It’s been a little over a year since Elon Musk officially took over Twitter, and I’m prepared to admit that--on at least one count—I was wrong as shit. In April of 2022 I wrote that I didn’t “put too much stock in the idea that Musk is out to transform Twitter on some fundamental level”:
1) I think it's high time that people start investing more interest and money in the specific people they know who make a living being bloggers, meaning pundits who aren't dogshit. Substackers too, obviously, if they already have a well-established history of focused, insightful content. There's been bloggers (and commenters) posting accurate and correct analyses of national politics and business stuff since Bill Clinton, which is perfect considering we're living through another Iraq War sales job right now wrt Israel.
2) The biggest thing that comes out of a shift like this at a psychological level is an increased sense of vanguardism. You are responsible for being informed, choosing what to think about (*cough* This Is Water *cough*), and for trying to do stuff that actually impacts the world. There was an ability to 'make a difference' when Twitter did the context collapse and you could feel like you were at City College in the 1950s standing on soapboxes and arguing about Stalin, or go to Woodstock, etc. Now you have to nut up or shut up when it comes to what you believe in - talk is cheaper since you don't have that wider audience that includes disagreeable trolls.
Source: I lurked SomethingAwful and Tumblr a lot.
3) Kind of summing up, I think being able to estimate The Powers That Be in a general sense is much better for your health and survival than keeping track of specific elite tastemakers/opinionators. Access journalism/journalists as stenographers is the position that's going to take a beating from the return of the counterculture, David Bowie-ness and all.
I really like your commentary. When I have a job, I may become a paid subscriber. The thing you haven’t considered as part of Elon Musk‘s plan: he may be just looking to break Twitter so he can file for bankruptcy, and disentangle himself from his choice of buying the platform in the first place. He’s not a stupid man —saying something that was anti-semitic he knew would drive away advertisers. Without advertisers, he’s well positioned to claim bankruptcy as an out.
1) I think it's high time that people start investing more interest and money in the specific people they know who make a living being bloggers, meaning pundits who aren't dogshit. Substackers too, obviously, if they already have a well-established history of focused, insightful content. There's been bloggers (and commenters) posting accurate and correct analyses of national politics and business stuff since Bill Clinton, which is perfect considering we're living through another Iraq War sales job right now wrt Israel.
2) The biggest thing that comes out of a shift like this at a psychological level is an increased sense of vanguardism. You are responsible for being informed, choosing what to think about (*cough* This Is Water *cough*), and for trying to do stuff that actually impacts the world. There was an ability to 'make a difference' when Twitter did the context collapse and you could feel like you were at City College in the 1950s standing on soapboxes and arguing about Stalin, or go to Woodstock, etc. Now you have to nut up or shut up when it comes to what you believe in - talk is cheaper since you don't have that wider audience that includes disagreeable trolls.
Source: I lurked SomethingAwful and Tumblr a lot.
3) Kind of summing up, I think being able to estimate The Powers That Be in a general sense is much better for your health and survival than keeping track of specific elite tastemakers/opinionators. Access journalism/journalists as stenographers is the position that's going to take a beating from the return of the counterculture, David Bowie-ness and all.
Being certain it’s all confused is better that being confused into thinking that things are certain?
I really like your commentary. When I have a job, I may become a paid subscriber. The thing you haven’t considered as part of Elon Musk‘s plan: he may be just looking to break Twitter so he can file for bankruptcy, and disentangle himself from his choice of buying the platform in the first place. He’s not a stupid man —saying something that was anti-semitic he knew would drive away advertisers. Without advertisers, he’s well positioned to claim bankruptcy as an out.