I've bowed out of Twitter. Possibly forever, at least I hope so. I still post there, but I'm not using it anymore: no likes, no retweets, I'm not even reading other people's tweets. Twitter is now just a posting board where I write stuff like announcements for new blog posts or links to things I find interesting. You can "like" my stuff, retweet it or not, I don't care. This is just a one-way affair for me now.

This has come as part of a growing problem I've been noticing with Twitter and a few other social networks. I'm not alone of course: people are leveraging network effects to destroy others. Often these attacks are based on lies or just bad information, but the common thread is that it's always an overwhelming planetary overreaction resulting in a mob calling for someone's head. It's idiotic, a toxic nightmare wrapped in addiction to rage-bait.

I had to cut myself out for the good of my own soul: I'm sure I've been part of the problem at one point or another, and it was a matter of time before I became a target of the mob.

If you're a Twitter user, you know the feeling: you have a thought or opinion that you know might be misconstrued, misunderstood, or even deliberately taken out of context. You choose not to share that thought, for fear of losing your job and having your name somehow associated with Nazism, trasphobia, or racism. This is cancel culture and contrary to what many on the Left like to pretend, it absolutely is a problem in our ranks.

There are small groups of horrible people who fancy themselves Warriors for Good that will happily leverage hordes of hate and abuse at people for a tweet. They will dig into your history, misrepresent you to your employer, your friends, and your family all in an effort to somehow "win" and get rid of you. These people use Twitter like the Church used blasphemy laws: the goal is always the same: control language to promote orthodoxy.

I've felt this way for a while, but didn't have a fire set under me until Lindsay Ellis posted this rock-solid takedown of the whole affair she's been dealing with. It's long, but I strongly encourage you to watch it. Go get yourself a slice of pie and cup of coffee and just take it in. Maybe it'll inspire you the way it did me.

She makes a lot of solid points in there, but the one that stands out the most for me is the fact that these people only attack those who feel shame: those of us capable of reasoned reflection are also the kinds of people who would be disturbed by this form of attack. We're also the kinds of people who could have a rational conversation about the subject, but these people don't want a rational conversation. They want blood.

The actually horrible people, the Nazis, the transphobes, the racists: they don't care. True to form though, the Left Eats Itself at every opportunity.

So I'm checking out of Twitter. It's a company that drives chaos for financial gain, that profits from pain and suffering, and I'm ashamed to admit that I've very likely been a part of it. That is, until now.