We see a great opportunity to bolster currently tenuous Democratic strength in the Virginia State Senate. The Virginia Legislature is currently split with R’s narrowly holding the House. Dems narrowly hold the Senate, but with some not very reliable Dem votes. We have a great opportunity to flip a very competitive seat, created by the resignation of the R incumbent, Jan Kiggans who defeated Elaine Luria for the US House seat.
Aaron, is a strong and well-known candidate, who has won city-wide election to the VA Beach City Council. Aaron is a vigorous supporter of reproductive rights, affordable health care, investing in education, and expanding job opportunities. The seat is very competitive, and was only lost in 2021 by <1%. With the GOP attacking progressive priorities right and left, we need a clear majority more than ever.
Aaron’s R opponent is pretty lackluster, but clearly Gov. Youngkin and his allies are weighing in strongly for this precious seat.
Aaron needs support for basic activities like mailing and other voter outreach. Timing is very short, since the election is Jan 10, so support is needed now.
Thank you, Robert, for another educational, inspirational, and enlightening newsletter. I want to remind everyone there are things you can do every day to bolster democracy. Case in point. postcards to voters has a new campaign for Democrat Aaron Rouse in VA for the special election for the 7th State Senate district seat on January 10, 2023. Sign up at www.postcardstovoters.org.
The opponent in this Special Election Republican Kevin Adams, who says he supports Gov. Glenn Youngkin's agenda. In other words, Adams supports weakening public education funding, demonizing LGBTQ kids, erasing the history of African Americans, harming the environment, pushing to roll back the tremendous progress made on switching from fossil fuels to clean energy, restricting voting rights, and of course depriving women of their rights to make crucial decisions about their own bodies. [Source: BlueVirginia.us]
"If we flip several more legislatures and pass pro-choice constitutional amendments and voter protection legislation at the state level, we will improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans". The first contest of 2023 is a State Senate seat in Virginia. Support Virginia Beach City Councilor Aaron Rouse. He can flip a Virginia State Senate seat on January 10. https://rouseforsenate.com.
Robert, You answered the question, "Why Musk's meltdown matters." but after a second read of Today's Edition the question is, "How do we or what do we do to stop or combat his outrageous conduct and misinformation?
Is Trump really a candidate? So far just noise and money raising. No re-elect committee, no press secretary, no campaign manager or communications director, etc. He's hoping to get nominated to stay out of jail, but meanwhile his "campaign" looks to me like a scam to relieve the suckers of some more money.
Robert, this is no doubt pipe dream thinking on my part, but I wonder if those criminal referrals to the DOJ will go so far as to name sitting members of Congress. The fact that virtually no mention of such a possibility has been made makes me wonder. And the fact that the J6 Committee plans to make EVERYTHING public also makes me wonder. The "pipe dream" that I entertain has to do with who would actually control the House if individuals (think MTG and Boebert) were removed from their positions. Could they be?
I don't think the J6 Committee will refer any members of Congress for prosecution; not because they don't deserve it, but because the Committee wasn't able to collect sufficient evidence of their guilt.
Expelling members from Congress is up to each chamber; there won't be any appetite in either chamber for that action, absent some compelling new evidence (which my very well exist, but it I will be up to Jack Smith to find it).
Robert I just want to express my deep gratitude for your support of the LGBTQ community. You are true ally and your voice is so important. You don’t let the issue drop, and you call it out loudly when you see it. Anti-trans laws and disinformation that are dangerous to LGBTQ people are spreading like wildfire, along with conspiracy theories and disinformation of all kinds. Musk and twitter are spreading dangerous messages. I am not surprised musk is going after Dr. Fauci with despicable lies. Dr. F is a national treasure, and it sickens me to see him attacked. BTW I believe musk has a transgender child (a teenager) who has petitioned to change her name because of her gender identity, and because she no longer wants to live with or to be related to her biological father in any way, shape or form. I hope she is doing ok and that her other family members support her. Again I thank you so much for all you do, and for your support of LGBTQ Americans.
I was unaware of Musk's child who is seeking emancipation / name change. One fact that has (for understandable reasons) received little attention in the media is that Ted Cruz's daughter attempted to inflict self-harm and was taken from the home in an ambulance. She identifies as bi-sexual and has been posting on social media in opposition to her father's positions on LGBTQ issues.
