Leftists have simplistic emotions and mental habits. This reflects the reaction to prospective changes to Twitter, the preferred political forum.
Michelle Goldberg wrote last week that she hopes Elon Musk will make Twitter unusable if he buys it and dismantles its pro-censorship structure.
Hoping For The Worse
Goldberg hopes if Musk makes Twitter bad enough, users will flee, and it will lose relevance. She’s leery of theories that declining conditions spur advancement, but she’ll make an exception for Twitter. It should disintegrate for society’s sake.
Despite acknowledging that she, like other influential persons in the corrupt mainstream press, uses Twitter frequently — “it’s useful for my job” – Goldberg called for its extinction if new ownership makes the platform more open and accepting of opinions/behavior she doesn’t like.
Michelle Goldberg hopes Nazis and conspiracy theorists will overrun twitter because she finds it to be an annoying timesuck and she hopes they'll kill it: https://t.co/Wn3kYgKw1k
— Lindsay Beyerstein (@beyerstein) October 7, 2022
She said Musk’s trolling and dislike of wokeness would make the platform more welcoming to racist populists and conspiracy theorists. She added Twitter’s effect on media and politics would likely make American public life more contentious and insane.
Several psychological inclinations are at play, but nothing more sophisticated than a child’s terrible attitude when ordered to share or told “no.”
Goldberg exhibits the “sour-grape effect” by arguing Twitter is only relevant when the left decides who can post what on it.
This phenomenon is a tendency to downplay impossible goals and rewards, according to Hallgeir Sjastad of the Norwegian College of Economics, Roy Baumeister of Queensland University in Australia, and Michael Ent of Towson University.
Because Goldberg and her colleagues fail to control political criticism or alternative material on Twitter, she says the platform isn’t that good.
Musk never openly declared he would diminish Goldberg’s voice, but by eliminating her inclination for censorship, she would have her followers believe Twitter’s worth would be lowered.
"Let's hope Elon Musk ruins Twitter"
by Michelle Goldberg
Today's New York Times#Twitter #NewYorkTimes pic.twitter.com/6jdK4Ck2CA— Nightwish Greek Fan Page (@NightwishGreece) October 8, 2022
Goldberg believed a Musk-owned Twitter would draw new users but repel others. “Others” means her kind.
Childish Tendencies
General practitioners Ryan Bailey and Jose Pico published a study on “primitive defense mechanisms” this year.
One is avoidance, or avoiding people, locations, or situations connected with inconvenient thoughts or feelings. Most people would rather not voluntarily enter uncomfortable settings.
In a democratic republic, conflicting viewpoints can be considered and countered, a forum where everyone can contribute alternate knowledge or new, challenging viewpoints. Pursuing and contending with such a climate was traditionally called “journalism.” Now, the left opposes it psychologically.
Consider how upset the Goldbergs are over losing control of Twitter, using words like “destroy,” that’s a mental phenomenon called loss aversion. It is “an expression of anxiety” tied to a tendency to “concentrate [more] on failures than progress.”
Goldberg liked pro-censorship Twitter, but she hates the prospect of it losing its status. She concluded Twitter couldn’t be rescued; if we’re lucky, it could be eliminated.
All of this means the hysteria and controversy over Twitter and new management aren’t due to a fear of “misinformation” or “extreme MAGA Republicans.” It arises from liberals’ childish, emotional inability to cohabit with conservatives.
