I have one final screed I wanted to write regarding my recent Twitter experiences, but before doing that I just have to get this one thing off my chest…

I recently made a burner account to see the mean things people were saying about my work. I know, a bad idea, but I made the best of it & tried to learn from the critiques offered.

I noticed something with horror the other day which caused me to shut down that ‘dark observer’ account for good…

On my burner account where I was following no accounts, and only following “archaeology” as a topic (you must follow at least one), I popped into the timeline the other day, and at the top of it was content advertising a QAnon themed movie.

It’s one thing if users seek this kind of content out. There’s an argument that they should be able to find it if that’s what they want. There’s also, I think, a stronger argument for removing that content completely, but I understand the variety of views here.

The thing I really don’t agree with or understand though is how QAnon content could be directly advertised to new accounts who expressed no interest in it.

Between this, and all the other horrid, disgusting moves that its owner has made with the company, it’s clear none of these things are accidental. This is all by design.

While I understand people and organizations have committed thousands of hours to establishing a presence on Twitter, if you’re one of those or part of one of those who actually gives a shit about… well, anything… then its well past time for you to shutter your account and move on.

There can be no redemption on this platform. You cannot work within fascist authoritarian systems to “change it from the inside.” You cannot seek social justice on a platform that is actively promoting QAnon to new users. If you think you’re helping somehow to make it better by staying on it, you are not and you are living in an illusion. The game is over. We lost. Time to move on and find a new game.

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