Elon Musk's "blue check" debacle: His brain has been broken by whiny incels

[marmar]

Elon Musk's "blue check" debacle: His brain has been broken by whiny incels
For Twitter's angry nerds, the blue check is like a girlfriend — it's infuriating because you can't buy it

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 4, 2022 5:55AM (EDT)


(Salon) Aweek after Elon Musk acquired Silcon Valley's bluest white elephant, Twitter, the tech billionaire appears determined to live up to all the dark suspicions people harbor about him. His ideas on how to run the company seem to be borrowed directly from the worst people on the internet, dudes who spend most of their time toggling between spewing racial slurs into "Call of Duty" and griping on Reddit about how woke bitches won't have sex with them. That's because Musk's brilliant idea for making Twitter profitable is — don't laugh! — charging people a monthly subscription fee for having a blue check mark next to their name.

If you spend enough time in the disorienting chocolate factory-like hellscape that is Twitter, you will soon discover a shocking amount of resentment from right-wing nerds about the existence of the aforementioned blue check. Musk himself is channeling this resentment, claiming he was doing this to end the "lords & peasants" system. But, as Edward Ongweso Jr. of Vice points out, by "elites," Musk — the richest man in the world — "more or less means journalists." He may think he's a man of the people, but he's a rich brat who cannot believe that anyone is allowed to talk back to him.

The little blue symbol is affixed to profiles, in theory, to indicate that "this person is who they say they are." In truth, it's become increasingly difficult to get one in recent years. It usually requires both having a relatively robust public profile and an employer who is willing to vouch that your persona matters to their bottom line or institutional standing. (I got mine because Salon organized it for every editorial employee with a prominent byline, for instance.) It's supposed to give Twitter readers a little more confidence that the person who's talking feels some protectiveness over their reputation and therefore won't be talking entirely out of their ass.

In practice, Twitter gave checks to people like Daily Wire head Ben Shapiro and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, individuals for whom the ass does literally all the talking. As a gauge of information quality, it is deeply compromised. Still, combining the blue check mark with a quick look at someone's profile can help a user decide whether a tweet is trustworthy or not. Blue check mark plus a Twitter bio saying you work for NBC News? Probably OK! Blue check mark plus a job as a Republican official? Don't believe a word they say! ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/04/elon-musks-blue-check-debacle-his-brain-has-been-broken-by-whiny-incels/

[zuul]

1. I hear rumors that lots of Twitter users are going to

change their user name to 'Elon Musk' and use his image if he goes through with his blue check plan. He clearly doesn't understand what the blue check was intended for, as verification of identity. Wonder how he will like it if there are thousands of 'Elon Musks' on his shitty site.

[spooky3]

3. Kathy Griffin has already done it. Nt

[zuul]

6. She sure did.

Link to tweet

[GenXer47]

2. the teenage technocrats

are dangerously uneducated in social science - history and anthropology especially.
However, we give them this enormous power. It's remarkably simple to render them insignificant: boycott.
People don't use their boycott power nearly enough and it saddens me because it's so easy. So many people are duped into believing they just can't live without social media, gadgets, fashion, and food wrapped up like a gift. When in fact we are about to find that democracy can't live WITH all this. Capitalism, advertising, and manipulation through marketing have bought out liberty, wholesale.

[jaxexpat]

4. "Capitalism, advertising, and manipulation through marketing have bought out liberty, wholesale."

True, but, after all, it was for sale, as is and with no return. However, the sale may be invalid since there is no title.

[Tommymac]

7. Nice post. +1 nt

[plimsoll]

12. Decades of working IT as the only person with a social science background as well EE

convinced me that most of the Computer Science genius I have known should have been required to take remedial humanity. I was often tempted to ask one of these bright sparks what they thought of humanity, as an outsider of course.

[ashredux]

5. Great wealth magnifies a persons traits....

Great wealth magnifies a persons traits. Some people have their positive traits enhanced, and do good with her wealth. Many, if not most, have they’re negative traits magnified.

Elon musk’s has many Trump like traits. Hubris and the need to be loved that was missing. This often leads to tragedy for themselves and others. His story will not end well.

[relayerbob]

8. In all fairness

He'd be an incel, too, if not for the money. He's whiny, either way.

[geardaddy]

15. Totally!

[yardwork]

9. This is fascinating.

I especially like this paragraph:

In this worldview, the blue check mark is not about identity verification, but a symbol of the kind of social capital that those on the right perceive liberals as having that they don't have, one they simultaneously envy and loathe. It's this imagined prestige that fuels the narrative of the "liberal elite." In this worldview, right-wing billionaires like Musk or Peter Thiel are not "elite," and neither is Donald Trump, despite all his money and power. But adjunct English professors, freelance journalists and broke college kids in BLM T-shirts are "elite," mostly due to the haunting and not inaccurate MAGA fear that progressives get invited to cooler parties.

[OnlinePoker]

10. I've had a Twitter account for 4 years

I follow 11 people, have zero followers, have made 10-15 tweets in that time, and have no idea what the check mark even does. I don't even look for it on posts.

[ananda]

11. Same here.

I have a twitter account, but I only use it to like
some of the posts here and to post them on FB.

[h2ebits]

13. Me too

I only follow a few people and have made even less tweets than you. I also didn't know anything about blue check marks until I read it here on DU.

[geardaddy]

14. "individuals for whom the ass does literally all the talking"

In practice, Twitter gave checks to people like Daily Wire head Ben Shapiro and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, individuals for whom the ass does literally all the talking.