It reduces Twitter's traffic a little. It screws with some of their metrics a little, with the shared accounts having access patterns of several humans all mixed together. It might affect revenue a little.
It doesn't do much to address the underlying issue of there being people who you might want to hear from who primarily post their content on a platform owned by a white nationalist. If you want that to get better, you have to something other than continue to use the platform.
The platform's user base, including accounts created for XCancel/Nitter purposes, forms the value that causes others to post there. Accessing the platform through a proxy still provides value to the platform in terms of user attention.
Not because this is also my opinion (I have a lot of opinions that people don't share, and I completely don't care, believe me!), but for deeper reasons, I'd love to understand why this is so unpopular, although it's absolutely what every sane person would do in everyday cases.
My only explanation would be to imagine all down-voters as chain smokers when they get involved into discussions whether smoking is a good thing.
People don't like to be reminded that they're hanging out at the Nazi Bar.
Standing outside and looking through the Nazi Bar's window is still pretty much hanging out at the Nazi Bar. It still brings traffic and attention to their establishment.
Sure, it's not buying drinks from the Nazis, and that is an improvement over being inside and giving Nazis your money and engagement directly. But it's still hanging out at the Nazi Bar.
Yes, I like the analogy. Even if you don't agree with "Nazi", it makes the illustration quite obvious:
There is a bar that scares you off so much that you wouldn't even go in. So there must be something fundamentally wrong with it. It's not just not your favorite beer, but you absolutely avoid even to enter. There must be a strong reason for that, right?
What people are then important enough to watch through the windows? I mean, at first, you just make a fool of yourself. Just imagine the analogy. That's exactly xcancel and friends, right? And then, don't forget: These people explicitly do not share your view in a matter fundamental and important enough for you to not enter the bar.
Are they friends? I can't imagine friendships with these differences really need that deep devotion.
Are they politicians? Maybe there are enough media around you that already preprocess the conversations at the Nazi bar for you?
Wider community (around your job, hobby, ...)? That's probably the most challenging one. But still, wouldn't it be definitely the goal to push them to better places? I know it's not a matter of a day or two, but why couldn't we at least agree on that goal, and then start acting in some way?
btw: This is not specific to X or Musk imho. There are other networks out there that aren't in control of such a madman today, but they share a lot of problematic properties.
Very well reasoned and it fits a long evolved pattern but what you’re describing fits the mass sociopathic behavior called shunning, as engaged in by some religions like JW if you need a neutral example to think about. It is in no way good for society or for individuals in the long term.
Yeah, actual Nazis who commit administrative murder of a non-zero number of people in Africa who died from preventable diseases due to the DOGE USAID cuts. Some might call it administrative eugenics. I heard the guy who did that also threw a pretty obvious gesture that shows support for that ideology. I choose to believe my eyes and my functioning brain, thanks.
Sure, cringelord. You even talk like Elon. Maybe I found another Elon alt account.
Debunked by whom? The ministry of truth? Are we not supposed to do basic cause and effect inference? And which part has been debunked? The salute, or the austerity and deaths due to USAID cuts? The salute’s been debunked by the emperor’s groveling subjects who proclaim loudly that his garments are, indeed, astonishing! No surprise there, their retirement is at stake. Seriously, are you being paid to shill for Tesla? Nobody is this dumb.
> and that is an improvement over being inside and giving Nazis your money and engagement directly
If you convert someone who was buying drinks into someone who only looks through the window, the world gets less Nazi. If you convert someone who was passing by into someone who looks through the window, the world gets more Nazi. And we see both classes of people in this thread - people who think each of those directions is dominant.
White nationalist is a wild, wild misreading though. Though not an uncommon one.
The Overton window doesn’t allow talking about all real issues, so people like yourself mistake race as the crux of the matter, when other issues are the real topic.
If you want understanding, work on helping open, not close, the Overton window.
One of my favorite subgenres of body cam videos on YouTube are those where a cop, politician, or other official is under suspicion of some crime and is angling for an off-camera conversation to discuss how this whole thing could be swept under the rug, and the camera-wearing cop ignores or deflects the request, possibly getting to a point of outright refusing to talk off camera.
Maybe the cop would have refused to engage in an act of corruption without the camera being there, but I'm glad the camera is there to discourage corrupt behavior.
> Still, Laura Loomer shouldn't have the power to advance his deportation.
This is a really key point. Trump operates like a mafia boss. Being in the protected class is a privilege that is fully dependent on the perception of the boss and those close to him. "For my friends everything, for my enemies the law."
It's not a good way to run a country. Did we have perfectly applied rule of law before the Trump era? No, but Trump is bringing us to new extremes of legal inequality.
This also creates these weird situations where the courts (or the Supreme Court, at least) says "Well the executive order is just an order, and federal agencies will actually have to implement it, and until we see the specific implementation, gosh, we can't evaluate whether the order is to do an illegal thing, even though it's pretty clear that illegal things will be necessary to implement the order. Maybe they'll find a legal way to do it, who knows? We certainly don't!"
Tariffs as a concept are fine. They're one of the economic tools available to a nation.
What's particularly damaging about Trump's approach to tariffs is the uncertainty. The targets don't always make a lot of sense. They're done haphazardly through questionable paths, which means they're subject to legal challenges. They're changed on a whim when Trump decides he needs to make a splash, or when someone says something he doesn't like, or when he wants to blow up a negotiation, or whatever.
It all leads to a situation where business owners and investors can't really be sure what the tariff landscape is 6, 12, 18, 24 months into the future. Will the tariffs survive legal challenges? Who will Trump decide to tariff next? Which tariffs might be increased drastically next week?
That is not an environment that fosters investment and business growth.
Moderate, business-oriented Democrats and Republicans would all agree with you, BUT these are a group of people that both sides of the party are railing against so they have basically no influence at this point. Even Obama, people selectively remember him fondly (or not) for his compassion and mild socialism, not for his strong free trade stance.
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain
This is my kind of patriotism, personally. I love America. I want America to succeed in the world. And I will call my government out when it is fucking it up.
Renaming Lake Ontario on a whim because Trump is no longer happy with the USMCA trade deal he himself made just a few years ago and the negotiations aren't going well because he keeps making crazy demands is squarely in "fucking it up" territory.
Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Ruben Ray Martinez would love to debate you...except they were US citizens who were executed by masked ICE thugs, so they're unable to speak at the moment.
We are absolutely being taken over by a gang / mafia style organization.
There was absolutely no reason for any of those 3 individuals to end up dead for the non-violent actions they took, and it has been repeatedly shown through video evidence that the federal government lied and continues to lie about the circumstances in all of those cases.
If the individuals would have acted civilly it would not have come to this. They are the only ones to blame for the consequences of their actions. And calling this actions non-violent is manipulative phrasing to make people think that the actions did not escalate the danger of the situation.
That doesn't mean it should not be changed. How the lake existed back then and how it exists now is different so it is more deserving of a name change than other name changes that have happened.
It reduces Twitter's traffic a little. It screws with some of their metrics a little, with the shared accounts having access patterns of several humans all mixed together. It might affect revenue a little.
It doesn't do much to address the underlying issue of there being people who you might want to hear from who primarily post their content on a platform owned by a white nationalist. If you want that to get better, you have to something other than continue to use the platform.
The platform's user base, including accounts created for XCancel/Nitter purposes, forms the value that causes others to post there. Accessing the platform through a proxy still provides value to the platform in terms of user attention.
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