X Close

How Twitter lost the libs Elon Musk has cast me aside

Not a happy man. Credit: Getty


August 4, 2023   5 mins

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be online, but to be chatting shit with your mates was very heaven” — William Wordsworth

It’s been a while since anyone would believe any ascribed quote on Twitter. In my trembling little bubble at least, people have been saying the site is clinically dead for at least two years — although admittedly I do follow a lot of tired, cynical journalists. And let me tell you, they are mad as hell, and they are not going to take it anymore. In real terms, freelance rates are lower than they were in the last millennium. No wonder so many of them decided the only route to solvency was to monetise themselves. Those of us who remained on the Twitter mothership during and after the pandemic watched an exodus of solo shuttlecraft head into the new media business-model troposphere. There they remain in geo-stationary orbit, a flotilla of atomised Substacks.

Everyone seems sort of resigned now to social media becoming less interesting and to us all spending less time on it. Nothing lasts forever. Twitter went from agreeable agora (c.2008) to brittle umbrage mill (c.2012) to enraged existential mobclash (c.2016) to a colourised trench-warfare horror scene. Then, it was sold.

It felt odd. Twitter always had the illusion of being, not publicly owned exactly, but common land at least. It was just there, like the roads and parks and pavements and internet. Suddenly it was worth $44 billion? Oh, but there was worse to come. The self-acknowledged Coolest White Guy on Earth had bought the site. And, excitingly, there was even worse to come. Artificially Intelligent Caligula was about to implement his Plan:

Phase 1: Sack all non-suck-ups and losers.
Phase 2: Wipe 70% off market value (totally cool, hold your nerve bro).
Phase 3: Invite back all the weird angry people previously banned.
Phase 4: Change name from Twitter (lame) to X (super-cool, mysterious).
Phase 5: Introduce frequent ad hurdles to acclimatise users to revenue grooming.
Phase 6: Introduce blue-tick charge to acclimatise users to subscription fracking.
Phase 7: Kick back. Wait for the world to deal with radical vibe shift.

It’s a far cry from those calm, underpopulated early days. Remember being on Twitter then, when it felt like everybody was in a social media sitcom. Silly puns and harmless banter — on one level, it seemed a shortcut to sophistication. There you were at some psychedelic Algonquin Round Table, wisecracking with preposterously accessible famous people as if you belonged there. Bloody hell, Caitlin Moran just retweeted a gag of mine and I’ve got 500 new followers! Ooh, Stephen Fry liked something I said and now I’ve got people in my timeline saying things like “Ahoy old chap!” Oh good, Piers Morgan’s alerted his adoring fans to some crack I made about Test Match Special and now I’ve got a dickhead with numbers for a name saying something horrible about a photo of my baby granddaughter.

At another level, it was an infant-school playground with randoms tearing around making friends in a hurry. I started to follow a very wide spectrum of people interested in comedy and music and politics and beyond. I now look back to 2008 and realise that the overwhelming majority of my current non-professional friends were made then, on Twitter. We’d meet occasionally in Soho pubs, and everyone was exactly like the online version of themselves.

Maybe it was possible to build a social media community, but how would that work? By simply assembling a genial cross-section of liberal-Left Twitter? No. In a real community, you’re not shouting about Daily Mail headlines in the street. You have no idea what Sheila over the road’s views on Self-ID are, or what the builder at number 36 thinks about Just Stop Oil. I mean, you have an inkling. But their precise positions are not articulated in pithy, unequivocal one-liners in block capitals filling their front windows. I don’t know what your street’s like, but the most we’ve had around here was a Not My King sign and a missing tortoise poster.

The golden age of Twitter, like that of the fabled pre-war Edwardian version, was simply a long summer with benevolent weather. 2009 was the turning point for me. We still had a Labour government, just. My carefully curated Twitter circle was a model village of civilised people, insulated from the hateful wrongness of the outside world. Then, as now, the one thing Twitter was really good at was breaking news, which was the usual slurry of national misery and international catastrophe, with little shards of personal tragedy.

And, inevitably, tragedy sometimes happens to people you don’t like. David Cameron’s six-year-old son Ivan, who had severe epilepsy and cerebral palsy, died suddenly. Cameron paid a moving tribute to the NHS staff who had cared for him. Prime Minister Gordon Brown (weird, typing that phrase) had himself lost a child, and spoke on behalf of all of us when he offered heartfelt condolences.

Well, nearly all of us. By then Twitter encouraged people to bark their own brutal truth to power. One of the people I followed tweeted with a shrug that the net result of Ivan Cameron’s death was one fewer potential Tory in the world. I stared and stared at it, trying to discern some reflexive, ironic meta-joke I hadn’t quite understood — but no, that was the whole tweet. Child’s death, silver lining. I told the person that it was a horrible thing to say. They refused to apologise, and explained that they struggled with tone. Who was the real victim here?

Clearly, if I could be shocked, it was because I had been hypnotised by the geniality of my magic circle. Perhaps following a few arseholes would give me some perspective. After all, we don’t like everyone in an actual community, do we? Even people we like wind us up now and then. Maybe mixing a few bad people into my Follows would make this illusory community more “real” somehow. I started with a few easy ones, including the exotically named Iain Martin, my alternative-reality centre-Right counterpart. I was always getting abused for something he’d written; he’d got mistaken for me a few times.

But I wanted to see what it would be like if you followed only terrible people. For a month, I went experimentally dark. I followed Westboro Baptist church members, Holocaust deniers, Islamophobes, homophobes, all the phobes, all personally wounded by the injustice of “these people” just being in their eyeline. Misogynists were everywhere, social media affirming the warning Germaine Greer had sounded half a century earlier — that women have very little idea of just how much men hate them. Now, they had a very keen understanding of exactly how much. There were men, hating them graphically, cruelly, dismissively, in plain sight.

