Social media afforded me the opportunity to build a couple of podcast brands, and then made the work incredibly frustrating and difficult as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have taken away any reach I might have had in the past on personal and professional accounts due to shifting goal posts and retroactive enforcement of new rules. When I mention that, I will occasionally get some variation of "stop whining about what you are experiencing because it isn't real."

I have to admit a little schadenfreude at the meltdown taking place, and to anyone upset about Twitter being sold, your experiences don't matter and your opinion doesn't count because you are an idiot. You're very stupid and no one likes you. You hold a different opinion than me, so, therefore, I don't really care what happens to you... In fact, I hope bad things happen to you and your account is removed, and when it happens, shut up about it.

Ok, I don't really think that, but it is certainly how many people come across when raising a concern that little bits of your livelihood is being eaten away. It's not really persuasive, and I just consider those people to be dicks.

Social media censorship, beginning in 2018 has been very real, and it is cathartic to see someone say, "This is actually happening, it's wrong, and I have the means to provide a better example." I have no idea if Elon Musk will do that. These platforms aren't working for society and individuals as well as they used to and need a shaking up.

If he fails, then guess what? It's a fake place that I can ignore by deleting the app and so can you.

“We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us… The lives that you admire, the attitudes that seem noble to you are not the result of training at home, by a father, or by masters at school, they have sprung from beginnings of a very different order, by reaction from the influence of everything evil or commonplace that prevailed round about them. They represent a struggle and a victory.” - Marcel Proust

Twitter is, apparently, currently guided by wise sages that have kept it from being a mean-spirited hate factory. That all ended today!

“Musk, who is also chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc, has described himself as a "free speech absolutist" who has been critical of Twitter's policies of moderating content on the platform. He has said Twitter needs to become a genuine forum for free speech. In a statement after securing the deal on Monday, Musk described free speech as "the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”

"While Elon Musk is an ACLU card-carrying member and one of our most significant supporters, there’s a lot of danger having so much power in the hands of any one individual," Anthony Romero, executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Reuters after the deal was announced.”

Also, the “it’s a private company” people are now making the argument censored conservatives have been making for five years.

“Twitter is not just another company, human rights advocates noted. "Regardless of who owns Twitter, the company has human rights responsibilities to respect the rights of people around the world who rely on the platform. Changes to its policies, features, and algorithms, big and small, can have disproportionate and sometimes devastating impacts, including offline violence," Deborah Brown, a digital rights researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in an email.

"Freedom of expression is not an absolute right, which is why Twitter needs to invest in efforts to keep its most vulnerable users safe on the platform," she added.”

https://www.reuters.com/technology/human-rights-groups-raise-hate-speech-concerns-after-musks-takeover-twitter-2022-04-25/