The show must go on?
Among the stranger things that ever happened to me on Twitter were the times two of the biggest celebrity users, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, engaged with my tweets. (Or, rather, the Trump and Musk accounts engaged with my account.)
Even when these interactions occurred, they felt contrived. I didn’t think the Actual Donald Trump and Actual Elon Musk happened to be doom-scrolling, stumbled on what I said, thought it brilliant, and decided to react. It was the managers of the online personas who made a choice, directed by whatever social or political agenda was being prioritized.
Each episode stands out as a performance.
The Trump QT
On 14 September 2020, when I had 3,000 followers and was writing under the name of a Jane Austen heroine, @RealDonaldTrump quote-tweeted my criticism of my Governor, J.B. Pritzker, and his unconstitutional exercise of authority in designating businesses “essential or non-essential” and directing schools and churches to close.
Linking to a news story out of Pittsburgh, I said, typos and all,
“It’s time, Illinois. Our govenror [sic] has [sic] no right to decide whose businesses were essential and non-essential. The power to keep churches & schools closed under successive, illegal emergency orders is also a big no.”
Trump added, “…and Michigan, and North Carolina. Next up, phony Ballot voting Hoax!”
TBH, I should have quit Twitter then and there. As social media “cache” goes, it’s pretty tough to top being “promoted” by (arguably) the most bombastic POTUS in U.S. history.
So why was my tweet elevated at all?
At the time, I was in a group called Rational Ground – a DM collective of 60 or so people, mostly from the U.S. and including individuals with political-strategy and media credentials. Fellow member/fellow mom @AJKayWriter was QT’d the same day. I assume our tweets were fed to the “right” people, as candidates for the DJT persona to use.
My older, wiser self now knows this is simply how things work in the political realm. Whatever the intent, the effect is one that encourages and motivates the “recipient” to stay the course with the message.
It’s a reward.
Being rewarded does not mean being right. In fact, it can mean the opposite. Especially if the message is ultimately non-threatening to those in power, or to a truth being hidden, yet needs to be reinforced. In this case, I stand by my message as correct, principled, and representative of how I felt about “lockdowns” and mandates when they were first announced.
Those with expertise in the 2020 election can draw their own conclusions regarding the Trump “prediction” about a “phony ballot voting hoax”. I consider myself an Independent Conservative-Leaning Libertarian Rogue with a Progressive streak on selected issues. Not exactly someone any Party can rely on or tries to win over.
I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 or 2024 but did in 2020 because I sincerely believed he would not let the “pandemic emergency” continue. Sitting here in the Audience of year six of two Presidents and every elected official from sea to shining sea pretending that there was a pandemic involving a deadly spreading virus, I can admit my expectation was very naive.
The Elon Musk Reply
Fast forward to 18 January 2023.
A few weeks after my X account was resurrected from permanent suspension, “Elon Musk” replied to a thread I posted about Cook County (IL) COVID deaths ending when the medical examiner’s jurisdiction over such deaths ended. As with Trump, the interaction was brief and one-directional. “He” didn’t ask a question or engage the substance.
I documented the incident on Substack, which I characterized as Musk being “interested” in what I was saying.
To be fair, the aspiring King of Mars literally said “interesting.” I was happy when any non-anon account expressed interest, be it feigned or authentic, in my message about COVID death data. So of course I was pleased to have gotten the attention of whomever operates the Musk character.
To what do I now owe or attribute this “honor”?
Mine was one of many suspended Twitter accounts that were “miraculously” restored on Christmas Eve. I knew at the time that which Justin Hart later wrote about on Substack: the setting free of censored prisoners was something of a symbolic and staged affair involving current NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya’s intercession.
Truth be told, I was irritated about it because of the timing – which I thought drew attention away from (and made an inappropriate implicit parallel to) the celebration of Christ’s birth. I also felt like I was making good progress with investigating the New York City death spike without the temptation of the Twitter-verse.
Musk engaged with other “freed” accounts and “Team Reality” figures around then too. This attention, like the Trump endorsement, can again be seen as a reward.
But I also hear a warning.
As in,“Interesting, but not that interesting. Don’t stray too far off the mark here, Ms. Woodhouse.”
I had a lot of questions about New York. I wasn’t buying the lab leak legend either – or “viral interference” as the reason for flu’s disappearance. It bothered me that Bhattacharya endorsed mask mandates. “Focused protection” seemed inhumane. I could not and would not pledge allegiance to Team COVID-Shot-as-deadliest-substance-to-ever-enter-the-human-body.
I never heard from “Musk” again. But I heard from plenty from others who dissented from mainstream views.
- What’s with the friendly fire, Jessica?
- Stop purity-testing.
- Are you denying COVID exists?
- Are you denying COVID shot harms?
- When will you admit viruses aren’t real?
- Why won’t you shut up about New York?
I’ve been “in” and I’ve been “out”. I’ve been popular and I’ve been unpopular. You play in public, you pay in public. It’s the risk of saying what you think online.
Now that I’ve left that stage platform after 110,000 tweets in six years (!), I hesitate to dwell on things like the sham Twitter Files, the advent of Orwellian Community Notes, Musk’s fealty to the EU Digital Services Act, and the insidious algorithms that continue to steer and suppress certain kinds of dissent and elevate fiction over facts. It’s exhausting.
What I grew tired of, more than anything, was what the two engagements, by two of the world’s biggest performers, illustrate best: The Show.
It must go on, I suppose. Participating is optional.
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