There is no benefit to anyone on the left being on twitter.
Nina Turner tweeted "Insulin should be free." some libertarians responded "Nina should pick cotton for free."
Did this obvious racism hurt them? No, they now have more followers than ever. Being over there is just being bait for these extremists to build their network.
Grotesque racist images of Nina, rather than being demoted by the algorithm are being promoted since the people posting them paid for blue checks.
Which is weird because I feel like I have definitely done this before, that first time a post left my orbit and the reply guys descended upon it to feast.
Maybe I just turned off notifications for Mastodon entirely? 🤷♀️
Nina Turner is a piece of shit antisemite, who went to war against the entire Democratic party in her attempt to win the OH11 then when she lost she blamed Jewish Money. Fuck Nina Turner.
Isn't that like someone bringing up slavery then someone else screaming BUT CHICAGO!!!
As in. It's an attempt to derail the conversation from it's initial purposes. That purpose being..pointing out how twitter is a hellscape for black people now.
Thanks for this comment I was having a hard time pinpointing why this response annoyed me so much-- I mean, I don't see anything wrong with being critical of Nina. (Though, I think it's good that she's taken advice and focused on local politics more.)
@futurebird@TruthSandwich@josephramoney@chris You're welcome. I don't see anything wrong with it either. There's just a time and a place. Also, there are always reasons why people do things.
Being critical of Turner does not let the people who attacked her off the hook. It’s not a distraction; it’s a reminder of what’s really going on here.
People like Turner and AOC are frequent targets for reprehensible behavior from the far right, but they are unworthy of our sympathy.
Not only are they undeserving because of their own racism, but because they’re cynically gunning for this sympathy so that we feel compelled to defend and legitimize them.
Turner isn’t an innocent victim, she’s an opportunist who seeks out victimization, such as her claims of a Jewish conspiracy against her.
The far left is antisemitic. Turner is a good example of this, as is Omar, who gets AOC’s full support.
The far right is openly racist. The far left is less open, but not much less racist. An example of this is their reliance on descriptive representation.
antisemitic people exist in any group of people who aren't Jewish, particularly in the US given the long history of antisemitism.
But if you can't see the reaction to Ilan Omar was disproportionate I don't know what to tell you.
It was racist the way the house came down on her so hard while others say far worse, refuse to learn, or apologize & actively try to make the US into a "Christian Nation."
I'd never tell anyone they had to forgive/trust her. But she was targeted.
Yes, of course she was. And so are AOC and Turner. And that was intentional, or at least opportunistic, on their part. They are willing victims.
Look, this deserves a much more thorough response than I can put together on the fly, but there’s more going on here than the surface level. I can try to summarize, but it’s not going to be a full-fledged argument; maybe I need to write up a blog post on this.
Briefly, the far left is extremely cynical about systemic bigotry. On the one hand, their Marxist class reductionism teaches them that it can safely be ignored because it’s just economic anxiety and will magically go away as soon as they finish eating the rich.
This trickle-down approach makes them, at minimum, anti-anti-racist, but there’s also quite a bit of active bigotry in there, with antisemitism and misogyny perhaps the most visible.
On the other hand, their cynicism allows them to make use of purely descriptive representation as a way to immunize themselves from accurate accusations about this topic.
Bluntly, they run skinfolk so that they can play the “I can’t be bigoted because I’m a minority myself” card as well as the “Any criticism of me stems from bigotry” one.
The former is an obvious lie, while the latter is also false but muddled by the fact that there is definitely bigotry involved in the R’s attacks.
However, as I alluded to earlier, these attacks are desired and baited. It makes them seem sympathetic and gets people who ought to know better to rush to their defense.
Anyhow, this is getting long, and I don’t have enough space in this margin for a full proof, so this will have to be my answer for now.
The bottom line is that Twitter has turned into a cesspool for performative culture war combat, and there are no heroes in this. The people attacking Turner are bigoted trash and so is she. I say let them rot.
I can’t see where anyone here said any such thing. Literally nobody is defending the so-called libertarians, not even for a second.
Twitter has become the sort of place where sane people will be unhappy. I say leave it for the crazies. Which is, as it turns out, exactly what that your first post suggested.
So I think we’re just going to have to agree to agree, because I don’t see any disagreement.
@futurebird@TruthSandwich their definition of antisemitic is being critical of Israel. Which is why they also said that Bernie sanders, a descendent of holocaust survivors, was antisemitic
@futurebird@TruthSandwich Unfortunately, Omar has a history of antisemitic remarks. She’s apologized, some accept her apologies and some don’t. But she doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt anymore when speaking on Israel or Jewish issues. I do not agree with anything the House does in relation to her or the Squad as it’s all political BS and much of it racist.
@TruthSandwich@futurebird@josephramoney@chris Here's the problem with that. As a black person i've seen white people bring up any and everything to distract away from racism against black people.
On any and all social media sites. If someone brings up racism against black people. Then certain kinds of white people will bring up something that has nothing to do with black people as a means to change the subject.
The point is Nina likes this type of conflict. The people race baiting her most likely are paid trolls, and Nina know this. She is a poor example to use of the other side behaving poorly. She behaves poorly herself and thinks any attention is beneficial to her.
@TruthSandwich@futurebird@josephramoney@chris So you have racism against a white person happening. And racism against a black person happening. Are they exactly the same? Or is it a matter of racism against black people existing in america WAY WAY more than racism against white people?
Keep in mind. The topic here is racism against black people on twitter.
Because again. The orignal topic was racism against black people on twitter. And now you've targeted how many black politicians now? Effectively changing the subject and forcing me an others to correct you INSTEAD of talking about the original subject.
