Forums vs. Twitter/Facebook

[Warlord]

@Brian4Liberty posted the other day that he's boycotting twitter. I only tend to use twitter to monitor breaking news and stuff like that because it's very quick and useful.

However as a Ron Paul supporter you can imagine I get some very nasty comments and replies because there seems to be a lot of liberals there. I've stopped replying and just block them now but i'm getting a bit bored of it to be honest.

So what do you think about the Forums vs. Twitter/Facebook or whatever? The reason I ask is because on RPF we're very much preaching to the choir apart from the occasional flame thread which usually involves Trump supporters.

We need to find new ways of promoting the message and I think Twitter can be an excellent tool to do that but is it worth the hassle?

What else can be done to spread the message and open people's minds?

[jmdrake]

@Brian4Liberty posted the other day that he's boycotting twitter. I only tend to use twitter to monitor breaking news and stuff like that because it's very quick and useful.

However as a Ron Paul supporter you can imagine I get some very nasty comments and replies because there seems to be a lot of liberals there. I've stopped replying and just block them now but i'm getting a bit bored of it to be honest.

So what do you think about the Forums vs. Twitter/Facebook or whatever? The reason I ask is because on RPF we're very much preaching to the choir apart from the occasional flame thread which usually involves Trump supporters.

We need to find new ways of promoting the message and I think Twitter can be an excellent tool to do that but is it worth the hassle?

What else can be done to spread the message and open people's minds?

I'm fine with people on Twitter being jerks. And being "outnumbered" shouldn't be a concern for a grassroots political movement sprung from a twice failed (three times including Rand) presidential campaign. You get "nasty comments" from "conservatives" if you talk about foreign policy. (And sadly, as you have pointed out, some of that has bled over here thanks to Trump.) I am bothered by Twitter not "playing fair" and selectively de-platforming people. But then again I VEHEMENTLY DISAGREE WITH THE OVERUSE OF BANNING HERE! Yes, it's "private property" but a lot of these bans are bvllshyt and arbitrary. And they do nothing to "grow" the liberty movement.

/rant

Speaking of growing the liberty movement, that should be the goal. Does Greta Thunberg worry about people attacking her? Nope. And it's easy to say "Well the media supports her." True. But her side grew and took over the media from back in the day when they weren't supported. What did they have? A strategy. What do we lack? A strategy. Us individually jumping on Facebook/Twitter/Make-up-some-new-platform and randomly sharing stuff isn't a strategy. We had initial success without a strategy because external forces (Iraq war, Patriot Act etc) pushed people together who had no clue each other existed. That initial energy allowed us to do million dollar moneybombs, rule internet polls without using bots, and fill football stadiums for Ron Paul. Now? That energy is exhausted. And no "strategy" beyond "go takeover the GOP" was put into place.

A proper strategy includes measurable benchmarks. Some strategies have been proposed on this forum, like "Let's each build up our Twitter accounts and follow each other." GREAT idea! If you have enough Twitter followers that actually agree with you respond to your comments, and to the comments of the trolls, it's less frustrating dealing with the negative psychic energy. But there was no follow up. How many of us have YouTube channels? How many are on YouTube alternatives? If we wanted to influence an internet poll today, how many would join in? Strategy.....goals.....followup. And what message do we even want to get out now? Ron had a single goal. End the Fed. I didn't understand it when I joined up. It's kind of gone by the wayside in this movement. Greta has a single goal. "Stop climate change." What's our message? Some messages are too vague like "Freedom now." Some are not unifying to our movement as a whole like "stop all immigration." Some subsume us to other's agendas "Defend the 2nd amendment." Yes that's important (super important), but it isn't unique like "end the fed" was. Maybe we can't have a single goal. Maybe we need an agreed upon platform. What are some things we all agree on? Ending the wars. Ending the police state. Defending gun rights. Individual liberty and responsibility. What else?

I don't know if I'm even being coherent. Lot of jumbled thoughts there.

[Warlord]

Thanks for the reply drake +rep.

Social media presents many challengers. For example I don't use Facebook because I KNOW they collect every bit of data they can on you and sell it (including cooperating freely with law enforcement that's where the nickname 'Fedbook' comes from). No way am I going to expose myself to that. I dont want some cop knocking down my door because I got into an argument with someone on Facebook.

Twitter on the other hand seems much more 'safer' and i like many of its features but I do get snarky replies and I'm aware you can be reported and snitched on by people who disagree with you politically. Something needs to be done about that.

[specsaregood]

Twitter on the other hand seems much more 'safer' and i like many of its features but I do get snarky replies and I'm aware you can be reported and snitched on by people who disagree with you politically. Something needs to be done about that.

that is because twitter is handsdown the best platform for trolling; It is $#@! for conversations or "debate".

[Warlord]

that is because twitter is handsdown the best platform for trolling; It is $#@! for conversations or "debate".

Did someone snitch on you?

