I’m sick & tired of pretending that people still willingly using Twitter aren’t enabling this.

Every tweet, every login, every like is fueling his reach and god complex. If everyone who doesn’t support him would just leave the platform, he would have no choice but to reconsider how he is behaving & who he is platforming.

It’s the absolute BARE minimum we can do to stop the progression of online hatred & misinformation. YOU DONT HAVE TO DO *ANYTHING* TO STAY AWAY FROM TWITTER. #ElonMusk

It’s the “most vile & disgusting things I’ve ever seen” but still not enough to leave the platform?

You can delude yourself into thinking that you’re there to fight back & your tweets objecting to him are having some kind of an effect but this is just you making excuses to hang on to something you can’t let go of. He will NEVER consider your tweets.

BUT HE WILL CONSIDER A RAPIDLY DECLINING USERBASE.

Your continued presence only helps him, regardless of the content of your tweets. WAKE UP.

When this chapter is in the history books, people will wonder, “why did so many stay & enable him? How could they not have seen they were giving that man a platform? All they had to do was literally nothing & yet they chose, time & again, to login & be part of the data that made him feel like he was winning, and enabled him to invite advertisers back into the platform? Why didn’t they take a stand that *actually* would have hurt his platform? What would have had to happen for it to be enough?”
I am so upset about this, how many people are trying to justify staying & enabling this hatred. I am so frustrated & disappointed in *so* many people I had previously thought were better than this. SO many people have let us down & are paving the road that Musk & friends are using to march us towards fascism. I’m sorry I’m ranting I’m just completely dumbfounded at how many people out there sound great arguing against hatred but the moment they have a chance to DO something they back down.
@godlessmom Agreed. I did think he was a big douchebag before the whole Twitter takeover thing started, but I considered him basically a harmless, excentric jerk. But even if I had had sympathies for him, he has gone completely off the deep end over the last 6 weeks. I'm trying to understand what's going on in his head, but I'm definitely not making excuses.

@EntropySloth @godlessmom

I think he's on someone's payroll. Whether it's the Saudis or Russia, or just big GOP donors, I do not know.

@godlessmom
Twister was toxic even before Elmo. He just made it more so.
Leaving Elmo's hate collective has given me a far more peaceful mind. Less teeth grinding hypertensive stress.
Granted there were some pleasant groups of folk, but we were always culling out right wing whackjobs and evilgelicals. It just got worse.
Mastodon is a real breath of fresh air- almost reminds me of the internet before such things as fakebook and birdchan existed.
For those who are still transitioning just stay away from the hellcite for a couple of weeks and your withdrawls will subside.

@Holz2735 @godlessmom

I am starting to notice more and more of the people I liked to follow over there are here now.

@Holz2735 @godlessmom I would not have believed how different I would feel after only a few weeks on here compared to birdshite...in fact I felt the difference within DAYS!
@Judeet88 @Holz2735 @godlessmom same. SO MUCH HAPPIER. There is comparison. Mastodon IS a really nice place
@Sadtomato The thing is, it's under MY control...and I like that, who wouldn't? Oh...maybe only those who like to be spoonfed what to believe, what to hate, what to buy?
@Judeet88 exactly. You SOUND like a true Shield Maiden. I like not being fed nonsense ads and shovelfulls of hate.
@Sadtomato My shield is polished, my sword of truth sharpened with a new whetstone, my loins are girded (at least I think they are...) and I'm bracing myself.
@Judeet88 well played. I love warrior women.
@Sadtomato I've lived and survived alone nearly all my life...so when something needs doing I generally have to do it myself, unless it's electrical, plumbing or complex car stuff, then I have to get someone else to do it;
@Judeet88 you sound like myself. Huge respect. I love your DIY attitude.
@Judeet88 @ManicBookkeeper Manic...Shield Maiden is a feisty one. She also has similar interests.
You two should meet.
@Holz2735 @godlessmom
I laughed at Fakebook and Birdchan, very accurate.
@godlessmom letting actual Daily Stormer neo-nazis back on was the end for me. Good article though https://www.wired.com/story/musk-denial-true-cost-twitter-implosion/ folk’s entire lively hoods depend on it
@godlessmom I knew it would be bad but I am honestly gobsmacked at how vile he is. He’s in sighting another insurrection and he knows it. He’s doing this on purpose with the incoming Republican majority in the House to create a governmental breakdown.
@godlessmom By leaving didn’t you back down? I’m staying to fight.
@pinata1138 @godlessmom are people even fighting over there? I just see them all wrapped up in their own lives in the posts over there.
@beowulfling22 @pinata1138 @godlessmom They argue with rw bots and trolls and bullies and think that's fighting. As if by their very engagement they haven't already lost. But it's a drug and no amount of logic will break through. But also a lot of what you said, people thinking that to carry on as normal is fighting.
@pinata1138 @godlessmom You posting anti-Elon tweets while viewing his ads and boosting his engagement metrics isn’t “fighting.”

