WEBVTT - Inside Twitter's Soul 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:11.319 I'm beautiful. That's how we start this episode of our 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:16.000 professional podcast that makes it pays all of our rent. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.279 This is it could Happen here, a podcast about things 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:24.440 falling apart, and today we're talking about Twitter because nothing 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:29.160 embodies falling apart quite like Twitter. Um we have on 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:36.839 the show today, Garrison Davis, Chris Sharene, James, everybody, the 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.280 whole crew, except for the people who aren't here. They're 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:44.200 not here, but I hate them, Yeah, I don't hate them. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:48.120 How's everybody, don't we all great? I just woke up, 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.720 had my coffee scrolled on Twitter for an hour, so 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.760 I'm ready to go this. This, this has been, This 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.360 has been legitimately the best three weeks that we have 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:01.960 had on Twitter since like like two. I feel bad 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:03.680 for all the people who have like left because they're 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:09.040 missing Twitter. So first off, I want to say, we're 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:10.640 not gonna try We're gonna try not to get too 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.199 into the weeds here if you're not a Twitter person, 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:16.000 and most people are not Twitter people. The reason that 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.280 number one, I want to start by explaining why we 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:20.720 think this is worth getting into, which is that like 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:25.399 Twitter as an undeniable command of like global news discourse 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:27.720 it's where all of the journalists hang out, it's where 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:32.160 a significant number of the politicians and wealthy business people 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:34.800 hang out, and all of us are being broken by it, 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.600 like it's one big opium den that we are all 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:42.160 like engaging in an addiction that is destroying our brains inside. Um. 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.040 It's not good for anyone, but it's undeniably important. And 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.320 since Elon Musk took over, things have been things have 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.880 been quite wild. So we're going to give an update 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.400 on kind of some of the stuff that's been happening 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.800 in Twitter at the end here, but I want to 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.720 read a little lessay I wrote, just kind of looking 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.800 at mostly a single post Musk made and some of 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.680 the responses to it that I think says a lot 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.639 about where we are as a species right now. On October, 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.880 shortly after taking control of Twitter from its former shareholders, 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.080 Elon Musk went on a frenzy of what you might 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.760 call ill considered emphetamine derived tweets about his ideas for 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.720 how the site should function. At one point, he noted 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.080 that twenty dollars a month seemed like a fair price 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.160 for people to pay to get or keep blue check marks. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.560 There was even talk of twenty dollars a month being 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.520 the price to use Twitter at all and pay walling 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.560 the entire site. Now, a lot of people thought this 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.800 was bug funk, especially since like Hbo doesn't cost that 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.240 much and it's and it's got and door on it. 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:49.240 You can watch just Disney, both of both of the 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.720 streaming services that I watch I stole from you Garrison, 0:02:52.760 --> 0:03:02.560 So really it's an incredible deal. So everyone made fun 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.400 of the fact that Elon was suggesting this, and no 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.679 one had a bigger laugh than Stephen King. Now, Stephen King, 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.280 if you're not aware, is worth pretty close to a 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.200 billion dollars. He is an unbelievably wealthy man, and like 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.680 he has like actual money, not like stock made up money, 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.600 that is cash. He has hundreds of millions of dollars 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.880 in cash because people like his He has more like 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:31.119 actual money than he probably liquid assets. He's a very 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.600 liquid man because he wrote The Shining and the Stand 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:39.320 and cou Joe and that's a clown book. So many 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.520 he writes a new book every week. He's the only 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.400 man who has successfully turned a painkiller addiction into putting 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:49.920 out a best selling novel every single month. What a 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.280 hero anyway, he tweeted, quote, twenty dollars a month to 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.680 keep my blue check. Fuck that they should pay me. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.640 If that gets instituted, I'm gone, like in ron now. 