Many thanks for another outstanding epistle, Robert! A quick comment regarding the mandatory COVID vaccinations for military personnel. Those who are cheering the recent development as a “win” are sorely misguided. My husband and I proudly served in the Navy and completely understood the mission of the military, which is to be ready to go anywhere in the world on a moments notice to accomplish its mission vis a vis, to protect and defend the interests of the United States and allies. A crucial part of mission readiness is to make certain that our troops/seamen can be deployed at any time necessary. To that end, ALL personnel, enlisted and officer, must be fully vaccinated to serve anywhere at anytime.
Hi, Dorlin. Thanks for your service, and for your comment. We forget that an early Covid outbreak on a carrier at sea impaired the readiness of the vessel and sickened hundreds of sailors.
Everyone should be celebrating the return of an American citizen,
- particularly one who has (proudly) represented the nation in the Olympic Games and earned Gold Medals.
- particularly one who was blatantly targeted and railroaded through a system where she was not even given translations of the proceedings against her.
ANY OTHER RESPONSE SUPPORTS PUTIN.
Two points I want to make:
1) She is a professional athlete, one of the best her sport will EVER see, and SHAME on those who say she shouldn't have gone to Russia and that she should "be happy" with the gigantic pay inequities in men's and women's sports.
2) Recognize the history of abuses (while in custody) against women, and minority women in particular.
Her case could have ended in tragedy worse than Otto Warmbier.
Consider Alice Paul and the Suffragettes, Fannie Lou Hamer in Mississippi, Sandra Bland in Texas, and Mahsa Amini of Iran.
The fact she has returned home ALIVE cannot be applauded enough.
Regarding Twitter - I quit because it is no longer safe, particularly for minority women. I hope despite Musk's poisoning, the function it had developed globally can be saved in some form. It was particularly useful in crisis emergencies, assisting in real time identification of problems and location of victims.
What was the thing that happened with Cruz' daughter? I read in a group on fb that she's bi? If the repubs are always attacking LGBTQ+ isn't this attacking one of their own (if the stories are true)?
She made a tiktok where she blames the media for exploiting this and using a 14 year old girl. Or blaming her father. It looks like it was taken down. In fact, I can't find her account. She was reading. It sounded more like something the gop would have written and told her to say. Not something she said from her heart. No one is exploiting her, it's a shame she thinks otherwise. Then again, she's Cruz' kid. Everyone I've seen is worried about her mental health and her. It's too bad the gop didn't care when Paul Pelosi was injured in the attack in his home. Instead they made up stories. I have seen that in Caroline's case.
Mr. Hubbell asks, "Should we care?" about Musk / Twitter. Well, though I'm tired beyond description of the attention all-things-Elon is receiving in the media writ large and of having this individual embedded in the national psyche nearly 24 / 7, yes, we should care. But there is a huge difference in caring and in caring enough to actually do something about the situation.
Elon Musk is, in the end, no more than a bad actor with a huge bank account and a huge megaphone. He is also a 'businessman', regardless of how good or bad he may be at conducting his business. He is not - at least not yet - a politician. You can't vote the guy out of office. And I doubt you can 'call his office' to register a complaint, though tying up whatever phone lines that may actually exist and be available at Twitter is a tactic worth considering, I suppose.
So, if you really *care* and want to hear less from him and diminish the negative influence of his idiotic and stupid words, you have to care enough to do the one thing that will have some influence on that. And YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THAT IS.
Before I started writing this, I quickly went over all the comments that had been posted so far. If my count is correct, I found four commenters acknowledging that they are currently on Twitter, one of whom who says they are calling it quits on the platform. (Since the topic of pronouns has been part of the subject today, I'll point out that I used the pronoun 'they' in that last sentence instead of a gender specific pronoun so as to not overtly call attention to the specific commenter. I'm not looking to single anyone out for personal criticism or praise in this space. That I should feel the need to speak about pronouns and their proper usage in the English language at all, I find ridiculous, but hey, these are the times we live in.)
