In the Irish Times Una Mullally called for media platforms, including the Irish Times to cut ties with X/Twitter. Being on the platform, she said, was “to benefit X. Trusted media outlets continuing to publish on the platform has a legitimising effect on what is largely now a platform for misinformation. So long as they’re still there, advertisers will continue to advertise, and X can still be framed as a host for news and journalism. In reality, it is a failed state in digital territory, especially when it comes to the basic tenets of journalism: facts and truth.”
Mullally also objected to the fact that X is predominantly right–wing and not diverse and “under the stewardship of Elon Musk, the platform has long descended into a cesspit.”
It is clear the mainstream media and politicians are panicking that the public can get their news elsewhere and they no longer act as gatekeepers to facts and stories. Stories that are buried by the mainstream media often break on Twitter forcing them to cover it. It should not have taken the relentless pressure of Elon Musk for British PM Sir Keir Starmer to order an inquiry into grooming gangs – an inquiry that is still to commence.
But yes, there is a downside to all of this. When there are no gatekeepers it means people like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson are given free rein to spout their poisonous antisemitism and mad conspiracy theories all over X/Twitter and the internet. And yes millions of Americans – and too many Irish people – listen and agree with them.
Mullally also complains that Twitter causes brain rot, that it is a waste of time and that she long ago abandoned it. She says, “When you spend enough time inhaling the toxic vapours of this miasma – as in any awful environment – you too become toxic.” And “the purpose X serves now for many of us is to offer a window on to the worst sort of discourse. It is useful only in monitoring disinformation, to see who is spreading what, what nonsense is being peddled, what weird narratives are being pushed, and what the latest manufactured, highly emotional right-wing hysteria is.”
Mullally is partially correct. Although she would probably label me as ‘toxic.’ Right-wingers should be alive to the fact that Twitter is bad for your mental health. Most social media is bad for your mental health but conservatives, who above all else should be interested in conserving civilization, must be aware that much of what passes for discourse on X is indeed uncivilized. I have been guilty of an uncivilized, sweary outburst or two myself.
It is also true that there is a direct intent by some on X to encourage some ridiculous right-wing hysteria. But who really benefits from this pot stirring? The Tesco non–Christmas tree, Christmas tree controversy is a good example.
The truth is most Christians do not care if Tesco calls their Christmas trees Fir trees or Winter trees. Nor should a normal person care if Tesco calls their Christmas cakes, fruit cakes. But once this kind of story gets going on Twitter/X – no doubt pushed into my timeline by the oh so clever algorithm that has me labelled as “right–wing Christian fruitcake” there is no escape. There they are, grown men, otherwise serious grown ups who I reckon never ever do the big shop in Tesco, declaring that they will never enter Tesco ever again until this outrage against Christians is fixed. Cope yourself on, people, this isn’t Selma.
The whole store will be festooned in Christmas decorations with Christmas songs playing all the livelong day if you actually went there instead of carrying out your “boycott.” I am old enough to remember when Christians used to complain about Christmas being too commercial and starting too early, celebrated today even before Advent.
But now someone on Twitter has told me I must get angry, so very angry, about Tesco and their Winter trees and fruit cakes that unless they start draping their stores in one massive Christmas hat, the check-out girls wearing Christmas jumpers and are drinking from Christmas mugs all the while singing Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas in November I must boycott the place. I don’t think so. I’ve laundry to do and what’s more I don’t even like Fruit Cake, of any kind. And neither does the angry right-winger demanding a boycott!
Some of Mullally’s complaints about X/Twitter are legitimate – the sheer waste of time and the conspiracy theories. But what I also object to is ultra-violent videos popping into my timeline.
In the last two months alone I have seen: Charlie Kirk getting shot in the neck, a young woman getting her throat slit on a bus in the US, a binman getting brutally stabbed in Uxbridge London, and a 12 year old boy being brutally beaten by his ‘Christian mother’ in the US. I admit that the first 3 incidents I searched for myself because I figure I am a journalist and I must see what has been inflicted upon us by our leftwing overlords. I did write on both incidents and spoke about the third.
But the video of the young 12 year old boy being beaten by his mother was different. This just came into my timeline. It was deeply traumatising to watch a child being attacked in such a manner, hit with a belt at least 20 times. I know in my bones also that this goes on, even to a lesser degree, all over the US often by Christian mothers who terrorise their families and in particular their sons. But I didn’t need to see it.
The lifelong trauma this causes in children is huge, and it will not have been the first time. The older brother, who leaked the video said it was going on for years. If you want to know what makes a monster – it is mothers like this. The mother was a local teacher, Teacher of the Year no less, and has since been charged with child cruelty, the assault being too extreme even for Alabama.
What’s my point? My point is that conservatives should be aware of what they are getting on Twitter. Yes it does cut through the approved narrative set by the leftwing journalists and politicians and raises serious issues and stories that RTE/BBC would prefer to bury. But it is also designed to expose you to violence that you never normally come across, controversies that are really not worth your time or emotional energy, and sell you odd stuff that you have no need for.
I don’t have Twitter on my phone and like to think I have cut my time on it. I’d love to escape it, like my comrade Una Mullally but I just don’t think it is possible right now. Perhaps I could give it a break for Advent.