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.040 In addition to being the kind to wordplay for which 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.600 Stephen King has become rightly famous, the reason that he 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.000 got kind of piste off is actually sensible. Obviously, twenty 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.440 dollars means nothing to someone with his kind of money, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.440 but he's not wrong about his central argument, which is 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.160 that like Twitter ought to be paying people like him. 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.960 He has nearly seven million followers, and he tweets very regularly. 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.120 Massive accounts like Stephen King's are not Twitter's customers. They 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.159 are the business itself. It is the product. I want 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.000 to quote now from a report in Reuters. Quote, these 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.320 heavy tweeters account for less than ten percent of monthly 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.359 overall users, but generate of all tweets and half of 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.680 global revenue. Heavy tweeters have been an absolute decline since 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.520 the pandemic began. A Twitter researcher wrote in an internal 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:52.480 document titled where did the Tweeters go? Now? Sonny, It's 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:56.520 like Instagram or whatever. Once you're like, have a lot 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:58.480 of followers, you can make money. So I think Twitter 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.200 is different that way. It is. I I am the 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:03.880 only person in the history of Twitter who was actually 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.760 turned being a ship poster insway lucrative professional career. I 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:15.960 am the only one. Everyone else that is drill drill 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.760 was already like in in this like drivels already. I think, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.080 like in the scene doing stuff like well they done 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.640 something has something to do with home stuck. But the 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.920 point is that the people like Stephen King are what 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.599 makes Twitter profitable. The idea that like they owe the 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.320 company money to be able to tweet is kind of 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:37.560 absolutely absurd, and in addition to that, like it it 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.440 feeds into a serious problem the site is having before 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.360 Elon bought it. They're they're they're they're attempting to answer 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.000 the question of like, why are these people who are 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.320 responsible for most of our money tweeting less? Because it's 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.880 it's costing us like it is. There's a reason why 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.320 Twitter has been on a profit down slope lately. Um 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.599 the only profitable years the company has had I should know, 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.719 we're two thousand eighteen and two thousand nineteen, in which 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.640 they were doing reasonably well financially, and since the pandemics started, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.039 Twitter has reliably lost hundreds of millions of dollars per year. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.360 This research was which was attempting to answer the question 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:15.880 why beat at concluded quote cryptocurrency and not safe for 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.080 work content, which includes nudity and pornography, are the highest 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.800 growing topics of interest among English speaking heavy users. The 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.640 report found at the same time, interest in news, sports, 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.799 and entertainment is waning among those users. Tweets on those topics, 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.799 which have helped Twitter burnishing images the world's digital town square, 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.480 as Musk once called it, are also the most desirable 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:38.000 for advertisers. So basically, the things that advertisers like to 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.360 see ads next to are becoming less popular on Twitter, 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:45.719 and ship that is poisoned for advertisers has become more popular. Now. 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.560 This is a problem for Musk because he loves crypto shilling, 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.359 which is a huge issue for everyone who isn't a 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.359 crypto weirdo. Um, there are some opportunities. One of the 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.640 things that I thought wasn't a bad idea was Musk 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.159 suggested ways in which to like monetize the site so 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.680 sex workers could more effectively monetize their followings, which is 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:05.960 a way Twitter might be able to make more money 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.960 now is that likely to make the company money in 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.680 excess of what they would lose in advertising for becoming 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.440 known as the Fox site. Probably not, Probably broadly speaking 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.760 of bad idea. Um So, in addition to Musk's outright 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.320 hatred of journalists in reporting, it seems like just his 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.080 general vibes might not be great for bringing back the 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:32.520 advertisers he seems to be personally having fine. He seems 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:36.080 to be personally inclined to like go after the things 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.640 and support the things that are directly poisoned for Twitter's 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:40.720 bottom line, which is fascinating for a guy who's spending 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.280 forty four billion dollars on the side. Can can we 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:44.840 can we mention for a second, by the way, the 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.120 