To state the obvious, Elon Musk taking over Twitter is not just about Musk taking over a social network

Illiberalism

Fig. 1. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Ishaan Tharoor, “Brazil’s election offers even more intense echo of U.S. culture war,” Washington Post, October 27, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/10/27/brazil-culture-war-election/

Greg Sargent, “The hidden danger lurking behind Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover,” Washington Post, October 28, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/28/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-russia-ukraine-war-big-tech/

Fig. 1. “Destroyed Russian military vehicles located on the main street Khreshchatyk are seen as part of the celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine in Kyiv, August 24.” Photograph by Gleb Garanich for Reuters, August 24, 2022,^[1] fair use.

British Broadcasting Corporation, “Ukraine war: Russian tactics on eastern front ‘crazy’, says Zelensky,” October 27, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63408506

Catherine Belton, “Russia’s security service works to subvert Moldova’s pro-Western government,” Washington Post, October 28, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/28/russia-fsb-moldova-manipulation/

Twitter

Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,^[2] fair use.

I finally broke down and created a page with all the articles I’ve archived in this long, sorry saga. I have not yet decided to categorize it under Gilead, but we’ll see what happens: Greg Sargent points to a number of risks, including that Twitter may become far friendlier for the competitive authoritarian regime project and to illiberalism generally.^[3]

I guess what I would say about Twitter alternatives^[4] is that none of them really hit the spot for me. I have set up a Discord server (contact me for an invitation) and, as of now, I think this is the closest I’m going to get. What you do with Discord is sign up with servers that seem interesting, on a similar theory to that as you follow folks on Twitter, but they each have their own feeds, usually more than one, and there’s no way to combine these feeds into a single feed anything like you have on Twitter or Facebook.

Every time I look at Mastodon, I’m perplexed as to which server to sign up with and, to be honest, not really comfortable with any of them. In theory, I could start my own, but my experience with this sort of project is that you really need database expertise to fix the problems that inevitably crop up, and I don’t.

Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/

Rebecca Bellan, “Now Elon Musk says he won’t fire 75% of Twitter’s staff,” TechCrunch, October 26, 2022, https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/26/now-elon-musk-says-he-wont-fire-75-of-twitters-staff/

Sheila Dang, “Exclusive: Twitter is losing its most active users, internal documents show,” Reuters, October 26, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-where-did-tweeters-go-twitter-is-losing-its-most-active-users-internal-2022-10-25/

Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022

Elon Musk, “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” Twitter, October 26, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585341984679469056

the bird is freed

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022

Elon Musk, “the bird is freed,” Twitter, October 28, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585841080431321088

Faiz Siddiqui and Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Top Twitter executives fired as Elon Musk takeover begins,” Washington Post, October 27, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/27/twitter-elon-musk/

Lauren Thomas and Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk Twitter Deal Completed, CEO and CFO Immediately Fired,” Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-completes-twitter-takeover-11666918031

Jeremy C. Owens, “Elon Musk on the hook to pay more than $200 million to 3 fired Twitter execs,” MarketWatch, October 28, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-must-pay-more-than-200-million-to-3-fired-twitter-execs-11666927154

Heather Kelly, “You’ve decided to quit Twitter. Here’s what you can use to replace it,” Washington Post, October 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/29/twitter-alternatives/

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence

Fig. 1. “A woman reacts at a makeshift memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday’s shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Oct. 29, 2018,” photograph by Cathal McNaughton for Reuters, via ABC News, October 29, 2018,^[5] fair use.

Justin Vellucci, “Pittsburgh’s soaring homicide rate leaves officials baffled,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 27, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburghs-soaring-homicide-rate-leaves-officials-baffled/

Eric Jankiewicz, “Funeral shooting in Brighton Heights reflects cycle of violence and spiral of pain, advocates and officials say,” Public Source, October 28, 2022, https://www.publicsource.org/brighton-heights-funeral-shooting-pittsburgh-gun-violence-homicide/

Justin Vellucci, “Police: 6 people shot outside Brighton Heights church,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 28, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/police-respond-to-shooting-scene-in-brighton-heights/

^[1]Reuters, “Ukraine puts destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv,” August 25, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ukraine-puts-destroyed-russian-tanks-on-idUSRTSALV9Q ↩
^[2]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
^[3]Greg Sargent, “The hidden danger lurking behind Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover,” Washington Post, October 28, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/28/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-russia-ukraine-war-big-tech/↩
^[4]Heather Kelly, “You’ve decided to quit Twitter. Here’s what you can use to replace it,” Washington Post, October 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/29/twitter-alternatives/↩
^[5]Bill Hutchinson et al., “Pittsburgh synagogue-shooting suspect wheeled into courtroom; Trump to visit city Tuesday,” ABC News, October 29, 2019, https://abcnews.go.com/US/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-suspect-discharged-hospital-set-make/story?id=58825389 ↩

Irregular Bullshit