Yeah, I don't think so. I used to think this, too, but I think it's wrong, just like, "this woke stuff is confined to college campuses; they'll have to drop it

Yeah, I don't think so. I used to think this, too, but I think it's wrong, just like, "this woke stuff is confined to college campuses; they'll have to drop it when they get out in the real world" was wrong. It's wrong because politicians listen to twitter (we agree that they shouldn't, but they do). It's wrong because campuses and twitter set the national conversation in a disproportionate way. It's wrong because the people responding to the Yglesias tweet I was talking about were some of the most famous and prominent writers alive. They aren't a random sample of the population and that's the point. They have an outsized effect on public opinion (especially on elite public opinion). It's wrong because twitter doesn't have to reflect the wider consensus to be impactful. It's wrong because twitter leaks out and infects the framings that normal people adopt, even if they don't know where it all comes from. It's wrong because mainstream cultural figures (like, say, late night talkshow hosts) are unduly influenced by twitter. It's wrong because what you say on twitter does affect your real life. It's not some magical place that your boss or your wife or your dean can't visit. They can and they do and it sometimes matters. It's just wrong. If all "twitter isn't real life" means is, "no single tweet thread is a representative sample," then, sure; that's obvious. But in all sorts of interesting ways that really matter twitter affects "real life." It has all kinds of serious impacts on the national conversation, whether you're aware of it or not.