For the sake of this post, I'll make two assumptions that may or may not apply to you. First, you use Twitter. Second, you are not a fan of Elon Musk. What's the best argument for leaving Twitter now that Elon has taken over? That's simple. Do you want to contribute to his already obscene wealth? If not, that's your reason for leaving.
Staying on the platform in any capacity enriches Elon. You've seen celebrities like George Takei boasting about how they'll "stay and fight." They are fooling themselves. Their continued presence means more money for Elon. The more they "fight," the better Elon will do.
The progressives saying they won't let Elon "chase me off" are missing the point. He doesn't want to chase them off. The more users he has, the more money he can charge advertisers. This means more money for him. The last thing he wants is for anybody to leave.
Can any sane person think Elon doesn't want the liberals to fight him on Twitter? Why did Truth Social fail? The conservatives who flocked there found themselves without suitable sparing partners. They became bored. The same will happen at Tribel.
Elon knows this. Conflict sells. If the conflict dries up, people will leave. The advertisers will go with them. The platform will fail.
Liberals could stick it to Elon by killing Twitter themselves. Suppose enough of them left - not threatened to leave without leaving - but deleted their accounts. The number of users on the platform would plummet. Advertisers would pull their ads and go elsewhere. Twitter's revenue stream would dry up. A desperate Elon would try a subscription-based model. This would crash and burn. Twitter would be over.
But liberals don't want to kill Twitter anymore than they want to stop buying Elon's crappy cars. Few will admit it, but they enjoy conflict as much as their conservative counterparts. The "stay and fight" mentality reveals that. Consider how many liberals remain on Facebook despite everything they know about it. Their addiction to conflict is stronger than their humanism.
Too harsh? It could be. I haven't deleted my Twitter account yet either. I don't like that this means I am supporting someone I despise, but that is what it means. I won't pretend otherwise. I won't hide behind any "stay and fight" nonsense.
I have been exploring Tribel and Mastodon. I was curious to see what BlueSky Social might have in store until I read this.
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
