Ed Driscoll has a roundup of links. Ken White (no fan of Stacy’s) is enraged. And more from Allum Bokhari.
I find it outrageous that Twitter has put Anita Sarkeesian (among others) in charge of policing speech. I won’t be surprised if I get suspended at some point.
As I’ve been tweeting occasionally as Twitter seems to be determined to reinvent itself into irrelevance, they are opening up a market opportunity for a social medium that allows everyone short posts of 140 characters, shown in chronological order.
[Early afternoon update]
From the Harvard Business Review, why Twitter is losing users:
Abuse has become something like a systematized feature of life as we know it, in this age of discontent — and maybe that’s why it is an age of discontent. We expect to be mistreated by our bosses, ripped off by contracts we can’t read, swindled by fine print and hidden clauses, deceived by our politicians, and misrepresented by our representatives… and now, on the medium where we spend the majority of our waking lives, heckled and bullied by complete strangers.
In turn, we internalize the lessons of abuse, becoming little abusers ourselves. We expect to have to mistreat our customers, exploit our communities, bully our peers, cut corners, manipulate our colleagues, bail on our obligations, package the lowest common denominator at the highest possible price as a miracle-in-a-can… not just if we want to get ahead, but merely to anxiously tread water. And though it takes different forms, abuse is essentially what’s being piped through the tubes of the internet, or through the headquarters of VW, and into the water of Flint, Michigan.
The tech industry turns a blind eye to it. Courts excuse it. And abuse stops being the exception, and becomes the rule. We grow accustomed not just to the abuse itself, but to the fact that nothing’s going to be done about it. It’s treated as a customer service problem, or a PR crisis, not a core business issue.
Note that nowhere in this word salad is what constitutes “abuse” actually described. Which is what allows the Social Justice League to shut down dissent.
[Update a few minutes later]
This seems related: Rutgers students melt down after hearing a conservative speak.
Twitter is run by leftists, and fascist behavior like this is what leftists do. In other shocking news, water has been seen running downhill.
Personally, I’ve always loathed the concept of twitter (even without the leftie fascism plus the massive invasion of privacy); there’s little useful to be said with such brevity. It’s the sound bite syndrome write large, on a global scale.
Here’s a good write-up at Reason.
But there’s a difference between using strong language to disagree with people, and abusing them. If McCain has crossed that line, I’m not aware of it.
With someone like Sarkeesian free to define that line, it should be no surprise that:
1) There will be no formal definition forthcoming, and
2) Any ad-hoc definition will have no meaning because the “line” will always be in motion.
SJWs congregate in organizations that have no real customers paying for a real service. Then they can use all the money to push their political goals.
So Twitter is perfect for them.
I’d give Twitter two years at most before they bankrupt it. Will the last one banned from Twitter please turn off the servers.
What words want to be said by conservatives that they are getting banned from saying?
What names do conservatives want to be able to call someone but are getting banned from calling them.
What concepts do conservatives want to be able to say others have that they are being banned from saying?
I am always at a loss on this .. just what do conservatives want to say ssooo badly that they get banned when saying it?
I am always at a loss on this .. just what do conservatives want to say ssooo badly that they get banned when saying it?
This is actually an easy exercise. Look at what conservatives tweet. That’s the answer to all of your questions. If they didn’t want to tweet those words, be they insults, concepts, or something else, then they wouldn’t have. And the vagueness of the criteria for “abuse” (especially when we have concepts like microaggression which can interpret anything as abuse) means all of it can be a pretext for banning.
“I am always at a loss on this .. just what do conservatives want to say ssooo badly that they get banned when saying it?”
Anything that contradicts the SJW Narrative.
If there’s one thing SJWs can’t stand, it’s diversity.
Exactly, it isn’t about the use of specific words or insults but rather just disagreement that gets people in trouble with SJW censors.
To answer Vladislaw, people just want to be able to express disagreement and views that are different than Democrat’s. It sounds so simple but Democrats are dead set against it.
