Why Social Media Tends to Be More Liberal

One of the most bizarre situations in the Trump Presidency (among so many other truly bizarre things) has been The Donald’s attacks on social media. There is a whole narrative out there that social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others) are “liberal” and that they tend to harass, ban, or “shadow ban” conservative posters. Trump is pushing for anti-trust investigates, congressional hearings, executive regulation, and pretty much any other method he can think of to stop the abuse of “conservative thinkers”.

Social media isn’t by it’s nature liberal or conservative. In fact, it’s the ultimate in equal time, you open and account and provided you don’t go too far over the lines, you can post pretty much whatever you want, as long as it’s not slanderous, threatening, or over whatever line the particular site is using. These lines are not bright lines, just sort of dips in the sand of what is essentially a free for all. Different sites have different regulations, Facebook has an aggressive anti-nipple policy that has left them with egg on their face more than once for blocking breast feeding pictures and videos, cancer survivor posts, and the like. Facebook is perhaps the most aggressive in these areas, and people tend to be a little more self-policing because most people are posting under their real names and in ways that are visible to their friends. Yes, there are hidden / secret groups on Facebook (I am part of some), but the public stuff is very PG in nature. There isn’t a ton of tolerance there for hate posts, porn, or threats.

Twitter? As you know from my Middle Finger to Jack post, Twitter is a cesspool free for all at it’s best and absolute worst. Porn, hatred, vicious personal attacks, celebrity break downs (Hi Roseanne, you ambien loving loser!), racism, and yes, morons like Alex Jones and Mark Dice make Twitter their home because for the most part, they have been able to avoid bans. Alex Jones lost out after a truly bizarre video visit to Washington DC showed him harassing and just about attacking people. Mark Dice has survived just barely, mostly because Twitter is pretty forgiving on his style of trolling and baiting.

So why are conservatives complaining? Well, Twitter has a feature / method that they use called shadow banning. A shadow ban doesn’t tell the user they are banned, but makes it either harder for others to see their posts, delays their posts for a period of time (making them less relevant), and often makes it impossible or very difficult to search for the person or their posts. While Twitter denies having this, they were caught out by a number of conservative accounts that were not quite as visible as others.

Now that question comes up: Why?

Conspiracy theorists (like Jones and Dice) would like you to think that it’s because “libtards” are running the places and want to block the conservative message. They think the only way liberals can win is by keeping the conservative message a secret. It’s a perfectly plausible concept, and Twitter Jack has even admitted that their workplace is decidedly liberal. Most of the social media companies are located at or around the San Francisco area, which is pretty darn liberal.

However, I think this answer is the easy one, not the right one. The right one is the one conservatives never want to hear: Conservatives tend to be rude, they tend to attack others, they tend to post dishonest memes or outright lies, and subscribe to stupid conspiracy theories that are easily proven false – but which survive by repetition and social media re-posts. I already have talked about how Conservatives are sheep when it comes to media and opinions, and social media is no different.

How do you spot a conservative likely to be shadow banned or blocked on Twitter? Let’s see: Their screen name includes either Deplorable,Patriot, or MAGA in it. They tend to retweet way more than they post, and when they do post, they send it to a lot of similar accounts for “support” (aka, positive feedback) from like minded “patriots”. Pretty much every reply they make is an attempt to change a topic to blaming a liberal, asking why Hillary isn’t in jail, or mocking Obama for being a muslim or born in Africa (neither is true). They are rude, crude, and more than willing to shout people into the ground who don’t agree with them.

Basically, they are full of crap, and won’t shut up about it. Social media works in simple ways, and the more people block your account because you are spewing hatred and lies, the more likely you are to be hard to find. Conservative think it’s a conspiracy, but that concept that everything is a conspiracy against them is part of their problem. They figuratively shoot themselves in the foot every time they get into it, and cause themselves more harm.

Social media isn’t liberal. Social media is self correcting, and conservatives too often are just plain wrong.

Someone had to say it. Ban me, like I care!