EPISODE 736: YOU CAN NOW FIND ME ON CEEFAX
We are doing so well.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
GAPER’S DELAY
You know that thing where you’re driving down the road at night and because it’s dark you don’t realize that it’s icy until you suddenly slide a bit, so then you hit the brakes but then they lock and now you’re really sliding and all you can do is hope to God no one comes from the other direction before you’re able to regain control of the car?
That’s how I feel right now. I want to have smart punchy things to say about Tuesday’s mid-term election, quips about how you know that your democracy is in trouble when people are cheering on the candidates who are saying they will refuse to accept the results if they lose, or when state legislatures have spent the last two years trying to make it harder for their opponents just to vote, or when you try to amuse yourself by writing an “I’m Leaving Twitter”-type tweet but where you’re leaving the United States instead.
But internally I seem to be sufficiently overwhelmed that my brain is in a full locked-brake skid, and I’m waiting to regain some semblance of control.
“The way of progress is neither swift nor easy.” That’s Marie Curie. (Also Addison Montgomery on last week’s Grey’s Anatomy.) In some ways, I’m not sure there’s much more to say than that.
THIS IS YOUR BLUE CHECKMARK
So have you left Twitter? It sure seems like a lot of people are.
My own initial take has been to back way way off. I post the stories I’ve been doing or other things I want to promote, and otherwise I mostly stay away. The real changes to the site are still to come, but I seem to already see it as some post-apocalypse nuclear wasteland filled with radioactive mutants and people who aren’t leaving their homes no matter what. I tip toe out there in the middle of the night to hang an informational poster or two and then get out of there as fast as I can.
I do see people saying they’re not going to be driven off of something they love by some horrible techbro. And I think their comments do point to a bigger question about life today: when do you stay and fight? Why leave something you love?
And fighting can take a lot of forms. For a bunch of years I ran the Facebook page for the Jesuits of Loyola Marymount University. They had never had a social media presence before. I thought it would be an interesting challenge. And one of the things I learned is that if you consistently post positive or funny stuff, you will break through the algorithm and start to get seen.
Twitter is a different medium, but similar dynamics apply. Take Gail Simone, a comic book writer. Part of her job is to promote her stuff, and she does that well. But she also posts stuff like this:
Or this, which takes all the current drama about Twitter and turns it into something that people can have fun responding to:
My favorite response:
George Clay, where are you and why are you thinking about feeding bears?
Her specialty is tweets where she acts like she doesn’t know something and people freak out. For instance:
To which one guy responded exactly as I felt:
There was also this:
There’s even this, which seems pretty obviously a joke:
But apparently not to everyone:
Last summer I went to the drag parade during Pride Week here in New York. The draft of Dobbs had been leaked the same day, and people were furious. There were some chants and lots of great signs.
But once the parade got started, there was also a lot of dancing. And somehow that seemed to make even more sense than all the words.
Serious conflicts have a tendency to narrow each of us down to a very small range of responses that actually make us all sound alike. I Scream Yes, You Scream No! Who’s Right? (We are!) Who’s Wrong? (They are!)
But you know what’s a more compelling response to someone trying to deny your existence? Celebrating your life.
THREE TWEETS…ABOUT TWITTER
NOTEBOOK
In my friend’s backyard, falling leaves twirl in the wind like parade confetti.
THIS IS YOUR WEEKLY REMINDER THAT ANDOR IS TREMENDOUS
I BET IT’S GOOD THOUGH
I am always here for Nora Ephron content, but here’s one article I just discovered that I haven’t read yet.
Join me, won’t you?
Have a good week. If you want a great mental health exercise, try not watching the returns on Tuesday night. Whatever you need to know will still be there waiting for you in the morning.
See you in 7.