So, that's one in four known Twitter users here today who are willing to do the one thing that will actually stand a chance of influencing Elon Musk's behavior in the so-called *public square* that he owns. Well, I guess that's a start. Though I think that square actually being *owned* by an individual perhaps makes it something other than *public*. Which is, of course, a big part of the problem. But it also is a big part of the solution. You want to influence Musk's behavior? You must speak to him in a language that he understands and cares about. And YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THAT IS:
Or, more precisely, lack of same from a lack of advertising revenue, etc., that Musk's plaything generates. I don't think I really need to take up space or waste your time or mine by offering an explanation of how seriously declining numbers of users on the platform would affect that.
I've heard plenty of arguments about how useful and necessary Twitter is, especially to some people. It is no doubt useful. And convenient. But I make no apology for not buying the *necessary* arguments. If Twitter were to cease operations tomorrow, the world would not end. The nation would not fall. The lives of Tweeters would go on. Twitter is not "too big to fail".
An awful lot of people would be inconvenienced, and an awful lot more would become rather bored and at loose ends with all the free time they would suddenly have on their hands. But that's it. And that's all.
There's an old saw about if one doesn't bother to vote, one shouldn't bitch about the government one gets. And I make no apology for saying I believe that is true. And I'll not apologize for saying that all this complaining about Musk rings completely hollow as long as so many of the complainers are willing to do their part to help keep the lights on at Twitter and the power flowing freely and uninterrupted to Musk's megaphone. They may *care*, but they don't care enough.
I've done a good bit of not apologizing here, and I won't apologize for that, either, since this is something I obviously feel rather strongly about. If you're a Twitter user and want to hurl brickbats at me, have at it. I'll not be hurling any back at you. Not my style, and probably one reason I wouldn't make a good Tweeter, if I were inclined to splash my feet in Musk's public sewer - excuse me, square. Which of course we're all welcome to do. And for free, no less. Unless you're foolish enough to pony up the bucks for a meaningless icon next to your handle. So, it costs nothing to get in. And nothing of any real consequence to get out. And if enough folks decided to not walk around with a musky odor on their feet, there might end up being just a few less things for them - and the rest of us - to complain about.
All very good points, but if someone takes over the town square with vile speech, is the correct response to retreat from the town square? Or to offer alternative voices? It is a difficult choice, but no amount of quitting by liberals will shut down twitter. That power lies in the hands of advertisers, not users. As long as Twitter remains one of the leading sources for "news" in the US, how can we abandon it to MAGA extremists, QANON promoters, racists, neo Nazis? BTW, the vast majority of Twitter users live outside the US, so a decline of say, 10% of US users would translate into a 2% to 3% drop in users, overall.
I take your points and take them seriously. And of course, I'm aware of the argument that the answer to bad speech is good speech, and more of it. And that's generally true. But Twitter, while being a very large town square, isn't the only square in town.
My 'not too big to fail' and other remarks were perhaps a bit misleading, since I in don't believe Twitter would likely 'go out of business' if a significant number of users cancelled their accounts, so I apologize if that's the case. I should have been more clear about that. I suppose there is a 'critical mass' as far as loss of users making that happen goes, but I'm realistic enough to know that thinking that would actually happen is just a sucker's bet, when you consider, as you mentioned, the total number of domestic and world users. If the lights were to go out at Twitter, it would likely only be because Musk just runs it completely into the ground through poor or outright stupid business decisions and management practices.
One can always hope for that, I suppose, but the aim of a significant domestic exodus from the platform would realistically be not to put it out of business, but to get Musk's attention and hopefully affect his behavior and decisions. That perhaps wouldn't happen either, but then if the numbers were big enough to eventually affect the company's bottom line by more than a pinprick or two, well, at some point he might start asking himself if the lost revenue / profit is actually worth his personal fun. But who the hell knows when it comes to Musk?
I have no solution to offer for Twitter being 'one of the leading sources for "news" in the US', a situation I find absolutely insane. And if you believe 'no amount of quitting by liberals' (or anyone else, such as independent, nonideological and nonpartisan people like myself) will make any difference at all, by all means stay and 'fight the good fight'. I just happen to think that as long as that's the strategy, nothing will change in this particular town square for the better. It is, I believe, no more than a holding action, when offense is what's called for.
