Incompetents Acting Incompetently, Part 1

It’s not going well for our friends on the left

I haven’t published anything in a little while. For the last couple of months, the news out of Ukraine and in the culture here in America has been depressing. I love writing about culture… but I don’t love piling on the “we are all screwed” bandwagon.

First of all, I don’t think we are all screwed. Actually, I am quite sure that we are going to be just fine. It’s just that we’ve managed to find ourselves in a bit of a perfect storm of incompetent crazy people having an unnatural level of influence on the culture lately.

I am confident that this is temporary. Bad ideas don’t need to be shouted down or artificially silenced… given enough time, they always crumble under their own weight as the inevitable consequences become undeniable. For example, we don’t really have to explain why it was a bad idea to defund the police. Anyone with two braincells to bump together knew what would happen.

Honestly, I kind of enjoyed watching the debate. Anyone who was even a little bit warm to the idea is a complete idiot who can be talked into anything by waving a shiny object in front of them, and I now know who they are. That’s a useful piece of knowledge about someone.

However, all of a sudden, in the last few weeks, we have watched the culture begin to turn. The hard left has been the driving force of our culture for the last decade or so. Finally, their stranglehold on American discourse has begun to slip. #metoo is over, you can’t cancel people anymore just by calling them racist for no reason, even corporations are facing consequences for punishing their own revenue sources to appease the mob.

The left isn’t particularly known for the stoicism either. There is rending of garments and great gnashing of teeth. There are public meltdowns. Talking heads, pink haired sex freaks online, and even in the New York Times are all openly lamenting the undeniable cultural turn away from their elite values. And I have to tell you, I’m here for it. I love it like ice cream at the beach.

So, for my return to the page, I present a series of articles about culture. We will take a look at a few areas where the hard left’s influence is slipping and attempt to illuminate what led them down that primrose path, the sweet smelling, pleasurable road that leads directly to Hell. And of course, we will laugh at their silliness.

Part 1: Twitter

If you want to find out if something is important to someone, take it away from them and see what happens.

What is Twitter anyway, and why does anyone care who owns it?

Twitter is by far the smallest of the major social media platforms. It hosts a mere fraction of the people who are on The Facebook, Instagraph, Snap Funt, Tick Tacks, and whatever other programs with which those crazy kids are using to send pictures of each other’s boobies and other naughty parts.

Beyond its lackluster marketshare, Twitter is also an incredibly bad business model. It is terribly difficult to monetize as a platform. While the other platforms serve as massive information gatherers (Google) or advertising platforms (The Facebook, Insta, etc…), or offer “pay options” like here on Substack, it is uniquely difficult to effectively advertise on Twitter.

The phone app, which is how almost everyone uses Twitter, is no more than a stream of 280 character vignettes from people or subjects the user has chosen to follow. A user can also post video or photos or links to other sites. It’s not complicated. It doesn’t offer a particularly immersive experience, and in short… it’s a bit antiquated. Most people aren’t on it and many who are on it don’t use it very much.

It is also a notoriously combative platform as semi-anonymous people attack each other, troll each other, and generally act like classless heathens. Over the years, this has led Twitter to enact content moderation policies. And because the people who work there are all Democrats, the result has been to not eliminate the abusive content, but instead to censor ideological opponents and inconvenient political developments. Quelle surprise.

Leave it to a group of leftists to solve the problem of racists calling black people the “n-word” by suspending the New York Post’s account after they published a story about the President's son’s drug addled, weird sex addicted, corruption. Oh yeah… and they didn’t actually stop racism… on Twitter or anywhere else.

Okay, but why are all these talking heads on TV and elsewhere in media acting like this is the end of the world? Who could possibly care about this?

That is an interesting question. There was no similar freak out when Jeff Bezos (at the time the world’s richest man) bought the Washington Post. There doesn’t seem to be any real consternation over the fact that The Facebook and Instadong are completely controlled by one billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg. Why are they upset that billionaire electric car manufacturer and celebrated space cadet, Elon Musk, is purchasing Twitter?

The answer is that Twitter’s power doesn’t come from how many people are on it, or how much money the platform makes… It comes from which people are on it and who controls it.

The United States has an elite class. While we tout ourselves as being an egalitarian people, and while it is true that there is more opportunity to move up and down the class structure in here in America, that doesn’t mean we don’t have an elite class. We do.

The elites in the US are the people who control the culture. They are the reporters and columnists at places like the New York Times. They are the anchors on networks like NBC, CNN, and yes… Fox. They are the movie stars and professional athletes. They are the heads of the Fortune 100 and a few other tech companies. They are the politicians and their circle of lobbyists, staff, and friends.

These elites are all on Twitter. They use it to get their news and speak with each other. They are designated as elites by having a small blue check mark next to their profile name. It’s a little badge they give to themselves that says, “I am an important person”.

