The New Rise of Twitter

The BUSINESS of GOVERNMENT Should NEVER be Relegated to a Private Outlet

Most people I know personally have left Twitter. They don’t like what Elmo did to it. They believe they can find whatever they need and want from other outlets. I have stayed with Twitter. I don’t post anymore, and I’ve been stripping away my posts (going back to 2007). I rarely comment, but I do, sometimes. I have not updated my app, and it still shows as the little bird from when it was THE place for up-to-date information.

Due to the staffing cuts, going forward, the Social Security Administration will cease sending press releases, and instead leverage Twitter for all their public information. Not making this up. The Department of State has a large presence there, also, albeit they are still sending press releases, for now. CDC is using Twitter for its daily updates, instead of their website. It’s likely that other branches of the Federal government will follow suit going forward.

THIS IS HORRENDOUS!!!

The BUSINESS of GOVERNMENT should NEVER be relegated to a private outlet.

But here we are.

In addition, Twitter is, VERY SADLY, still the place to go for accurate information on various disease outbreaks worldwide, as well as international information not found elsewhere. (Unless you read the press from other countries.)

I am not shilling for Elmo Muskrat. I’m just pointing out that Twitter is objectively a place for information that is either not available elsewhere, or only available after someone pulls it off Twitter and posts it somewhere else, writes about it in the MSM, or talks about it on television.

There is historical context here.

When fascists take over, one of the first things they want is the power of the press so that they can control “truth”. And at the same time, control of the lawyers and the judiciary, but the latter is a post for another day.

We have seen the MSM cower. And one of the reasons they lack the ability to fight back is because so many of us have ceased to subscribe. It’s a downward vicious cycle. MSM is now readership-driven, rather than advertising-driven. Fewer subscribers mean fewer dollars for salaries and bureaus. Leading to less ability to gather news. Leading to less news. Eventually, it will be incredibly easy for the fascist regime to completely dismantle what little is left of the MSM. Yes, well aware that this smacks of “blaming the victim”.

Yeah, yeah….I hear you. The MSM has let you down. MSNBC fired people you loved, and Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Simone Sanders-Townsend, Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez, Ali Velshi, and Katie Phang aren’t filling your void. So you don’t watch MSNBC. You abandoned CNN for similar reasons last year, Jim Acosta being the last straw. You left the Times because they weren’t anti-Cheeto enough last year. You left the Post when Bezos showed what an a**hole he was. I GET IT.

Many, even most, people abandoned local media years ago, and it led to a complete hollowing-out of local newspapers, and many local news stations on both TV and radio. This is now happening at the national level.

And thus, now, we have Twitter as the official news source for far too many things. Face it, even ONE government agency using it as their preferred mode of data transmission is one too many.

For example, if you don’t live in Oregon, and access the local press, you don’t know that there are three cases of, and two deaths from, prion disease. Unless you read Twitter, because CDC didn’t put out a press release.

If you don’t read the European press, you know very little about what is actually going on in Ukraine. Unless you read Twitter. Because the DoD doesn’t want you to know, so it’s not on American news, but they publish all about it in other countries, and they post on Twitter.

If you don’t read the South China Morning Post, you miss a lot of the context on what China is doing relative to the trade war. Unless you read Twitter. Because the whole fascist regime REALLY doesn’t want you to know.

So what do we do to get news and information OFF of Twitter as the primary source, and back into the media, where it belongs?

First and foremost, complain to your reps, especially about the SSA using Twitter since most people don’t get their Social Security information from Twitter. It is completely up to Congress to make Social Security work for all Americans. And it’s appalling that hardly any elected officials (except Bernie Sanders) is truly out and about talking to voters. Yes, some other Congressmen and women are talking to their constituents, but only Bernie and AOC went on a national tour, and only Bernie was at Coachella over the weekend. The overall silence is deafening.

Second, support the MSM - yeah, that’s right. Subscribe to a newspaper or two (and write letters to the editor) and start watching TV again. Write to your TV hosts (some are on Bluesky and Substack, and yes, some are only on Twitter, and they all have email addresses) and point out local things that you ferret out that they should cover. Like, for example, the fact that six medical personnel who work in the Newton-Wellesley Hospital fifth-floor maternal care labor and delivery unit have contracted benign brain tumors. Here’s a link sourced from Twitter. I don’t necessarily believe what’s on Twitter until I check the local sources.

Bottom line: one of the most important things we need today is legitimate information in the face of the propaganda coming out of the government. We need to find ways to get the government to communicate with the general public like they did up until several weeks ago.

We need to help rebuild the press. I hear you saying “but no, there’s TikTok”. To the best of my knowledge no one from TikTok has been asking questions in the halls of Congress or on Air Force One — generally that’s only legitimate journalists (and yes, the AP won in court).

WE NEED JOURNALISTS — and we need them to be doing their jobs.

I hate that I have to see anything on Twitter, other than the 15-second dog videos I really treasure, ESPECIALLY I hate that it is the source for so much critical information that I have to write about, and that I can’t easily source elsewhere.

I’m not advocating that YOU join Twitter — but if you do, make sure to set up a fake non-disappearing email account under an alias.