Thread by @RichardCheese

Dear @RichardCheese Fans, Followers, and Foes:

I won't be using Twitter anymore. Please read this stupidly long thread to find out why.

Before I start a ramblin', here's some @RichardCheese info you might need:

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For music videos, visit:

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For news about upcoming @RichardCheese concerts and appearances, please visit:

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And, for info about my "Grateful" book, visit the website of the guy who plays me:

markjonathandavis.com

And now, the long goodbye:

I've had a Twitter account since 2009. For more than a decade, this platform has been delightfully entertaining, informative, and, above all, a wonderful place for me to communicate and interact with my fans and with unbelievably hot pornstars. But I digress.

As political turmoil in the U.S. and the world has intensified in recent years, social media sites like Twitter have become useful tools for both the good guys and the bad guys. Through tweets, people like us have been able to share facts and news.

Unfortunately, others use Twitter to spread lies and conspiracies and dangerous dogma.

Needless to say, the lies have been gaining ground, and when Twitter was acquired by a new owner, the guardrails were completely removed.

This site has become a cesspool of disinformation, division, harassment, hate speech, violence, stochastic terrorism, actual terrorism, and anti-democracy fascist propaganda.

But the new controllers do not think this is a bug; to them, it is a feature.

Turning Twitter into a dysfunctional cesspool IS THEIR PLAN. Twitter is being intentionally sabotaged to prevent it from being useful for us good guys.

Twitter has been SO EFFECTIVE for progressives, liberals, and simply decent people to spread truths, advance political reforms, and increase voter turnout, that fascists bought the site and INTENTIONALLY BROKE IT.

They broke it in an effort to hinder us from achieving any further social progress!

They are knee-capping the platform to try to prevent us from communicating, organizing, and unifying in our fight against authoritarianism, demagoguery, and oppression.

They are waging a war on truth, fairness, community, equality, the rule of law, and democracy itself.

They have willfully wrecked Twitter so people can't use it anymore to support advocacy, coordinate activism, encourage voting, and defend democracy in 2024.

Of course, you might say, "Well, I'm not leaving! I'm going to stay and fight!"

Unfortunately, the solution is NOT to stay and keep using Twitter defiantly. That is futile; you cannot win a game when your opponent is also the referee.

Twitter is not a public space; it is a privately owned site. They are not obligated to uphold free speech rights or to give you equal time or to show your tweets to your followers.

In fact, they have implemented algorithms and pay walls and other obstacles to make sure your tweets are never seen.

Silencing speech = classic fascism

If you keep using this platform as if nothing has changed, you are enabling the bad guys and rubberstamping their efforts to silence us while they elevate the voices of bigotry, violence, fascism, and insurrection.

Staying on Twitter will not accomplish anything.
In fact, staying is exactly what they want you to do.

They want you to keep using Twitter and believe that your tweets are being seen, so you won't leave and go use a better platform where your posts might actually reach people.

They are trying to convince you to stay and keep screaming into a void, to make sure no one ever hears you.

They want your continued acquiescence, because then their plan to silence you is working.

They have burned down the forest and poisoned the land. Nothing good can ever grow here again. We simply need to plant someplace else.

If you keep using Twitter, you are enabling, legitimizing, endorsing, bankrolling, and normalizing a hostile pro-fascist anti-science anti-fact anti-democracy anti-America disinformation op.

Oh, and they also have access to all of your private direct messages and your personal information. They can and will read your DMs; and if they want to weaponize your words against you, they absolutely will.

The only way to fight this fascist operation is for good guys like us to completely stop using this nefarious platform, and thereby delegitimize it.

Twitter is now, by design, a propaganda tool of the right.

As long as you keep using it, it's no different than you watching Fox News or attending a stop the steal rally or donating to the Republican party. We all must simply abandon Twitter and never look back.

I certainly miss the old days when Twitter was relatively fair and egalitarian, but those days are never ever ever coming back.
Twitter is now just another wing of the authoritarian movement.
It's a clear and present danger to our democracy, our nation, our planet, and all of us.

So, I won't be using Twitter anymore.

I've deleted all my old tweets, except the one about encouraging Taylor Swift to run for U.S. Senate.

And you shouldn't use Twitter, either. Quit now, or you're part of the problem. If you are still using Twitter, you're aiding and abetting fascism.

We must make Twitter obsolete. Twitter needs to collapse; if you stay, you are helping hold up their crooked walls. Get out!

Here's how to quit Twitter:

1) Download your Twitter archive.

2) Delete all your tweets and activity, including all replies, RTs, and likes. (You can do this with an external app such as TweetDeleter.)

3) Post an "I'm quitting Twitter, here are my other social media accounts" farewell tweet. Try to make it incredibly verbose like mine, because everyone loves a 30-tweet thread.

4) Pin that farewell tweet to the top of your profile, and turn off the replies.

5) Stop posting, cold turkey.
No tweets, no replies, no likes, no RTs.
Just be done with it.

6) You can certainly delete your account, but since there is a 1% chance that the site will change ownership someday and end its fascist schemes, feel free to keep your account dormant.

7) Logout of your account, delete the app from your devices, and never look back.

There are many other social media platforms that are still relatively fair and functional. Go use those instead of Twitter. And, keep using independent communication methods, like texting, email, and something called the telephone.

The fascists are probably reading this thread, and it's certainly likely that these tweets and my account will be deleted soon. Whatev.

I truly appreciate all of the fun people I've met on this hellsite, and I hope we can keep in touch, especially @HeatherVahn. AhOOOOOga!

@HeatherVahn Until we meet again, I wish you well, and I encourage you to keep fighting anyplace and everyplace where you can actually make a difference. But this fucking bullshit liehole ain't it.

So long, suckers!

🍸
RC

#QuitTwitterNow
#VoteBlueEveryElection
#Tequila

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richardcheese.com

https://twitter.com/RichardCheese/status/1640519083438510080

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