I don’t use Twitter. While I enjoy a snide remark I’m not sure that waiting with baited breath for the next bit of snark from somebody I don’t know is the best use of my time. The organization that stands to profit by publishing these statements gives its seal of approval. Verification as to the origin of the statements undermines the whole concept of the Internet. Who cares? What does it matter? Do these supposed gems have a lifespan of over an hour?
Buzzfeed: Twitter Unverifies Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos Amid Speech Wars
by BREITBART NEWS 10 Jan 2016
This article was originally published by Buzzfeed:
Twitter’s removal of journalist and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos’s verification badge for unspecified rules violations has pushed the company — in the midst of a crackdown on harassment — deeper into the politicized battle over online speech.
Though Yiannopoulos is still on the platform, the self-described supervillain is widely impersonated and the loss of the verification badge could well make it difficult for him to distribute his message on Twitter.
“The primary purpose of verification is to combat impersonation,” Yiannopoulos told BuzzFeed News in an email. “I can’t think of anyone on the internet more impersonated (whether out of affection or otherwise) than me.”
Read the rest of the article here.
I could go on, but then I thought naw I’m going to let somebody smarter than me make my point. This guy is so smart that he anticipated and mastered Twitter over 100 years after his death.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”
“It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart: the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you.”
“Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.”
“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”
Like“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”
“A person that started in to carry a cat home by the tail was gitting knowledge that was always going to be useful to him, and warn’t ever going to grow dim or doubtful.”
― Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad
“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.”
“A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.”
“There’s one way to find out if a man is honest: ask him; if he says yes, you know he’s crooked.”
“It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt”
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
“Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”
“Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.”
“Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.”
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.”
“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.”
“Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.”
“Never have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.”
“It may have happened, it may not have happened but it could have happened.”
“The trouble with the world is not that people know too little; it’s that they know so many things that just aren’t so. ”