This is only my opinion, and my disagreement with you by no means signals any disrespect for you or your view. We both want the same thing in the end. I'll be quite honest and say that my view of this can ultimately be distilled down to simply a moral choice and not a political one in the end. To perhaps oversimplify, if I discover my drycleaner is someone as distasteful and dangerous a neo-Nazi, I'll be taking my drycleaning somewhere else, since I would consider supporting him in any way to be immoral. But I know morality can get a bit fuzzy and be something of a gray area sometimes, no matter the basic righteousness of the intent behind the action. The name Dresden comes to mind in that regard at the moment. So, we can rationally agree to disagree about the means to an end, I suppose.
From Atlanta Journal-Constitution re Coronavirus Crisis:
"The U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis has released its final report with 30 recommendations addressing the ongoing pandemic and recommendations for ways to better respond to future public health crises [via this link: https://coronavirus.house.gov/ ]
"Some of the committee’s findings deal with the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former Trump administration officials’ “manipulation” of its work during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"'Once the coronavirus outbreak erupted into a full-blown crisis, the Trump Administration engaged in an unprecedented campaign to control and even manipulate the work of scientists leading the public health response,” the report says. “The Trump White House blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from conveying accurate information to the public, installed political operatives who sought to downplay the pandemic, and even attempted to alter and manipulate CDC guidance, scientific studies, and public health orders to serve political goals.'
"The select committee will discuss the report during a final public hearing on Wednesday."
In support of Barbara Markley and Leonard Lubinsky's Comments. At 31st St Swing Left we are raising money in support of Aaron Rouse in VA SD-7.
Link to donate: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/31stst4aaronrouse?refcode=outreach
We see a great opportunity to bolster currently tenuous Democratic strength in the Virginia State Senate. The Virginia Legislature is currently split with R’s narrowly holding the House. Dems narrowly hold the Senate, but with some not very reliable Dem votes. We have a great opportunity to flip a very competitive seat, created by the resignation of the R incumbent, Jan Kiggans who defeated Elaine Luria for the US House seat.
Aaron, is a strong and well-known candidate, who has won city-wide election to the VA Beach City Council. Aaron is a vigorous supporter of reproductive rights, affordable health care, investing in education, and expanding job opportunities. The seat is very competitive, and was only lost in 2021 by <1%. With the GOP attacking progressive priorities right and left, we need a clear majority more than ever.
Aaron’s R opponent is pretty lackluster, but clearly Gov. Youngkin and his allies are weighing in strongly for this precious seat.
Aaron needs support for basic activities like mailing and other voter outreach. Timing is very short, since the election is Jan 10, so support is needed now.
Thank you, Robert, for another educational, inspirational, and enlightening newsletter. I want to remind everyone there are things you can do every day to bolster democracy. Case in point. postcards to voters has a new campaign for Democrat Aaron Rouse in VA for the special election for the 7th State Senate district seat on January 10, 2023. Sign up at www.postcardstovoters.org.
The opponent in this Special Election Republican Kevin Adams, who says he supports Gov. Glenn Youngkin's agenda. In other words, Adams supports weakening public education funding, demonizing LGBTQ kids, erasing the history of African Americans, harming the environment, pushing to roll back the tremendous progress made on switching from fossil fuels to clean energy, restricting voting rights, and of course depriving women of their rights to make crucial decisions about their own bodies. [Source: BlueVirginia.us]
Every vote counts. This CT race was won by 1 vote: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-election-recounts-legislature-connecticut-hartford-d0e19f874f931b087dc1ee186d30d9cd
This MA race just flipped to blue by one vote after recount https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/11/massachusetts-recount-flips-state-house-race-to-democrat-one-vote
Pinning this comment to the top! Thanks!
"If we flip several more legislatures and pass pro-choice constitutional amendments and voter protection legislation at the state level, we will improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans". The first contest of 2023 is a State Senate seat in Virginia. Support Virginia Beach City Councilor Aaron Rouse. He can flip a Virginia State Senate seat on January 10. https://rouseforsenate.com.
My latest on Kos:
Bari Weiss: "Liberals Caused Rushdie Attack." Also Bari: "My Boss just Fatwah-ed Fauci"
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/13/2141478/-Bari-Weiss-Liberals-Caused-Rushdie-Attack-Also-Bari-My-Boss-just-Fatwah-ed-Fauci
Robert, your first paragraph is pure literary genius and made me laugh. Thank you.
