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DEAR DEMS: KEEP CALM AND TWEET ON.
If you quickly surrender on social media platforms because you “think” you don’t like who owns them or participates on them then you are surrendering your voice in our democratic discourse as well.
I want to share a message with all Democrats on social media, especially those who complain about the platforms and those who are saying they’re quitting Twitter effective immediately to unilaterally and pre-emptively surrender it to right-wingers a week a critical election about the future of democracy.
What’s next? Should we not compete in elections because we don’t like the rules, the opponent or the officials running the process?
You win an information war by flooding the zone with YOUR MESSAGE to drown out your opponents not by running away from the MOST INFLUENTIAL FREE SPEECH PLATFORM ON EARTH. (that is not an exaggeration!)
You might have heard of the old organizing tip to "meet voters where they are" which means if you want to reach people you need to come to them not hope they find you.
That means speaking on external platforms and audiences that might cater to cross-partisan audiences not just your own and frankly anywhere YOUR SPEECH is allowed or otherwise your opponents speech will be the only speech they hear.
Its why Pete Buttigieg goes on Fox News....because it works!
I am saying this after about three decades of experience in communications and political organizing but don’t take it from me!
I am basically repeating what messaging experts say regularly including James Carville, David Axelrod, Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Joe Trippi and Lis Smith who managed Pete Buttigieg’s excellent 2020 campaign media strategy and has been interviewed about it recently for her new book.
I am pretty sure they would agree with this take and won’t be closing their twitter accounts anytime soon. Frankly, untill Barack Obama or Joe Biden closes their twitter accounts we should assume the marching orders to Democrats are to use the platform.
And any good organizer who has experience talking to swing voters would probably have the same viewpoint.
Let’s ignore the “anti-billionaire” narratives for a second and think about what this really means to the platform. There has been lots of demonizing of Jeff Bezos in recent years but i haven’t seen many complaints about him buying the Washington Post lately because the content hasn’t changed much from what I have seen.
Read what Elon actually told advertisers the other day as the plan sounds pretty sane so far. He also suggested he will create a content moderation council before making any changes.
I think I know what kind of changes he has in mind (he hates bots which is good) but I am taking a wait-and-see attitude because I admit the idea of him buying twitter has been concerning to me as well.
But for those who say they care about “inclusion” lets consider an important detail:
Elon has a high-functioning version of Aspergers so he’s basically a savant who has awkward social abilities that get him into trouble on twitter which is mostly because he is so famous now.
In person and on camera he is mostly a shy nerd.
That is the real Elon Musk.
Unless you can say EVERY WORD you vented on social media represented who you are completely then I would take this whole thing with a grain of salt.
From what I can tell he is a moderate libertarian that isn’t a fan of the Far Right and whatever he considers the Far Left. I don’t think he’s a Trumper but since he has business with NASA he is in no position to speak up about politics.
The bottom line on Elon is he has revolutionized clean energy and the fight against climate change in many ways as well as space for NASA and even Ukraine as he has spent $100 Million to use his satellites to provide the country free internet….which he complained about the other day on twitter!
Actions speak louder than Words.
So, Keep Calm and Tweet On…..at least until November 8th!
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