With this little blue check mark, you are given certain privileges. You can reach out to other blue check marked people directly and talk to them in their DMs (direct messages, like a private message). More people will follow you if you have a blue check mark and you are much more likely to have your tweet quoted in media. Understand, that among elites, that little blue check mark is of their most prized possessions. It’s the pass that identifies them as members of the club.

You can’t buy the little blue check mark and you can’t just ask for it. According to Twitter, you must be “authentic, notable, and active”. You’ll notice that two of those three requirements are entirely subjective. Oh, and it’s worth noting that they make sure you know that you can lose your little blue check mark any time for about any reason… So you better behave or they’ll banish you back to the hinterlands with the rest of the peasants.

Note the below clip from the documentary film L.A. Story where Steve Martin tries to get his account verified in the early 90’s.

So, it’s just a silly rich people toy? What’s the big deal?

Twitter is certainly a silly rich people toy… but it isn’t just a silly rich people toy. Like it or not, what gets posted on Twitter by people with little blue check marks drives a huge part of modern American mainstream discourse.

The reporters at America’s largest news operations gauge the mood of the country and popular opinion by what is filling their Twitter feeds. Have you ever seen an article online or in the paper that says; “many people are saying…” or "controversy erupted when … happened” or my personal favorite “company x is facing backlash after … blah blah blah”? Well, all of that comes from whatever the reporter saw on Twitter.

Seriously, what do you think is more likely? That some New York Times reporter actually went to the Quaker Oats headquarters to see if anyone actually was offended by Cap’n Crunch’s celebration of colonialism while not acknowledging the queer women of color who suffered under the Cap’n’s military assault on the indigenous peoples of the South Pacific… Or do you think, perhaps, the reporter just chatted back and forth on Twitter with some pink haired freak grad student with bone in her nose about how all white men suck?

*Hint* It’s the second one.

Well, why are they so concerned about Elon? He’s an elite. He’s the richest man in the world and he makes electric cars. What’s the problem here?

The problem is that Elon Musk can’t be controlled. Other market makers and captains of industry can, but not Elon. The CEO of Apple or Disney or even Jeff Bezos live in fear of bad press. They worry that if they upset the Twitter brigade, that they will lose their station.

For whatever reason, Elon Musk doesn’t seem to really want to be in their club. Therefore he doesn’t really care what they say about him. He has so much money and is so independently popular, they simply can’t hold anything over him. He has demonstrated this time and time again, much to the chagrin of media class.

Let me give you a few examples…

• He criticized the government of California for being anti-business, corrupt, and incompetent. He was roundly mocked by the left and they laughed when he said he would reopen his factory outside of San Francisco despite their COVID insanity. Then he did it.

• They laughed when he said he would move his corporate headquarters to Texas. Then he did it.

• He mocks the SEC on a regular basis and is smacked with hilariously affordable fines which he happily pays.

• He thinks the Babylon Bee is funny and did an interview with them.

• He despises Wall Street and their control over the company he built and has threatened to take Tesla private… Something I believe he will do one day.

• He hangs out with Joe Rogan and smoked pot on his podcast while laughing at the elites.

• He regularly trolls Bill Gates who has no sense of humor.

  

• He made a flamethrower.

• SpaceX is way cooler than Blue Origin.

On top of all of that, Musk has admitted, out loud, the fact that everyone in America knows and for some reason only conservatives admit… that Twitter has regularly taken part in censorship of Republicans, conservatives, Christians, and others not on the left.

Twitter hasn’t even really been secretive about this. They consistently remove tweets, ban conservatives, and censor conservative ideas. They downrank conservative content and make it harder to find.

This behavior all culminated with the Hunter Biden laptop story being disappeared from media in the run up to the 2020 election, and was only made worse by the elevation of Parag Agrawal to CEO of Twitter under whom Twitter’s censorious behavior only increased.

As it turns out, Jack might have not been the worst one there. I know, it surprised me too.

At any rate, with Twitter moving further and further into the censorship camp, they have become the chief backers of the new Democrat idea that the greatest threat facing our democracy is now “misinformation”.

Part 2 of this series will be on that nonsense. At it’s base, the Dems know they are losing the culture and their Hail Mary attempt to get it back is to censoriously control discourse. Twitter is one of the ways they are attempting to do it. Now that avenue is no longer open.

At any rate, the straw that broke the camel’s back for Musk seems to be when the Christian satire site, Babylon Bee, decided to lampoon USA Today’s pick of Woman of the Year, Rachel Levine by naming her / him / whatever Babylon Bee’s Man of the Year.

She is equally Admiral and woman… legally both, but in reality neither.

The Twitter folks objected and demanded that Babylon Bee remove the tweet and suspended their account. Babylon Bee refused to comply because it’s funny and also go screw yourself. Rachel Levine is not a woman. She is a trans-woman… which is a man who likes living as a woman. You can like that or not like that or find it offensive, but it’s still true. That’s the comment that the Babylon Bee was making and this being America and all, they have every right to make that comment.

