There’s a weird and depressing continuation of folks moving back to X, formerly Twitter, currently still a cesspool.
The weirdness and my depression started when Federico Viticci and John Voorhees of MacStories fame headed back to stuffing Elon Musk’s back pocket. They’ve recently been followed by others in the tech-o-sphere, lured primarily because that’s apparently where the action is when it comes to talking about AI. Or talking to bots. I’m nor sure it matters. I expect them to all start calling it super intelligence any day now. Why not go all in?
The latest, and the most puzzling return is John Gruber. In a lengthy post he explains why. He also throws Musk-like insults at those who of us who don’t see his point by saying we’ve lost our minds.
If you have stayed away, or even just mostly away, from X for years and then come back, people just say things like “Hey, glad you’re back!” On the other networks, especially Mastodon, they tell you you’re “feeding Nazis” — by going to the platform where Tim Cook posts Pikachu videos. These people have either lost their minds or refuse to check their prior assumptions. (Most of the ones who chime in about it publicly are the lost-their-minds types.)
Perhaps I have lost my mind, John. I don’t think so, but perhaps I have. My grandson accuses me of that now and then, typically when I’m reminding him about what’s right and what’s wrong, given that he’s young enough not to know better.
Where my mind may have been misplaced, if it has, is a simpler location. That’s a place where I choose not to give money or participate in Elon Musk’s empire of depravity, where he thinks and spends money defending the so-called free speech right to create non-consensual pornography of pictures that are on his social network or wherever he can grab them Including those of children. To be clear, he’s done much more certainly and I’m not in favor of any of that either.
To be clearer, whether you pay for X or just lurk and scroll, you’re giving Musk money to do what he does. It’s out of your bank account into funding his depravity dumping on the world.
That’s my personal line in the sand that doesn’t shift. I will say the same things I say to relatives who still support MAGAts and Trump. If you condone sexual abuse of children because you think there’s a greater good somewhere being served by the perpetrators of that sexual abuse, you need to reframe how you think about the greater good. You may not have lost your mind, but you’re on your way to losing someting greater. And that’s not good.
Look, I miss Twitter. But that social network no longer exists. Gruber comes so close to swearing that what followed it once Musk took over has changed and is now a kinder, gentler place. So much so that on a quick first read I thought his post was a parody. Sadly, it’s not. X may have indeed changed somewhat. I don’t care enough to find out. Yes, big brands, celebrities, and sports reporters still rely on Twitter for reasons that are beyond me. Again, that’s their choice. For better or worse, whatever wisdom or lack thereof eventually filters out into the world eventually, so it really doesn’t matter.
Gruber, like the others who seem to be meandering back to Musk-land, are entititled to their opinions and to particiapte with any social network they choose. The fact that they need to justify their choices by smearing those who think differently, and dare I say how they themselves once were so outspoken with their thinking, to some extent proves just how much Musk and the MAGAt crowd have perverted and damaged the world we live in and the world online. Smearing others is like breathing in that world. I’ll admit I wouldn’t mind seeing them choke on it one day.
At least Gruber made his choice clear, unlike the MacStories duo. I have no doubt they’ll be calling Artifical Intelligence by its new Trump anointed and Musk approved branding soon.
Super.
(Image by Lutz Stalknecht on Unsplash)
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