It's like people bringing up how it was chilly a day or so when the topic of climate change comes up.
I kid. But no one held a gun to your head and MADE you change the subject/topic. No one MADE you continue on with what someone else said. And no one. And i mean no one. Is forcing you to keep talking right now.
Even if you just responded. You could have left it there after seeing that you were derailing a thread. But you didn't. That's no you.
Again, that’s simply not what happened. Someone else brought up the fact that Turner’s a racist, and I responded with the painfully accurate “Both things are true”.
This is the opposite of derailing: I pointed out that Turner’s own guilt does not let her attackers off the hook.
@TruthSandwich@futurebird@josephramoney@chris Here's an aspect of white privilege. Being able to dictate any and all conversations no matter if you're wrong or not. No matter if the subject matter directly effects you or not.
Then being able to say what you want without repercussions/without repercussions being as bad as with people of color/black people.
It's like when a democrat makes a minor mistake on something. And people then scream both sides. Meanwhile, republicans are literally bringing child labor back.
All you're doing is helping the very people (racists) you say you disagree with. I mean. We're here talking about you instead of the subject/topic right? Why do you think that is? How did that happen?
Same. I'm tired.
What Nina said "Insulin should be free." is something I would totally post. I'm certain were I there I'd be getting a low grade version of the same BS.
And reporting it, or calling it out wouldn't do anything.
And god help me for wanting to not be subject to the very most extreme racist attacks if I've ever uttered or thought a single 'wrong thing.' Only perfect black people deserve any sympathy for racism.
Literally. A good oh i don't know. An hour or two ago got chat banned from a game for pointing out that america is and has been majority white by force. That for hundreds of years white people have been way more violent in america than any other race of people.
A fact. A historical fact. Because someone tossed out the black people are violent thing. lol
Not sure if I should just let you have the last word, but out of respect, I want to avoid any further misunderstandings. Perhaps I’ll regret it.
Yes, if you’d posted that perfectly anodyne sentiment about insulin on Twitter, you quite likely would have been attacked by white supremacists just as she was. Maybe even the same ones.
While she’s more prominent, your avatar unfortunately makes you a target for them. (Call me a coward if you wish, but there’s a reason why I’m an anonymous sandwich.)
And, no, reporting wouldn’t have done anything, because Twitter is set up so that leftists are the fish in the barrel that fascists can shoot at. It’s supposed to be a white supremacist hellscape.
If this did happen to you, you’d have my sympathy. And, intellectually, I must admit that it shouldn’t happen to anyone. But, emotionally, I am unable to summon sufficient sympathy for Turner because she’s on par with them.
No, it’s not that people have to be perfect to deserve sympathy. But, for me at least, they have to have the moral high ground and she ceded it when she spouted racist conspiracy theories to explain away why Brown whipped her butt.
I’m going to drop this now. The dead horse does not need further beating.
Nina stays on twitter because she is an #AttentionWhore. Read the first comment from Joe. She is not here to help democrats win, just make herself seen.
@josephramoney@futurebird@chris If @futurebird didn't reveal the person behind the tweet's identity, would you agree? If the argument is correct, who cares who said it? A broken clock is right once at least once every 24 hours. Fuck ad-hominem; that ruins the world.
@futurebird
I know several "Leftist", "progressives" who refuse to leave Twitter and/or Facebook, because "that would hurt my brand", or "but I've cultivated these connections over many years".
More than a few of these lead the charge in organising boycotts against retail outlets or restaurant chains for racist/misogynist/transmisogynist policies, yet refuse to do the same for social media.
@futurebird Could the blue check accounts be fake accounts as well? It is unethical for any business to operate in this fashion publicly and they will be boycotted for expressing racism online.
@futurebird the overwhelming sense of despair I found on Twitter because of the constant posting of valid issues, and the horrible responses of terrible people being retweeted incessantly made it the only choice, had to leave.
@futurebird People being shitty to other people is always a horrible thing. I feel for the person being maligned. That being said I dont tell people what apps they should use. People can make their own decisions. There are whole groups of nerds on twitter who don't care about politics they just want talk star wars or comics or games. They probably never saw the post you mentioned.
@futurebird disagree. I’m mostly still on twitter because I follow a lot of sex workers and, unfortunately, Twitter is the only social media platform that allows sex workers to exist as human beings. (Both for their job, and just as people)
@futurebird I would go further, and suggest no ethical business model can remain on the birdsite. Host your own business site or rebuild your following somewhere else.
@futurebird Most other platforms lack the accessibility architecture (ability for ALtText, screenreader and voice-to-text software compatibility, etc.) that Twitter has so Disabled people ( A LOT of us as also BIPOC and/or otherwise highly marginalized ourselves) are reliant on it for community especially since there is still an active mass disabling pandemic raging.
@futurebird
That is just fucking stupidity on the part of the so-called "libertarians." While true libertarianism is being on the left with social issues and drugs and on the right with guns and money, that statement is just plain old racism.
There is no reason whatsoever for anyone in their right mind to stay on the neonazi BS platform formerly known as the birdsite. I deleted my account soon after Elmo blew $44 billion of the Saudi's money on it.
@futurebird All social media is right wing white supremacy, always was and always will be. Anything white men create will be used to maintain power. While they may "hate" racism, they don't hate the benefits of it. And they marry women of color. Sexual imperialism. It's sickening.
@futurebird
> There is no benefit to anyone on the left being on twitter.
I have accounts for #PrisonAbolition there and here. There is a large community over there, and almost none here. I only post about that here, in my attempt to get folks over here. But until that happens I need to maintain that account over there.
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