Sometimes, I tried engaging. A few of the hateful people were perfectly civil. I had several conversations with a cheerful woman from Sarah Palin’s office who had every sympathy for me, living in England under the yoke of Marxism. She told me how the NHS worked (death panels, population control) and how Birmingham was a Sharia state. No guns, that was our problem.

Not many of the other accounts I followed seemed to do light conversation. Confederate Nazis called me the worst thing they could think of (gay) and wished unimaginative ill upon me, with unimaginative swearing. Someone even went to the trouble of opening a Twitter account in my name, simply to post me warnings. The just-for-you revenge Twitter account became a thing. The nastier ones, as always, were targeting women, set up by men obsessed with their former partners. I had my own for a while, bless him. Definitely a him. He followed only me, posted to only me. By the time he sighed his last message, he seemed exhausted by the whole enterprise: “I hope that everyone you ever loved is dead.”

It’s tempting, of course, to project my own weary old man’s vibe shift — weltschmerz to ennui — onto the blank, threadbare screen. The renamed site may be under new management, but everyone seems to be doing that Unicode “shrug” emoji, expecting not a renewal but a gentle unmooring. Approximately nobody is ever going to call it X. Twitter will remain a vital channel for mutual support groups, for campaigners, for people plugging their work. But honestly, in terms of human interaction, it was always faddish. That was its point. It was born to die.

Twitter and I are losing interest in one another; it can’t even be bothered to pester me with vaguely relevant ads. Like many others, I’m just running down the clock now as it enters its Sunset Boulevard phase. It’s slowly leaving me, not the other way round.


Ian Martin is a writer and a producer known for The Thick of It, In The Loop, Veep and The Death of Stalin. 

IanMartin

Join the discussion


Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber


To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.

Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.

Subscribe
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

89 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
polidori redux
polidori redux
1 year ago

I don’t know what to say, except that I genuinely pity a man for whom the most important thing in life appears to be a Twitter account.

J Bryant
J Bryant
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

I doubt the most important thing in life for the author is/was his Twitter account. He’s a comedy writer and this piece is very much tongue in cheek, although he makes some interesting points about Twitter.
It’s easy to make fun of Elon Musk, but I like him and he’s been consistently underestimated. Still, forty billion for Twitter… I hope he really is a business genius and the rebranded X is about to prove all his critics wrong yet again.

polidori redux
polidori redux
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Maybe. I have seen The Thick of It – crude.
Sometimes tongue in cheek hides a truth.

Last edited 1 year ago by polidori redux
Chris Maille
Chris Maille
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

I believe since the latest news about Jojo, the massive and soon to be largest supercomputer in the world, that his real motive was to buy data to feed AI. As you said, never underestimate Elon.

Martin Bollis
Martin Bollis
1 year ago
Reply to  Chris Maille

AI educated by Twitter!!

The Horsemen cometh and their name is Jojo.

Martin Bollis
Martin Bollis
1 year ago
Reply to  Chris Maille

AI educated by Twitter!!

The Horsemen cometh and their name is Jojo.

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

I’m afraid you’ve been duped. He’s a really dangerous demagogue who wants to recreate the Chinese social credit system “WeChat”. He dreams of “X” the everything app… where everyone will be required to have a digital ID (preferably implanted into their body) so that we can be validated, counted and herded like cattle. “X” marks the spot… it is the mark of the beast. No one shall buy or sell without it. He got his blueprint from the book of Revelation.

Nell Clover
Nell Clover
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Not sure why you’re getting the down ticks. Musk has been pretty open about X becoming an everything app. Twitter and Facebook show that the network effect means a large popular app quickly becomes the monopoly app. So if X achieves what Musks hopes for it, coupled with his less public AI development, X would become the primary way for buying and selling and everything else in the webverse. We can’t attribute motive to Musk but to be charitable we can say creators are often blind to the dangers of their creations. We can see the potential danger of what Musk wants X to become even if Musk is a nice guy. Musk won’t run X forever.

The quote from the Bible is relevant whether one is a Christian or not. It is a universal truth that anyone who controls money and trade controls the world. We must ensure at any cost that no person and no organisation ever takes or is given that opportunity for control.

Last edited 1 year ago by Nell Clover
Michael Coleman
Michael Coleman
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

For me it was the baseless claim that Musk wants to give us a social credit score – that is the antithesis of one of his primary beliefs – the importance of freedom of speech, which is incompatible with the idea of social credit score

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago

Look up his quote on how much he admires “WeChat”, the Chinese social credit system. And if you think Musk cares about you, I’m sorry, you are very much mistaken. He’s quite clearly sociopathic… just watch an interview with him!

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago

Look up his quote on how much he admires “WeChat”, the Chinese social credit system. And if you think Musk cares about you, I’m sorry, you are very much mistaken. He’s quite clearly sociopathic… just watch an interview with him!

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

Exactly! They-who-would-rule-the-world always tell us their plans quite openly. But people can’t engage because it’s too frightening. Like the “net zero” agenda. This is clearly defined in IPCC papers as a communist agenda to limit human freedom and enterprise, but if you try to engage with people and show them this, they get hysterical about the world ending due to “global warming” (sorry, the UN just announced the age of “global warming” is over, and now it’s “global boiling”!) It all ties together. People with huge wealth want absolute control and will use any means necessary to get it. Fear is the best tactic to control people. So keep the masses frightened of anything – viruses, AI, aliens, global warming, paedophiles, terrorists – so they will accept measures of control. The journalist Whitney Webb is a good source on a lot of this stuff. And James Corbett, of course.

Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Amy. I’m afraid you are now deeply in echo chamber territory. “Clearly defined in IPCC papers” – have you actually read any?

And trying to spatchcock Elon Musk with this is stretching this world view to breaking view.

The world is complicated, power isn’t distributed evenly, there are worrying trends Although, haven’t there always been? The UK was one prime minister away from becoming a German National Socialist vassal state in 1940).

Terrorism and people sexually predating on children are real threats. It’s not easy….m

Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Amy. I’m afraid you are now deeply in echo chamber territory. “Clearly defined in IPCC papers” – have you actually read any?

