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Alec J Ott's avatar

I can honestly take or leave Twitter—and Facebook for that matter. Every year for Lent, I take off from social media, excepting ā€œbusinessā€ 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 ā€œso-called racistā€ things on the site than having some leftist-world-view people filter it before I see it. And I say ā€œso-called racistā€ 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 ā€œracismā€ 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.

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Sarah J's avatar

This is not surprising at all. But we appreciate you Dave for bringing so many horrid things to light. Tempted to follow suit...

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