... which is why the Times, like other major newsrooms, should tell their employees to get off Twitter entirely:

https://t.co/JpQvjBN0Mz

(Yes, I am tweeting this. Enjoy the delicious irony. No, really, sit with it for a moment. Roll around, until your skin tingles from its mildly caustic properties.)
(I am now on a Twitter campaign to get major institutions, including my employer, to tell employees to get off Twitter. I don't expect it to work. But a girl's gotta try.)
(Given that I am a right-wing columnist, in an overwhelmingly left-wing industry, people are bound to be suspicious of my motives. *Mutter/cough/something something et tu cancel culture?* Understandable. However ...)
Ironically, my conclusion was not inspired by conservatives complaining about "cancel culture". It was inspired by conservative editors and other institutional leaders of my acquaintance complaining about the corrosive effect Twitter was having on their institutions.
Professional institutions are delicate creatures. They function because they have a common ethos, hell a telos, towards which everyone is working, and everyone's professional energies are ultimately channeled towards that joint product.
That's true even if you don't have an explicit ideological project; you still have a common "corporate culture", which matters A LOT.
Obviously that's an ideal--there are always principal-agent problems in any employment relationship, people trying to aggrandize themselves at the expense of the whole, or push their pet projects even if fulfilling them would be a disaster for the institution ...
But Twitter reportedly made this much worse. People started treating their workplaces like hotels where they parked while they engaged in their personal brand-building exercise on Twitter.
Any attempt to refocus employees on the needs of the institution bogged down in endless adjudications of superficially similar behaviors that were treated differently ... "Why does Mommy love Joey more than me?"
And I guess this is where I am fundamentally conservative: I think institutions matter a lot. I think virtually every staffer at a major newsroom or thinktank or other professional group is getting more out of their group than the group is getting out of them.
The sum is greater than the parts. It is a mistake to let that sum disaggregate into a dozen or a hundred or a thousand parts, which is what Twitter tends to do.

I don't want the government to ban it, to be clear, and I think Twitter itself should strive for viewpoint neutrality
But I think major institutions should also strive for viewpoint neutrality by telling everyone to get off Twitter, rather than taking on the impossible job of "retroactive social media editor" where people are disciplined or fired after the fact for crossing a dim and wavy line.
Anyway, thanks for reading, as usual, this is just a little teaser for a column that makes the point in much more depth. That column is here and I urge you to read it: https://t.co/JpQvjBN0Mz

More from Society

A long thread on how an obsessive & violent antisemite & Holocaust denier has been embraced by the international “community of the good.”

Sarah Wilkinson has a history of Holocaust denial & anti-Jewish hatred dating back (in documented examples) to around 2015.


She is a self-proclaimed British activist for “Palestinian rights” but is more accurately a far Left neo-Nazi. Her son shares the same characteristics of violence, racism & Holocaust denial.

I first documented Sarah Wilkinson’s Holocaust denial back in July 2016. I believe I was the 1st person to do so.

Since then she has produced a long trail of written hate and abuse. See here for a good summary.


Wilkinson has recently been publicly celebrated by @XRebellionUK over her latest violent action against a Jewish owned business. Despite many people calling XR’s attention to her history, XR have chosen to remain in alliance with this neo-Nazi.

Former Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP is among those who also chose to stand with Wilkinson via a tweet.

But McDonnell is not alone.

Neo-Nazi Sarah Wilkinson is supported and encouraged by thousands of those on the Left who consider themselves “anti-racists”.
Patriotism is an interesting concept in that it’s excepted to mean something positive to all of us and certainly seen as a morally marketable trait that can fit into any definition you want for it.+


Tolstoy, found it both stupid and immoral. It is stupid because every patriot holds his own country to be the best, which obviously negates all other countries.+

It is immoral because it enjoins us to promote our country’s interests at the expense of all other countries, employing any means, including war. It is thus at odds with the most basic rule of morality, which tells us not to do to others what we would not want them to do to us+

My sincere belief is that patriotism of a personal nature, which does not impede on personal and physical liberties of any other, is not only welcome but perhaps somewhat needed.

But isn’t adherence to a more humane code of life much better than nationalistic patriotism?+

Göring said, “people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”+

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