't referring to Adams. I was referring to the general charge of racism (going up or down). Two, you are correct that I should review the studies before dismissing them, but I wasn't exactly doing that--I was questioning what they used to make their findings. But as you say, I would need to review them before concluding anything.
I also think that we were talking past one another (as often happens on Twitter). As to my side, I was not appreciating your anger about racism and thus questioning the legitimacy of your premise for leaving Twitter. Guilty as charged. If this was enough for you to quit Twitter, that’s your call. Mea culpa, in other words.
Thanks Alec, I appreciate that. Seriously, though: check out video of what Adams said to see why this was such a big deal that he lost all the newspapers, his syndicator, and his book deal. And why it's so obvious, unambiguous racism. This isn't leftist overreacting. This is something that anyone Left or Right or Center with a basic understanding of racism can see. Thus, the fact that Elon Musk can't see it is just so galling to me that not only am I personally leaving Twitter and advocating others do so also, it's cause me to totally reevaluate and change our social media strategy for this publishing company. I was previously going to be encouraging you and the other authors to spend some time growing your Twitter following and networking there. Now? No more - there are other social networks that will be much more effective for our purposes.