6 thoughts on “Twitter has to be reined in”

  1. I know I’ve quoted this before, both directly or indirectly, but I wind up thinking about it pretty frequently and wondering what I’ll do if the moment comes.

    Dalrymple:

    > Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.

    1. It’s a good quote, and reminds me of Rod Dreher’s book, Live Not By Lies.

      Some of the things we’re expected to believe today are so outrageously stupid that you have to wonder how people can accept them.

      1. The quote reminds me of so many things Trump and his cult-members have been saying, most recently that the attack on the Capitol was really just people entering the building to engage in a love-in (“kissing and hugging”) with the police, or Tucker Carlson saying that they were only armed with ideas from the Constitution (as if that document gives license for mob violence against the government). Most recently a Republican member of congress said that it was practically indistinguishable from a tourist event. We know damned well that what occurred then and there was a violent attack from Trump supporters. In view of the GOP’s continued defense of Trump and attempts to whitewash that violent outburst, they (with a few notable exceptions) have lost all sense of probity.

        There are no doubt outrageous and stupid things coming from the PC camp, but most of it is relatively impotent and by no means as detrimental as the cult of Trumpism. I have recently heard Denis Prager, for example, belly-aching about the “left” saying that men can menstruate. While I am sure that some people are saying such crap, I don’t think that it has much socio-cultural umph. Likewise, people (including most so-called “leftists”) aren’t going to stop believing that a man cannot get pregnant, no matter how many postings of that statement are removed from Twitter. (For the record, I don’t think that someone should be suspended from Twitter, any more than some of my criticisms of Trump should be temporarily removed from Facebook. In case anyone here hasn’t noticed, that platform is now swarming with fanatical disciples of his cult.)

  2. Well, of course, the Twitter response is ridiculous. It’s a fine line. Personally, I’d rather Twitter be open. However, doesn’t it have competitors? At least Parler if not other platforms?

    HDL makes some good points, however, I think he misses the mark. These social media platforms can ruin people’s lives. Nice story by NYT here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/business/media/jeopardy-hand-gesture-maga-conspiracy.html

    It’s ridiculous you can lose a job for something you said 10 years ago. I’m watching movies that are less than 10 years old and there’s plenty of making fun of gay people or trans people. These people don’t censor or cancel themselves for the most part. But say something on your blog that makes someone uncomfortable and you could lose your job. That’s ridiculous.

    1. I was specifically addressing the claim that the PC speech code is gaslighting people to be insensitive to critical thinking. Although it may sometimes do this sometimes, I don’t think that it is on the whole very effective. Trump’s malignant lies, however, seem to be very effective in the currently delusional GOP.

      Certainly people shouldn’t lose their jobs because of stuff they did when they were kids or teenagers. I am sure that I have laughed at racist jokes at a time when no one really thought much about the matter. I do distinctly remember when I was 12 a kid told a joke in which the “n” word was used. I must have laughed because I remember the whole class laughing. The teacher heard it and also laughed. It is a disturbing thing to think about. That teacher was most definitely an asshole. (I also have family members who actually voted for George Wallace, but that’s another matter.)

  3. Twitter was banning people for saying COVID might have come from the Wuhan lab. Now, that’s an acceptable story that even St. Fauci has acknowledged.

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