Truth Social for One Month: What I Learned
Self Praise, Attacks on the so called, Disloyal, Many Porn bots, Sycophants, etc....
I guess I have a perverted sense of curiosity on some things. My wife wonders why I follow people I don't like on Twitter or other sites. Well, it's the same reason I watch Fox News. There are always people on the spectrum of political thought that I like and don't like. Being an old school GOP member, I long for the day when the crazies leave and sanity returns. Until then, however, I want to stay in-the-know when it comes to what people and media organizations think, not to mention the candidates themselves. That is why I read and observe from The Squad on the far left to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz on the MAGA right.
So, I joined Truth Social a month or so ago just to see what all the fuss was about. To start, when you boast about telling the truth by having truth in your name, there is probably not much in the way of "Truth". I do take the view of Captain Queeg from the movie, The Caine Mutiny from 1954 with Humphrey Bogart playing the role of a deranged Captain on a WWII ship. When addressing his officers, upon taking over the ship, the Caine, he said to his Executive Officer, Video Link to Quote
"Mr. Maryk, you may tell the crew for me that there are four ways of doing things aboard my ship: The right way, the wrong way, the Navy way, and my way. They do things my way, and we'll get along."
So too, can this be said about the truth. There is your truth, my truth, the truth as seen from a 3rd party and "The Truth". I want to believe that my way and/or my truth is the truth, but I realize, that aside from 2+2 equaling 4, politics is on it's own level when trying to tease out a or the truth.
Seeing, hearing and reading about a political or foreign affairs news stories is my passion, but when I hear CNN's reporting vs what comes from Fox News, there can be a huge difference. When both organizations report on a fact, such as a SpaceX rocket blasting off, the reporting is objective and similar in nature, but when there is a national or international political news story topping the AP wire, the networks will often diverge and can be very far apart in their take on the story. I have to say, that lately, since both Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon left CNN, the primetime reporting with Kaitlan Collins and her team is much more objective while still being to the left of center. Fox News, on the other hand, has doubled down on far right celebrity commentators, placing the smart aleck wise cracking Jesse Watters in the Tucker Carlson slot. There is little or no objectivity on Fox's primetime programming vs CNNs revamped schedule.
What does all of this have to do with Truth Social, you may ask? Well, Donald Trump's answer to Twitter and Facebook's ban of his accounts in 2020, as well as his ongoing issues with Fox, was to start his own platform where he can't be silenced, edited, no warnings on his posts, and just blurt out exactly what comes to his "mind", often in the middle of the night and in all caps. Twitter offers whatever view you desire based on who you follow from all points of view. Facebook offers a similar experience with it's feed. Truth Social, on the other hand, dishes up Trump, Trump supporters, Trump leaning journalists, bloggers, hangers on, right wing media celebrities from Fox, OAN and Newsmax as well as the far right talk show hosts who reside in the ether. When you join Truth Social, it is not for news as you might tune into BBC, not at all. What you get is Trump, Trump, Trump and just when you thought you couldn't stand any more, you get more Trump. It is an echo chamber of delight for the MAGA right, the faithful, the Pied Piper rats, and the sucker fish from Congress who just can't seem to pull themselves away from their Orange God. You also get many, many bots that use tag lines such as, "You don't want to miss this!" or "IT IS HAPPENING, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!". Be careful of and block the bots. Lord knows what lurks in these URLs.
After about a month on the site, submitting my own "Truths", I just had to laugh at the single-minded worship and finely tuned narrative from Hannity, Ingram, and so many others who routinely support and defend The Donald on every subject known to man propping up whatever he says or does as the gospel according to Trump. I got attacked and called names for everything I said or truthed, like being a newbie in an online video game and being shot to pieces instantly upon my arrival. There is no news, no objectivity, no counter arguments. Fox News afternoon hosts, with Jessica Tarlov, Harold Ford Jr, Bret Baier and others have stayed off Truth Social as they would really have no place there, being actual journalists. It's just a tightly wound group of Trump cheerleaders with one goal and that is to go down with the ship, no matter the cost to their reputations and no matter what Trump says or does. He can do no wrong as we keep lowering the bar for this one lunatic who should never sit in the Oval Office again.
I'm deleting my account, having satisfied my perverse curiosity. If you want to simply lap up anything that Trump or his sycophants want to flush down the Truth Social stream of effluent, then have fun.
Some Statistics on the site. The daily active users is around 2 million compared to 500 million for Twitter and 2.9 billion for Facebook.
Similarly, for a long time, though my companion and I get most of our tv news from msnbc (we also watch Michael Smerconish and Fareed Zakaria on CNN, and I regularly download articles from maybe 20-30 online sources that are well-vetted, corroborated, and capable of self-correction like Axios, Daily Beast, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, etc., etc.,), I used to try to at least see the opening monologue by Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity on Fox Fake News, not because I have the slightest respect for them or regard them as true journalists with integrity, but simply to ensure that I always had a handle on what the other side of the aisle was all about, and just in case they actually offered a counter-narrative on a variety of issues that actually turned out to be true, and that perhaps so-called mainstream media was missing. But after awhile, I just couldn't stomach watching/listening to self-evident bile being dished out by evening anchors who obviously knew they were lying and promoting fascism but who also knew that they could absolutely count on our 45th President supporters to believe anything they said about him that displayed the requisite obeisance and worship, while at the same time making a fortune off the gullibility of people they privately regard as suckers. Watching them regularly is like deliberately infecting oneself with rabies. I'm done.
I have always been semi-curious but not enough to actually go to the site. Thanks for taking one for team and reporting back!