Thanks.
Robert, You answered the question, "Why Musk's meltdown matters." but after a second read of Today's Edition the question is, "How do we or what do we do to stop or combat his outrageous conduct and misinformation?
Is Trump really a candidate? So far just noise and money raising. No re-elect committee, no press secretary, no campaign manager or communications director, etc. He's hoping to get nominated to stay out of jail, but meanwhile his "campaign" looks to me like a scam to relieve the suckers of some more money.
Robert, this is no doubt pipe dream thinking on my part, but I wonder if those criminal referrals to the DOJ will go so far as to name sitting members of Congress. The fact that virtually no mention of such a possibility has been made makes me wonder. And the fact that the J6 Committee plans to make EVERYTHING public also makes me wonder. The "pipe dream" that I entertain has to do with who would actually control the House if individuals (think MTG and Boebert) were removed from their positions. Could they be?
I don't think the J6 Committee will refer any members of Congress for prosecution; not because they don't deserve it, but because the Committee wasn't able to collect sufficient evidence of their guilt.
Expelling members from Congress is up to each chamber; there won't be any appetite in either chamber for that action, absent some compelling new evidence (which my very well exist, but it I will be up to Jack Smith to find it).
Robert I just want to express my deep gratitude for your support of the LGBTQ community. You are true ally and your voice is so important. You don’t let the issue drop, and you call it out loudly when you see it. Anti-trans laws and disinformation that are dangerous to LGBTQ people are spreading like wildfire, along with conspiracy theories and disinformation of all kinds. Musk and twitter are spreading dangerous messages. I am not surprised musk is going after Dr. Fauci with despicable lies. Dr. F is a national treasure, and it sickens me to see him attacked. BTW I believe musk has a transgender child (a teenager) who has petitioned to change her name because of her gender identity, and because she no longer wants to live with or to be related to her biological father in any way, shape or form. I hope she is doing ok and that her other family members support her. Again I thank you so much for all you do, and for your support of LGBTQ Americans.
I was unaware of Musk's child who is seeking emancipation / name change. One fact that has (for understandable reasons) received little attention in the media is that Ted Cruz's daughter attempted to inflict self-harm and was taken from the home in an ambulance. She identifies as bi-sexual and has been posting on social media in opposition to her father's positions on LGBTQ issues.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ted-cruz-s-teen-daughter-ok-after-self-inflicted-stab-wounds/ar-AA151LcZ
Good news summary covering what matters most to me.
Many thanks for another outstanding epistle, Robert! A quick comment regarding the mandatory COVID vaccinations for military personnel. Those who are cheering the recent development as a “win” are sorely misguided. My husband and I proudly served in the Navy and completely understood the mission of the military, which is to be ready to go anywhere in the world on a moments notice to accomplish its mission vis a vis, to protect and defend the interests of the United States and allies. A crucial part of mission readiness is to make certain that our troops/seamen can be deployed at any time necessary. To that end, ALL personnel, enlisted and officer, must be fully vaccinated to serve anywhere at anytime.
Hi, Dorlin. Thanks for your service, and for your comment. We forget that an early Covid outbreak on a carrier at sea impaired the readiness of the vessel and sickened hundreds of sailors.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_on_USS_Theodore_Roosevelt
Regarding Brittney Griner:
Everyone should be celebrating the return of an American citizen,
- particularly one who has (proudly) represented the nation in the Olympic Games and earned Gold Medals.
- particularly one who was blatantly targeted and railroaded through a system where she was not even given translations of the proceedings against her.
ANY OTHER RESPONSE SUPPORTS PUTIN.
Two points I want to make:
1) She is a professional athlete, one of the best her sport will EVER see, and SHAME on those who say she shouldn't have gone to Russia and that she should "be happy" with the gigantic pay inequities in men's and women's sports.
2) Recognize the history of abuses (while in custody) against women, and minority women in particular.
Her case could have ended in tragedy worse than Otto Warmbier.
Consider Alice Paul and the Suffragettes, Fannie Lou Hamer in Mississippi, Sandra Bland in Texas, and Mahsa Amini of Iran.