Shortly after the Babylon Bee’s suspension, Elon Musk put out a poll on Twitter asking his 80 million followers if they thought that Twitter respected free speech. The results were unsurprising.

What was surprising was that a week later he announced that he had acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter and was now their largest shareholder. The Twitter board of directors, fearing a hostile takeover of the famously poorly run company, offered Musk a board seat and a vote on the happenings at the company.

This was an obvious attempt to silence him. My guess is that Musk knew this from the beginning and in the end, he rejected the offer of a board seat and instead offered to purchase the entire company at a premium and take it private. Long story short, the offer was accepted. As it turns out… No board member was willing to get sued into the poor house because woke sex freaks are angry.

His plans for Twitter have been relatively opaque… which I guess is one of the benefits of taking a company private. You don’t really have to tell everyone what you are going to do with it. However he has made several statements that have caused concern among the elite. Among other things, he says he’s planning to:

• Fire the board and executive team

• Make free speech on the platform a priority

• Restore some banned accounts

• Keep content moderation to within the bounds of the 1st Amendment

• Use temporary bans more than permanent bans

• Make the algorithm public so that everyone can see why posts do what they do

Personally, it all sounds just fine to me. Having said that, I am decidedly not part of the blue check marked elite. I don’t really tweet, although Line of Fire does have a Twitter handle. Honestly, I don’t really care what happens to Twitter as long as it stops being used as a cudgel against ideas not blessed with the left’s approval.

Well, that and I love watching the left freak out about all this. It’s good, clean fun.

What now?

Losing control of Twitter is only one area where the left is losing it’s grip on the culture. In the next few articles, we will explore some other areas including the demise of CNN+, the rise of unwoke corporations, the disappearance of most squad members, the hiding of Fauci, and more!

I’m happy to be back in my chair and inspired to write again.

God bless all of you and look to hear from me again really soon!

—Virgil

Non Sequitur

Hey, Virgil! Where ya been?

I don’t know what to tell you… I have not been inspired to write. It’s the first time in years that I just haven’t had anything to say. I have started article after article and found that the words on the page were uninspired, unoriginal, illiterate blither.

Here are a few topics I’ve tried to write about over the last couple of months and what the point I would have made:

Topic: Let’s talk about the trans swimmer!

Truth: Let’s not. Everyone with half a brain knows the deal and there’s nothing anyone is willing to do about it. Let’s just not.

Topic: How about the war in Ukraine?

Truth: I have absolutely no idea what the truth is in the war. I don’t believe a syllable of what I’ve been told by any source out there. The only firm opinion I have on it is that I want nothing to do with it.

Topic: Inflation

Truth: Who could have ever predicted that shutting down the economy for over a year and paying everyone to stay home and send money to Jeff Bezos could possibly devalue to the dollar? Oh… everyone predicted that. Next…

Topic: Crime

Truth: I’m against it. Next…

Topic: Justice Kentaji Jackson

Truth: I’m sorry Miss Jackson, I did not mean to make your daughter cry, but nobody cares… least of all me. It’s a liberal replacing a liberal. It is worth noting that the last time Joe Biden picked a black woman for no other reason than she was a black woman, we got Kamala Harris… I’m sure this woman will be a disaster too… but whatever.

Topic: Disney and their alphabet people.

Truth: Every time I watch a tiny minority of freaks at a company bully a CEO into making a hostage video, I always ask myself… If he is that weak and spineless and is the CEO of Disney, why aren’t I more rich and powerful? The answer has yet to present itself.

Topic: Critical Race Theory in schools

Truth: The GOP should write “Thank You” notes and send vegan muffin baskets to every school official pushing it. It’s as if they saw how well “Defund the Police” went for them and decided to do it with peoples’ children. Having said that… never underestimate the ability of Republicans to overplay their hand…

Topic: Will Smith welcoming Chris Rock to Earf.

Truth: The culture has become trash. No good movies are being written. No interesting characters are being created. No valuable stories are being told. The result of that is a self satisfied admitted cuckold feeling the need to act like an ass, and a group of people too stupid to do anything in this world beyond make-pretend applauded him for it. Not only am I not surprised, I am happy that they decided to show themselves for the low, classless, dim, self indulgent narcissists that they are… And yes, I mean all of them.

Topic: Executive action on guns by Biden

Truth: Maybe just fund police departments, arrest criminals, and keep people who commit crimes with guns in prison where they belong. But what do I know… I don’t even work for CNN+.

Topic: That horrible WaPo reporter Taylor Lorenz

Truth: WaPo is the worst rag on the planet. Every VMI person knows that. I hope they all get cancer of the eyeballs. This horrid Lorenz woman has made her entire career doxxing private citizens from high school students to old women on the Facebook. She seems to fit well into her new job at WaPo. A pox on all their houses.

Okay… All caught up. Happy Saturday all!

—V