reason he spent forty billion dollars on the site was 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.960 because he bought the stocks, the sites shares for a 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.480 meme price that someone sugested on Twitter. Yes, it was 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:56.080 like fifty four dollars and fifty four dollars and twenty cents, 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.440 so there's a four twenty. Yeah, this is this is 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.480 why you sent forty four billion dollars on this And 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:05.160 he previously it's worth noting he previously did that with 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.760 Twitter stock or with um Tesla stuff. He attempted to 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:16.240 take Tesla private for four dollars to share heavily for 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.600 that one. Because that's because it's very yes, exactly, because 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.960 that was that was very illegal, we think, very not 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:27.760 that funny. Yeah, it's also worth noting that like the 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:31.320 one thing that he actually has he has created, right, 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:35.079 he didn't invent Tesla, like he didn't even his is 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.920 his reply guys. No, his his reply guys are like 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.920 his unique asset, and and he's trying to price him 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.960 out of being his reply guys. The cult of personality stuff, yeah, yeah, 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.400 but like that's largely built on Twitter, right, like his 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.079 the whole cult around him, well and read it. But yeah, 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:54.920 and just like the fact that like people think the 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.720 genius x y Z whatever. Yeah, that is that's too 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:04.439 big a tapping for today's episode and recently we'll see. 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.880 But you know, we're not talking today about like Musk's 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.280 broadly speaking, why Musk is a con man. Well, we'll 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.000 talk about that. We've talked about that on plenty of 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.280 other occasions. Nor is this supposed to be an exhaustive 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.280 explanation for why Musk's Twitter is likely to fall apart. 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.440 We don't have the end of that story yet. So instead, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.600 what I want to do is review a single tweet 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.080 and particularly the responses to that tweet, because I think 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.319 it is hugely interesting and kind of an important cultural artifact. 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.400 So the tweet was a response by Musk to the 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.880 Stephen King tweet that I I read earlier. Right King 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.600 being like, I'm not gonna pay this, Musk responded simply, 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.240 we need to pay the bills. Somehow Twitter cannot rely 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.400 entirely on advertisers. How about eight dollars? Now, this is 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:50.600 also very funny because you and you're like, whoa, there's 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:55.320 nothing in there. There's nothing, but it's it's just bouncing 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.480 around like a fucking bb and a goddamn dryer. Um. 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.320 So the first comments to this response, or what you'd expect, 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.080 there's a mix of anti Musk lib types laughing at 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.040 his bad business sense, mocking the idea of making Twitter's 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.679 most valuable users pay for the site. Um, you've got 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.720 your Musk defenders insisting that Blue checks some sort of 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:15.959 out of touch elite, which is one of my favorite 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.840 bits of deranged right wing culture that like there's some 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:25.440 sort of like yeah verse s I this there's like 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.080 a there's an old left Twitter joke like like like 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:29.760 literally it was like there was there was a running 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.800 series of jokes about like the blue check bourgeoisie and like, 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.920 and then somehow all of these people became convinced it 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.960 was real and through a process that like I cannot 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:42.120 even begin to understand the the process, and this is critical, 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:44.840 is that you cannot tell jokes on Twitter dot com. 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.840 That's true. Um, that that is that is the actual process, 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.079 and that is the Yeah, that's that's that's what's happening here. 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:55.160 So a representative Musk defender responses this comment by Douche 0:10:55.200 --> 0:11:05.480 Canoe Magoo and everyone ha ha ha ha ha. Dude 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.920 worth five million who wants to tax the ricks rich 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.439 can't play twenty dollars ha ha. Hey elon Musk, I'll 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.160 play this pay this loser's twenty dollars a month. Now. 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.000 I looked into it, and this guy is an anti 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.640 vaxer with thirty four followers. If you're if you're curious 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.079 on the lip side, you've got guys like Keith Olberman's 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.600 subtweeting Musks to try and use like numbers in math 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.000 to show that this business plan which was never a 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.040 business real business plan isn't going to make money. The 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.720 first interesting response there was a few comments down from 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:37.360 Keith by a journalist named Hopewell Chinono. Good morning, Elon Musk. