{"id":443747,"date":"2022-05-07T01:41:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T22:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-outrage-took-all-the-joy-out-of-twitter\/"},"modified":"2022-05-07T01:41:29","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T22:41:29","slug":"how-outrage-took-all-the-joy-out-of-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-outrage-took-all-the-joy-out-of-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"#How outrage took all the joy out of Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a39f19203719\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a39f19203719\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-outrage-took-all-the-joy-out-of-twitter\/#%E2%80%9CHow_outrage_took_all_the_joy_out_of_Twitter%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;How outrage took all the joy out of Twitter&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CHow_outrage_took_all_the_joy_out_of_Twitter%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;How outrage took all the joy out of Twitter&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWhat is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?\u201d the president of the United States asked 10 years ago at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner. \u201cA pit bull is delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, to echo E.B. White: Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process. But that\u2019s all right, because I bring up this decade-old riff to explain the joke that is <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201chockey moms\u201d reference was a shot at Sarah Palin, who had famously joked that the difference between pit bulls and hockey moms was \u201clipstick.\u201d But Palin wasn\u2019t the actual butt of Barack Obama\u2019s joke \u2014 he was. Two weeks earlier, Daily Caller blogger Jim Treacher posted an article noting that Obama admitted in his memoir \u201cDreams From My Father\u201d that he\u2019d eaten dog when he was visiting family in Indonesia.<\/p>\n<p>Treacher\u2019s point was to push back on the combined obsession of the Beltway media and the Obama campaign with an old story about how Mitt Romney \u2014 Obama\u2019s 2012 opponent \u2014 used to go on driving family vacations with his dog in a kennel on the roof. New York Times columnist Gail Collins alone mentioned the incident at least 70 times.<\/p>\n<p>But neither the Times nor any other mainstream outlet had mentioned this literal man-bites-dog story, despite the fact it had become a massively viral political meme, thanks primarily to Twitter. And yet Obama felt he had to address, and perhaps defuse, the firestorm.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/twitter-3.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Former U.S. President Barack Obama departs from Stanford University's CEMEX Auditorium\" class=\"wp-image-22175351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/twitter-3.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/twitter-3.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/twitter-3.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Twitter went wild when they found out former President Barack Obama once ate a dog. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Nikolas Liepins\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We saw it as a huge victory. The right-wing bloggers \u2014 including yours truly \u2014 who responded to nearly every Democratic attack on Romney with \u201cyeah, but Obama ate a dog\u201d were just having fun and pointing out that the mainstream media\u2019s monopoly on which dumb controversies should be taken seriously was over. Twitter offered a correction to the asymmetric advantage the mainstream media had over the narrative.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>And, back then, I loved Twitter for it.<\/p>\n<p>The times have changed. Now, Twitter \u2014 and social media <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly \u2014 is the narrative. And as Jonathan Haidt recently argued in the Atlantic, this change has led to the stupidification of much of American life. Because virality is the currency of the realm and nothing fuels virality more than outrage, Twitter is an open spigot of outrage.<\/p>\n<p>When we tweeted our \u201cObama ate a dog\u201d jokes, the president responded with some jokes of his own. Now the joke is on us. Under Donald Trump, covering the presidency and covering the president\u2019s Twitter feed were two sides of the same coin. His presidency brought in, or taught, a whole generation of young Republicans to treat Twitter (and cable TV) not merely as if it matters more than governing, but that it is governing. For some meme bros, \u201cowning the libs\u201d on Twitter is statesmanship.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/twitter02.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally to boost Ohio Republican candidates ahead of their May 3 primary election.\" class=\"wp-image-22175353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/twitter02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/twitter02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/twitter02.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>President Trump speaks in Ohio during a rally to boost Ohio Republican candidates. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Gaelen Morse\/REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Democrats arguably have an even bigger problem. For the right, Twitter is still the battle space for insurgency against the establishment. For the left, it<em>is <\/em>the establishment. Twitter is overwhelmingly liberal \u2014 which explains much of the liberal panic over Elon Musk buying it. According to Pew, 10% of users generate 92% of all tweets, and seven out of 10 of these users are liberal. Using this data, Brian Riedl, a budget and tax expert, calculated that if Twitter were a congressional district, it would have a Partisan Voter Index (PVI) of D+43. Today, that would tie it with Washington, DC, the most liberal district in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Because Twitter reinforces ideological conformity by swarming dissenters, elite liberal journalists and policymakers alike confuse consensus among themselves on Twitter with popular consensus. Joe Biden fancies himself a moderate, but his administration takes its cues from a platform that might as well be a poll of Democratic primary voters in D.C.<\/p>\n<p>I still use Twitter. But it no longer brings much joy. Having a sane conversation there is a bit like trying to play chess in the middle of a mosh pit. Ironically, one of the few things I do enjoy is tweeting about my dogs (and I don\u2019t mean recipes) \u2014 in part because dogs don\u2019t care about Twitter.<\/p>\n<p><em>Twitter: @JonahDispatch<\/em><em\/>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/06\/how-outrage-took-all-the-joy-out-of-twitter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How outrage took all the joy out of Twitter&#8221; \u201cWhat is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?\u201d the president of the United States asked 10 years ago at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner. \u201cA pit bull is delicious.\u201d Of course, to echo E.B. White: Explaining a joke is like dissecting a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":443748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/newspress-collage-22173568-1651875682173.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1651861350&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[18203,128880,10701,991,52292,10401],"class_list":["post-443747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-5-6-22","tag-democrats","tag-joe-biden","tag-sarah-palin","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}