I will confess to being about 19.6 percent more optimistic than the average pundit, but I am pretty stoked about Elon Musk buying Twitter. Musk seemed boringly progressive a few years ago but these days he has a strong libertarian bent as well as a politically incorrect sense of humor, and he is determined to pry open the narrow limits of what is considered permissible speech on Twitter. As Charlie (who is Eeyore-ish about Twitter and hardly uses it anymore) put it, ideally Musk will stop using Twitter moderation to “avoid harm,” or to “uphold equality” or to “keep people safe,” or “to outlaw hatred,” or “to combat misinformation.” In fact the “hearing words I don’t like compromises my safety” thought model popularized by universities over the last 20 years should be ground into rubble and fired into outer space on Musk’s next rocket.
While I get why people think Twitter is toxic (because it often is), it’s also a wonderful community bulletin board for jokes. I mean, I’ve never heard of this guy, but this is absolutely brilliant, high-level comedy and Twitter is where it appeared:
https://twitter.com/AdamOPrice/status/1517888936009506818?s=20&t=IADMp7UB6nAUTlYu9iGP1Q
There’s a lot of malevolent energy on Twitter, but it’s also a comedy smorgasbord. I’ve formed friendly, jokey relationships there with scores of people I’ve never met in real life. I find the platform great for loose, occasional interacting with (a) people you like who mostly agree with you; and also (b) the minority of people who are willing to disagree with you in a non-angry, non-crazed way. The many, many angry people who use Twitter to get their rage on should be ignored. Also I don’t think it’s a good idea to use Twitter to dunk on total strangers, because that just increases the bad energy and contributes to the general toxicity. But I make an exception for Ron Klain.