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.160 For a lot of journalists in Africa, verification has helped 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.400 us to not fall victim to state tactics to use 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.959 our names to spread propaganda. I have been to jail 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:48.440 three times inside six months for exposing corruption. Few African 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.640 journalists will afford the U S twenty dollars and attached 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.240 to this tweet where images from Too Guardian articles about 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.319 Hope Well. I'm going to quote from one now. Nno 0:11:57.400 --> 0:11:59.640 posted on his Twitter account that police had taken him 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:01.480 from his house and said that they were charging him 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:05.240 with communicating falsehoods. The arrest comes after Chennono tweeted that 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.839 police had beaten an infant to death while enforcing COVID 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.240 nineteen lockdown rules this week. Police later said the information 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.040 was false. Before the latest arrest, Hinono was out on 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.800 bail and separate charges of inciting violence as after he 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.640 voiced support for an anti government protest in July, and 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.800 also on contemptive court charges for allegedly claiming corruption within 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.840 the country's National Prosecution Agency. Chanono is one of Zimbabwe's 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.880 most prominent critics of President Emerson. I'm not gonna be 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.719 able to pronounce that last name administration, accusing it of 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:36.679 corruption and human rights abuses. The government denies the charges. Now, 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:38.839 Hope Well is a Harvard Fellow. He is an award 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.680 winning journalist and I had no idea this guy existed 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.800 prior to this tweet. Uh. He is an extremely courageous 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.240 person who, from everything I can read, is reporting on 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.760 corruption within the Zimbabwean government has been very influential, recently 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.400 led to the sacking of the very corrupt Health Minister. 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:55.880 I would not have heard of this man without Twitter. 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:57.800 He would not have had a voice capable of reaching 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.520 a large number of people without Twitter. It's possible those 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.480 Guardian articles about him and his struggle would not exist 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.640 if it weren't for the prominence of his Twitter account. Um, 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.040 and you know, it's also worth noting that if Twitter 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:10.640 weren't the site that it is, he never would have 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.319 had a chance to make his concerns public anywhere close 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.360 to the CEO of that company. Many things about this 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.560 interaction cry out for the very best about Twitter. The 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.360 smallest and probably most valuable of the major social media websites, 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:25.839 and at least a social level, we all call it 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:27.760 the hell site, and a huge part of Twitter culture 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.880 is despising it. But moments like this really do make 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.920 a lot of the bullshit worthwhile. In the articles hope 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:35.960 Will attached to his post, he's wearing a red and 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.040 white striped shirt. The top response to Hopewell's replied a 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.840 musk is by Jason Roeberg. A musk reply by Guy one, 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.280 American News and Fox News commenter. He writes, why did 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.640 they dress you like American Waldo, I'll pay for your subscription. 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:52.840 Hopo replies, that is very kind of you. That is 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.560 prison uniform. My imprisonment was triggered by tweets exposing state corruption. 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.840 The ruling political elites use captured state institutions to punish 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.640 analyst who exposed the looting of public funds um which 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.000 I don't know. Another perfectly characteristic Twitter response and being 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:08.880 like look at the way he's dressed and being like, yeah, 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.079 that's a prison uniform. I was I just got out 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.559 of prison for when I was doing amazing criminalism. Yeah, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.280 it's just very It says a lot there's a lot 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:22.360 going on here. Yeah. Have you come across his I guess, 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:24.120 I hope, Well, you know, no dot com which is 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.280 not his website. No, Jesus Mark God, is it something? 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:29.600 Is that like a government thing? Yes, it's a government 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:32.440 I hope. But you don't know. He's very deceptives. He's 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:37.160 the liar and dishonest person. Yeah. Yeah, so just wow, 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:41.160 this is an incredible story website. Look at this. They've 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:46.400 done some work. I love. The background is like a 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.320 boat sailing in the star sol to see what the 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.480 fuck they They're not doing their finest work over there. 