Author Tom Nichols on how liberals can survive on Twitter and make the most of it

[Emrys]

Hi, Twitter liberals, it’s time for us to have a talk. About Twitter. And about you not being insufferable about Twitter. Which many of you have become. /1

There is no doubt at all that Elon Musk buying this platform was a bad thing, and his ownership makes it worse. Creepy freaks and bargain basement ads. Musk himself has become a giant adolescent troll. So stipulated. /2

But many of you seem absolutely determined to find every one of these creepy freaks, and to engage Musk, and to wallow in the mud with every terrible account. This is childish. Ignore those accounts. /3

Set your notifications to Latest, not Home. Block a lot. Set notifications so that you don’t see tweets from people who don’t follow you. Refuse to engage with five-follower accounts that went active last week. /4

But if you really hate it here that much, leave. Stop posting constantly about how much hatred you see and how terrible it is. If it’s that painful to you, go. But stop posting what amounts to “I wanna leave, but come with me.” Be a grownup. Stay or go. /5

I have all of those settings in place, I block with the flick of a finger, and my Twitter experience really hasn’t changed that much since Musk arrived. Yours needn’t either, but many of you seem almost eager for it. /6

If you really want to piss off Musk, stay here and ignore him and the trolls. Make some popcorn and get comfortable as he burns down billions of dollars in value and drives off advertisers. The rest of the time, just talk to the people you always talked to. /7

But if your Twitter existence is going to be nothing but arguing with teenage dumbasees and Musk fanboys, and then bitching about how terrible Twitter is, better for you and for all of us that you just leave. /8

Because right now, the only people that are really polluting my timeline are clueless people who keep dragging trolls into my timeline so they can argue with them. This is inane. Musk is going to do many more terrible things before this is over. But it will end. /9

Until then, in the name of creating a more copacetic Twitter environment for myself, I really am going to start blocking people who do nothing but argue with trolls or bitch about Twitter. Be adults. Stay or go. But stop whining to me and yelling at every mook you find./10x

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1602492422688309249.html

This evening, I used Twitter to learn about events happening in my home country, Scotland, that aren't covered by other media, found a link to an overview of Talking Points Memo's article "A Plot To Overturn An American Election" that I posted in Latest Breaking News, tried to keep pace with events in Ukraine that I can't find coverage of elsewhere, and found an interesting article, "Russian propaganda media and ex-President guilty of direct incitement to genocide in Ukraine, report finds", which I posted in Editorials & Other Articles, that links into the excellent video coverage of Russian MSM propaganda provided by Julia Davis's Russian Media Monitor: https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews.

In between all that, I did check up on some of the more ridiculous goings on around Musk and Tesla and a few other loons, then slapped myself upside the head and reminded myself of the main reasons I visit Twitter, which are not to pay more attention to Musk and the other RW trolls that I can't change and don't want to interact with than is absolutely necessary.

Oh, and I also found this Twitter thread by Tom Nichols and posted it here.

[YoshidaYui]

1. Been on Twitter a while

I keep it so I don’t have to see the insanity but keep it close to good friends who like the content I put out and of course I follow my Japanese bands and post my monster hunting videos!!

[Emrys]

2. Yeah, people use it for all sorts of reasons.

I'm glad you can still use it to keep in touch.