The fact she has returned home ALIVE cannot be applauded enough.
Regarding Twitter - I quit because it is no longer safe, particularly for minority women. I hope despite Musk's poisoning, the function it had developed globally can be saved in some form. It was particularly useful in crisis emergencies, assisting in real time identification of problems and location of victims.
What was the thing that happened with Cruz' daughter? I read in a group on fb that she's bi? If the repubs are always attacking LGBTQ+ isn't this attacking one of their own (if the stories are true)?
She inflicted stab wounds on herself. She is bi-sexual and has made posts on social media in opposition to Ted Cruz's positions on LGBTQ issues.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ted-cruz-s-teen-daughter-ok-after-self-inflicted-stab-wounds/ar-AA151LcZ
She made a tiktok where she blames the media for exploiting this and using a 14 year old girl. Or blaming her father. It looks like it was taken down. In fact, I can't find her account. She was reading. It sounded more like something the gop would have written and told her to say. Not something she said from her heart. No one is exploiting her, it's a shame she thinks otherwise. Then again, she's Cruz' kid. Everyone I've seen is worried about her mental health and her. It's too bad the gop didn't care when Paul Pelosi was injured in the attack in his home. Instead they made up stories. I have seen that in Caroline's case.
Mr. Hubbell asks, "Should we care?" about Musk / Twitter. Well, though I'm tired beyond description of the attention all-things-Elon is receiving in the media writ large and of having this individual embedded in the national psyche nearly 24 / 7, yes, we should care. But there is a huge difference in caring and in caring enough to actually do something about the situation.
Elon Musk is, in the end, no more than a bad actor with a huge bank account and a huge megaphone. He is also a 'businessman', regardless of how good or bad he may be at conducting his business. He is not - at least not yet - a politician. You can't vote the guy out of office. And I doubt you can 'call his office' to register a complaint, though tying up whatever phone lines that may actually exist and be available at Twitter is a tactic worth considering, I suppose.
So, if you really *care* and want to hear less from him and diminish the negative influence of his idiotic and stupid words, you have to care enough to do the one thing that will have some influence on that. And YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THAT IS.
Before I started writing this, I quickly went over all the comments that had been posted so far. If my count is correct, I found four commenters acknowledging that they are currently on Twitter, one of whom who says they are calling it quits on the platform. (Since the topic of pronouns has been part of the subject today, I'll point out that I used the pronoun 'they' in that last sentence instead of a gender specific pronoun so as to not overtly call attention to the specific commenter. I'm not looking to single anyone out for personal criticism or praise in this space. That I should feel the need to speak about pronouns and their proper usage in the English language at all, I find ridiculous, but hey, these are the times we live in.)
So, that's one in four known Twitter users here today who are willing to do the one thing that will actually stand a chance of influencing Elon Musk's behavior in the so-called *public square* that he owns. Well, I guess that's a start. Though I think that square actually being *owned* by an individual perhaps makes it something other than *public*. Which is, of course, a big part of the problem. But it also is a big part of the solution. You want to influence Musk's behavior? You must speak to him in a language that he understands and cares about. And YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THAT IS:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Or, more precisely, lack of same from a lack of advertising revenue, etc., that Musk's plaything generates. I don't think I really need to take up space or waste your time or mine by offering an explanation of how seriously declining numbers of users on the platform would affect that.
I've heard plenty of arguments about how useful and necessary Twitter is, especially to some people. It is no doubt useful. And convenient. But I make no apology for not buying the *necessary* arguments. If Twitter were to cease operations tomorrow, the world would not end. The nation would not fall. The lives of Tweeters would go on. Twitter is not "too big to fail".
An awful lot of people would be inconvenienced, and an awful lot more would become rather bored and at loose ends with all the free time they would suddenly have on their hands. But that's it. And that's all.
There's an old saw about if one doesn't bother to vote, one shouldn't bitch about the government one gets. And I make no apology for saying I believe that is true. And I'll not apologize for saying that all this complaining about Musk rings completely hollow as long as so many of the complainers are willing to do their part to help keep the lights on at Twitter and the power flowing freely and uninterrupted to Musk's megaphone. They may *care*, but they don't care enough.