And trying to spatchcock Elon Musk with this is stretching this world view to breaking view.

The world is complicated, power isn’t distributed evenly, there are worrying trends Although, haven’t there always been? The UK was one prime minister away from becoming a German National Socialist vassal state in 1940).

Terrorism and people sexually predating on children are real threats. It’s not easy….m

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

The down ticks are because the post sounds completely delusional. Further Musk is for open source AI and he is fully aware of the dangers of AI – has warned the world for many years.

Last edited 1 year ago by Lesley van Reenen
Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago

That attitude – because a rich and powerful man says something, it’s true – is just naïve! And ye shall know them by their fruits. Judge him on his actions. Research his relationship with Sam Altman and Larry Page. Look beyond the soundbites. My comment is not delusional, it’s based on a full picture of Elon over the years, and not just what he said last week!

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago

That attitude – because a rich and powerful man says something, it’s true – is just naïve! And ye shall know them by their fruits. Judge him on his actions. Research his relationship with Sam Altman and Larry Page. Look beyond the soundbites. My comment is not delusional, it’s based on a full picture of Elon over the years, and not just what he said last week!

Michael Coleman
Michael Coleman
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

For me it was the baseless claim that Musk wants to give us a social credit score – that is the antithesis of one of his primary beliefs – the importance of freedom of speech, which is incompatible with the idea of social credit score

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

Exactly! They-who-would-rule-the-world always tell us their plans quite openly. But people can’t engage because it’s too frightening. Like the “net zero” agenda. This is clearly defined in IPCC papers as a communist agenda to limit human freedom and enterprise, but if you try to engage with people and show them this, they get hysterical about the world ending due to “global warming” (sorry, the UN just announced the age of “global warming” is over, and now it’s “global boiling”!) It all ties together. People with huge wealth want absolute control and will use any means necessary to get it. Fear is the best tactic to control people. So keep the masses frightened of anything – viruses, AI, aliens, global warming, paedophiles, terrorists – so they will accept measures of control. The journalist Whitney Webb is a good source on a lot of this stuff. And James Corbett, of course.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

The down ticks are because the post sounds completely delusional. Further Musk is for open source AI and he is fully aware of the dangers of AI – has warned the world for many years.

Last edited 1 year ago by Lesley van Reenen
Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Can you actually produce any evidence for any of this? So far as I can tell, Musk is a libertarian and free speech fundamentalist – which is why he is so hated by people like the author of this rather turgid piece who think that those who don’t share their views must therefore by definition be wicked and evil.

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

No, he’s following the Trump playbook, posing as the saviour of the libertarians in order to trap them in the next net. Look up his comments about, and admiration for, “WeChat”. He wants to create a global digital ID system under his control. Not your friend. Sorry!

aaron david
aaron david
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Ah, the “Trump playbook”. Of course, who would want that, other than the 72 million who voted for him in the last election, many in part due to people like you OP whose TDS and bigotry run rampant.

Chipoko
Chipoko
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Aaaaaah! So we finally get it: the anti-Trump bigot!

aaron david
aaron david
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Ah, the “Trump playbook”. Of course, who would want that, other than the 72 million who voted for him in the last election, many in part due to people like you OP whose TDS and bigotry run rampant.

Chipoko
Chipoko
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Aaaaaah! So we finally get it: the anti-Trump bigot!

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
1 year ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

Quite!
‘Liberals’ didn’t seem to care much when women were getting banned from twitter for stating the reality of biological sex; whilst they simultaneously received death threats and other threatening messages from ‘liberal’ activists whose accounts remained intact.

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

No, he’s following the Trump playbook, posing as the saviour of the libertarians in order to trap them in the next net. Look up his comments about, and admiration for, “WeChat”. He wants to create a global digital ID system under his control. Not your friend. Sorry!

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
1 year ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

Quite!
‘Liberals’ didn’t seem to care much when women were getting banned from twitter for stating the reality of biological sex; whilst they simultaneously received death threats and other threatening messages from ‘liberal’ activists whose accounts remained intact.

Stephen Quilley
Stephen Quilley
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Amy is right

Stephen Quilley
Stephen Quilley
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

That was wrong one sorry

Last edited 1 year ago by Stephen Quilley
Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

The mark of the beast lol.

Deb Grant
Deb Grant
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Someone or a few are going to do that, so it might as well be someone smart, brave and with enough money to take a punt on future innovation.

Nell Clover
Nell Clover
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Not sure why you’re getting the down ticks. Musk has been pretty open about X becoming an everything app. Twitter and Facebook show that the network effect means a large popular app quickly becomes the monopoly app. So if X achieves what Musks hopes for it, coupled with his less public AI development, X would become the primary way for buying and selling and everything else in the webverse. We can’t attribute motive to Musk but to be charitable we can say creators are often blind to the dangers of their creations. We can see the potential danger of what Musk wants X to become even if Musk is a nice guy. Musk won’t run X forever.

The quote from the Bible is relevant whether one is a Christian or not. It is a universal truth that anyone who controls money and trade controls the world. We must ensure at any cost that no person and no organisation ever takes or is given that opportunity for control.

Last edited 1 year ago by Nell Clover
Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Can you actually produce any evidence for any of this? So far as I can tell, Musk is a libertarian and free speech fundamentalist – which is why he is so hated by people like the author of this rather turgid piece who think that those who don’t share their views must therefore by definition be wicked and evil.

Stephen Quilley
Stephen Quilley
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Amy is right

Stephen Quilley
Stephen Quilley
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

That was wrong one sorry

Last edited 1 year ago by Stephen Quilley
Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

The mark of the beast lol.

Deb Grant
Deb Grant
1 year ago
Reply to  Amy Harris

Someone or a few are going to do that, so it might as well be someone smart, brave and with enough money to take a punt on future innovation.

