There’s always a silver lining in the darkest cloud.
While Parler is going through some rough turbulence right now with the big tech cartel sabotaging their platform, it’ll be a smooth flight on the other side. Facebook and Twitter have too long held the keys to the doorway into the social media world anyway.
At first bourgeoning entities dressed up in a shiny suit of “goodwill” and “brotherhood,” they became a golden opportunity for reconnecting with lost friends, expanding business, growing networks, even finding love (which is a rather scary thought, though I’m not judging). However, any platform that encourages strangers to connect with often awkward and incendiary introductions is doomed to implode. Essentially, social media now is a stage where people introduce themselves with sound bites that are often poor representations of who they are–introductions that might only skew their complex political ideologies, moral values, religious beliefs, and personal perspectives. It’s difficult enough to get a group of fifty people to wholeheartedly agree on any of these topics, but when one uses reactionary quips to represent who they are, it becomes even more difficult to find common ground with a perfect stranger. These introductions invariably find offense among members of far too diverse an audience on the “big two” platforms of today.
A stranger behind a keyboard who doesn’t see a smile or hear the intonations of sarcasm stumbles upon some wisecrack or morally debased quip while scrolling through their personal feed. They invariably begin lashing out at someone they’ve never even met and could not know as a human being in a holistic sense.
Any artist or comedian knows their audience and takes that into account when they hire an agent to book them into theaters and performance halls. Most people on social media aren’t “performers”; they don’t know how to look for their audiences or appeal to a certain group of targeted individuals. They’re everyday people who may or may not have the kind of material that “connects” with certain audiences, or with very few at that. President Trump is a master of social media, but his rhetorical method of appealing to his audience managed to infuriate those who do not see eye to eye with his perspectives on Twitter and platforms like them.
Indeed, he communicates like a regular person. He just happens to be president. Because of his sly genius, though, it is no surprise he will be responsible for crashing the whole social media infrastructure as we now know it. Rush Limbaugh had 88 million followers who will jump ship with him; Greg Gutfield of Fox is no small potato; President Trump, of course, will do the most damage in thinning the Twitter herd. But the list goes on and on of public figures who will make a statement against these platforms and take their audiences somewhere else more “comfortable.”
Ultimately, I have confidence that John Matze, who was brilliant and innovative enough to launch Parlor, will persevere and rebuild his own infrastructure, not reliant on Amazon’s servers or big tech at all. Other platforms like Gab.com are even reporting they are receiving resumes from high profile executives from Silicon Valley who want to find more “diversity” friendly environments. This is especially ironic given the Silicon cronies are so progressive and love to wallow in their own wokeness.
In short, the jig is up. Zuckerberg and Dorsey have overplayed their hands with Trump and about 75 to 80 million Americans (if you count the votes switched to the opponent). The hip tech gods playing poker with a professional dealer will find out soon enough that whoever holds the audience holds the Ace. Trump’s loyal followers are low-hanging fruit who are willing to fall right into the basket (being the “deplorables” that they are) of whatever social media platform he builds or helps finance. He might even think about calling it “Basket,” from Hillary’s coinage that seems to have a proud, endearing ring to it.
Nonetheless, the new Trump app users will need no introduction to one another; nay, it will be like a family reunion. Moreover, they will keep an account profile for as long as they have smartphones or computers because they are a family of similar ideologies, perspectives, and belief systems. They’ll have so much to talk about, and they’ll have common adversaries as well. More importantly, they’ll have common ground that alienated so many of the woke on Twitter, President Donald J. Trump.
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