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Listening to Charlie & Will talk about Musk’s plan to charge for the blue check, I couldn’t agree more. It will become a joke, a way to identify suckers willing to pay for a little status symbol that confers no status at all beyond, “I paid Elon Musk to look like I’m important!”

This idea totally reminds me of the Dr. Seuss book The Sneeches. Remember the in-crowd Sneeches had stars on their bellies (“stars upon thars!”) and the excluded Sneeches had no stars upon thars. Until entrepreneur & conman Sylvester McMonkey McBean shows up with his fantastic new belly star machine. For a small fee, now anyone can have stars upon thars! Of course, then the original star bellies don’t want their stars anymore and Mr. McBean is happy to remove them, for a fee.

So everyone is wasting money trying to be part of the constantly shifting in-group while Sylvester McMonkey McBean laughs all the way to the bank.

Welcome to Elon McMonkey McBean’s Twitter Machine.

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Thanks, Bulwark! Now I know who Monica Crowley is.

Btw, is it appropriate to bring up the attack on Steve Scalise in this context if the FBI'S conclusion was that the shooter was suicidal and not politically motivated? I'm not qualified to evaluate this conclusion, obviously; feel free to comment.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/21/2017-baseball-field-shooting-fbi-conculsion-483993

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To anyone who is considering deleting their Twitter account. Try it for 30 days and see how it affects your mental and emotional life. For me not compulsively plunging into the cesspool on a daily basis has been a great improvement. I had to quit cold turkey because I could not manage my use of the platform.

I also stopped watching MSNBC and stopped reading the New York Times and Washington Post.

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I was just listening to Charlie and Will Monday. You were discussing how it'd be nice if certain people would wait for actual information instead of speculating.

The problem with that is that you're mostly speaking to those who believe every word from police, FBI, DOJ, etc is a lie. So even when the truth comes out, they don't believe it and continue to amplify their speculative stories.

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To see these terrible tweets rather than "Get well, Paul" wishes confirms my belief that the hand-basket to hell is about to break under the weight of evilness. It reminds me of Pandora's box in modern form opened this time by a Musk(y) man under the guise of free speech. Inhumanity is alive and flourishing as a result, and I wonder if it will remain the Republican Party norm as you suggested on "The Reidout" tonight, Mr. Sykes. It's utterly depressing.

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After toying with deleting my 13 year old Twitter account, I finally did it today. I had very few followers so it's only a symbolic gesture but at least I made a stand. I can die with a clean conscious and a digitally clean slate. For now...

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Re: Twitter-- Deactivated the account. It is not worth it. Over 2 days became unbelievably nasty. After their owner, their CEO and Master of everything Twitter-- posted that BS article... there is no point. From here on, there is no plausible deniability for that cesspool. I honestly followed cats, dogs, birds, some authors and just a few other media type people and for the last 2-3 days ... well, I don't need to spread poison. Apparently, if someone who follows who you follow, and they retweet something, it shows up in your feed. It is like pissing in a pool. Fuck Musk and Twitter. I don't need it; nobody really needs it. I can waste time scrolling on Reddit or Kindle in the grocery line or waiting in my car before I have to go in to work.

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Twitter will become a hell-scape because of Musk. His idea of free speech is nonsensical. For those that think good people need to stay on Twitter to help counterbalance the bad, good luck with that. It is too easy to say ugly things when you are protected by an interface.

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So it looks like Musk is going to kill Twitter within the first few weeks of his reign. I would have thought that the $, the investors involved, etc would have kept him sober for a few months at least. Having never signed up or used the thing, I say down the hatch and let the healing start.

Is this where we are all supposed to say "JVL is Always Right" and buy some merch?

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Oct 31, 2022·edited Oct 31, 2022

Unlike Fox News, which comes bundled in my cable package (Spectrum doesn’t offer a package without Fox), I can delete Twitter. I’d like to know if there’s good alternative platform.

Fox News can be oblivious to the lack of advertising on Tucker Carlson, because most of their revenue comes from deals with cable companies, like Spectrum. It would be a good thing if the FCC promulgated new regulations requiring cable companies to give their subscribers a choice of which programs and networks went into their cable packages. I’m sure I’m not the only one tired of supporting right wing propaganda every time I pay my cable bill.

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founding

Last Wednesday night I made a comment about someone on Twitter being a moron. I got a reply asking me if I thought I got that right. I was pissed off (not the first time) and also knew of the impending purchase by Elon and deleted my account. After Elon's tweet about Paul Pelosi I know who the moron is now, no turning back from that.

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I've been saying for 10 years since I saw my otherwise rational friend watching conspiracy videos that tied Bush to Obama. Conspiracy theories are the single greatest threat to our democracy. Once they were catalyzed with social media. They give people open permission to treat life the way they grew up. Like a High School hallway. I'm guilty of going around with people that come to this site and act the same way. Its an open war on intelligence and 60% of white blue collar voters have decided to live in the past of their High School days. They do not have a vision for the future any more then they had respect for others in the hallway.

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I think Twitter is going to become a hell-scape because of Musk. His concept of free speech is nonsensical. My local public radio stopped allowing comments on articles on their website because of the excess of trolling, name-calling, etc. The hope that there will be enough good people to stay of Twitter to help counterbalance the idiots is a nice idea, but not realistic unfortunately. People like the anonymity to "freely" express themselves.

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So the Republicans managed to keep a straight face for one day after the attack on Paul Pelosi before they erupted in sniggers.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene openly called for for violence against political opponents, and specifically for Nancy Pelosi to be executed. Yet Trump has called her the "future of the Republican Party" and she has a huge Trump-like following. If Trump runs for Pres in 2024 she may well be his running mate.

I think MTG is a terrifying presence and felt I had to write a profile on MTG to bring her story out in the open. I'm just using my pen (keyboard) to fight back against this rising tide of neo-fascism.

My profile of MTG is at https://neofascism.substack.com/

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