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Don’t know if my earlier comment will return (it disappeared along with a thread under it, an hour ago) but I never thought I’d get censored for criticising Musk… that’s pure dramatic irony – ha!

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Isnt comedy supposed to be funny?

Andy O'Gorman
Andy O'Gorman
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

If he (Musk), is eventually forced to close down, I think he has a wonderful opportunity to sue every advertiser (and cancel culture twit), who were responsible the demise of his business – by withholding Ad-spend purely based on political ideologies and not because his product was “bad”.

polidori redux
polidori redux
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Maybe. I have seen The Thick of It – crude.
Sometimes tongue in cheek hides a truth.

Last edited 1 year ago by polidori redux
Chris Maille
Chris Maille
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

I believe since the latest news about Jojo, the massive and soon to be largest supercomputer in the world, that his real motive was to buy data to feed AI. As you said, never underestimate Elon.

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

I’m afraid you’ve been duped. He’s a really dangerous demagogue who wants to recreate the Chinese social credit system “WeChat”. He dreams of “X” the everything app… where everyone will be required to have a digital ID (preferably implanted into their body) so that we can be validated, counted and herded like cattle. “X” marks the spot… it is the mark of the beast. No one shall buy or sell without it. He got his blueprint from the book of Revelation.

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Don’t know if my earlier comment will return (it disappeared along with a thread under it, an hour ago) but I never thought I’d get censored for criticising Musk… that’s pure dramatic irony – ha!

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

Isnt comedy supposed to be funny?

Andy O'Gorman
Andy O'Gorman
1 year ago
Reply to  J Bryant

If he (Musk), is eventually forced to close down, I think he has a wonderful opportunity to sue every advertiser (and cancel culture twit), who were responsible the demise of his business – by withholding Ad-spend purely based on political ideologies and not because his product was “bad”.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

And who was responsible for The Death of Stalin

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

You can still curate your Twitter account to get the sort of content that you enjoy. I don’t think he has a cooking clue. I love Twitter!

Albireo Double
Albireo Double
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

Liberals think they’re so nice, and so right – and just that little bit better than everyone else. But very humble about it. Honestly.

Even after all this time, when I am exposed to it at full wattage, the sheer transparency of their rather narcissistic self-regard, always catches me slightly by surprise.

T Bone
T Bone
1 year ago
Reply to  Albireo Double

Liberals are actually Conservatives in most places without a Monarchy. The People formerly known as Liberals now identify as Progressives in homage to their flawless foresight.

Everything they say and do is for your own good and as soon as everybody realizes this; magic rainbows will sprinkle down from the Sky.

T Bone
T Bone
1 year ago
Reply to  Albireo Double

Liberals are actually Conservatives in most places without a Monarchy. The People formerly known as Liberals now identify as Progressives in homage to their flawless foresight.

Everything they say and do is for your own good and as soon as everybody realizes this; magic rainbows will sprinkle down from the Sky.

Lexus Hampton
Lexus Hampton
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

i think it’s not good idea to change logo for X, Musk wanna have X-corp which do all things

J Bryant
J Bryant
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

I doubt the most important thing in life for the author is/was his Twitter account. He’s a comedy writer and this piece is very much tongue in cheek, although he makes some interesting points about Twitter.
It’s easy to make fun of Elon Musk, but I like him and he’s been consistently underestimated. Still, forty billion for Twitter… I hope he really is a business genius and the rebranded X is about to prove all his critics wrong yet again.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

And who was responsible for The Death of Stalin

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

You can still curate your Twitter account to get the sort of content that you enjoy. I don’t think he has a cooking clue. I love Twitter!

Albireo Double
Albireo Double
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

Liberals think they’re so nice, and so right – and just that little bit better than everyone else. But very humble about it. Honestly.

Even after all this time, when I am exposed to it at full wattage, the sheer transparency of their rather narcissistic self-regard, always catches me slightly by surprise.

Lexus Hampton
Lexus Hampton
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

i think it’s not good idea to change logo for X, Musk wanna have X-corp which do all things

polidori redux
polidori redux
1 year ago

I don’t know what to say, except that I genuinely pity a man for whom the most important thing in life appears to be a Twitter account.

R Wright
R Wright
1 year ago

I like works the author has contributed to, but this was nothing more than the sad screed of a progressive who has lost his safe space to the hated ‘white guy’. People like the author are the very reason Twitter became such a snake pit, disguised as a hug box. No matter how much you despite it, like a crack addict you will keep going to it, because the modern cartel-style internet of a handful of powerful sites is the hell that you wrought.

R Wright
R Wright
1 year ago

I like works the author has contributed to, but this was nothing more than the sad screed of a progressive who has lost his safe space to the hated ‘white guy’. People like the author are the very reason Twitter became such a snake pit, disguised as a hug box. No matter how much you despite it, like a crack addict you will keep going to it, because the modern cartel-style internet of a handful of powerful sites is the hell that you wrought.

Nell Clover
Nell Clover
1 year ago

I can’t help but compare this article to the tiresome threats of columnists to leave Britain because referendums / elections don’t go how they wish and somehow Britain has already left them. And yet years later, they’re still living in Britain writing the same column and still threatening to leave because Britain has already left them.

If Twitter has “left” the author, why is he still logging in every day to scroll past tweets he’s not interested in and look at ads that aren’t relevant* to him? Is he a fool? Of course not. If the author was being honest, and not just having a rant, he would reluctantly admit he’s still logging on to Twitter because his public profile and therefore his livelihood benefits from it. Twitter hasn’t left him at all, it is a key part of his public profile that supports his career and getting gigs writing whines like the one above.

* What sort of adult is paying any attention to adverts on apps and websites?

Last edited 1 year ago by Nell Clover
UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

Same reason many haven’t left Britain. Personal, professional and social ties.
But as to leaving the country – it’s actually quite difficult after leaving the EU. It’s taking me the best past of 2 years with visas, applications and language tests.

