'Why feed the monster?' Conservative Elon Musk critic urges users to 'abandon' Twitter

02 November 2022

Still furious with Twitter for barring former President Donald Trump from the platform following the January 6, 2021 insurrection, some far-right MAGA Republicans were delighted when billionaire Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter in late October — as they are hoping that Musk will restore Trump’s @realdonaldtrump account and be more sympathetic to the MAGA agenda. But one conservative who is not happy to see Musk in charge of Twitter is non-MAGA Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker. In a scathing November 1 column, the Never Trump conservative urges Twitter users to “abandon” the platform.

“Within days of taking ownership,” Parker explains, “Musk retweeted — and later deleted — a horrid conspiracy theory about the brutal hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, late last week. Rather than condemn the violence and pledge to use his powerful medium to advance a more civil society, he suggested that a baseless conspiracy theory might explain the events in San Francisco on Friday morning.”

Parker describes Musk as “a man out of control,” equating his decision to buy Twitter with the actions of someone who “fell for the allure of the immediate and acted with the impulsiveness of a child who suddenly realizes he can unlock doors.”

“He has fired many of the company’s executive officers as well as the board of directors and has intimated that Twitter’s attempts to monitor and cull harmful speech will be scrapped,” Parker observes. “Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as too much money…. As we approach the midterm elections amid deepening concerns that we’re teetering on the brink of civil war, Musk is missing an opportunity to be useful himself and to change the world for good.”

Parker says of Musk-era Twitter, “Why feed the monster? Why not slay it, instead?”

“Culling hate speech, especially in a moment when antisemitism is on the rise and racist epithets are once more popping up on Twitter, might be the least we can do,” Parker argues. “In the first 12 hours of Musk’s ownership, the use of some racial slurs on the platform increased 500 percent, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute, which predicts emerging threats based on content. One result is that people are leaving the platform, including such high-profile celebrities as ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ creator Shonda Rhimes.”

Parker continues, “Maybe more regular folks will abandon Twitter altogether and return to human exchanges with neighbors and friends. It’s what we need.”

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