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.040 The first section is the title in all caps is 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:04.840 and I quote Daddy Hope story that his Twitter handled that. Okay, okay, 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.600 his residence looks like a sex he then apparently okay, yeah, 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:11.200 I don't know what they look like, but you could 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:16.480 like it's it's obvious, like he's obviously like disinformation about 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.760 him personally. It's a big fucking issue for this guy. Yeah. 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.120 Dot com is just a great example of live verification 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:37.240 on Twitter is an important it's a wonderful example of that. Garrison. Now, 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.000 the responses to this guy continued to be pretty amazing. 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.120 Another fun reply was simply I thought that in Zimbabwe 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:51.400 they arrest only white folks. Oh, has that person got 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.880 a picture of like a some kind of white guy 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.680 very short shorts? And yeah, yeah he's some some some 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:01.480 serious Rhodesian ship on that dude's timeline. Now, I want 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:03.800 to note most of the responses to Hopeful are very 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.920 positive um and all of the negative replies have multiple 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.720 people attacking the people who are going after hope Well 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.840 and defending him. Because Twitter works the way that it does, 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:16.880 though this increases engagement provides an algorithmic boost to everybody involved. 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.240 The whole situation in his replies is kind of as 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.320 bleak and hopeless as Hopell's initial reply is itself hopeful. 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.120 Scrolling down further, the applies to Musk's tweet. We get 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.120 this gym from the skin doctor, and this is somebody 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.600 just like tweeting his his advice to Ellen. How about 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.640 privileged classes like white straight men and women upper cast 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.240 Hindus pay a hundred dollars for their blue ticks. You 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.160 keep eight dollars each from it and pay the rest 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.600 ninety two dollars to oppressed classes blue tickers like rich communists, 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:50.000 LGBT doll its feminists, left journals, vegans, peta fair. No, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.880 this one is quite the response that it has. It 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.760 has seventy dred likes, which makes sense because the skin 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.600 Doctor has more than half million followers. He is a 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:06.359 Hindu dermatologist from Flower Mount, Texas who posts like pro 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:12.440 Hindu fascist content Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. He also posts 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.560 right wing sketch comedy videos about how a modern Titanic 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.119 sinking wouldn't put women and children first because of wokeness. Um. 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:27.760 He's an incredible account. I recommend following the skin Doctor. Yeah, 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.800 this is the world that are our wants. Yeah, and 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.720 this is like yeah. The responses of his to his 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.640 tweet are another perfect microcosm of Twitter, because a big 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:39.280 part of it is he has this like long fight 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.639 with another right winger who doesn't get the joke and 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:47.600 attacks him for being woke, and also gets thousands of yes, 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.600 it's so good. Um, and it's probably you know, fair 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:55.280 for me to talk just a little bit about the 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.639 liberal lefty you know must reply guys, the ones who 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.720 reply it to one of his posts, but attacking him. 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:05.000 So let's talk about Eric Davis, a verified candidate for 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:11.919 the North Carolina Statehouse with fifty four followers. Um, not 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.560 a lot of followers. He is a Democrat. Uh, and 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:17.600 he seems to be trying to draft off of Musk's 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.359 replies to increase his own popularity. And that this was 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.240 you know, prior to the election. Uh, we should check 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:28.960 in on how Eric Davis did in North Carolina for him. 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:31.800 And then I just love that, like all his replying 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:36.159 just landed with people like it's very funny. Yeah, his 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.480 reply shows a total lack of understanding about what's happening 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.640 with Twitter. Quote. Wait, so Twitter was perfectly fine before 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:44.919 the supposedly richest man took control, but now that it 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:46.879 has even more money and got rid of many of 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.439 the workers, so it's even cheaper to sustain now it 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.000 can't survive without paying That is part logic for the 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.240 Musk fan base. I guess, which is completely wrong. Twitter 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.000 hasn't was not making money. Twitter was losing hundreds of 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.040 millions of dollars a year and now makes even less money. 