I anticipate it'll go right back to being a cesspool that you can only hide from if you lock your account and I don't want to do that because it pretty much kills any level of engagement (if your account is locked, only people who follow you, that you've approved, can see your tweets).
I have no problem with dissenting opinions. In fact, sometimes a debate with someone who doesn't share my views can be nice. They can also get heated but I can step away from that and move on.
But you're naive if you think it's always been this way.
Back in 2016, it was a hell space. It was a mess of unregulated accounts fueled by neo-Nazis who doxxed and attacked anyone and everyone who dared mention specific buzzwords.
In 2016, I made a tweet about how my grandfather hated holocaust deniers because, while serving in World War II, he came across the liberated or abandoned camps and the smell of each camp haunted him - a smell he could never get over. Not even 60 or so years after having left the war.
That's all I tweeted. That was it. It was in response to Trump supporters denying the holocaust. But it wasn't to anyone specific. I didn't reply to a tweet. I didn't quote a tweet. I just mentioned it as a status to those who were following me.
Within a couple hours, I was flooded with Nazi accounts, hundreds and hundreds, attacking me with some of the most vile, antisemitic crap you could think of. I had dozens of people calling my grandfather a liar and saying he should be hanged for peddling Jew propaganda. This went on for the days. I barely interacted with any of these accounts, especially after the first few came after me. It was a constant assault, hour after hour, where I'd get a thousand messages just over and over and over again.
Then they attempted to take over my account. In those days, I had a dozen-plus unauthorized log-ins and had to keep changing my password. It was clear they were trying to take control of the account and fortunately, it didn't happen - but it was a pain in the ass.
By that point, I nearly gave up and deleted my twitter account. It was insane. I have never, in all my years on social media, experienced anything like that. It was awful.
So, yeah, you're dead wrong. 100% completely wrong. Unequivocally wrong. Flat-out wrong. Brazenly wrong. Foolishly wrong.
The only reason it stopped was that, around 2017 or whatever, Twitter started cracking down on these accounts. They were removed.
And that means you weren't assaulted day-after-day by hundreds of trolls whose accounts were never deleted because in those days, Twitter was hands off on it.
Then they got hands on and started banning accounts for violating terms and services. Elon has said he's reversing that.
So, unless you lock your account, so your tweets don't show up, any level of remarks, even if they're not in reply to someone, that is political or social will bring about trolls.
Trolls whose accounts were banned a few years ago but will now be given the chance to return.
Finally, it's fucking insulting that you would claim people who were attacked on twitter back in 2016 and 2017 are responsible for those attacks. Maybe you should go read up on the (()) movement and how there was a coordinated effort to go after anyone who was thought to be Jewish and attack them constantly on twitter.
THAT was snuffed out when Twitter cracked down on troll accounts.
But as I said, Elon has said he'll allow them back.
And those accounts weren't attacking just because you interacted with someone - they were attacking because you had the audacity to tweet out your own thoughts. That should never lead to that level of hate. Sorry, I just disagree with you there.
All I did was say my grandpa hated holocaust deniers and it triggered an avalanche of hate from people I had never ever interacted with before.
THAT's the Twitter we're gonna get with Elon. An unregulated mess of a website that allows trolls to harass anyone.
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