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Charlie Warzel Profile picture
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10 Nov, 5 tweets, 1 min read
why must the news now always be both dumber and more serious than whatever scenario my brain was anticipating
just once i wanna be like...'lol this is so dumb...im gonna never think about this dumb thing again!' w/o worrying that it will metastasize into something that threatens to erode our shared reality or democracy
you need a phd in 'the dumbest shit on the internet' to really understand like a 1/3 of what's happening in the country at a given time. my personal wish for a biden presidency is to not have to care abt the dumbest shit imaginable. to be clear i dont think my wish will come true
remember reading a @willsommer article explaining the proud boys initiation process in like 2017 and just laughing at how dumb it was and then x-ing out of the tab and being like...somehow i'll need to care about them. cut to 3 yrs later and trump is telling them to stand by fml
this is the trickle down effect of a bunch of narcissistic grifters who rise to power and who grant access/amplify anyone who'll help them stay in power. they're so accessible, so craven that they attract people into their circle who promote the dumbest shit. aaand here we are

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More from @cwarzel

Charlie Warzel Profile picture
7 Nov
i listened to a montana court hearing in late sept where the trump campaign was trying to sue to stop mail in voting in the state and what struck me was how the legal team barely provided a legal argument and weren’t really even trying beyond complaining that it didn’t feel fair.
i feel like the answer to @ezraklein's question here on how to cover this rn is to report on the actual legal challenges. show how the campaign is unable to marshal credible arguments/facts. and then give no oxygen to it beyond that. vox.com/2020-president…
Read 5 tweets
Charlie Warzel Profile picture
21 Oct
reason why this is so big is obvious and that is that @AOC is doing what she wants earnestly and without spending so much time worrying about/focus grouping it that it becomes cringey. its just somebody who gets that the fundamental thing online is authenticity
basically comes down to the fact that it (at least appears) that this is what she wants to be doing tonight & that rules/ is basically the secret of ppl who are good at being themselves online. they do what’s fun/interesting (its hard work but diff from thinking too hard bout it)
like, is how i feel right now the way maga folks feel when trump’s account posts a gif of him from an old wwe event but the wrestlers’ faces are superimposed with msm logos? help me out
Read 4 tweets
Charlie Warzel Profile picture
14 Oct
part of the problem of the "immense, unaccountable power" is that it's hard to fit into a simple good/bad framework. im as guilty of this as anyone. but this tweet is right. there's no golden age of 'they just let er rip and nothing bad ever happened!'
think it's somewhat fair for ppl to knock journalists for giving contradictory advice to the platforms (why didn't they stop this from going viral vs. did they stop this too soon?) but that also ignores that the platforms largely ignored this and the effects were disastrous
i think it's also worth noting that a lot of the journalism on platform accountability/moderation started with a pretty narrow focus on the platforms clearly violating their own rules that they wrote around harassment of vulnerable groups and lack of transparency around decisions
Read 7 tweets
Charlie Warzel Profile picture
9 Oct
I wrote about Facebook’s QAnon purge, the political ad ban & militia pages and how it’s recent actions are a tacit admission that what is good for Facebook is, on the whole, destabilizing for society. nytimes.com/2020/10/08/opi…
I’m conflicted writing about FB like this now. feel like I’ve turned into a predictable crank finding new ways to say the same thing. But felt important to me to note that FB’s choices to stop destabilization in US are essentially just attempts to make the platform less effective
if you look at the Whitmer kidnapping plotters (as @oneunderscore__ & @BrandyZadrozny reported) you’ll see that facebook is just one node in this big system. So they don’t deserve all the blame or focus. But their attempts at reform really showcase the actual problem: FB’s design
Read 5 tweets
Charlie Warzel Profile picture
8 Oct
It's hard to look at this Whitmer kidnapping indictment and not think of Mark Zuckerberg's June 2017 speech on building a recommendation engine to surface "meaningful communities." Image
"Every day, I say to myself, I don't have much time here on Earth, how can I make the greatest positive impact?" - Mark Zuckerberg, June 22, 2017 Image
"If 2 billion people use Facebook, then how come we've only helped 100 million of them join meaningful communities? ...We started a project to see if we could get better at suggesting groups that will be meaningful to you." Image
Read 4 tweets
Charlie Warzel Profile picture
3 Oct
this photo dredges up a similar feeling to the beginning of the week & the $750 tax figure. you’re staying at home, not seeing loved ones. making big sacrifices for the greater good. but that’s a *you* thing. *they* do what they want always. it makes you feel like a sucker.
i keep flipping through these photos today like an idiot. the celebratory vibe is so galling. just the smug, carefree look of people who feel their rightful place is above the law or that the laws of nature ought not to apply to them. That not caring for others is their right.
But i dont feel like a sucker any more. Now it's anger. For the personal selfishness that keeps the pandemic raging & diminishes the personal sacrifices so many have made to mitigate the virus’ spread. Anger that somebody with such a bone-deep disdain for civic duty is in charge
Read 4 tweets

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