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown… she is the first account to become a self parody account. She has categorically said she would leave if such and such happened at least 4 times.
She’s still here.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

Same reason many haven’t left Britain. Personal, professional and social ties.
But as to leaving the country – it’s actually quite difficult after leaving the EU. It’s taking me the best past of 2 years with visas, applications and language tests.

Ted Ditchburn
Ted Ditchburn
1 year ago
Reply to  Nell Clover

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown… she is the first account to become a self parody account. She has categorically said she would leave if such and such happened at least 4 times.
She’s still here.

Nell Clover
Nell Clover
1 year ago

I can’t help but compare this article to the tiresome threats of columnists to leave Britain because referendums / elections don’t go how they wish and somehow Britain has already left them. And yet years later, they’re still living in Britain writing the same column and still threatening to leave because Britain has already left them.

If Twitter has “left” the author, why is he still logging in every day to scroll past tweets he’s not interested in and look at ads that aren’t relevant* to him? Is he a fool? Of course not. If the author was being honest, and not just having a rant, he would reluctantly admit he’s still logging on to Twitter because his public profile and therefore his livelihood benefits from it. Twitter hasn’t left him at all, it is a key part of his public profile that supports his career and getting gigs writing whines like the one above.

* What sort of adult is paying any attention to adverts on apps and websites?

Last edited 1 year ago by Nell Clover
Mike Michaels
Mike Michaels
1 year ago

“Islamophobes”? I’m sorry but when you use that word you may as well be holding those girls down.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Michaels

Thanks for dealing with the tuat.

Aidan Trimble
Aidan Trimble
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Michaels

Thank God it wasn’t just me.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Michaels

Thanks for dealing with the tuat.

Aidan Trimble
Aidan Trimble
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Michaels

Thank God it wasn’t just me.

Mike Michaels
Mike Michaels
1 year ago

“Islamophobes”? I’m sorry but when you use that word you may as well be holding those girls down.

Paddy Taylor
Paddy Taylor
1 year ago

Seeing the ‘almost’ quote with which you began your article, jogged a memory.
On the morning after the Brexit referendum, surprised and elated that Leave had won, I was reading the Guardian and marvelling at the bedwetting catastrophism of some Remainers, not to mention the unhinged level of vitriol of others. My own little foray into the comments section on those glorious morning, was in response to a snarlingly unpleasant piece naming and shaming those writers and public figures that were “to blame” for “brainwashing” the country with their “Lies” – the writer of this screed was particularly incensed by Toby Young. Mr Young’s seemingly effortless ability to get under the skin of Guardianista metro-lefties is his most endearing quality.
In response I wrote of my joy at the Brexit result and waxed poetical with my own bastardised Wordsworth.
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. But Toby Young was very heaven”,
The comment stayed up for several hours – before the moderation Stasi ‘disappeared’ it – and I can safely say that in my several years of posting on the Guardian no comment of mine induced more hateful criticism than that one. People were seemingly having apoplexy at the keyboard. Only HM Bateman could have done justice to such a picture of outrage.
Ahhh, Happy days. Not being on cif or Twitter has been good for the soul.

AC Harper
AC Harper
1 year ago
Reply to  Paddy Taylor

There’s a theme… Brexit Derangement Syndrome, Trump Derangement Syndrome, Twitter Derangement Syndrome. A pile on by all the people who cannot believe that their ’cause’ has been lost. Or perhaps that should be ‘their crusade has failed’.

Dominic A
Dominic A
1 year ago
Reply to  AC Harper

Matched only by the spluttering belligerent denial of those on the other side that their cause has lost – be it DT’s MAGA/Stolen Election, BoJo, Brexit, Putinism…

Aidan Trimble
Aidan Trimble
1 year ago
Reply to  Dominic A

Another lost soul that think election denial began with Trump.

Dominic A
Dominic A
1 year ago
Reply to  Aidan Trimble

Nope, just bored with those who fall foul of – ‘ And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?’.

aaron david
aaron david
1 year ago
Reply to  Dominic A

Yes. I mean, how dare people have the temerity to vote their convictions!

Dominic A
Dominic A
1 year ago
Reply to  aaron david

This is getting painful – I’m talking about hypocrites, not how people vote.

Andy O'Gorman
Andy O'Gorman
1 year ago
Reply to  Dominic A

Which most of those who voted for Biden were and are!

Andy O'Gorman
Andy O'Gorman
1 year ago
Reply to  Dominic A

Which most of those who voted for Biden were and are!

Dominic A
Dominic A
1 year ago
Reply to  aaron david

This is getting painful – I’m talking about hypocrites, not how people vote.

aaron david
aaron david
1 year ago
Reply to  Dominic A

Yes. I mean, how dare people have the temerity to vote their convictions!

Dominic A
Dominic A
1 year ago
Reply to  Aidan Trimble

Nope, just bored with those who fall foul of – ‘ And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?’.

Aidan Trimble
Aidan Trimble
1 year ago
Reply to  Dominic A

Another lost soul that think election denial began with Trump.

Dominic A
Dominic A
1 year ago
Reply to  AC Harper

Matched only by the spluttering belligerent denial of those on the other side that their cause has lost – be it DT’s MAGA/Stolen Election, BoJo, Brexit, Putinism…

Josh Allan
Josh Allan
1 year ago
Reply to  Paddy Taylor

Wordsworth would have been proud

AC Harper
AC Harper
1 year ago
Reply to  Paddy Taylor

There’s a theme… Brexit Derangement Syndrome, Trump Derangement Syndrome, Twitter Derangement Syndrome. A pile on by all the people who cannot believe that their ’cause’ has been lost. Or perhaps that should be ‘their crusade has failed’.

