On Taking the Ironypill, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Shitpoast https://twitter.com/jeff82874662/status/1344713193600540673

There are, imo, 2 ways of “losing” at twitter. The first is the well-known trope of becoming the “main topic” of twitter for a day, which often involves a pretty severe public dogpiling for some perceived transgression against a protected category of people

The second, which is oft-observed but perhaps less discussed, involves having what I’ll call a “first-order” discussion devolve into a pissing match, the classic “mad online” trope

(I need to better define first order but imagine that it’s talking about a thing, rather than

talking about talking about the thing, or meming, or joking, or ironypoasting; think of eg discussing politics or ethics or favorite foods or favorite places to live)

Twitter doesn’t handle first-order conversations about serious topics well AT ALL

Veer into politics or even places to live or deep ethical conversations and you’re liable to get into a nasty fight (unless you’re discussing with a close/trusted friend, in which case things typically go better)

Harmless topics usually go ok. Favorite foods or movies won’t

typically create much trouble. But the format just isn’t good for deep, important, first-order discussions. The topics are too complex, the format is too brief, and the people are too heated

And so that’s the second way to lose. Get mad at someone about politics or philosophy

The only way out is to cloak yourself in the warm protective shield of irony and shitpoasting. Never talk about the thing, unless ironically. Revealing your positions is a losing maneuver; don’t talk about the thing, but you can talk about talking about the thing just fine

Which is why the best conversations here happen on the meta level

There is nothing interesting in the political debates to be found here; it’s mostly simple-minded people yelling about things they scarcely understand

But the memes! That’s the good stuff.

Don’t talk to me about trumps policies on here. Send me his poasts about autism and many such cases. I don’t want to hear about aoc’s green new deal, I want memes of her Very Serious Face at the US-Mexico border

As long as you’re at that level, you will never lose twitter

And on a meta level, there are so many interesting things. How twitter organizes itself into self-selected social pods. Which poasts become memes with 100k likes and which fade out after 3 likes, and why. What you can tell from someone just from pfp and bio alone. That’s the fun

You’ll never learn anything interesting on a first-order level here, only meta.

(Side note: the irony cloak of protection is not a new thing btw - I refer the intrepid reader to one of my favorite essays of all time by DFW on media and irony)

https://jsomers.net/DFW_TV.pdf