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Michelle Rempel Garner makes well-considered points about Twitter. However, in my view, a more accurate case can be made for visiting the objections on Right Wing/conservative media, more generally: print, radio, Internet, and television.

While anonymity isn't a shield in print, radio, and television, the same species of malevolent, fact-free, vitriol-promoting 'free speech' predominates, albeit without the violence-threatening personal attacks, thanks to commentators' lack of anonymity. (There's someone or something to sue.) On the Right, there is a lucrative market for goading and feeding humanity's worst predilections.

The problem Rempel Garner describes is not just on Twitter or social media. The problem is Right Wing media, more generally.

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@Melodie Stol

I took a stand against medical aid in dying--I oppose it on safety grounds--and was excoriated, threatened and mobbed, ROUTINELY, by the Twitterers who clearly identified as politically left-wing. It was a shock to be the object of so much hatred, especially by people with whom I usually agreed.

I've seen people making fun of Rempel for her tendency to block people, but I understand it. I started blocking too because my mental health was more important than giving other people the power to affect my day. I follow a number of women with Twitter accounts that have huge followings. Over time, I've seen them, too, come to the conclusion that blocking nasty, irritating and of course threatening people, is the only way to survive on the site. If the worst you can say about Rempel is that she blocks people, you haven't got much of an argument. I don't always like her videos either, but I admire that she does not hide behind anonymous accounts the way so many cowards do on social media. She's gutsier than a lot of other Canadian politicians.

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This is satire, right? Michelle Rempel routinely blocks people who ask her questions that she doesn't like on Twitter including people in her own constituency. People who ask her, sincerely and without insults, how she feels she is able to represent Calgary effectively from Oklahoma. She posts her videos on Facebook, ones with innuendo and rhetoric and some filled with tears as she couldn't go to Oklahoma because of the big mean media might tell on her.

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I heard someone recently who compared Twitter to slot machines. There is a similar action: mindless scrolling up, again and again, in the hope that one will hit “the jackpot” — news of some natural disaster, a plane crash, a political scandal — and the boost of endorphins that goes along with it. Instead of money, on Twitter one wastes time. I deleted my Twitter app a week ago and really haven’t missed it. I think the whole internet is going to require a rethink and reset. What we have now is manipulative, damaging, and dangerous.

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Hold on. Are you claiming that Trudeau or his staff set up a Parler account? There was a Trudeau account on Parler, but it seems far more likely that it was an unauthorized account.

Can I ask how you heard about Parler, and how you decided to set up an account? My understanding is that the big migration to Parler happened after Twitter started cracking down on the far right.

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I appreciate Ms. Rempel Garner writing this column and expressing here thoughts here, at length, instead of on Twitter, even though I dislike just about any political/policy stance she has taken to date. Why? Because her arguments are laid out coherently, not blasted out in some mindless tweet designed to grab attention. Could all politicians (and journalists, please!) abandon Twitter and give us thoughtful arguments instead? Ms. Rempel Garner, have you deleted your Twitter account?

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"With this precedent set, Parler is small potatoes compared to the biggest culprit of weaponized misinformation, hate, and the death of rational argument: Twitter." I completely agree with Michelle. Twitter, along with Facebook, thrives off conflict and they HATE competition. Better to take down Parler while it's still in its infancy stage and without the needed resources to fight back.

Megyn Kelly did a very informative podcast with Glenn Greenwald on big-tech censorship, the rise of independent media and free speech. She also had the CEO of Parler on there which was quite interesting. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-censorship-independent-media-glenn-greenwald-ceos/id1532976305?i=1000505187244

And this is where I get really conflicted. Social Media (Twitter in this case) can also be used for wonderful things, like saving Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun from her oppressive family and life in Saudi Arabia. It can be a wonderful tool for hearing from academics like Glenn Loury, Coleman Hughes, and John McWhorter or social commentators like Ayishat Akanbi. I try to limit myself to sane, critical thinking people and avoid the toxic drama of the Twitterites.

I also hold a lot of contempt for Twitter for banning people for the horrific crime of 'misgendering'. Meghan Murphy's lawsuit (a journalist in BC) is still ongoing. Parler does not enforce this, which puts it a step above Twitter in my eyes. It makes it quite difficult to talk on Twitter, using the proper Twitter enforced gender pronouns, about the alarming increase in male born inmates serving time in a women's prison when some of their crimes involve the sexual assault of women! Which is something women don't do!!!

So, yeah, I'm conflicted. Social media can be a tool for good but it's so easily corrupted by those wishing to bring harm on others for the crime of 'wrong speak'.

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