@pinata1138 @godlessmom Serious question: do you have accounts on Gab, Parler, Truth Social, etc, where you "stay and fight"?

Maybe you're the exception, but for most people, the answer is no, because those platforms are irrelevant. They're populated by nobody but right-wing weirdos talking to each other. If we want to "fight" Musk that's the only power we have -- to turn Twitter into another one of those platforms, with few advertisers & barely any users.

@ehattswank @pinata1138 @godlessmom It's more complicated than this, but I do have business contacts on Twitter—Apple, Amazon, airlines, annoying politicians, Alphabet (also known as Google), etcetera—where Twitter is the best or only viable contact solution (phone & email support are lackluster sadly) among other companies & leaders.
Trying to convince them to leave feels like trying to convince someone to leave the Matrix. https://youtu.be/_Wgn0KlSHl4
Cypher Makes a Deal With Agent Smith in Restaurant - Matrix (1999) - Movie Clip HD Scene

YouTube
@darnell @pinata1138 @godlessmom Fair point. I'm a nobody online, so I don't really consider that many folks use Twitter to make a living. Obviously disentangling that is a lot more difficult. I hope the emerging alternatives will quickly become acceptable for that kind of use case too.
@ehattswank @pinata1138 @godlessmom It is more the practical nature of what Twitter has become now. At the airport, if I have an issue with an airline, I have four options:
👉🏾 Do nothing
👉🏾 Email the airline & receive assistance days later
👉🏾 Call the airline & receive assistance hours later
👉🏾 Tweet the airline & receive assistance minutes later (Instagram sometimes works too)
It's the same with most companies & oddly politicians too (even TV hosts—go figure 🤷🏾‍♂️).
@ehattswank @pinata1138 @godlessmom Staying & fighting against the trolls at Twitter is like trying to save the Titanic from sinking after the Elon Musk iceberg has hit.
At best, you can operate a rescue operation & try to get as many people onto the life boats (Fediverse, Tumblr, etcetera) as possible. That is what I am trying to do right now, especially business contacts.
I hope Tumblr & WordPress joining the Fediverse will do this.
@ehattswank @pinata1138 @godlessmom to my understanding, these platforms (and their owners) make money based on activity. The more activity, the more advertisers pay to the platform. I could have also stayed to troll fascists but in reality even doing so would add money to the biggest rotten one, the owner himself.
@ehattswank @pinata1138 @godlessmom The point *could* be made that this is, in part, a good idea (to have people monitor the other networks). However, this dips deep into the area where you throw away much of your life tracking and monitoring "the enemy". (how much of your life do you waste before they *win* by default?) . (makes me wonder if the FBI/CIA/policia monitor those networks [and how much time they have to waste looking at just garbage trolling from schmucks])
@vieuxnez @pinata1138 @godlessmom Yes, agreed, i think tracking what far-right nuts are talking about is invaluable, especially if it might give warning when they're planning something violent. And of course people doing that noble work helped expose many of the January 6 insurrectionists & worse ... That seems very different to me than people who just don't want to leave Twitter because they like to argue with right-wingers on there, or pile on to whatever stupid thing Ted Cruz just said.