Josh Allan
Josh Allan
1 year ago
Reply to  Paddy Taylor

Wordsworth would have been proud

Paddy Taylor
Paddy Taylor
1 year ago

Seeing the ‘almost’ quote with which you began your article, jogged a memory.
On the morning after the Brexit referendum, surprised and elated that Leave had won, I was reading the Guardian and marvelling at the bedwetting catastrophism of some Remainers, not to mention the unhinged level of vitriol of others. My own little foray into the comments section on those glorious morning, was in response to a snarlingly unpleasant piece naming and shaming those writers and public figures that were “to blame” for “brainwashing” the country with their “Lies” – the writer of this screed was particularly incensed by Toby Young. Mr Young’s seemingly effortless ability to get under the skin of Guardianista metro-lefties is his most endearing quality.
In response I wrote of my joy at the Brexit result and waxed poetical with my own bastardised Wordsworth.
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. But Toby Young was very heaven”,
The comment stayed up for several hours – before the moderation Stasi ‘disappeared’ it – and I can safely say that in my several years of posting on the Guardian no comment of mine induced more hateful criticism than that one. People were seemingly having apoplexy at the keyboard. Only HM Bateman could have done justice to such a picture of outrage.
Ahhh, Happy days. Not being on cif or Twitter has been good for the soul.

Daniel Lee
Daniel Lee
1 year ago

Liberals: “Twitter lost me when it let people I disagree with speak as freely as I can. I’m going over to Threads, where I’ll never have to hear their voices again.”

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
1 year ago
Reply to  Daniel Lee

Or be heard from again.

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
1 year ago
Reply to  Daniel Lee

Or be heard from again.

Daniel Lee
Daniel Lee
1 year ago

Liberals: “Twitter lost me when it let people I disagree with speak as freely as I can. I’m going over to Threads, where I’ll never have to hear their voices again.”

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago

“We’d meet occasionally in Soho pubs”
Of course you did.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Presumably Soho is now a satellite of Quislington?
I have always associated it with other, more physical activity.

Oliver Ellwood
Oliver Ellwood
1 year ago

Quislington – Love it.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Oliver Ellwood

Courtesy of Fraser Bailey Esq, an early and very amusing commentator on UnHerd.

Vesselina Zaitzeva
Vesselina Zaitzeva
1 year ago

Oh yes, I miss his briliant comments, too…

Vesselina Zaitzeva
Vesselina Zaitzeva
1 year ago

Oh yes, I miss his briliant comments, too…

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Oliver Ellwood

Courtesy of Fraser Bailey Esq, an early and very amusing commentator on UnHerd.

Oliver Ellwood
Oliver Ellwood
1 year ago

Quislington – Love it.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Presumably Soho is now a satellite of Quislington?
I have always associated it with other, more physical activity.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago

“We’d meet occasionally in Soho pubs”
Of course you did.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago

“Phase 1: Sack all non-suck-ups and losers.
Phase 2: Wipe 70% off market value (totally cool, hold your nerve bro).
Phase 3: Invite back all the weird angry people previously banned.
Phase 4: Change name from Twitter (lame) to X (super-cool, mysterious).
Phase 5: Introduce frequent ad hurdles to acclimatise users to revenue grooming.
Phase 6: Introduce blue-tick charge to acclimatise users to subscription fracking.
Phase 7: Kick back. Wait for the world to deal with radical vibe shift.”

Do you have to write like a bloody teenager?

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Must be a friend of ‘rubber’ Holland, aka ‘Thorax’.

Daniel Raven
Daniel Raven
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

I think the whole point of that bit was to make a joke about the way Elon Musk probably thinks, i.e. like a teenager? It’s actually a well-written piece, if a bit pointless

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

To quote Craig Ferguson: “it’s a joke, eh.”

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Must be a friend of ‘rubber’ Holland, aka ‘Thorax’.

Daniel Raven
Daniel Raven
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

I think the whole point of that bit was to make a joke about the way Elon Musk probably thinks, i.e. like a teenager? It’s actually a well-written piece, if a bit pointless

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
1 year ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

To quote Craig Ferguson: “it’s a joke, eh.”

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago

“Phase 1: Sack all non-suck-ups and losers.
Phase 2: Wipe 70% off market value (totally cool, hold your nerve bro).
Phase 3: Invite back all the weird angry people previously banned.
Phase 4: Change name from Twitter (lame) to X (super-cool, mysterious).
Phase 5: Introduce frequent ad hurdles to acclimatise users to revenue grooming.
Phase 6: Introduce blue-tick charge to acclimatise users to subscription fracking.
Phase 7: Kick back. Wait for the world to deal with radical vibe shift.”

Do you have to write like a bloody teenager?

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
1 year ago

“Everyone seems sort of resigned now to ecstatic now about social media becoming less interesting and to us all spending less time on it.”
There, fixed it for you. Am very happy to have limited my consumption of these networks to Facebook and never went near Twitter, or Instagram, or TikTok. I would happily delete my FB account too, but would lose contact with too many people who I enjoy keeping up with and who I occasionally see in person, so it stays. Grudgingly.
I cheered Musk’s purchase of Twitter because my instinctive thought was that he was buying it in order to run it into the ground. Bring it on, I thought.

Last edited 1 year ago by Katharine Eyre
Caty Gonzales
Caty Gonzales
1 year ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

I swapped Facebook for Instagram around 2021 ish. Most of the people I wanted to know about had accounts on both and they were linked to each other. The other people I kept up with via the old ways (email, how quaint). On Instagram I get see peoples kid, pet, travel photos without the hefty monologues giving me their moralizing take on the news of the day. I occasionally dip into FB for local info and it isn’t long before I scurry back off again.

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
1 year ago
Reply to  Caty Gonzales

I no more want to see my friend’s shitty videos and pics on Instagram than I wanted to see their shitty pics in their wallets and purses.

They always look much better—and provide more joy—in person.

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
1 year ago
Reply to  Caty Gonzales

I no more want to see my friend’s shitty videos and pics on Instagram than I wanted to see their shitty pics in their wallets and purses.

They always look much better—and provide more joy—in person.

