I have written at least a few hundred of thousand words here at The New Leaf Journal. I very rarely get something wrong in the non-typo sense. For example, I not-too-long ago had to correct a video game history article (I found the correction thanks to my feed collection). Even more rarely, I may even need to take back one of my beautiful takes. I write this article to rescind one of my previously articulated New Leaf Journal opinions.
I have long been a critic of proprietary social media. One of my earliest articles on the subject was criticizing Twitter, which later transmogrified into X. While my most successful social media bashing article was directed at Facebook (thank you, Hacker News) and my most strident criticism is aimed at TikTok (which should be banned), Twitter has not come out too well in these pages. In an argument that would illustrate my critique of not only Twitter/X, but also clones and quasi-clones whether they are of the proprietary or open source flavors, I took the view that the format itself is conducive to bad content.
Even my Twitter-optimism was tempered. For example, when news broke that the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, was moving to take over Twitter, I cryptically opined that he would have a difficult task “given the vested media and government interests in Twitter,” but I subtly suggested it would be a good thing to address the platform’s “selective censorship policies.” When Mr. Musk initially agreed to light tens of billions of dollars on fire to buy Twitter (which he pulled away from before ultimately completing the purchase under threat of lawsuits), I opined that this would be a “positive development.” Of course – I did not think that Mr. Musk would raise the level of discourse on Twitter. I just wanted to see the disconcerting relationship between Twitter, media outlets, and certain U.S. government interests and NGOs, which manifested itself in many unfortunate ways in 2020, crushed and swept away. Did my opinions change after the take-over was completed? Not so, as I explained back in April:
Throwing my cards on the table, I think that Mr. Musk’s purchasing Twitter was a good thing for reasons largely unrelated to the quality of the platform. From an end-user perspective, most of the issues I had with Twitter continue with X. These issues include, but are not limited to, its being a closed proprietary platform, treating users as products rather than owners of their own digital spaces, and the overall quality of the content (the latter point also colors my somewhat negative views of attempts to re-implement old Twitter in an open source, decentralized way).
Mr. Musk’s takeover of Twitter has largely done what I hoped it would (the expanded community notes are a nice bonus), but the average quality of posting (not to mention various unsolved and perhaps unsolvable problems such as the bot apocalypse) survived the Twitter-X transmogrification. But I never cared much about the overall quality of posting on X anyway, so I will take the win.
But what if I told you that I was wrong? What if I told you that the posting quality is now far better than before?
Let us direct our attention to an August 1, 2024 article by Vaughn Cockayne for The Washington Times. There are some cases where headlines tell you little or engage in unseemly editorializing. There are other cases where the headline is something like ‘Carry him to Gitmo on a donkey’: Elon Musk agrees to fight Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Well I suppose The Washington Times headline is not like the foregoing example; it is the foregoing example. And what a headline it is. It is an authentic quote from one of Mr. Musk’s X posts directed at the socialist “President” of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, who “won” another contested “election” over circumstances that some persons in Venezuela and abroad, Mr. Musk included, have suggested were not entirely on the level. In response, Mr. Maduro challenged Mr. Musk to a fight while ordering armed men under his command to keep Mr. Musk from crossing the border into Venezuela (while Mr. Maduro’s willingness to accurately count votes could be called into question, let no one call into question his steadfast commitment to ensuring that the only people with guns in Venezuela are kept satisfied). Mr. Musk accepted Mr. Maduro’s challenge with the provision that Mr. Maduro would resign if he lost and have the option of accepting a free flight to Mars courtesy of SpaceX.
I am not sure how this fight will go but I credit Mr. Musk for accepting the challenge. As he eloquently (operative word) posted later: “Maduro is a big guy himself and probably knows how to fight, so this would be a real fight.” (“Would”? Come on, this is really going to happen!) Mr. Musk then compared his perception of Mr. Maduro’s ability to put up a challenging fight favorably to that of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with who is involved in fight negotiations with Mr. Musk (surely that fight will happen before the Musk-Maduro showdown): “Zuck is a little fella, so that would be a short fight lol.” True – whether we are talking about professional boxing, wealthy tech CEO fights, or a wealthy tech CEO/engineer fighting the President of Venezuela, weight classes are important (except when they are not). Speaking of weight classes – I am not impressed anymore. When will Mr. Musk dare to be great and throw down the gauntlet with a challenge to the dear leader of the [very] Democratic [always of the] People’s [true] Republic of Korea, Dear Leader Kim Jong-un? Only then can he be our 21st century Henry Armstrong.
But returning to social media posting, I can admit when I am wrong. X is now a place for some of history’s most eloquent political denunciations. My article on a former Saudi Arabian official’s critique of the government of Qatar is now quaint. If only Cicero had known of the beauty of our language when he denounced Catiline before the Roman Senate. Stunning stuff. X has been vindicated. I am New Leaf Journal admin enough to admit my errors.
Long live X. Long live all proprietary social media (and functional clones thereof). Well, long live all of it except TikTok (that should still be banned or, alternatively, carried to Gitmo on a donkey).
