DU rocks! A message of gratitude.
I have ~100,000 Twitter followers. I've acquired them by posting progressive news, commentary, jokes, and memes for the past six years. I started my first Twitter account 12 years ago but didn't really start using it until Trump got elected. Then I decided to do battle with him on his own turf and trolled him endlessly until he was banned from the platform. DU helped me do it, and this post is meant to thank all of you.
I actually lost the first account, @christoq, in January 2021 for posting video of Ashli Babbitt getting shot. I also pointed out that she was wearing a Trump flag as a cape at the time she and the mob were breaking through the final barrier between them and the Congressional Reps.
I was also flagged for posting ANTI-Nazi and ANTI-Confederate pictures that gave the algorithm false positives. It's possible that I was mass-reported and "brigaded" by conservative trolls who are known to target effective Twitter accounts. That account, @christoq, had 64,400 followers when it was suspended last January, a year ago.
I appealed the account suspension a dozen times over a ten-month period, but only ever got an automated response. Finally, in November 2021, I got a human to look at what happened. I pointed out that every major news station had shown the same video of Ashli Babbitt that I had posted and that the video had even been shown on the Senate floor. Also, the pictures I was flagged for were false positives. One was a picture of August Landmesser refusing to give the Nazi salute in a crowd of Germans who were saluting Hitler. The other was of a brave woman flipping off a big guy dressed in Confederate battle gear and holding a Confederate battle flag, as well as an assault rifle.
I quickly got an email response to this appeal (after ten months of trying) and they said they would let me know soon. Early the next morning @christoq was un-suspended. However, in the meantime, I had started another account, @StrictlyChristo, and had built it up to 36,000 followers. I decided to keep using @StrictlyChristo and make @christoq my backup/alt account because I was having much better success with the new account.
I was acquiring new followers at a much faster rate than the old account had. At the end of this year, the new account will have as many followers as the old account had acquired in six years. Also, the old account's tweets only averaged 14 million views per month, the new account is averaging 32 million views per month. Starting a new account had enabled me to streamline, curate, and tailor my follower list to be more effective. I dropped a lot of ballast that was weighing me down on the old account.
I routinely have tweets go viral, almost every week. I boost the Democratic Party and spread their message far and wide. I skewer the Repukes at every opportunity. I troll MAGA endlessly. I do it because they deserve it, I enjoy it, and I'm good at it. Twitter is an excellent vehicle for spreading the message of democracy far and wide, and for skewering Nazis.
This is a partial list of people who follow me on Twitter, and who I chat and DM with on a daily basis:
Rosie O'Donnell @rosie
Padma Lakshmi @PadmaLakshmi
Nancy Pelosi @TeamPelosi
Shahid Buttar @ShahidForChange
Legal analyst and MSNBC contributor Elie Mystal @ElieNYC
Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Cay Johnson @DavidCayJ
Legal analyst and MSNBC contributor Glenn Kirshner @glennkirschner2
Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing
Soledad O'Brien @soledadobrien
Thom Hartmann @Thom_Hartmann
Dean Obeidallah @DeanObeidallah
Sandi Bachom @sandibachom
MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch
Democratic Coalition @TheDemCoalition
Adam Parkhomenko @AdamParkhomenko
Don Winslow @donwinslow
Bill Kristol @BillKristol
Rex Chapman @RexChapman
Ryan Grim @ryangrim
Acyn @Acyn
Jennifer Cohn @jennycohn1
Nick Jack Pappas @Pappiness
Founder of MadDogPAC.com Claude Taylor @TrueFactsStated
Jon Cooper @joncoopertweets
Amee Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule
Erica Jong @EricaJong
John Pavlovitz @johnpavlovitz
Greg Olear @gregolear
Lindy Li @lindyli
Scott Dworkin @funder
Nomiki Konst @NomikiKonst
Michael Brooks @_michaelbrooks
Ben Dixon @BenjaminPDixon
Jamie Peck @jamie_elizabeth
Melissa Jo Peltier @MelissaJPeltier
Holly Figueroa O'Reilly @AynRandPaulRyan
DuneMyThang™ @Kris_Sacrebleu
Fifty Shades of Whey @davenewworld_2
Hoodlum @HoodlumRIP
BrooklynDad_Defiant! @mmpadellan
Ironhorse RESISTS @Ironhorse76
Thomas Kaine @thomaskaine5
Barbara Malmet @B52Malmet
Nathalie Jacoby @nathaliejacoby1
Tris @TrisResists
Khashoggi’s Ghost @UROCKlive1
Aunt Crabby Calls Bullshit @DearAuntCrabby
God @thegoodgodabove
Pé Resists @4everNeverTrump
Kate @ImSpeaking13
Louise Mensch @LouiseMensch
If anyone can locate another person who is followed by both Nancy Pelosi and Shahid Buttar I will be absolutely astounded.
John Cusack has retweeted me, as have Malcolm Nance and Joy-Ann Reid. I've chatted with Empire Files journo Abby Martin and with Rep. Eric Swalwell. I interacted with Peter Fonda before he passed away.
AOC responded to one of my tweets to call out Kurt Eichenwald for trolling her in one of my threads. Here's that tweet:
Link to tweet
Kurt Eichenwald used to follow me and we chatted a lot. We were like pen pals. For weeks and weeks, we argued about whether "Defund the Police" was a good slogan. (He was right, and I was too stubborn. I argued with people on DU about it, too. I think I got that one wrong.)
Sam Harris followed me for about a month until I made a tweet praising Sam Seder for his debating skills. Then he immediately unfollowed me. Ha!
This list could be longer. I have been lax in carefully recording the many legal analysts, authors, and journalists who follow me. I'll keep working on this list. I know I've missed some big names. I have to force myself to do it because that's not what it's about for me. I just want to tweet and have fun while doing it. It's a fun hobby, it's not done for clout or recognition. But the 100k milestone is worth celebrating, and also you guys deserve to hear the expression of gratitude I feel.
I love you guys on DU. A lot. You've helped me with this project immensely, and you all deserve TONS of thanks and praise from me for it.
I've been posting here for ~17 years. Sometimes I feel like my talents are underappreciated on a small site, and I need a big site like Twitter to spread my wings and really fly. Twitter is a bullhorn to the masses. If I make a good post on DU, it might get 100 likes and 5000 views. If I make a good post on Twitter, it might get 400,000 likes and 20,000,000 views (it's happened a few times).
But still, DU is special! It's intimate, and it's got its own culture. It's easily the site that I've been posting on the longest. I love you guys!
= new reply since forum marked as read
That makes me laugh. 
On the other hand, I do seem to have the ear of some people who are influential. So, there is that.
We're all doing what we can. 
VERY impressive 
Wishing you continued success.
I have 100,000 active and engaged Twitter followers. https://twitter.com/StrictlyChristo https://twitter.com/christoq Follow me on Twitter. DU sucks lately. Too many Karens.
Seems to me, you are more about spamming your Twitter account than anything else.
"...it's not done for clout or recognition" "Sometimes I feel like my talents are underappreciated on a small site..."
