Read on Twitter
It’s starting to disturb me how often I’m seeing tweets reading, “if I see anyone following $person, it’s an autoblock”.
1. If $person is literally a Nazi? Okay…
But:
1. If $person is literally a Nazi? Okay…
But:
2. If $person isn’t a Nazi, some may follow them even while holding them in contempt because they want to keep up with the newest crap and be ready to respond.
3. Journalists may _have_ to follow someone you (and they) abhor because their job is keeping track of the person.
3. Journalists may _have_ to follow someone you (and they) abhor because their job is keeping track of the person.
4. There’s a subset of people (I won’t give examples) who have shown themselves to be bigoted, but who have interesting arguments on other issues. Wanting to hear those ideas so you can be ready to respond isn’t an endorsement of the bigotry.
5. AFAIK, Twitter isn’t like YouTube—you don’t start to get paid when your follower count passes a threshold. So followers aren’t materially supporting the person.
6. To take an extreme hypothetical that’s turned into some reality in 2020, you may discover a food writer is
6. To take an extreme hypothetical that’s turned into some reality in 2020, you may discover a food writer is
a nasty bigot. It’s perfectly reasonable to decide to unfollow them.
But should you delete their recipes from your recipe collection? What if a nasty bigot retweets that they like a recipe you also enjoy—would you excise it from your rotation? That’s pretty ridiculous, right?
But should you delete their recipes from your recipe collection? What if a nasty bigot retweets that they like a recipe you also enjoy—would you excise it from your rotation? That’s pretty ridiculous, right?
Blocking followers of the hypothetical cookery bigot—which is the equivalent of what I’m reacting to in this thread—presumes:
1. Followers should somehow know a person they have no political connection to has expressed abhorrent views.
2. They do hear of this so they will also
1. Followers should somehow know a person they have no political connection to has expressed abhorrent views.
2. They do hear of this so they will also
remember that they follow this person for their recipes. (They may not—I’m not great with “celebrity” names, and that isn’t that weird.)
3. Having realized that $person is the same person as the one they follow on Twitter, they know that they “should” unfollow $person.
3. Having realized that $person is the same person as the one they follow on Twitter, they know that they “should” unfollow $person.
4. If they don’t unfollow $person, they’re therefore doing it volitionally, fully informed and with opportunity and reason to unfollow, and they made an affirmative choice not to.
I think the “I block anyone who follows $person” people are making a LOT of assumptions here.
I think the “I block anyone who follows $person” people are making a LOT of assumptions here.