Caty Gonzales
Caty Gonzales
1 year ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

I swapped Facebook for Instagram around 2021 ish. Most of the people I wanted to know about had accounts on both and they were linked to each other. The other people I kept up with via the old ways (email, how quaint). On Instagram I get see peoples kid, pet, travel photos without the hefty monologues giving me their moralizing take on the news of the day. I occasionally dip into FB for local info and it isn’t long before I scurry back off again.

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
1 year ago

“Everyone seems sort of resigned now to ecstatic now about social media becoming less interesting and to us all spending less time on it.”
There, fixed it for you. Am very happy to have limited my consumption of these networks to Facebook and never went near Twitter, or Instagram, or TikTok. I would happily delete my FB account too, but would lose contact with too many people who I enjoy keeping up with and who I occasionally see in person, so it stays. Grudgingly.
I cheered Musk’s purchase of Twitter because my instinctive thought was that he was buying it in order to run it into the ground. Bring it on, I thought.

Last edited 1 year ago by Katharine Eyre
Stephen Quilley
Stephen Quilley
1 year ago

‘ I followed Westboro Baptist church members, Holocaust deniers, Islamophobes, homophobes, all the phobes, all personally wounded by the injustice of “these people” just being in their eyeline. Misogynists were everywhere, social media affirming the warning Germaine Greer had sounded half a century earlier — that women have very little idea of just how much men hate them’
It’s so revealing that you can’t see exactly the same level of extremism and hatred on your own side; that Twitter didn’t lose you when it was promoting far-leftist gender cultists and transhumanists exclusively. The people attacking Greer right now and threatening her with rape on a daily basis are the child mutilation/trans cultists who are now the establishment in every one of your beloved institutions.
Having said that, X is not the solution. Digital everything and transhumanism are simply another tack against the head wind of natural law towards hell.

Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
1 year ago

I was wondering about that too. It would be hard to round up enough real “woman haters” to form a line in front of a food truck these days. But the trans-people – that’s a whole different story.

Last edited 1 year ago by Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
Jeff Cunningham
1 year ago

I was wondering about that too. It would be hard to round up enough real “woman haters” to form a line in front of a food truck these days. But the trans-people – that’s a whole different story.

Last edited 1 year ago by Jeff Cunningham
Stephen Quilley
Stephen Quilley
1 year ago

‘ I followed Westboro Baptist church members, Holocaust deniers, Islamophobes, homophobes, all the phobes, all personally wounded by the injustice of “these people” just being in their eyeline. Misogynists were everywhere, social media affirming the warning Germaine Greer had sounded half a century earlier — that women have very little idea of just how much men hate them’
It’s so revealing that you can’t see exactly the same level of extremism and hatred on your own side; that Twitter didn’t lose you when it was promoting far-leftist gender cultists and transhumanists exclusively. The people attacking Greer right now and threatening her with rape on a daily basis are the child mutilation/trans cultists who are now the establishment in every one of your beloved institutions.
Having said that, X is not the solution. Digital everything and transhumanism are simply another tack against the head wind of natural law towards hell.

Andrew F
Andrew F
1 year ago

I like the guy movies, especially Death of Stalin.
But this article is a pathetic rant about supposed glory days of Twitter when everyone was civil blah, blah.
It was left, as usual, which created platforms “fact checkers”, shadow banning etc, to censor people with perfectly reasonable views.
It is left which is incapable of engaging in proper discourse because their pathetic, woke, gender, BLM supporting agenda can not survive discussions based on facts.
So like Communism, their only weapon is censorship.

Andrew F
Andrew F
1 year ago

I like the guy movies, especially Death of Stalin.
But this article is a pathetic rant about supposed glory days of Twitter when everyone was civil blah, blah.
It was left, as usual, which created platforms “fact checkers”, shadow banning etc, to censor people with perfectly reasonable views.
It is left which is incapable of engaging in proper discourse because their pathetic, woke, gender, BLM supporting agenda can not survive discussions based on facts.
So like Communism, their only weapon is censorship.

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
1 year ago

I didn’t realize Twitter was so awful – making fun of dead children.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

Yeah, that stood out to me too, JV. If the death of a child helps your political cause then you are hopelessly trapped in some closed ideological loop.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 year ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

Not Twitter, “liberals”

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
1 year ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

Yeah, that stood out to me too, JV. If the death of a child helps your political cause then you are hopelessly trapped in some closed ideological loop.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
1 year ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

Not Twitter, “liberals”

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
1 year ago

I didn’t realize Twitter was so awful – making fun of dead children.

Dick Illyes
Dick Illyes
1 year ago

Pathetic virtue signaling. Being totally unable to see how they are being manipulated by big pharma, engaging in heroic obedience, unable to find meaning in anything but hating the free minded and creative.

Dick Illyes
Dick Illyes
1 year ago

Pathetic virtue signaling. Being totally unable to see how they are being manipulated by big pharma, engaging in heroic obedience, unable to find meaning in anything but hating the free minded and creative.

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
1 year ago

‘I had several conversations with a cheerful woman from Sarah Palin’s office ….’
All these horrible Twitter experiences must have been from the time when Jack Dorsey was setting out his vision of what Twitter should be like.

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
1 year ago

‘I had several conversations with a cheerful woman from Sarah Palin’s office ….’
All these horrible Twitter experiences must have been from the time when Jack Dorsey was setting out his vision of what Twitter should be like.

Noel Chiappa
Noel Chiappa
1 year ago

I love the un-spoken message that the only interesting, knowledgeable, thoughtful people are on the left. What an arrogant moron.

Noel Chiappa
Noel Chiappa
1 year ago

I love the un-spoken message that the only interesting, knowledgeable, thoughtful people are on the left. What an arrogant moron.

Saul D
Saul D
1 year ago

Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue. Beautiful plumage! … tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk, .. pining for the Fjords.
 ‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! … This is an X-parrot!!

Saul D
Saul D
1 year ago

Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue. Beautiful plumage! … tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk, .. pining for the Fjords.
 ‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! … This is an X-parrot!!

