Dangers of ignoring Twitter
TRYING to convince sensible adults to dip their toe in the Twitterverse can be a futile exercise particularly if they, like more than 90 per cent of the population, are somewhere right of Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young on the political spectrum.
“Why would I want to waste my time on that cesspit?” is a common response.
One colleague, unmoved by my argument that Twitter can be useful, informative and fun if you just recognise its shortcomings, likened participating in the social media network to sticking your head in a filthy toilet.
But swimming in that toilet, among the social justice activists, sad trolls and celebrity watchers, are much of the mainstream and new media.
One can’t underestimate Twitter’s influence on determining what you read or watch on the nightly news.
For conservatives and genuine centrists to ignore the site only makes it more unrepresentative.
Part of the reason why the Brexit and Trump phenomena blindsided the media is their reliance on social media as an accurate tool of measuring public sentiment.
It’s all too easy for left-leaning members of the media class to assume that Twitter must be representative of the wider population.
Twitter not only skews far more left than left-leaning Facebook but it is often a parallel universe obsessed with second and third-tier issues.
If Twitter was representative, the battle to be prime minister would be between Richard Di Natale and Bill Shorten, while the issue keeping most Australians up at night wouldn’t be cost of living or law and order, but offshore processing of asylum-seekers and the Adani coal mine.
Donald Trump would be locked up for being “literally Hitler” and Jeremy Corbyn would’ve won in a landslide so devastating that it relegated the Tories to a fringe party.
Where Twitter has been enormously useful is in exposing the deep political biases of supposedly impartial reporters and academics.
It’s one thing to boldly state your position in an opinion column, such as this, but quite another to allow your own beliefs to colour news reporting that is meant to be utterly neutral and designed to inform rather than influence the audience.
The hysterical coverage of all things Trump is easily understood if you check the Twitter timeline of members of the media doing the reporting who are unashamed about the extent of their hatred for the US president.
Check the tweets of academics working at Australian universities and you’ll soon learn just how far left the great majority of them lean.
Twitter’s unpleasantness is a tad more complex than just nameless trolls’ indiscriminate abuse of all and sundry.
Twitter is where leftist bullies maliciously attack, misrepresent and defame their ideological opponents while pretending to be compassionate.
Of course, there are plenty of extreme right-wing accounts which also cross the line, but they are far more likely to be banned for their hatefilled antics.
There is a double standard in controversial conservative and rightwing accounts being culled while blue-tick progressives wishing death and disease on their political adversaries and indulging in the most outrageous smears appear immune from censure.
If you’re a conservative and active on Twitter, then expect to be attacked.
I’ve been called a Zionist whore and a Nazi on the same day.
For supposedly tolerant people who embrace diversity, the left can be quick to resort to vile racial slurs if a minority dares think for themselves and deviates from their assigned role as a migrant pet mindlessly regurgitating progressive talking points.
It’s important that conservatives are not entirely absent from Twitter.
Conservatives need to stop adopting an apologetic tone for being conservative and be bolder and prouder on social media.
Trump has masterfully used the site to run rings around the bulk of the media, who seem incapable of understanding why he won.
But one wonders whether his account would’ve survived were he not the leader of the free world.
TWITTER IS WHERE LEFTIST BULLIES MALICIOUSLY ATTACK, MISREPRESENT AND DEFAME THEIR IDEOLOGICAL OPPONENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE COMPASSIONATE