Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A Little Perspective on #UniteBlue From an Original #ConnecttheLeft-er



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?

THAT is what is happening, RIGHT NOW. That is what happened with Connect the Left. That group was just as engaged, just as excited and just as happy to be finding each other as you are right now. And then, POOF – it wasn’t there anymore, it had become Unite Blue.

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.

11 comments:

  1. Nice perspective and good insight.

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  2. Thank you! I've been meaning to write about UB and you've said things simply here. I STILL plan to write about UB but the information on their tactics etc is STILL being gathered. This was brave, clear, and much-needed. Great job.

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  3. This definitely comes under the heading of "Damn, I wish I had said that. It's what I've been TRYING to say ever since this whole thing popped up.

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  4. As comments go, it just doesn't get much better than that. Thanks, Tom! :)

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  5. Good read, I get it. I have a different perspective of what UB is (I also don;t know anyhting about it's background so this was good!). As a UB'ers myself I don't follow the lists, I don't RT anything from the top brass, I CONSTANTLY block or unfollow the idiots who auto-tweet generic crap to libcrib. And yes I get in arguments (and usually destroy) the idiots who have a problem with articles like this.

    I use UB as a vehicle to continue to make fun of and troll random TGND asshats without getting suspended every week or so... UB's helped me bump my followers just north of 1100. I use it for that and that's about it. ~Maybe the lack of seriousness with which I wear my twibbon is bad thing, or at least dishonest.... but it's the fucking internet, and I don't really care.

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  6. Conformity, obedience and group-think? Dunno. I don't feel like I'm involved in or being subjected to anything like that.

    I joined early on, I have 10x the followers I had when I started. I tried some #FF lists before but the Justin Beiber to everything else ratio on my timeline went quickly beyond what I can tolerate.

    For me it's primarily a #FF list of folks who mostly tweet about things I find interesting. I see tweets from UB or Zach... like I see many from other Progressives and Progressive groups, and if I feel like doing so, I retweet it. Sometimes hashtag campaigns are announced via email or DM (and there is never spam from Zach or UB on either)... if I feel like participating in those I do, if I don't I don't, as it is with all the campaigns I hear about because of various mailing lists I have joined and participate in or not. That doesn't feel like conformity or group-think to me. And obedience? Obedience to what? To who? I'm not obedient to anyone on Twitter.

    So what if he's making a buck. Other people working for other groups' campaigns don't get paid? He's putting work in, time in. He's got skills to do something I wouldn't know how to do if I tried to do it.

    I've gained all these good, relevant followers from this thing he created and manages and I've never given him a dime. If he found a way to benefit me and other progressives in this way and get paid for it, I say good for him.

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    1. Whether and how to participate is always your choice (and anyone else's) to make. I understand the benefits and can get what I want without someone else making money off of me, but if you're ok with that, so be it. My reference to obedience is in people tweeting to hashtags and on topics UB deems worthy and chooses to champion, to recruiting others to join and, for some, to attacking those who choose NOT to join. If you don't engage in those activities, then obedience does not apply to you.

      I have no problem with anyone making a buck for value they provide-- the issue is the utter lack of disclosure. I believe people have a right to know how they are being used, but there has been no transparency in that regard from UB. Whether a particular topic or tag generates revenue for them is something we will never know, and I find that to be a deal-breaker for participating.

      I'm content to know that you know there may be more to it and are making an informed decision. That is all I wanted when I wrote this post-- to let people know there are things to think about, and they should think before joining.

      So my work here is done, at least as far as you are concerned :), and I congratulate you on thinking about it and thank you for sharing your thoughts here.

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  7. Thanks for this and ditto what Tom said. I don't think this part of the story or perspective was obvious to very many people. When half the UB follower count was acquired in a very underhanded way (I'm being kind), hearing 'relax, I've got this' from ZG did not fix anything.
    And it's sad to see people calling others RWNJ trolls simply because they defend their like/dislike of UB.

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  8. FYI: ConnectTheLeft is now UniteBlue

    http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2013/03/03/cleanup-over-on-aisle-uniteblue/

    The current in fighting between liberals was started by republicans, they posted a few anonymous web pages that seem like liberal posts, then kicked back and watched the fighting...

    I too was a member of ConnectTherLeft..To see a list of those members go here:

    http://eileenleft.tumblr.com/post/37094770495/ff-connecttheleft-a-group-of-logical-liberals-you


    @yodasworld

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    1. Actually, while the @ConnectTheLeft handle has been changed to @UniteBlue, they are NOT the same thing, which should have been disclosed to those following that account and would have been if UB had any scruples. It is one of many dicey practices that make me doubt everything they do.

      Guess my name never made the list when she moved it to Tumblr, but I got my Twitter archive and found a tweet in which I actually suggested Eileen should hashtag her CTL posts -- Ha! I used #EileenLefty a couple of times (as in "I'm an #EileenLefty") but she didn't like that as it was never intended to be about her, but about the cause, so she and others came up with #ConnectTheLeft instead. I regret those tweets have been archived so I can't direct you to them, but I was definitely part of it.

      That is the difference between UB and CTL and other groups-- it is easy to see who is about the cause and who is more interested in getting credit, self-promotion and generating revenue. I just want to be sure others who are new to online activism are aware of the difference and informed about the issues that abound with UB.

      As I said, even if UB's intentions were/are good, what they have done has been as effective at generating disharmony and distrust as any tactic on the right. If they really cared about the left more than their own profile/reputation, they could have fixed this (and still could, but haven't and apparently won't).

      The proof of what they value most is in the pudding-- the results speak for themselves. Sad, and true.

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