Twitter is dead. Long live twitter.
I used that godforsaken social media microblogging website/app for much of my waking life since the year 2009. I used it to the extent that I could not imagine a life without it. I started every day with twitter, procrastinated during work with twitter, ate lunch and dinner amidst a mindless scroll of tweets on my phone, and wasted precious hours every night on twitter instead of going to sleep on time. Not only did I solely rely on twitter for all my news and sports consumption, I think I experienced what might be the absolute zenith of human creativity and humor. People are so goddamn smart. Nobody made me laugh hysterically the way thousands of strangers on twitter did. The laughter would turn to sarcastic smirks when some really funny shit I saw on twitter would be sent to me days or weeks later by friends who found screenshots on facebook or instagram or whatsapp. Twitter was truly a one-of-a-kind congregation of minds. In a way, it made me feel so superior to anybody who did not use it at all- probably not a good thing, in hindsight.
Anyway, twitter had been on a severe decline for years before Elon Musk—human equivalent of an error in your code you simply cannot get rid of to the point where it makes you smash your laptop into a thousand pieces—took it over. He accelerated the destruction and made something that was an integral part of my life into something that was an absolute chore to be on, something that was straight up evil and a vessel for the most reprehensible souls alive. It should be no secret to anyone that Musk made this happen because of how much he hates the progressivism / general leftism of opinions on twitter, its usage as an organizing space against injustice, and its ability to bring nihilistic joy to millions in a cynical, “I want to die but at least I’m laughing around with likeminded people” kind of way. Despite the obvious contributions of twitter to the rise of Trump the first time around and the strengthening of extreme right wing philosophies the world over, twitter to me was a bastion of left wing ideology impossible to find anywhere else. I loved learning from activists and scholars who have dedicated their lives to causes ranging from medicare for all to cancelling student debt to enforcing radical climate protections to easing immigration restrictions to defunding the police to generally creating more acceptance and love for marginalized folks.
Well, all of that is gone now. Sure, there is some semblance of activism and humor still alive on twitter, but you can tell it’s absolutely not the same anymore and never will be. Being on twitter now is just reading racist tweet after racist tweet, rape apologia and “anti-woke” rants, advertisements for the absolute worst and most offensive products ever created, and just the stupidest thoughts and opinions of people who should never have been given access to a functioning internet. Like many others, I have embraced Bluesky and can only pray that it attains 1% of the status twitter did in its heyday, long before it was a sanctuary city for white supremacy. The horrific election result—enabled primarily by the endless wealth of the stupid asshole who owns my once favorite social media platform—has irrevocably changed my relationship with twitter. My account is now private and I’ve bled hundreds of followers for whatever reason. I will permanently delete the account soon, and be free once and for all…
As an ode to the good old days of twitter, I compiled a list of my all time favorite tweets. To anybody reading this- I hope they bring you as much joy as they brought me over the years. I’m almost certainly missing some other tweets I absolutely love, but this list should help capture what made twitter so uniquely great.
