New Twitter wars turning ridicule into a virtue — for now

Of course, these might have been the same people who predicted that Trump, the Twitter addict, would never win the U.S. presidency.

In fact, almost single-handedly, Trump seems to be reviving Twitter’s relevance in the public sphere. If you want to know what the president-elect is thinking, whether on foreign policy or his reaction to the latest Saturday Night Live spoof, Twitter has become the go-to place.

It’s even becoming a medium of record, of sorts.

Just this week, Bernie Sanders, the former Democratic presidential contender, arrived at the Senate with a huge, poster-sized prop: a blow-up of a May 2015 tweet from Trump which promised “no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.”

Sanders put the poster on an easel behind him as he stood to speak during the Senate debate on the future of Obamacare.

Here in Canada, the campaign manager for Conservative leadership contender Kellie Leitch admitted this week to posting false information on Twitter, to “make the left go nuts.”

Nick Kouvalis, seemingly taking a page from Trump, was using the medium to generate some attention — which he received. “They are fun to play with,” Kouvalis posted on Twitter later. “Free entertainment.” He also took a swipe at the Prime Minister’s principal secretary, Gerald Butts (also a frequent Twitter user/arguer), for wading into the fray.

Somewhere, someone may be dreaming up a way to turn all this Twitter usage into a workshop about best practices for the fast-moving, 140-character-at-a-time medium.

But that would be a mistake.

What all these high-profile uses of Twitter prove is that it has become the place to break the rules, at high risk and in real time. The rewards of attention go to those who fly in the face of conventional wisdom, as Trump has been doing — every day, often in the middle of the night.

The genius of the Wendy’s tweets, for instance, was that they didn’t follow the old, “customer-is-always-right” rules. No earnest pandering, no “thanks for your feedback,” — just straight-up ridicule. It’s kind of refreshing, really, to see a corporation willing to tell surly consumers that they’re being idiots.

But it’s unsustainable as a working principle. A few more weeks of edgy attitude from Wendy’s might cost it some business.

Similarly, it’s far more interesting to see political advisers mixing it up on social media rather than speaking in bland, boilerplate talking points. Whether or not you’re a fan of Kouvalis, or Butts, their candour on Twitter is a departure from politics as usual.

But as a long-term practice, that Twitter pugilism could start reflecting badly on the people for whom they work.

Many times over the past year, I’ve been tempted to leave Twitter — as many others have — finding that it’s simply a roiling roster for angry and intemperate reactionaries.

But thanks to Trump, and maybe those hilarious folks at Wendy’s, it is worth sticking around on Twitter, fast emerging in 2017 as the place for public-relations professionals to knock down all the rules of the business.

>turning a normie meme into a political message

2017 shaping up to be just like 2016

>>97617

>THIS

normies should not be trusted with memes, they take them way too goddamn seriously

Never learn.
There is no such thing as bad publicity. However far south the mud flinging goes, it could always be flung the other way around as easy as 1 2 3

Denny's is still the best food joint twitter.

>>97631
Oh god i hope its not another harambe