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:04.440 But anyway, Um, it's got three hundred and seventy four likes, 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:06.920 which is one of the biggest tweets this particular candidate 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.480 has had, by the way, that that is h he know, Wait, 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:12.840 what are we think the same guy? Did he win 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.040 North Caroline his school board? Oh no, no, no for school. 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.879 But in the general election he got eight thousand votes 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:23.200 and lost by how much? He lost by by fifty 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:29.119 two percent of the vote and got seventy six in 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:34.560 his Yeah, if only, if only fully he tweeted more, 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.520 if only he'd owned Elon Musko a little bit harder 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:44.480 via tweet, that would have flung things. God, that's funny, 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.879 so further down as a political cartoon, and I do 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.200 not understand it, but I am. I'm going to force 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.840 you all to to observe it. I could look at 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.040 it like I can try to explain it. Drop it 0:19:56.040 --> 0:20:01.520 in the chat. So that's the that's the political cartoon. Okay. 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.399 So it's the meme of the guy who's who's walking 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:06.920 with his girlfriend and it's looking at the other woman, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:12.439 except all of their faces are cartoon faces of Elon Mutton, 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.440 Elon Musk's girlfriend. It's wearing a Twitter shirt and he's 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:22.959 looking over at a girl with a red TikTok. What 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:27.359 does this mean? That's a hard question, Robert. You we 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.920 could do a whole semester about what this means. Yeah, 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.159 distracted by Aiden looking at Ellen. It's like ignoring Twitter 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.679 because you're looking over at the red pill. I guess 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:43.560 I don't know you're looking at Also, you like you. 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.239 I don't think it's supposed to meet anything. They all 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:50.560 have his face, which makes it so much more complicated. 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.560 It's a lot going on there. I'm so happy that 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:56.199 none of us have been on the internet enough to 0:20:56.280 --> 0:21:01.120 understand what this means. I'm so proud of us. And lastly, 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.800 there's my very favorite reply from someone called doctor Disrespect 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.679 with a staggering two point four million followers. Do you 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.280 not know who this is? He's some video game player 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.560 he wears like a plate carrier while he's playing video games, 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:21.800 and also public sometimes Oh my god. Anyway, yeah, he 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.679 tweets this to musk. Let the two X give you 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.879 a thought. Allow face scan slash retinal scan into a 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.800 blue check mode, similar to iPhone unlock through face scan, 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.159 but in this case only while scan is active. A 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.440 tweet is created alongside unique code coinciding with that instance. 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:42.640 Let's wake up Ellen. This has eight thousand three two lines. 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:48.720 Who the fund is this guy? Okay, so he's like 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:50.960 he's like, he's an FPS streamer, right, like he was 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:52.960 like a big condrom. He he does just like whole 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.919 thing because he stopped. He's the first, he's the first 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:04.200 person shooter streamer. He plays Call of Duty, among other things. Yeah, 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:10.280 he got banned from Twitch for doing something that like, well, 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:13.040 I think she was she the guy who got bank 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.199 he took a video and why are you asking us? 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:17.920 I think he might be the guy who got banned 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.119 for taking a video in a in a in a bathroom. 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:22.119 I can't remember exactly. He's also okay. So one of 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:24.080 the things he's most famous for is he's one of 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.000 the people who are there's this entire cadre of like 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:29.879 professional like Call of Duty streamers whose entire thing is 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:32.000 that they don't want there to be ranked batchmaking and 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:34.800 video games because they don't like playing against good players 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:36.440 and they want to be able to stream pub stomps 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:38.480 all the time. And they're really really mad about this 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:40.359 and have been screaming at every game deav who has 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:43.199 like ever existed for like multiple years now about how 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.920 they suck. Like, so he's the guy video games, Yeah, 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:49.399 he wasn't. He's also mad about people who are good 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:55.440 at it. He's really annoying he's okay, okay, that's all. 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:58.440 That's all. That's all we need to know about this fellow. Yeah, 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:02.199 that's the little thing that I wrote about that I 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:04.120 couldn't get out of my head. I don't know why. 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:08.200