You Are Wrong — Letting Trump and Kanye Back on Twitter Is a Good Thing
After months of speculation, Elon Musk is finally in control of the rabid blue bird, proving once again that incredibly rich people have more money than sense.
Keeping to his word, Elon let Kanye West back on, despite his recent antisemitic remarks. Surely this is a terrible sign of things to come? Will the orange one return like Sauron to spread more hate and ignorance?
Twitter staff don’t know if they will have jobs next week. Is Twitter now home for right-wing conspiratorial madness? Will Kanye start ranting about inter-dimensional aliens controlling the global elite? Will Trump destroy America one tweet at a time?
First, let me clarify that I am not an Elon Musk fanboy. He is not a perfect human, by any means, but he does have some interesting ideas.
Whether they will work is another matter.
Freedom of Speech
If this is something you believe in, this is exactly how it works. It is one of the main reasons why Elon Musk parted with 44 Billion dollars.
Everyone has the right to exist and can say what they want in any way they choose.
You have the right to disagree and sue them into oblivion. If you can’t afford that, then you can use the same platform to denounce them and their views as often as you like.
Some views will offend you. Their words may even be dangerous, but none of that matters. For your voice to be heard, you must support theirs. There are laws in place to deal with everything else.
But what about the power these people have to negatively influence, you ask?
People were already open to that influence. Racists, misogynists and hate-filled people were already leaning that way. There will always be someone who wants to be their spokesperson.
Yes, Twitter gives terrible people with horrendous views an outlet, but the ears to hear that negativity are already listening.
If this bothers you, maybe you should have a hard look at society and figure out why this hate and anger exists in the first place. Twitter is just a megaphone.
Freedom of speech is a wonderful idea, but many are confused by it. It is not a right on social media maintained by God. It requires work, patience and ethics to truly exist.
Elon knows this is the only way to have true freedom of information and discourse. If you allow corporations to pick and choose what information can exist or who is permitted to speak, then you do not have anything close to democracy or freedom.
Some have said that they will leave Twitter if Trump Returns.
Why? What digital utopia are you fleeing to? You do know that you don’t have to follow him, right?
Keep Your Enemies Closer
Even if you despise Trump, you should welcome him back to Twitter. At least you will know what he is up to.
Did you set up a Truth Social account? While you were enjoying the blissful ignorance of his removal, did you know what they were talking about? You celebrated his ban but did nothing to slow him down.
Removing Trump from Twitter made him stronger and gave his followers a reason to believe he was being silenced by the left. You fed into the conspiracy theories you enjoy ridiculing them for. You proved to them that they are at war.
The same can be said about Andrew Tate and Alex Jones. Some of their visibility was removed, but they became a headline, which gained them more followers.
Leave them where they are. They love the attention. It is better to keep them under bright lights than it is to drive them underground where they can really get their hands dirty.
Do Not Underestimate Them
I followed Trump on Twitter because he amused me, and I wanted to know what he was thinking. I underestimated him once before. I will not make that mistake again.
I thought Trump was a showman looking for more exposure and had a snowball's chance in hell of becoming president. I wrote him off and mocked him for his childish attempts at being a politician. Look what has happened since.
I was a fool for ignoring him. You are a fool if you think you can silence him. He adores the sound of his own voice. He will find a way to be heard. They want to hear him. We might as well let him speak out in the open.
We have to make sure that there is another voice, just as loud and charismatic, that can counter his words as soon as they fall out of his mouth.
That’s the game. It’s a sword fight of power and ideals, played out on a public stage.
We must dodge, counter and jab just as much as he does. We can’t silence him, but he can’t silence us either.
Elon is levelling the playing field for all of us. We get to decide how we play on that field. It’s frustrating to have to play the game in the first place, but it is the only fair way to play it.
Everything else is propaganda and control.
Which do you prefer?
Give Them Some Rope
Trump and Ye are not as smart as they think they are. Given enough time, they will make glorious mistakes. This applies to others like them.
We are currently watching Ye go through this. He lost 1.5 Billion dollars in one day after Adidas dropped him due to pressure over his antisemitic comments. Ye even boasted that Adidas couldn’t do anything to stop him.
