There comes a time when the social media-consuming public needs to step back and ask whether their continued use of a particular service might be doing more harm than good. Elon Musk’s Twitter might have reached such a turning point in the public’s eye, just as Donald Trump’s recent dinner with two well-known antisemites is causing longtime Trump supporters in the Republican Party to reach their breaking point.
Both Musk and Trump profess ignorance for recent actions that helped empower white supremacists and antisemites. If they are, in fact, ignorant, that should be reason enough for the general public to shun them for the fools they clearly are. If they’re only feigning ignorance, that’s all the more reason to start treating them as pariahs rather than rock stars.
The stakes are high for both: Trump is now in his third campaign for the presidency, while Musk, the world’s richest person, has just sunk $44 billion into his ill-advised purchase of Twitter. Neither can afford the kinds of dangerous relationships they’re cultivating, yet they continue to do it as if they’re playing some kind of game.