I have to confess I have never signed on to twitter.. but in political groups on Facebook conservatives say anything and everything .. it is like a thanksgiving dinner with family where someone brought alcohol .. LOL I guess I just do not look at twitter enough to see it.
Well, just to be clear. This is the budding stage of things. Its not like if you go on and say Bush wasn’t such a bad President will get you banned but if you criticize the feminist movement to the wrong person, you might be locked out until you delete your tweet.
but in political groups on Facebook conservatives say anything and everything ..
Well, there you go. The group that says anything and everything would naturally be worried about censorship.
I don’t buy the premise of the article. As an extensive user of twitter I easily deal with trolls by blocking them. My block list is almost as big as my connections list. Another problem is when people try and do extensive back and forth on twitter. That is not what the platform is for in its ideal sense.
I use twitter to listen to, read, and then disseminate valuable input from a very wide variety of people. I get to interact directly with VC’s, politicians, and even large government and non government entities.
From the people that I do follow that have trolls on their feeds, I block them as well. It’s not rocket science and I love my twitter experience.
An example that I am seeing today of something I would have never gotten otherwise, is this great software defined radio that a Russian ham is making to sell. Amazing stuff, and then I follow his feed and there is a wealth of great info on communications tech.
This is an excellent point. Why should we have high level censorship for ideas when people can just use the tools they’re provided and block the fellow users they don’t like?
Blocking trolls is one thing — but when the people I follow get banned for wrongthink that affects me in ways I can only address by banning the banners — which means taking my social media business elsewhere.
I left Facebook for less than this.
No one should be surprised that when making a comment on a public forum that people will respond and that not everyone will agree with them. Too often, simple disagreement is termed trolling and abuse when it shouldn’t be.
It is impossible to have a serious discussion, even if contentious at times, when only people who agree with you or certain political perspectives are allowed to speak.
I find a lot of what Democrats say on twitter offensive. The slurs and slanders they direct at non-Democrats wouldn’t be accepted if directed at other groups. But they way to deal with it is to engage in a discussion or just ignore it. Often what starts as an argument, can lead to a good discussion where parties involved learn more about how other people think. Not always, sometimes people lack the empathy or comprehension to understand a person’s POV.
If you say something someone could agree or disagree with and someone responds, are they the trolls or are you the troll for writing something to provoke a response?
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a SJW and he said it was ad hominem attack to say his views were racist. Can you imagine that, a SJW who thinks its wrong to call people out on their racism? The entirety of SJW ideology is an ad hominem attack.
A lot of what Democrats say online I find not just grossly offensive, but threatening. I know what would result from their desired policies, and to what extent more than a few would go to bring those policies about. In unguarded moments some have said what they’d do to us.
A lot of Dumbocrats believe words mean completely different things from their dictionary definitions.
I noticed during the GOP town hall on CNN, that the tweet stream at #goptownhall was acting funny. It would say at the top,”N new tweets.” But when refreshed or loaded, all of those tweets would not be displayed. Sometimes, it is a really large number and they can’t all be displayed, which provides an opportunity for Twitter to filter what people see.
Other times the number of new tweets was small and loading them should allow you to read them. I was getting a small number of new tweets and then was back into old ones. The time stamps of the tweets I was able to see were many minutes old and tweeted by the same people.
This was happening regardless of how many new tweets had been made using the hashtag. I experimented by reloading the page at different time intervals.
It felt like deliberate filtering to me.
Also, stickied at the top, were anti GOP “news articles” and pictures.
Another way to filter tweets is when you follow a large number of people. You won’t get to read all of their tweets. The filtering isnt just chronological, IMO.
And literally every time I log in, the while you were away features Eric Boelhert’s tweets at the top. So lame.
Interesting quote from the HBR. One thing; “we” don’t do all those things listed in the “age of discontent.” Perhaps the writer does.
…In which case I shall make a special point of avoiding them at all costs.
One question I have: are the Twitter people actually targeting conservatives, or are they so infused with their own righteousness that they don’t see it as discrimination?