@ehattswank @vieuxnez @pinata1138 @godlessmom

Good point. Kind of similar to anti-Nazi activists back in the 1940's who joined Nazi groups to spy on them and expose them.

@ehattswank @pinata1138 @godlessmom Just left the bird this morning. I loved the community for so long but will not support nazis.
@godlessmom @ehattswank @pinata1138

> I’m staying to fight.

Fighting for what? How is this fight taking place? What does victory look like?

@ehattswank @pinata1138 @godlessmom

I think that most ppl are nobodies on social platforms. They post memes to friends and families. They occasionally post to their respective groups. They watch the trolling. But for the most part we are all nobodies watching this supposed fight. So what exactly is this fight we are supposed to be fighting? What does the fight look like? Do we have an army? A general? It just seems like a bunch of chaos to me.

@pinata1138 @godlessmom What exactly do you think you're fighting for? Elonsk Twitter is a landslide that has already leveled your village. It IS owned & manipulated by a rw troll who laughs everytime you engage. Who literally posted that you won't leave bc you love his drama too much. It's like 2015. Ppl acted like they were slaying dragons & when a rw account blocked them they made it a badge of honor. It meant nothing but feeding the algorithm & rewarding the trolls.

@godlessmom
Charitably, I think many of these folks really do mean well but overestimate their influence.

Slightly less charitably, some folks hate what's going on but are hooked on the illusory and fading sense of community on there, so they convince themselves (and let themselves be convinced by Twitter's metrics) that they wield more influence than they do so they can still have their fun.

@godlessmom
Like, I get journalists and researchers reluctantly staying on Twitter because that's where they find the subjects they cover. But if you also find yourself gleefully tweeting through World Cup matches and TV awards ceremonies, maybe you're not so reluctant after all?
@IntlLawGnome Right, if it's part of your job, whatever, do what you need to do, but most people aren't getting paid to be one twitter.
@godlessmom yeah its insane how nothing seems to get any interaction unless it is about him specifically, and when it is about him the interaction is huge! Its just his narcissistic fever dream in the form of a declining social media company..
@godlessmom I've wondered too as time has passed,,, I blamed much to all on Putin in the beginning, as I knew he owned him,,, but he had a whole lot of domestic help it seems
@DrB_NY @godlessmom Putin? Are you serious?

@zoran @godlessmom yes its hard to believe Putin would have the Russian Underworld he controls, fund the 🍊 💩 , since the 90s, & cater all those young girls to him,(&2 wives) all in hopes of materializing Nikitas quote " we will take America from within, without firing a shot"

tRUmp Lies Mattered

@godlessmom every time I go and visit the musk-toilet place I leave with my blood pressure up and a feeling that half the people in this world are uneducated and nasty humans.
@godlessmom same questions were asked after WWII
@godlessmom I'd like to not use twitter, but so many websites, news organizations, and individuals digging up information of interest still tweets and embed those tweets in other socal media. A lot of people are migrating to alternatives but it is going to take time. Hopefully we'll get there sooner rather than later

@godlessmom

yeah, this nails it -- exactly why I left, the day he took over. I will not be part of anything he builds.

@godlessmom staying on the Hellsite is like buying tickets to a Trump rally and standing in the rain for three days to grumble quietly through it, standing in the back...

While calling it "resistance"

@godlessmom

Get off the DEAD BIRD. You are a lice.

@GatekeepKen @godlessmom I will now always refer to the bird people as lice, and louse. :)
@godlessmom totally agree with all of this…staying on Twitter is no longer an option unless you want to facilitate Musk and his Nazis…it is not complicated, it is not difficult, it is not excusable. Leave now!
@godlessmom 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
@godlessmom I agree but my friends are there and they are either going to different platforms or going down with the ship then quitting social media. For many people ripping off the band-aid is hard so I'm encouraging baby steps.. Join another platform, set up cross posting, start to engage and get used to it... Then as Twitter continues to devolve they will use the other platform more until they no longer feel the need to go there at all anymore.
@godlessmom My thoughts EXACTLY. He is begging for attention and he's getting it!