Shutuppery Picks on the Wrong Guy: Stacy McCain Gets Twitter Ban

As reported by Hogewash!,  Stacy McCain’s twitter account has been suspended.  Probably something he said, but that’s probably not a good reason.  At Dave Alexander & Company, we think people should stop doing business with those who they don’t like doing business with.  On the other hand, it’s Twitter.  Enforcing standards there would seem like a fool’s errand.

Oddly enough, I’m having a hard time remembering the other Other McCain

 

They have new “Trust and Safety Council,” which I’m sure will get to the bottom of this soon.  Unless they caused it — which is more likely.

If you’re going to start deleting people’s accounts because of complaints…geesh guys…it’s Twitter.

Popehat’s Ken White has a nice response:

You should regard anything I say about Robert Stacy McCain with skepticism, because I hate him.

My loathing for him is sincere and entire. My revulsion for him is both conscious and subconscious, like a Donald Trump perforated with asymmetrical holes.

-snip-

When I say #FreeStacy, I mean “Twitter, you’ve providing an increasingly shitty product, I’m expecting to be banned from it arbitrarily soon, and I’ve been thinking for some time about where to focus social media attention instead.” Or “Twitter, before I thought this was mostly about low-level employees acting on their own biases. But I’m increasingly convinced by the argument that you’ve decided to offer a product aimed at a specific political group.” Or “Twitter, you sell yourself as separating harassment from free speech, but you don’t deliver.”

In other words, rather than indulging in cries that Twitter is engaged in fascism, or book-burning, or Nazism, or totalitarianism (all of which I’ve seen said today), I’m saying that Twitter is engaging in a mix of private speech and product development that I don’t like, and demonstrating that its marketing patter about free expression has traveled beyond the realm of acceptable sales puffery into the noisome Kingdom of Bullshit.

I try to avoid the Kingdom of Bullshit whenever possible.  I also avoid Twitter since I just don’t have time for it.

I suspect as does everybody else that he made somebody mad with his anti-feminism or his misogyny (depending on your perspective.)  I know a guy who has had a hundred or so accounts and counting.  His Twitter offenses are more clearly understood than McCain’s — since he has used Twitter to share personal information (including a beautiful picture of my house, my address and a shout-out to my employer about my disagreements with him.)

I support Stacy McCain’s effort to restore his account.  I only see the Tweets he shares on his website — but none of it convinces me to figure he should be excluded.  If Twitter wants to be a clearinghouse for opinion, Stacy McCain has more interesting opinions than most.

If they want to be a service exclusively devoted to progressives, boring people and celebrities, they’re well on their way.