Instead of clarifying that his frustrations were aimed at a select group of people that happen to be Jewish, he spoke in ignorantly broad terms. Those conspiracy-toned words have damaged him immensely.
He has lost contracts across the board, has very little radio play, and no one is willing to work with him. He might as well be radioactive.
Sketchers swiftly escorted him out of their offices, treating him more like a leper than a potential business partner, which was his obvious hope.
We must not ignore his mental health issues, but it was the power of his ignorant words that brought him down. Ye set his world on fire, all because of a few lines of text shared on the internet when he was too tired to think clearly.
“I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.
“The funny thing is I actually can’t be anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jews also.
“You guys have toyed with me and tried to blackball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
The pen truly is mightier that the sword.
They Can’t Control Themselves. Let Them Blow Up.
Trump is bound to start telling more lies. He is destined to say more wild and dangerous things.
Great, let him.
This is just more proof that can be used against him later. How he is still able to walk around freely is beyond me.
Shine a bright light on these people and call out all of their flaws as they expose them. Do not force people like this to hide in the shadows. They will only come back to haunt you later.
“The unspoken rule I abide by is that if you don’t feel comfortable saying it on a megaphone to a stadium full of strangers, then don’t tweet it.”
“Of course, Trump and Ye have a right to coexist with us in the stadium. But they are not above the colosseum of public opinion.” — Jonah Angeles
I Hate Twitter, but Elon Could Make It Better
Twitter is a very simple concept. Only 280 characters are allowed, but somehow that is enough to perfectly reveal the worst of us. It can be a terribly depressing place, full of so much anger, hate and unwanted dick pics.
The ugliness of human emotion often overshadows the good that can be found there. It feels like the wild west at times. Elon hopes to control some of the chaos. No easy task.
Removing all the bots is a priority. Making it harder for people to blast out DM’s might remove some of the frustration. Rewarding its content creators is a good thing. Making it a safe space for all views is brave. Managing it will be a nightmare.
Elon wants to make Twitter the “everything app”. Modelling it after WeChat is understandable, but I don’t know why he wouldn’t build that app himself. Surely that would be cheaper?
I see Twitter as a stream-of-consciousness app. Its text restriction is its charm and should always be its primary focus.
The tech space loves to copy its competition for fear of becoming irrelevant, so who knows what Twitter will look like a few years from now. This copy concept has not worked for Facebook, so caution is required.
I do like the idea of more video-based content creation. No, not like TikTok, but that is inevitable. Those short-form videos are hypnotizing and about as healthy as cotton candy.
After YouTube sanitised its platform to keep its advertisers happy, innovative and riskier videos became homeless. This is a constraint on creativity and expression. They threw those that helped to build YouTube under the bus to make way for the advertiser's family-friendly dollar.
I understand the business, but I mourn the loss of creativity.
If Twitter is going to lean heavily on free speech, it could be a new home for that form of expression. It would be nice to have a digital space where adults can express whatever they like without being told to get in line or censor their work. Doubtful that will happen, as apps try to be all-inclusive, but one can dream.
Final Thoughts
I think this is a tremendous waste of money on Elon's part, but I do understand the importance of free speech on the internet. I think he wants the challenge of finding Twitter's true potential, more than anything else.
It is a wonderful dream, but the trolls will actively seek to destroy it. They have already started. It’s very childish.
The internet is a terrible place for conversation.
Frustrated people throw hate and assumptions around like confetti online. There is far too much boredom and ignorance for this to play out peacefully.
I think it is amazing how much of our lives are controlled by the internet and its connected apps. We give them an importance that is not deserved.
If you remove TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc, the world will not end. It will be less convenient and entertaining. It would deny us a daily dopamine fix. Once we get over the withdrawals, life would carry on as normal.
There is evidence that suggests we would all be happier.
44 Billion Dollars is a lot of money that could have been invested in life-changing ways. I wouldn’t have bought it, but I’m not a billionaire, so who cares what I think?
Good luck TwitterMusk, you will need it.
