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I entirely agree. I tried Twitter years ago, but had no patience for it. It's like Usenet, but with "threads" that are much harder to follow. But if you must u

I entirely agree. I tried Twitter years ago, but had no patience for it. It's like Usenet, but with "threads" that are much harder to follow. But if you must use Twitter, you gotta play safe. If you work for a living, your real name account must be 100% work focused. No religion or politics. Nothing at all controversial. And it it amuses you to join the fray, use a pseudonym. Seriously, with solid OPSEC. Because your career may well depend on it.

anon9001 7y ago
You're right, but you missed the biggest part of the problem. The "nothing at all controversial" part changes, often without warning. Your history, however, is immutable. I think the only way to fix it is for everyone to be cancelled. If you exile enough people, pretty soon that itself becomes a problem. We're currently in this dangerous middle point where people think it can't happen to them, or that the accused probably did something wrong. There's a chance we might be creating a permanent underclass of people who have said or done unacceptable things in public. If that's 10% of the population, that's a big problem. But if it's 50% of the population, that's actually a smaller problem. Is it possible that the ethical thing to do here is to join the cancellation brigades?
- mirimir 7y ago
  That is a good point. I did lots of wild and crazy stuff back in the 60s through the early 80s. And then I did est/Landmark. And learned how to be rigorously professional. But I'm lucky. There are very few public records about my dissolute youth. Maybe a couple news reports, that don't mention me by name. Maybe a few photographs. And lots of memories that could still come back to bite me. But nothing like it is today. Today, it's necessary to start the "nothing at all controversial" act very young. So that's something parents need to be teaching their kids. Along with "don't play in the street" and "don't accept rides from strangers". Plus using pseudonyms, with VPNs and Tor. And never trusting that "friends" won't sell them out. > I think the only way to fix it is for everyone to be cancelled. That doesn't work. Because there are multiple factions that cancel each other. So what you'll get is not just a permanent underclass, but permanent castes. Which will hate each other. And given the demographics, it seems like what you're calling the underclass will be the majority, and will elect governments that pretend to cater to them. And the woke will end up working for social media etc, who will pretend to cater to them. > Is it possible that the ethical thing to do here is to join the cancellation brigades? One aspect of saying nothing at all controversial is being ambiguous. You want all factions to think that you're one of them. It's like playing a double, triple, etc agent.

anon9001 7y ago

You're right, but you missed the biggest part of the problem. The "nothing at all controversial" part changes, often without warning. Your history, however, is immutable. I think the only way to fix it is for everyone to be cancelled. If you exile enough people, pretty soon that itself becomes a problem. We're currently in this dangerous middle point where people think it can't happen to them, or that the accused probably did something wrong. There's a chance we might be creating a permanent underclass of people who have said or done unacceptable things in public. If that's 10% of the population, that's a big problem. But if it's 50% of the population, that's actually a smaller problem. Is it possible that the ethical thing to do here is to join the cancellation brigades?

mirimir 7y ago
That is a good point. I did lots of wild and crazy stuff back in the 60s through the early 80s. And then I did est/Landmark. And learned how to be rigorously professional. But I'm lucky. There are very few public records about my dissolute youth. Maybe a couple news reports, that don't mention me by name. Maybe a few photographs. And lots of memories that could still come back to bite me. But nothing like it is today. Today, it's necessary to start the "nothing at all controversial" act very young. So that's something parents need to be teaching their kids. Along with "don't play in the street" and "don't accept rides from strangers". Plus using pseudonyms, with VPNs and Tor. And never trusting that "friends" won't sell them out. > I think the only way to fix it is for everyone to be cancelled. That doesn't work. Because there are multiple factions that cancel each other. So what you'll get is not just a permanent underclass, but permanent castes. Which will hate each other. And given the demographics, it seems like what you're calling the underclass will be the majority, and will elect governments that pretend to cater to them. And the woke will end up working for social media etc, who will pretend to cater to them. > Is it possible that the ethical thing to do here is to join the cancellation brigades? One aspect of saying nothing at all controversial is being ambiguous. You want all factions to think that you're one of them. It's like playing a double, triple, etc agent.