“The night of the long hair plugs”
I didn’t come up with that myself (credit to Ken Klippenstein—no relation to those other two guys who are back on Twitter now), but it’s pretty good, isn’t it? I’m sitting at home eating a Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cup (an elite product from a store that is only good for treats) and watching Real Housewives of Salt Lake City on my new big TV — we will circle back to the big TV in a little while — while a bunch of journalists coincidentally on the Elon Musk beat are disappearing from Twitter. Generously, perhaps these people were disappeared because some annoying people with too much time on their hands mass reported them and it triggered something that automatically suspended their accounts. Or perhaps the notably thin-skinned, bruised-ego CEO of Twitter who just sold another $3.5 billion worth of shares in one of the other companies he owns and generally appears to be having a normal one got access to the button that I assume exists and is real and is at Twitter HQ, maybe located next to one of the couches-turned-into-beds in the offices, that is big and red and shiny and says BLOCK and has just been going down a list of names and taking them out one by one. Maybe it’s a secret third thing that’s neither of those other two things. Edit: According to The Verge’s Alex Heath who spoke to Twitter's head of trust & safety Ella Irwin, it was a violation of Twitter’s “privacy policies” that “put other users at risk” that triggered the suspensions. Doesn’t really seem to explain the suspensions, but OK!
Anyway, there’s not much I can say that you don’t already know or haven’t heard yourself. Twitter banned the Twitter account of Mastodon, the social media platform I don’t understand and refuse to learn how to use, and then he banned Ryan Mac from the New York Times, and Drew Harwell from the Washington Post, and Donie O’Sullivan from CNN, and Matt Binder from Mashable, and on and on. There’s been no justification given for why these accounts were banned, no apparent policy they’ve violated. I guess I’ll just have to wait for one of those intrepid journalists Twitter hired to get around to writing a totally incomprehensible Twitter File™ on the deplatforming happening here. We love free speech, don’t we folks?
None of this is terribly surprising, and he can do whatever he wants with the platform he owns, just like the guy before him did, and the guy before him. It’s just stupid garbage and the nth proof point that none of these self-professed free speech absolutists mean it when they say they care about that as a principle. Anyway, I take solace in the fact that he is surely the most miserable person on his own platform.
I bought a huge TV
At various points in adulthood, I have relied on a 28-inch TV or a laptop screen to watch TV and movies at my own apartment. From childhood I have reasoned that a big TV is a luxury item, something totally superfluous and unnecessary, and a movie is the same to me whether I’m watching it on a MacBook or a smallish TV screen while sprawled out across the couch. And while that may be true, sometimes you find a 55 inch TV for a really good price online after Thanksgiving and you think, it’s kind of crazy how I’ve never bought myself a Christmas gift. Should I buy myself this TV as a Christmas gift? What is the point of living if I can’t spend a reasonable amount of money on something to bring me happiness? And then you do it. So now I am the owner of a 55” TV, and I relish the joy of watching my stupid trash Bravo TV shows on the biggest screen I have ever personally had in my own apartment. It has already changed my life. I watch a show I have watched one hundred times and the colors seem crisper, the movement of the cast members smoother. It’s like being on very good drugs watching TV. I will be parked in front of it often throughout the depths of the winter. Maybe having a big TV will even fix my lifelong aversion to watching most movies. Do you have a theory about big TV ownership? Did your life also change when you bought a big TV? Do you think I’m stupid for buying a big TV? Sound off in the comments.
Nothing better
2022 has been a bit of a nostalgic music year for me — I bought tickets to and saw concerts for My Chemical Romance, Bright Eyes and Modest Mouse (the latter of whom I am seeing tomorrow for the third time, unfortunately at Terminal 5). Today I bought tickets to see the Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie in concert next year. The tickets are for seats because I’m too old and tired to stand and sway while potentially losing my mind hearing We Will Become Silhouettes live at MSG in September, and they are good seats because I deserve not to be in the nosebleeds while living a version of 2004 I didn’t get to experience in 2004 due to being 11 years old. Something something healing your inner child.
The first flat screen tv I bought was a 41 inch Samsung which I thought was so big even though I was watching from about 10 yards away. My eyes were much better back in 2005, being only 55 years old. I later moved to a 55 inch plasma five years later which was that big I thought I might need to get new glasses to cope with the impact. Now I have a Sony 75 inch monster on the wall about four yards from my computer station chair and again I was almost intimidated when I first got it. Funny thing is, the 41 and 55 inch screens now seem relatively compact, I am thinking of upgrading my pc screen from 32 inch to 42 inch, and the 75 inch critter seems like I could maybe move to even bigger! It takes a short period of time to go from "Oh my god, this thing is HUGE!!!" to "oh yeah, it's the tv, nice." Also at 72, my eyes appreciate the increasing size and crisp resolution of the images a lot more. Enjoy your screen Maya, and remember, 75 is the new 41, at least in tvs!
Nice post! I *do not* you are stupid for buying a big TV!