What a surreal time to be alive:
Now that pretty much every tech company has purged President Trump from its ranks, what am I feeling about it?
Schadenfreude, mostly. And relief. After a barbarian invasion of the U.S. Capitol and more “protests” in the works, it’s perfectly understandable that Twitter and Facebook don’t want their services used to plan more extreme-right terrorism.
But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little bit of trepidation at just how quickly and opaquely some large, powerful corporations can de-platform you.
Nellie Bowles feels the same way:
…The general take among my cohort was that this is an unmitigated good, a win for decency over violence, right over wrong. The focus was on Trump getting booted from Twitter, but the story really is now that same intelligentsia is arguing that Trumpers should not be able to even use other apps or internet browsers (Mozilla has a new blog titled “Deplatforming Isn’t Enough”). They are calling for more than the ouster of Trumpers from polite social media society — they want the ouster of them from the internet entirely.
I am wary when private companies whose power humans have never seen before begin to exert more moral authority. It’s a free country, and these are free companies, so I’m not saying there ought to be a government response or some fairness doctrine. Lord knows I don’t want the DMV running Facebook. But tech giants have a power to control humanity beyond anything we have reckoned with before. And any increase in that already great power, any rapid shift toward more authority, worries me and should worry you. We should be scared of their power — no matter which side these companies appear to be on this week, as the winds of political power shift.
And then there is the messenger: It is curious that journalists are en masse calling for moderators, writers calling for less writing, all asking that a third party step in and put guardrails for decency. It used to be the church and the shul leading arguments for stronger rules around speech and decency. So this is about not just a shift in our social mores but who enforces them.
Last surprising note on the dynamics: The side cheering raw corporate power and market freedom are the socialists. Corporations have free speech too! Viva la Facebook! The side yelling about regulating companies and the dangers of capitalist freedom are the Republicans.
Weird days we are in.
The frustrating thing about this debate is that I don’t think anyone involved in it is acting on principle. Deep down - or not so deep down - everyone wants free speech for their own side and a crackdown against the other.
It remains to be seen if the social media companies apply their rules consistently. As of this writing, Twitter is still okay with a dictatorship actively promoting its ongoing genocide:
The public mood right now feels like the aftermath of 9/11, when people were quite understandably angry and out for revenge. I was then, and I am now. But decisions and policies made in anger can backfire and overreach in a remarkably short time.
My bottom line, at this moment: good riddance to Trump and his seditious co-conspirators. I’m not bothered by what happens to them. But all of this feels like a bit of a Devil’s bargain.
Actually, the Devil’s bargain might be the way we enthusiastically gave the Facebooks and Twitters so much power in the first place.
Interestingly, Russian dissidents Garry Kasparov and Alexei Navalny have very different opinions about the social-media purge. Right now I’m closer to Kasparov’s point of view, but check out both threads.
Trump probably took the loss of his Twitter account harder than his election loss. And in turn, he’ll probably take this hardest of all:
As he faces a lonely end to his presidency, Donald Trump learned Sunday evening that, in the wake of last week's riot at the U.S. Capitol, he has lost one of the relationships he values most: his partnership with the Professional Golfers' Association.
While the embattled president has been hunkered down to try and preserve his political career, the PGA of America, the proprietors of one of golf's four major championship tournaments, announced that it plans to move its 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
"The PGA of America Board of Directors voted tonight to exercise the right to terminate the agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster," said Jim Richerson, PGA of America president, in a statement.
Holding the tournament at Trump Bedminster, Richerson said, would be "detrimental" to the PGA of America's brand and put the organization's ability to function "at risk."
Remember the ending of UHF, when the villainous R.J. Fletcher fails to take over Weird Al Yankovic’s TV station, unknowingly broadcasts his villainous plans and insults to the entire city, has his own channel taken off the air, gets kicked in the special area by an old lady, and finds out that the coin he gave to a street bum was actually worth thousands of dollars? That’s basically Donald Trump right now.
Maybe I’ll have a hangover soon, but right now, schadenfreude feels better than any drug.