Stephen L. Miller, whom you may know better around the Twittersphere as @redsteeze, recently wrote an interesting article about the novel nature of Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Ukraine is the first social media dominated war. My latest for @TheSpectator https://t.co/gewnO9hIcd
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 28, 2022
Glenn Greenwald called it “good and important”:
Good and important article by @redsteeze: this is the first major war understood primarily through the prism of social media — a heavily curated, dissent-cleansed, now-censored social media — and all the group/mob dynamics it fosters are quite visible:https://t.co/Enq7asX8KD
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 2, 2022
Hey, someone read it! https://t.co/RhmVbQ2LiI
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Go figure!
Unfortunately, not everyone took a page from Glenn Greenwald’s book and read past the headline before commenting.
No it’s not. Coverage of the war in Syria was defined by social media. Maybe you missed the last decade.
— Lindsey Hilsum (@lindseyhilsum) March 2, 2022
Lindsey, maybe you missed the day in school when they taught you to read things before commenting on them.
Evidently a lot of people missed that day.
I corrected @redsteeze mistaken headline. #Ukriane pic.twitter.com/k22rIFWHVZ
— Zaina Erhaim (@ZainaErhaim) March 2, 2022
https://t.co/w5PLCLiBdl pic.twitter.com/QkC10aLQZI
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
How do you manage to write an article like this after an entire decade of people talking about social media in the Syria war https://t.co/uqNh74l4n4
— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) March 2, 2022
What other nation state is Syria at war with? Just because it's your own personal bag does not make it the same. https://t.co/KsFxr8LMJS
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Both of these viral photos of young victims of war were taken more than five years ago.
I have a pretty bad memory but I immediately remembered seeing them on social media back then when I saw someone else make this terrible argument. pic.twitter.com/gcYeP0VLqs— Brittany G (@Fibby1123) March 2, 2022
Yes thank you. You've informed everyone you cannot read. https://t.co/WORzwPo60N
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Do the editors at @TheSpectator not have access to Google?
Search for “Syria.”
It’s this Mediterranean country in the Levant.
Prepare to be surprised. This has been happening there for over a decade… https://t.co/nzK77hLIx5
— Timothy E Kaldas (@tekaldas) March 2, 2022
"Why is your piece not about the thing I care about." Said the person who did not read it. https://t.co/wgaNI4wfdm
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Insane. What about Syria?? https://t.co/ipJdpTl7wh
— Jake Hanrahan (@Jake_Hanrahan) March 2, 2022
I can just keep going with this. https://t.co/NhwdTUSkkD
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
You can only write this article or this headline if you've slept through the past 12 years. Virtually every event of the Syrian conflict has been captured on social media, in images, videos, tweets, livestreams, etc. https://t.co/UqXQdOKs3l
— Idrees Ahmad (@im_PULSE) March 2, 2022
He didn't actually read it. https://t.co/tczrWXVlZz
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
It almost seems like there’s a pattern!
Russia and the US have both intervened in Syria. The war has had enormous impacts on Europe's refugee crisis. How is it someone's "personal bag"? Own that you got this one woefully wrong.
— Kristen van Schie (@kristenvanschie) March 2, 2022
Which nation state did Syria invade? This shouldn't be a hard one. https://t.co/QqlTndMU2E
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Oh, is that what we're doing? Redefining the parameters of your article? You didn't mean *all* wars, just invasions? *Re-reads article*. Hm, nope. You definitely didn't specify that.
— Kristen van Schie (@kristenvanschie) March 2, 2022
Well no, you're attempting to redefine the parameters of the article. Thank you for re-reading. https://t.co/XS2jDyoz0b
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
It's a simple question. Why won't you answer it?
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) March 2, 2022
Because it's a red herring meant to deflect criticism from the miserably weak point he tried to make. "I *wrote* "wars" and *tweeted* "wars" but I didn't actually *mean* "wars". And if I did, well, let's just change the definition and say it's only war if somebody gets invaded."
— Kristen van Schie (@kristenvanschie) March 2, 2022
Amazing.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
A whole heap of blue checks who didn't read the assignment. pic.twitter.com/AVC8M5ifpe
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
It happened. pic.twitter.com/zm766fsWcQ
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Because of course it did.
I'm just going to add this image for every time we hear this absurd premise in another western article. It will happen again. https://t.co/HJvb3nmYFX pic.twitter.com/MWg4DHmpvW
— Shaheryar Mirza (@mirza9) March 2, 2022
The piece was not about the thing I care about and therefore is racist. https://t.co/kPhuX85kd3
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
I am convinced that this is actually clickbaiting-through-outrage.
An entirety of last decade we watched Syrian people getting bombed, massacred, oppressed by Assad, Iran & Russia through Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube https://t.co/YYA9GvoPZv
— Yunus Emre Oruç (@defusertt) March 2, 2022
Didn't read the piece. https://t.co/ojpasUenDP
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
it's racist because you've erased an entire decade of conflict and tragedy visited upon Syrians that was meticulously documented on social media.
— Shaheryar Mirza (@mirza9) March 2, 2022
Didn't read the piece. https://t.co/kAq5G1FHji
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
See kids, this is what happens when you only follow white people… and like lived under a rock this past decade. https://t.co/e1fI2eC8GL
— Mahmoud Salem (@Sandmonkey) March 2, 2022
Another one. https://t.co/Wn1C2I2u6O
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Excuse me, your racism is showing.
Just because you weren't paying attention to the wars in Yemen, Syria, Libya, etc. doesn't mean they were not and are not extensively documented on social media https://t.co/D9akeyHYiu
— Dr. Annelle Sheline (@AnnelleSheline) March 2, 2022
Guys… https://t.co/tkswfwvU5e
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
My piece has officially made it to LuluLemon twitter.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Heh.
this was true a decade ago – and that era already arrived. But obviously it didn't register to you for some reason. 'become evident', 'brand new era', 'now anxious audiences' – all of this already happened so it's factually inaccurate. pic.twitter.com/lRorzJSl62
— Shaheryar Mirza (@mirza9) March 2, 2022
And I'll repeat, which country did Syria invade? You guys keep ignoring this one. It's weird. https://t.co/7t0f15dCOM
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
The amount of hours of footage of the Syrian conflict on YouTube exceeds the length of the conflict itself. https://t.co/7RzouFOHCx
— Amy Mackinnon (@ak_mack) March 2, 2022
Which country did Syria invade? This is the tell from you guys btw https://t.co/SkZzz8miQh
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
I forgot, the #MiddleEast doesn’t exist.
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) March 2, 2022
Boy this hit hard on a very specific part of Twitter. https://t.co/ey1DO6pdri
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
When you think you're saying something about the world, but really, you're saying something about yourself. https://t.co/mWopmm26mi
— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) March 2, 2022
https://t.co/g24hmUBd6n pic.twitter.com/ubBGHxDe3p
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
There’s plenty more where all that came from, but by now you no doubt have the gist of what Miller’s been dealing with. Feel free to head over to his timeline for even more fun.
NPR reporter more concerned with the President's ice cream than reading a piece being commented on. https://t.co/eq7mB33IL5
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Me: Zelensky is the first world leader to rally the world using viral on the ground videos, largely because he comes from a younger generation having the conversation on social media, not cable news.
You: https://t.co/eq7mB33IL5 pic.twitter.com/pnYPfdZOoy
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 2, 2022
Maybe Miller’s not the one who hasn’t been paying attention.
This is a fine piece by @redsteeze, which weirdly is getting pushback from people? Who either didn't actually read it or are not smart? https://t.co/3346qoGAKa
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) March 2, 2022