We’ve heard everyone’s take so far on Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter outright and take it private, and the consensus seems to be that it would be “a death blow to the free world,” as long-verified Twitter user and Salon writer Matthew Rozsa put it. We haven’t heard a lot of conservative takes about it; well, we have, but we’re talking about Principled Conservatives™ in this instance. David French, for example, has a piece in The Atlantic suggesting that free speech is one thing, but making Twitter even more toxic (if that’s possible) is another thing altogether.
“It’s one thing to change Twitter to make it more fair,” @DavidAFrench writes. “It’s another thing entirely to change Twitter to make it more toxic.” https://t.co/4zkFeWt4Ue
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) April 14, 2022
Sorry, it’s a subscriber-only post so we can’t clip the highlights for you, so we’ll just have to go with “Why Elon Musk Won’t Fix Twitter.” But we can post these:
Musk is trying to buy a broken website.
Lots of folks have a hate/need relationship with Twitter. They hate the social dynamics, but they feel like they still need to reach their peers and their followers.
If it gets more toxic, hate will override need: https://t.co/pB5CTLvReq
— David French (@DavidAFrench) April 14, 2022
The real challenge here isn't that speech is too constricted (though there is some unfairness in moderating that should be addressed) but that the user experience is increasingly miserable. The more Twitter gets like Gab, the less viable it will be: https://t.co/pB5CTLvReq
— David French (@DavidAFrench) April 14, 2022
You know you’re doing something right when David French is against you.
— B (@MyManBlue) April 14, 2022
I wonder what changed since 2018… pic.twitter.com/PDoUvihreF
— BigJim (@BigJimNCPA) April 14, 2022
— Zachary T Craig (@ZacharyTCraig1) April 14, 2022
Free speech is bad now huh?
— Brew (@brewskiiiiii) April 14, 2022
This is particularly perfect coming from the team that just last week used Twitter to defame me by viciously and falsely accusing me of calling someone a child molester when I did not. https://t.co/SFcNdhn97W
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 14, 2022
The guy who writes an article every 15 minutes describing his "new" thought on how evangelicals have sold their souls to Satan is worried about toxic media? 🤔
— Fuzzy Chimp 🇺🇸 (@fuzzychimpcom) April 14, 2022
"The conservative case for keeping conservatives off the online public square."
— Deuce Bonnaroo (@305Independent) April 14, 2022
Define toxic, then define woman.
— Gareth (@soundbytte) April 14, 2022
Toxic = "things Democrats don't like"
— InTheRightColumn (@TheRightColumn) April 14, 2022
If you don't like a website there are others.
— Clyde Wayne Crews Jr (@wayne_crews) April 14, 2022
It’s going to get detoxing.
— Steve Froehlich🦇 (@red_pana) April 14, 2022
When truth becomes toxic the problem is not how you become offended but why.
— MindlessDeplorable (@Keith_C) April 14, 2022
I struggle to think of anything more toxic than Twitter. Opening it up to more diverse voices would be a huge improvement.
— Eric Grate (@thegrateeric) April 14, 2022
What’s “fair” in your world? Twitter cannot be more toxic than it already is, with conservative voices being silenced while narco-communists and philo-terrorists can say whatever lies they want and use an unlimited number of troll farms to silence free speech.
— Marilu Ontaneda (@mariluniluni) April 14, 2022
Imagine being wrong on every single topic
— Ingenuous Firebrand (@ING2Firebrand) April 14, 2022
This is absurd. I guess when the grift is good enough, you'll write anything.
— SowellFood (@SowellFood) April 14, 2022
Oh David French has an opinion everybody pic.twitter.com/iikGYUzk2R
— Big Eva’s Court Jester, Millstone Connoisseur (@WokeBigEva) April 14, 2022
Start your own platform, you whiny bitch.
— Keith ☃️☃️☃️Burton (@bbeekk321) April 14, 2022
Hey, let’s keep that toxic attitude off of Twitter now.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.
Related:
David French says that redefining the word ‘groomer’ is pure malice, also brings Donald Trump into it https://t.co/WIeXi6xrsZ
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 5, 2022
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