Rescinding “Twitter is Bad Content” Take
CommentaryNicholas A. FerrellI have written at least a few hundred of thousand words here at The New Leaf Journal. I very rarely get something wrong in the non-typo sense. For example, I not-too-long ago had to correct a video game history article (I found the correction thanks to my feed collection). Even more rarely, I may even need to take back one of my beautiful takes. I write this article to rescind one of my previously articulated New Leaf Journal opinions.
I have long been a critic of proprietary social media. One of my earliest articles on the subject was criticizing Twitter, which later transmogrified into X. While my most successful social media bashing article was directed at Facebook (thank you, Hacker News) and my most strident criticism is aimed at TikTok (which should be banned), Twitter has not come out too well in these pages. In an argument that would illustrate my critique of not only Twitter/X, but also clones and quasi-clones whether they are of the proprietary or open source flavors, I took the view that the format itself is conducive to bad content.
Even my Twitter-optimism was tempered. For example, when news broke that the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, was moving to take over Twitter, I cryptically opined that he would have a difficult task “given the vested media and government interests in Twitter,” but I subtly suggested it would be a good thing to address the platform’s “selective censorship policies.” When Mr. Musk initially agreed to light tens of billions of dollars on fire to buy Twitter (which he pulled away from before ultimately completing the purchase under threat of lawsuits), I opined that this would be a “positive development.” Of course – I did not think that Mr. Musk would raise the level of discourse on Twitter. I just wanted to see the disconcerting relationship between Twitter, media outlets, and certain U.S. government interests and NGOs, which manifested itself in many unfortunate ways in 2020, crushed and swept away. Did my opinions change after the take-over was completed? Not so, as I explained back in April:
Mr. Musk’s takeover of Twitter has largely done what I hoped it would (the expanded community notes are a nice bonus), but the average quality of posting (not to mention various unsolved and perhaps unsolvable problems such as the bot apocalypse) survived the Twitter-X transmogrification. But I never cared much about the overall quality of posting on X anyway, so I will take the win.
But what if I told you that I was wrong? What if I told you that the posting quality is now far better than before?
Let us direct our attention to an August 1, 2024 article by Vaughn Cockayne for The Washington Times. There are some cases where headlines tell you little or engage in unseemly editorializing. There are other cases where the headline is something like ‘Carry him to Gitmo on a donkey’: Elon Musk agrees to fight Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Well I suppose The Washington Times headline is not like the foregoing example; it is the foregoing example. And what a headline it is. It is an authentic quote from one of Mr. Musk’s X posts directed at the socialist “President” of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, who “won” another contested “election” over circumstances that some persons in Venezuela and abroad, Mr. Musk included, have suggested were not entirely on the level. In response, Mr. Maduro challenged Mr. Musk to a fight while ordering armed men under his command to keep Mr. Musk from crossing the border into Venezuela (while Mr. Maduro’s willingness to accurately count votes could be called into question, let no one call into question his steadfast commitment to ensuring that the only people with guns in Venezuela are kept satisfied). Mr. Musk accepted Mr. Maduro’s challenge with the provision that Mr. Maduro would resign if he lost and have the option of accepting a free flight to Mars courtesy of SpaceX.
I am not sure how this fight will go but I credit Mr. Musk for accepting the challenge. As he eloquently (operative word) posted later: “Maduro is a big guy himself and probably knows how to fight, so this would be a real fight.” (“Would”? Come on, this is really going to happen!) Mr. Musk then compared his perception of Mr. Maduro’s ability to put up a challenging fight favorably to that of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with who is involved in fight negotiations with Mr. Musk (surely that fight will happen before the Musk-Maduro showdown): “Zuck is a little fella, so that would be a short fight lol.” True – whether we are talking about professional boxing, wealthy tech CEO fights, or a wealthy tech CEO/engineer fighting the President of Venezuela, weight classes are important (except when they are not). Speaking of weight classes – I am not impressed anymore. When will Mr. Musk dare to be great and throw down the gauntlet with a challenge to the dear leader of the [very] Democratic [always of the] People’s [true] Republic of Korea, Dear Leader Kim Jong-un? Only then can he be our 21st century Henry Armstrong.
But returning to social media posting, I can admit when I am wrong. X is now a place for some of history’s most eloquent political denunciations. My article on a former Saudi Arabian official’s critique of the government of Qatar is now quaint. If only Cicero had known of the beauty of our language when he denounced Catiline before the Roman Senate. Stunning stuff. X has been vindicated. I am New Leaf Journal admin enough to admit my errors.
Long live X. Long live all proprietary social media (and functional clones thereof). Well, long live all of it except TikTok (that should still be banned or, alternatively, carried to Gitmo on a donkey).
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Nicholas A. Ferrell
I am the administrator and editor of The New Leaf Journal. By day, I am a legal research specialist. I enjoy writing, history, philosophy, plants, free and open source technology, plants, video games, anime, and long walks in Brooklyn, New York.