One can see the sheen of desperation in the world of self-identified conservatives who make a living by “triggering” the liberals. The usual dose of outrage bait isn’t working as well any longer, so the right-wingers are escalating the provocations. Tucker Carlson, for example, gave a glow-up interview with manosphere “influencer” Andrew Tate, who is being held in Romania on charges of sex trafficking and rape. Daily Wire anti-trans provocateur Matt Walsh is selling plushies of himself clad only in a diaper, which he encourages people to give to children. Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro, on the other hand, made a nearly hour-long video tantrum about “Barbie,” complete with setting the dolls on fire. The clawing need to get attention from progressives seems to be driving these engagement farmers a little nuts, as they up the weird-and-evil ante, hoping to get those precious clicks and plays.
And it’s not just those who openly align themselves with the right who seem more unhinged than usual. The “contrarian” class of trolls is, if anything, acting even more frantic. These are the people who claim not to be partisan Republicans or MAGA sympathizers, but whose online existence is largely, often exclusively, built around baiting liberals with reactionary opinions or disinformation. Some, like former New York Times writer Bari Weiss and former psychology professor Jordan Peterson, pretend they are being canceled for intellectual independence that invariably reads like standard right-wing talking points. Some, like fake presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or faux journalist Michael Tracey, repackage far-right disinformation as leftist politics….
KATIE KADUE – Twitter as Suspended Hell
Elon Musk has officially killed Twitter
Gideon Lewis-Kraus: How Harmful Is Social Media?
I too quit Twitter this week – and have never been more relieved
Don’t worry, he’s not going quietly into that tweetless night. By Arwa Mahdawi
RICHARD SEYMOUR – Musk & Twitter: the first lab rat to take over the laboratory
After the truth-shower 