James Kirk
James Kirk
1 year ago

Put liberals and twitter users to useful work picking up litter and digging up mangelwurzles. Something real to bang on about.

James Kirk
James Kirk
1 year ago

Put liberals and twitter users to useful work picking up litter and digging up mangelwurzles. Something real to bang on about.

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago

What was a Twitter account?
Presumably nothing to do with ornithology ?

Charles Stanhope
Charles Stanhope
1 year ago

What was a Twitter account?
Presumably nothing to do with ornithology ?

Mark epperson
Mark epperson
1 year ago

Pretentious BS. Let’s see, Twitter was colluding with the guvment to spin or stifle “free speech” and yet this “liberal” isn’t upset. That’s because his liberal journalists have sold their integrity and souls for a few shekels to become “propagandists” for their respective rag or online site to “monetize themselves. Pure rubbish, grow up dude.

Mark epperson
Mark epperson
1 year ago

Pretentious BS. Let’s see, Twitter was colluding with the guvment to spin or stifle “free speech” and yet this “liberal” isn’t upset. That’s because his liberal journalists have sold their integrity and souls for a few shekels to become “propagandists” for their respective rag or online site to “monetize themselves. Pure rubbish, grow up dude.

Marsha D
Marsha D
1 year ago

Thanks for the timely reminder to delete my unused twix account.

Marsha D
Marsha D
1 year ago

Thanks for the timely reminder to delete my unused twix account.

Cho Jinn
Cho Jinn
1 year ago

…why were you on Twitter in the first place?

Cho Jinn
Cho Jinn
1 year ago

…why were you on Twitter in the first place?

Prashant Kotak
Prashant Kotak
1 year ago

I get the strangest feeling of deja vu, not sure why. Is this piece a re-tread?

Prashant Kotak
Prashant Kotak
1 year ago

I get the strangest feeling of deja vu, not sure why. Is this piece a re-tread?

Ray Andrews
Ray Andrews
1 year ago

Is there a word for this kind of article? It doesn’t really have anything to say, it’s just a sort of display of the author’s worldly wise superiority. He’s clearly tired of living on a planet infested with mere mortals, they don’t even amuse him anymore. They don’t amuse me anymore either but I’m not going to waste more than this paragraphs-worth of your time saying it. And I’m sorry for even that.

Ray Andrews
Ray Andrews
1 year ago

Is there a word for this kind of article? It doesn’t really have anything to say, it’s just a sort of display of the author’s worldly wise superiority. He’s clearly tired of living on a planet infested with mere mortals, they don’t even amuse him anymore. They don’t amuse me anymore either but I’m not going to waste more than this paragraphs-worth of your time saying it. And I’m sorry for even that.

tom j
tom j
1 year ago

What a strange piece. Twitter (or ‘X’) is fine, or at least as fine as it ever was. Just block accounts you don’t like, don’t follow them and complain. In his take-down summary he misses the one point relevant to his argument, which is the payments to people who crease 15 million impressions in a 3 month period. A good journalist ought to be able to achieve that. Musk is a libertarian, and one of the accounts he brought back (one of the reasons he bought Twitter) was the good old Babylon Bee. Maybe Ian misses the old censorship, but I don’t.

tom j
tom j
1 year ago

What a strange piece. Twitter (or ‘X’) is fine, or at least as fine as it ever was. Just block accounts you don’t like, don’t follow them and complain. In his take-down summary he misses the one point relevant to his argument, which is the payments to people who crease 15 million impressions in a 3 month period. A good journalist ought to be able to achieve that. Musk is a libertarian, and one of the accounts he brought back (one of the reasons he bought Twitter) was the good old Babylon Bee. Maybe Ian misses the old censorship, but I don’t.

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
1 year ago

Hilarious. Thank you for the giggles.

Ralph Hanke
Ralph Hanke
1 year ago

Hilarious. Thank you for the giggles.

Russell Sharpe
Russell Sharpe
1 year ago

Not worth reading. Stupid cliché after stupid cliché.

Russell Sharpe
Russell Sharpe
1 year ago

Not worth reading. Stupid cliché after stupid cliché.

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
1 year ago

Yes. These days, what with nerdly Elon Musk, Twitter / X is not really out of the top drawer. Old chap.

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
1 year ago

Yes. These days, what with nerdly Elon Musk, Twitter / X is not really out of the top drawer. Old chap.

aaron david
aaron david
1 year ago

Trying to shut Pandora’s box is a fools errand. Lyons is a sharp guy, but so misplaced in his directions.

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago

Thanks for reposting this (where you posted it on my earlier comment, the whole thread disappeared). I’ve skimmed and there are some interesting points made.

aaron david
aaron david
1 year ago

Trying to shut Pandora’s box is a fools errand. Lyons is a sharp guy, but so misplaced in his directions.

Amy Harris
Amy Harris
1 year ago

Thanks for reposting this (where you posted it on my earlier comment, the whole thread disappeared). I’ve skimmed and there are some interesting points made.

Albireo Double
Albireo Double
1 year ago

..

Last edited 1 year ago by Albireo Double
Mark V
Mark V
1 year ago

You didn’t date the “colourised trench-warfare horror scene”.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
1 year ago

I left Twitter the day that Musk took over and haven’t missed it – although I do enjoy hearing what an enormous mess he has made of it!
I’m sure UnHerd readers just loving following their favourite neo-nazis and swivel eyed loons now that Musk has welcomed them all back. Lord knows you need another venue to share your idiocies!

Andy O'Gorman
Andy O'Gorman
1 year ago

And your sobriquet succinctly says it all!?

Andy O'Gorman
Andy O'Gorman
1 year ago

And your sobriquet succinctly says it all!?

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
1 year ago

I left Twitter the day that Musk took over and haven’t missed it – although I do enjoy hearing what an enormous mess he has made of it!
I’m sure UnHerd readers just loving following their favourite neo-nazis and swivel eyed loons now that Musk has welcomed them all back. Lord knows you need another venue to share your idiocies!