I've done a good bit of not apologizing here, and I won't apologize for that, either, since this is something I obviously feel rather strongly about. If you're a Twitter user and want to hurl brickbats at me, have at it. I'll not be hurling any back at you. Not my style, and probably one reason I wouldn't make a good Tweeter, if I were inclined to splash my feet in Musk's public sewer - excuse me, square. Which of course we're all welcome to do. And for free, no less. Unless you're foolish enough to pony up the bucks for a meaningless icon next to your handle. So, it costs nothing to get in. And nothing of any real consequence to get out. And if enough folks decided to not walk around with a musky odor on their feet, there might end up being just a few less things for them - and the rest of us - to complain about.
All very good points, but if someone takes over the town square with vile speech, is the correct response to retreat from the town square? Or to offer alternative voices? It is a difficult choice, but no amount of quitting by liberals will shut down twitter. That power lies in the hands of advertisers, not users. As long as Twitter remains one of the leading sources for "news" in the US, how can we abandon it to MAGA extremists, QANON promoters, racists, neo Nazis? BTW, the vast majority of Twitter users live outside the US, so a decline of say, 10% of US users would translate into a 2% to 3% drop in users, overall.
I take your points and take them seriously. And of course, I'm aware of the argument that the answer to bad speech is good speech, and more of it. And that's generally true. But Twitter, while being a very large town square, isn't the only square in town.
My 'not too big to fail' and other remarks were perhaps a bit misleading, since I in don't believe Twitter would likely 'go out of business' if a significant number of users cancelled their accounts, so I apologize if that's the case. I should have been more clear about that. I suppose there is a 'critical mass' as far as loss of users making that happen goes, but I'm realistic enough to know that thinking that would actually happen is just a sucker's bet, when you consider, as you mentioned, the total number of domestic and world users. If the lights were to go out at Twitter, it would likely only be because Musk just runs it completely into the ground through poor or outright stupid business decisions and management practices.
One can always hope for that, I suppose, but the aim of a significant domestic exodus from the platform would realistically be not to put it out of business, but to get Musk's attention and hopefully affect his behavior and decisions. That perhaps wouldn't happen either, but then if the numbers were big enough to eventually affect the company's bottom line by more than a pinprick or two, well, at some point he might start asking himself if the lost revenue / profit is actually worth his personal fun. But who the hell knows when it comes to Musk?
I have no solution to offer for Twitter being 'one of the leading sources for "news" in the US', a situation I find absolutely insane. And if you believe 'no amount of quitting by liberals' (or anyone else, such as independent, nonideological and nonpartisan people like myself) will make any difference at all, by all means stay and 'fight the good fight'. I just happen to think that as long as that's the strategy, nothing will change in this particular town square for the better. It is, I believe, no more than a holding action, when offense is what's called for.
This is only my opinion, and my disagreement with you by no means signals any disrespect for you or your view. We both want the same thing in the end. I'll be quite honest and say that my view of this can ultimately be distilled down to simply a moral choice and not a political one in the end. To perhaps oversimplify, if I discover my drycleaner is someone as distasteful and dangerous a neo-Nazi, I'll be taking my drycleaning somewhere else, since I would consider supporting him in any way to be immoral. But I know morality can get a bit fuzzy and be something of a gray area sometimes, no matter the basic righteousness of the intent behind the action. The name Dresden comes to mind in that regard at the moment. So, we can rationally agree to disagree about the means to an end, I suppose.
From Atlanta Journal-Constitution re Coronavirus Crisis:
"The U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis has released its final report with 30 recommendations addressing the ongoing pandemic and recommendations for ways to better respond to future public health crises [via this link: https://coronavirus.house.gov/ ]
"Some of the committee’s findings deal with the Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former Trump administration officials’ “manipulation” of its work during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"'Once the coronavirus outbreak erupted into a full-blown crisis, the Trump Administration engaged in an unprecedented campaign to control and even manipulate the work of scientists leading the public health response,” the report says. “The Trump White House blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from conveying accurate information to the public, installed political operatives who sought to downplay the pandemic, and even attempted to alter and manipulate CDC guidance, scientific studies, and public health orders to serve political goals.'
"The select committee will discuss the report during a final public hearing on Wednesday."