Oh, they’re targeting the right. But, don’t worry, once we’re all banned, they’ll turn on each other.
The one thing you can guarantee about the left is that, sooner or later, they’ll always eat their own. They all want to be The Great Leader, and… there can be only one.
I’ve never been on Twitter, but somehow I occasionally get an e-mail from them suggesting people I should follow. Usually they are entertainers I couldn’t care less about.
I used to just delete those e-mails. Now I mark them as spam. To hell with Twitter.
Well, forget entertainers, and consider scientists.
I don’t like twitter much either, I’d be happier if no one used it (so that regular blogs and forums weren’t diluted), and I certainly don’t have an account, but… ….since I enjoy astronomy, I enjoy occasionally visiting the site, and seeing what various astronomers are saying.
It is pretty easy to find non-political non-controversial science-related discussions, and sometimes twitter is the only place to find it. (For example, when there is breaking science news.) Try searching on your favorite science topics, and see whether you find anything interesting to you.
Ya, I am drawn like a dog to a butt to discuss politics, however, there are many apolitical professionals to follow from different fields. They pass out good links but also get involved in good discussions.
The problem is that the more people you follow, the harder it is to read any one of their tweets. You have to make a bunch of lists to organize things. Twitter is ripe for competitive innovation.
Also, not just people. Organizations, businesses, publications, institutions act. Its a great way to get Anthropology and other niche news.
I don’t use Twater. Let th SJWs sink it.
This is begging for a song parody titled “Tweet Police” -unfortunately the inspiration (beyond the title) isn’t hitting me.
“They persecute me, they’re the judge and jury all in one” needs no rewrite.
Tweet Police, great song idea fitting in the Cheap Trick’s Dream Police along with Green Police they recorded for the Super Bowl ad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml54UuAoLSo
There is now a lot of irony in the ad some years later now that Volkswagen, parent company of the Audi brand, has had the featured “clean Diesel” drawing the ire of the real-life Green Police for achieving power and economy by cheating on emissions.
What I wish I knew the answer to, is this: is this sort of thing happening because the leftists are feeling their oats (“We’ve won!”) or because they’re scared, or because this is just what they do?
We know Facebook has experimented with altering news feeds to affect opinions; I would be shocked if Apple’s not doing the same thing, and there’ve been times when Google seems to have been manipulating search results. One wonders how bad it will get before November.
To be honest I never *got* Twitter.
Don’t use it now, won’t use it in the future. Don’t care if it fails. Within five years I expect I’ll be ditching my “smart phone” as well. I at least have the advantage of growing up in a generation w/o these things and therefore know how to live without them.
Never had a “smart phone” either, but with time, that gadget will become indispensable for cashless payment, receiving payment for your labor, airline check-in . . . who knows, being required to have a smart phone for all those other functions of daily life, you might be required to have one for check-in at the polling place . . .
This will certainly screen out the frail elderly clinging to their entitlement payments along with persons on the very margins of society depending on government support.
By then all transactions will be handled by my A.I. bot.
If I am still alive I will be living in a commune on reservation lands in Northern New Mexico or Arizona.
Twitter is rather similar to a sewer. However, a sewer provides a valuable public service by carrying sewage away from your home. Twitter brings sewage to you.
This is what Twitter is good for:
A status update on the search for a planet around Proxima Centauri:
https://twitter.com/Pale_red_dot/status/701802266777534465
Two new entries:
Ace of Spades and Larry Correia.
http://i.imgur.com/NT1sKuy.jpg
From the above Tyson spoof: “Who cares if legitimate scientists disagree with me? How many Twitter followers do they have?!”
Not Twitter, but we had quite the ruckus here in Alberta last week as the provincial government now run by socialists decided that a right-wing news agency – therebel.media – weren’t real reporters and banned them from government functions. I really don’t think they expected the outrage from the public, because they really do think they’re smarter and better than the rest of us. Of course they backed down and apologized, but the era of leaders resigning over gaffes appears to be long gone.