oh I see, this is what it takes (the media and twitter)

[solarbird]

Suddenly – all at once, seemingly out of nowhere – the media are on my side regarding Musk Twitter.

Yeah. Really. Don’t believe me? Check this out:

Bloomberg: The Moral Case for No Longer Engaging With Elon Musk’s X

Fucking Bloomberg. But it’s hardly the only one today, it’s a whole little fleet of organisations, from large ones like Reuters to medium sized ones like Bloomberg (above) and Slate to small ones like Coffeegeek.

I mean, it’s not like they’re wrong, it’s all true, and worse. Much worse, really – most of them are still soft-pedalling it. But that’s been true for months.

So why yesterday?

It’s very simple.

Because the day before yesterday, Musk broke news organisation links off of Twitter, suppressing headlines and only showing images, so their links aren’t worth as much anymore.

That’s what did it. Their “Oh No, I Didn’t Think The Leopard Would Eat My Face” moment. That’s what did it.

And y’know what? I’m not gonna take this to them, because that’s not strategically wise. That’s not practical. It’s not politic. That’s not how you get more of it. So I’m not. I’m going to smile, and nod, and even boost their announcements on Mastodon.

But fuck all of them. Every single one. Fuck them, fuck this, fuck their ~~sudden awakening~~, fuck all of it.

I mean, like I said: good. Finally. About time. Get off the fascist site and don’t look back.

But fuck all of them for this being what it took.

Not overt anti-semitism, not overt white nationalism, not turning Twitter into an actual fascist propaganda and disinformation fountain with exactly the same purpose as the Daily Stormer, not calling for followers to support modern fascist parties in Germany, not literal encouragement of lethal diseases, not stochastic terrorism, not generating an anti-LGBT genocide attempt starting with trans people, no.

None of that was enough.

Hiding their headlines, though?

That’s what went too far.

…

…

…

Like I said. I’m glad they’re leaving.

But goddamn.

…

Fuck all of them.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[kathmandu]

Awhile ago I learned the renaissance-era term "rat-king". It's a metaphor for when several parties are so mutually compromised, with every party knowing every other party's embarrassing or criminally-liable secrets, that none of them dares do anything but back up all the others.

And pretty much what we're seeing now, with all powerful entities mutually dependent on existing corrupt and/or fascist arrangements.

[canyonwalker]

I agree with your frustration about why and how it took so long. It figures that only when Musk/X attacked their profit would they call foul.

You're also right that dwelling on that fact won't advance the more important issue by one iota. Now that they're on the cusp of printing the truth instead of pretending out of a misguided sense of "fairness" that it doesn't exist, let's encourage them to keep going.

[sistawendy]

I'd been logged out for months, but I finally deactivated my account over the weekend.