Ever since they banned Alex Jones I just knew they were going to censor more. They also banned ZeroHedge.

[Todd]

before they "fixed" it, twitter was the best platform for screening out the MSM garbage and getting news and information geared to real honest open. I had mine set up to get feeds. I suspended my account for a while but I miss some of the great people I found to follow.
Some of which were banned.

[jmdrake]

Thanks for the reply drake +rep.

Social media presents many challengers. For example I don't use Facebook because I KNOW they collect every bit of data they can on you and sell it (including cooperating freely with law enforcement that's where the nickname 'Fedbook' comes from). No way am I going to expose myself to that. I dont want some cop knocking down my door because I got into an argument with someone on Facebook.

Twitter on the other hand seems much more 'safer' and i like many of its features but I do get snarky replies and I'm aware you can be reported and snitched on by people who disagree with you politically. Something needs to be done about that.

Thanks for the kind words. But I need to re-iterate somethings. Strategy is paramount! Platform is (almost) irrelevant! Remember MySpace? We don't have to use platforms the way "they" want us to use them. I'll admit, Facebook is addictive. So is instagram, which is now owned by Facebook. That said, nothing is stopping any of us from creating fake Facebook accounts solely for the purpose of getting out a message. Or doing Facebook ad buys. And again, I'm using Facebook as an example only. I prefer Mastedon to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram etc because it's not centrally owned and its open source. But (and I hate to admit this) I never made the habit of using Mastedon to the point that I've now forgotten my login.

Habits are a powerful thing. Almost as powerful as psychic energy. No I'm not talking about some Stephen King or Matrix BS. I'm talking of the endorphin effect of knowing that you are not alone in whatever it is you are trying to accomplish. Why did the moneybombs work? Psychic energy. Why did the sign bombs work? Psychic energy. Why did collectively winning Internet polls work? Psychic energy. Why couldn't we effectively channel that into phone banking? That drained psychic energy! Bernie road a huge wave of psychic energy that was enough to propel him to being a top tier candidate. But those cheering young people fizzled when it came to having the psychic energy to simply wait in line and vote on Super Tuesday. That's where habit comes in. Joe Biden went to black churches and talked about how much pork he sent their way a voting habits kicked in. Forget Joe helped draft the racist 1993 Clinton crime bill. Hmmm....I guess I should say that habits are more powerful than psychic energy. We need both. We need a message. We need something we can be energetic about rallying behind, then we need to form the habit of daily supporting that message in a way that we bolster each other through psychic energy.

[Anti Globalist]

Twitter and Facebook aren't exactly friendly when it comes to people that want to promote a liberty message.

[Brian4Liberty]

Twitter and Facebook are pseudo-governmental platforms that enforce an establishment leftist agenda. Either openly through banning or behind the scenes with other suppression techniques.

No thanks, I would rather use an alternative. Trump should find an alternative and move to it, that would be fun.

[Warlord]

Twitter and Facebook are pseudo-governmental platforms that enforce an establishment leftist agenda. Either openly through banning or behind the scenes with other suppression techniques.

No thanks, I would rather use an alternative. Trump should find an alternative and move to it, that would be fun.

I dont blame you Brian but how do we grow the community and spread the message? We're preaching to the choir and always having the same arguments about Trump and the GOP.

[Sammy]

I'm banned on Twitter & Facebook

[Warlord]

I'm banned on Twitter & Facebook

What did you do to get banned? Out of interest.. I don't want the ban hammer.

[Sammy]

What did you do to get banned? Out of interest.. I don't want the ban hammer.

I defended Trump's comments on Ilhan Omar & ocasio Cortez. (Twitter)
I called people who think Trump is working for Putin brainwashed parasites. (Facebook)
I have learned that arguing with the left is waste of time.

[Cleaner44]

I dont blame you Brian but how do we grow the community and spread the message? We're preaching to the choir and always having the same arguments about Trump and the GOP.

I have come to the conclusion that there really isn't any growing to do in the way of a liberty community. Most people aren't very interested liberty. Unfortunately Bernie's message of communism and free stuff is much more popular than liberty and responsibility.

I defended Trump's comments on Ilhan Omar & ocasio Cortez. (Twitter)
I called people who think Trump is working for Putin brainwashed parasites. (Facebook)
I have learned that arguing with the left is waste of time.

I agree that arguing with the left is waste of time. The left is a lost cause. Pushing the GOP in a more libertarian direction is the only realistic option and that has its limits.

[Swordsmyth]

I have come to the conclusion that there really isn't any growing to do in the way of a liberty community. Most people aren't very interested liberty. Unfortunately Bernie's message of communism and free stuff is much more popular than liberty and responsibility.




I agree that arguing with the left is waste of time. The left is a lost cause. Pushing the GOP in a more libertarian direction is the only realistic option and that has its limits.

The GOP will have its limits expanded if we keep up a sustained campaign.

[Anti Globalist]

I made a twitter back in 2013 but never actually got around to using it.