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November 1, 2022

So, the second thing that Elon Musk did with Twitter — after appointing himself “Chief Twit” — was to arrive at Twitter HQ with a “let that sink in” troll. And then a couple of folks pretended they were being laid off with a LIGMA meme and they trolled the media.

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But whatabout Twitter and “safety?”

The now-fired Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety, was in charge of “safety.” Larry O’Connor is all riled up about that.

Let’s be clear: Twitter is not an airline. There is no way to use their product that would result in personal injury. “Safety” is an odd and duplicitous term when employed in the context of providing policies for a website where millions of people trade paragraphs with each other and the world.

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There’s no such thing as “unsafe Tweeting.”

Ah, but there is. Let’s do an Ike and make the whole thing bigger. “Safety” is a consequence of women in the public square, on my interpretation of sociologist Georg Simmel. He understood that the public square had been created by men for men, but that women entering the public square would adapt it to suit “a more feminine sensibility.” Men in the public square “debate” the issues, and may the best man win. In a highly refined and evolved debate, men exchange theories and arguments. In a bar, workingmen exchange insults. But for women, the exchange of insults is unsafe, because women want to be safe, and safe especially from crude lower-class men with foul mouths. That’s why I say that:

Men have a Culture of Insult; women have a Culture of Complaint.

So the whole question of “safety” is a girl thing. As I say: “women expect to be protected.” And women don’t just expect to be “safe” from physical violence, but from verbal violence. That’s why “safetyism” has become such an issue at the university. Of course, it has, because women are coming to dominate the administration of universities, and that means replacing the old culture of insult, of the free exchange of ideas, with the women’s culture of complaint, whenever some man’s colorful one-liner makes her feel unsafe.

By the way, when Gadde “cries” about Musk taking over Twitter, we sexists call it “women’s tears win.”

But will Musk’s Free Bird make a difference? I’d say: not much. Because, after all, the fact that South Asian Americans like Gadde and Agrawal made Twitter into a ruling-class echo chamber is because that’s the “safest” thing to do when a regime mafioso from the White House is breathing down your neck, muttering about “nice little job you got there…”