I Think You Should Leave

Twitter was fun while it lasted.

So, as you probably know, Elon Musk is threatening to sue to the ADL to prove that he’s not antisemitic. It sounds like a particularly dark Arrested Development bit, but what doesn’t these days? Here’s a quick recap. 

First, Musk boosted the #BantheADL hashtag on Twitter (not calling it X), referring to the Anti-Defamation Defense League — the influential antisemitism-fighting non-profit. That hashtag was gaining traction on white nationalist channels and other ugly strains of Twitter where hate speech, despite Musk’s protestations to the contrary, is only getting worse. Musk’s boost of the hashtag, unsurprisingly, shunted antisemitism closer to the mainstream — a trajectory it’s been on for a few years now. (Marisa Kabas has a good breakdown). 

This is not the first or possibly even the worst bad thing Musk has done as the grand creative poompah of Twitter, but it is a reminder of who he really is, and what he is making Twitter into. The site has changed very quickly, but maybe just slowly enough that it’s been difficult to recognize how much it’s changed. It’s become the far-right fever dream that Parlor and Truth Social tried and failed to fully realize, a place where facts get lost in a hall of mirrors and hate groups are empowered to legitimize their messaging. It is not the same thing it was when you joined. And whatever perks it may offer are outweighed by the destruction it’s sowing. I think you should leave.