Today, we are going to talk about yours truly, you gracious and humble host. What happened, thoughts on what happened, what next, and all that shizzle.

1/

First, what happened, no, I was not suspended because of a spicy meme too far, it was simply a technical problem with two-factor authentications, mostly my fault. In fact, all my fault.

2/

The problem was, I didn’t receive a single communication from Twitter apart from an automated ticket acknowledgement, and the first I heard the account was back up was an email from a follower, you know who you are!

/3

I don’t think any Tweets have been removed, follower and following counts seem about where they were. The moral of this tale, make sure your account details are up to date, especially when Twitter is in the middle of, you know, that thing

/4

The suspension made me reflect a bit, had a dabble with Gab and Parler, and perhaps most of you might not know this, but being suspended still allows you to read Tweets and replies.

/5

I saw a lot of ‘does anyone know who TD is’ posts, and a few calling me an alt-right racist, but will address that later. To answer the who is question, we need to go back over a decade.

/6

The Think Defence website was set up by me, about 12 years ago, with the first blog post a question why everyone was hating on the A400M, weirdly, it attracted 15 comments, no Facebook or Twitter then to drive engagement, just content

/7

Since then, it grew to about 3.5 million words, 15 million views and a quarter of a million comments, yes, a quarter of a million moderated comments, all of them brilliant.

/8

Whilst I had some great guest posters, including many that went on to do their own thing that you know and love today, essentially, it was a one man band, that one man being me

/9

So who is me? Am just a fat bald old bloke who has an interest in this stuff as a hobby, nothing more, something to keep the grey matter moving, something to take up a bit of time like others masturbate to midget porn or play rugby

/10

And that was all it was ever going to be, just me a few total strangers having a chat about a common point of interest. The problem was, it grew, and fed itself, and grew some more.

/11

In the blink of an eye, TD was a thing, 35k odd followers on Twitter, all sorts of grown ups engaging and loads of articles being quoted in various places.

/12

I still had no desire to tell anyone who I was, and still don’t. Not for any reason than just being a private person, no more, no less. I don’t work in defence by the way.

/13

But this does come with a penalty, it all isn’t as much fun as it used to be, especially on here, just having a laugh and a joke means inevitably, you start to face purity tests, outrage from the outraged, disdain for having slightly right of centre views

/14

I actually got called a racist, and alt-right, which if you knew me, would be quite comical. The written word is not having a conversation, I realise this now about Social media

/15

There is also a responsibility that although I didn’t consciously want, I have to live with, when you get nice comments on your write up of the Atlantic Conveyor from survivors and relatives of survivors, you know you can’t just huff off and pack it all in

/16

Now let’s talk about politics. Like many, I was pretty centrist, voted for Tony Blair etc., but Brexit got me into politics. My grandfather was a miner, my best man likewise, I started work in a factory, live in a working-class ex mining town

/17

I might not be working class in the strict definition anymore, and even eat the occasional avocado, but I could see how vast swathes of the population were being ignored, sneered at, looked down at. And that was never clearer during Brexit

/18

I could see the appeal of Donald, can certainly have a balanced view of benefits and costs without everything being orange man bad Russia puppet

/19

So perhaps I have moved to the right of centre, I make no apologies for it, but also like many, have no clear political identity, and absolutely hate identity politics. Seems today, that is enough for you to be called a Russian spy, a racist or alt-right gaslighter

/20

All of which leads me to wonder what next, I think we are actually in dangerous times, and social media is making things more dangerous

/21

I point blank refuse to take sides or see increasingly polarised politics in us and them terms, I will have my views, you might not agree, but I will not see anyone in disagreement as an enemy or a worse person because of it

/22

Only when we talk will we find a better path, cheering on Balkanisation of Social Media, like some cheered on my suspension, is misguided and wrong

/23

What next for me, probably just a little less on here, a bit more writing perhaps, you might think I have skin thicker than a whales foreskin, but I don’t, it is hard to read how people liked that I was suspended, but also nice to see how I was missed

/24

So if I have upset anyone, or offended you in any way, my apologies, but maybe best to just have a chat, either way

See you on the other side of the bridge

/END

PS, I like to think I am unstintingly generous, especially with content creators, good causes and small business in our little corner of the internet. I might still be a gobshite, but if you want something boosting on here, don't hesitate to ask

Right, off to polish the halo