As someone who was actually around at the time the
#ConnecttheLeft handle was created, I have a couple of things to say about this
whole Unite Blue thing, and I hope all 4 of you who might see this will at
least consider them.
If you’re in Unite Blue, that’s your decision, and it makes
no difference to me. I follow back ALL
lefty followers except trolls, bullies and people who retweet canned crap en
masse and fill my TL with garbage (oh, that’s right—they call them
SPAMMERS).
As long as you’re none of those (and better still if you’re
funny), you’ll never have any problem with me, whether you’re UB or not. So don’t bother trolling me and telling me I
hate all UB, because I don’t.
I know why
you joined—it’s the same reason I asked to be added to the Connect the Left
lists a few years back: You just want to hook up with others like you. You see, you’re not the first ones to want to come together—this
whole thing has been done before. Really.
To give you some perspective, imagine the
following:
You are a full-fledged UB member,
you are active and engaged and proud to be known and popular in the
community. Not too hard to do,
right? Zach has to take some time away
for personal reasons, and things are much quieter for a long time. Then, suddenly, you notice the @UniteBlue
twitter handle is now @JoinBleu. You
eventually find out it was handed off to someone else and was just renamed—nobody
told you, there wasn’t a word. All of a
sudden, the account you followed is some other account. WTF?
Then the person who controls
@JoinBleu doesn’t answer questions about what happened, deletes web pages,
scrubs accounts and attacks you for even asking what the hell happened. AND he used to be paid to work for right wing
candidates, by the way.
How would you feel if that happened to Unite Blue? Suspicious? Wary? Questioning? Doubtful?
Is it starting to make a little bit of sense now?
If you are attacking people for asking questions and having
doubts, just STOP and put yourself in their shoes for a second, and open your
eyes and look at the facts. (And I’m
sorry if any of this next part offends, that’s not my intention, but I’m just
going to call stuff what it is here. You’re
a grown-up and should be able to take it...)
First – You need
to put this in perspective. Zach Green
is little better than a twitter pimp (albeit one with possible coding and
analytical skills), except that instead of sex, it is the attention and tweets of his
followers that are his stock-in-trade. He
is a paid cheerleader and conversation starter for causes or candidates when it
suits him (and if they pay)-- nothing more, and nothing less. Unless I missed the part somewhere that said that because of 140 Elect a candidate got elected, or a ballot measure passed, or a massive protest happened-- that ANYTHING actually happened in real life besides people talking about the latest shiny object-- I'm just not seeing where the claims of wide influence are coming from (other than him), much less what they are based on. He's got more influence than me, and more than some, but that's not really saying much (especially the more than me part).
So tell me-- how can you NOT feel manipulated when you
never know whether the thing he’s telling you to tweet about is picking up the
tab for his dinner check tonight? Talk about suspension of disbelief. Put
away your blinders for a minute and really think about that. My tweets are not for sale, nor is access to my feed. You can sign up for that if you want, but
I’ll take a pass.
Second - I, for
one, will tweet what I want because I want to, not what somebody tells me to
and when, and especially not if that somebody else is Zach Green. The ongoing rockfight among the twitter
Lefterati is prima facie evidence that he just doesn’t have any idea what being
a twitter progressive is about, much less managing a community of them. Exhibit B is that he hasn’t been able to
either satisfy or silence his critics for months, and over time, there is only
MORE information coming out that is disturbing, not less. Not exactly Manager of the Year material, and
not the guy I’m taking direction from on what I should do to support the causes
I care about. Thanks, but no thanks.
Third - Why would
I want to join the club of a guy that has poisoned the twitter left as much or
more than any troll I have seen in my 3-4 years on here? Whether Zach is being paid by an undisclosed
client on the right to destroy the cohesion of left on twitter or not is
largely irrelevant at this point, because that’s what he has accomplished
regardless. Nice work, Zachhole. We could do with a little less of your brand
of unity, thankyouverymuch. If that’s
the effect of his efforts to unite us, I’m not sure anyone would hire him for
his next gig if they actually look at the kind of results he’s getting.
Actually, from the outside, all of this doesn’t look like
it’s really about UNITY at all-- it’s about conformity, obedience and
group-think (oh yeah, and money), and anyone who won’t drink the Kool-Aid or
who dares to challenge the Almighty Oz gets the shaft, either by him directly
or from others on his behalf, apparently with his blessing (or at least not his
condemnation). Yes, more please-- THERE’S
the kind of guy I want to call my friend every day of my lucky life, I tell
you.
I frankly don’t give a shit about Zach Green. He is not worthy of all of this. The ISSUES are. All of YOU are. HE is not. We are all just pawns in his business plan.
Use his lists and tools or don’t—that’s up to you. But be aware of the risks and the problems,
and leave others who don’t agree with you alone. You don’t need the Twibbon or to join –
his lists are free for all to see and follow on their own. Oh, and by the way, there are hundreds of liberal and progressive hashtags in use on twitter-- you can check any of them anytime to find others to connect with.
There are tons of other ways to find awesome
left-leaning people on twitter without subjecting yourself (and the rest of us)
to Zach Green’s artificial manipulation of twitter trends so that he can make a
buck. I hope you’ll consider using one
of them.
I won’t join Unite Blue because I can get what I want without being dependent on someone else, especially someone who wants to make money off
of me.
That has to be the direct opposite of empowered, and I am
not interested in signing up for that at any price.
