It’s been a busy week, not ? Many things happen at the same time. The Crown is back with a divorce, Diana and the Ritz Paris. The IF is ending, and Trump keeps teasing it back, kind of like a rerun of a TV show that gave half the country a migraine. The world is still seeking asylum. The war in Ukraine is not over yet. Appetizer season is upon us and we’re all designing pairings that echo the Italian escort The White Lotus . In the UK, We’re celebrating a coconut-filled chocolate candy bar, from Boris “Partygate” Johnson to Liz “Pork Farm” Truss to Rishi “dirty rich, but quiteblah” Sunak, aside Watching our ex health secretary eat kangaroo genitals. Catch me outside after two drinks and talk about ‘everything’s unstable’ since we lost the Queen.
The constant stream of breaking news is both compelling and exhausting. Twitter followed with absolute chaos, like when people started panic robbing supermarkets in apocalyptic movies, but we’re all scrambling for the latest developments, not penicillin and canned beans.
Overseeing our comment contest is Twitter’s newly formed owner: Elon “I recommend voting Republican Congress” Musk (divorced man to the right’s pipeline apparently remains Stablize). Musk’s $1 billion offer for the platform in April felt like a very grand, rich man’s elasticity rather than a serious bid. It’s an outlandish idea, but the deal was finalized last month, and Grimes’ little dad hasn’t stopped trending since.
With new acquisition, Twitter increasingly feels like a Black Mirror episode predicts digital life again danger. Musk fired a slew of employees (which likely included a slew of content moderators). Musk has checked for parody accounts that are not clearly identified as parody accounts. During a teenage Halloween creative writing assignment, the user who muted Musk mysteriously discovered that the mutes had been removed. Everyone must hear the voice of the new king.
Musk has said that Twitter is our “digital city square”, a place for fair and balanced discussions like the Roman Forum. Somehow, each of us has become a free speech gladiator in the Twitter Colosseum, defending our polarized views and competing to see who has the freest speech. But as hate speech is amplified without any consequences, I can’t help but wonder… will Twitter fall like Rome? Musk claims that Twitter usage is at an all-time high, but people are leaving in droves. Debra Messing deleted her account. Same as Frozen’s Olaf.
