In light of The Hostile Twitter Takeover (Elon Musk Edition), I think we've all learned a lot about each other. We've seen who will cuddle up to Elon Musk, who is willing to condemn him; who knows this will be a disaster, who thinks this is no big deal; who wants to leave, who is criticizing others for even saying they want to leave; who is focused on this and who is hoping this will all go away. I won't claim this is true, but I'm sure all of us now have at least one person we respect just a little less for not reacting the way we would in this situation.
I don't have much of a presence on Twitter, nobody cares whether I leave or stay. But to all my follower, hear are my thoughts. I think Elon Musk is one of the worst people alive. His core philosophy, as far as I can tell, seems to be based on the "I'm rich, so I can do what I want" school of thought. He's basically a younger and slightly less ugly Donald Trump, and we should all be very grateful that he can't run for election. I think him gaining ownership of Twitter will be disastrous for everyone on the platform, especially those who need social media for there survival. Granted, from what I've heard that's less of a problem on Twitter than it would be on Facebook. This may, in fact, be a glimpse into the future of every current social media platform. I think that everyone who wants to leave should, whether they want to do so publicly or privately. I'm staying until I don't think it's safe anymore, which by my calculations should put my departure somewhere around the new year. I'm not tweeting, or talking, much about this, but I am paying the closest attention I can.
This isn't just about Twitter. What Musk does do, what he doesn't do, what he does but has to walk back, all of it will set the stage for what the downfall of social media will look like. It may not look like it to most, but at the edges I hear many muted rumblings of discontent. It's not that they can't talk, it's that the current environment isn't willing to let them be heard.
Whatever you have to say about the left, their presence lets other people know that they're welcomed and they won't be hurt. We're not warriors, we flee as soon as trouble comes because we know better than anyone else what trouble brings. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if you give people enough to live comfortably, they'll let you get away with anything. The people in charge now aren't interested in giving us anything. They're willing to let people like Musk, and Trump rule the world with no consequences. So long as they aren't afraid for their lives, they don't give a damn.
I don't think the goal should be to win this fight. If you want to fight, or you don't want to go down wishing you'd done more, than fight all you can. But don't ruin yourself. This isn't the fight we have to win. That would be a much bigger fight, one that encompasses all of humanity, even the ones who don't live in what western people think of as civilization. If our goal is for our species to live forever, we need to move past the idea that Society comes before everything else. This includes Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, but it also includes our current government system. If it's not meeting our needs, then something has to change. We can't keep building worlds assuming that our descendants will be better people than we are.
I think we need to stop trying to save the world. We need to focus on what we need to build to replace it.
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