The Blue Checkmark Menace: How the Verified Badge Influenced a Generation of Media Mediocrities, Thrusting Political Discourse Into the Dark Ages
Egos on sale for $8 dollars
Through the past 6 years of online discourse, a political culture of censorship, coupled with an algorithmic, artificially one-sided popularity-boost, has combined to create a political-sphere filled with media mediocrities, whose words—however mundane and ill-informed—influenced a generation. Now, due to the impending fall of the “verified” blue checkmark, the political online dark age may now be coming to an end.
The wealthiest African American in world history, Elon Musk, recently assumed ownership of the single most influential social media platform in existence, Twitter, and immediately began the process of firing some of the worst offenders of online censorship—sparking expected outrage from the usual suspect.
Though, the mere firing of these individuals who oversaw the censoring of thousands of influential political commentators—including the President of the United States, Donald Trump—will ultimately pale in comparison to the after-effects of the planned universalizing of the blue checkmark.
The “verified” badge you see next to certain Twitter usernames is literally designed to signify that this person is in-fact who they say they are. It is used to prevent individuals from impersonating other prominent individuals, companies or brands. That is at the very least what Twitter has expressed in writing on their website.
However, in practice, that is not how it has worked. In fact, the verification badge has been weaponized, and only given to those who hold the correct political positions, and stripped away from those who fall outside the ever-increasing boundaries of socially acceptable political opinion.
For instance: Candidates running for political office rely on Twitter and use the platform for fundraising and communication, generally. The blue checkmark signifies that this is a real person, and that this person is important. The verification badge does express as much to the unverified user—the unwashed masses, if you will.
The verified Twitter user enjoys an elevated level of engagement, as their words are perceived to hold more weight. Therefore, the unverified surround those who hold the blue checkmark, attempting to engage with and influence them in an attempt to sway their social-superior into adopting their political viewpoints.
This has, predictably, resulted in an elevated sense of self-worth for those who are verified. They believe their words are more important than others, because according to Twitter, they are.
The verified user, naturally, has adopted a level of arrogance and pride due to their artificial social-status. Their words, however unhinged from reality they might be, are, by design, more important than yours, and they inherently, naturally, act as if this is somehow true.
Censorship + Algorithmic Boosting + Blue CheckMarks = The Dark Ages of Political Discourse
Now, those who hold the blue checkmark today have survived the last 6 years of political censorship. They are the visual equivalent of a soldier hiding under brush as their comrades have all been picked off by the enemy.
The left-wingers who have the blue checkmark are loyal soldiers of the system, while the right-wingers who hold the blue checkmark have continually adapted to the ever-changing battleground, always retreating, clinging on to their social-status, never “crossing the line” of politically correct online discourse.
This has effectively neutered the minds of those who make-up Republican party, who now support a soft version of Neo-liberalism, as it is the furthest they are permitted to go without falling to censorship. Those who remain verified on the right are equally arrogant, and believe themselves to be smarter and more important than those around them, and do express as much when given the opportunity.
Left-wingers, however, have been emboldened to the point of psychopathy. There is nothing outside the boundaries of socially acceptable political rhetoric for those who defend the system, thus, rendering neo-libral political operatives mentally deficient, incapable of intellectually defending their positions without resorting to verbal thrashing and flailing—or violence.
Psychopathy is a neuropsychiatric disorder marked by deficient emotional responses, lack of empathy, and poor behavioral controls, commonly resulting in persistent antisocial deviance and criminal behavior.
The psychological trauma induced in those who hold the blue checkmark, who’s words are artificially amplified by algorithmic social-boosting, and whose intellectually-superior comrades have all fallen on the sword of typological principal, has yet to be publicly studied and revealed in its entirety.
Though, on does not need to closely examine the psychology of those representing the majority of political discourse online to come to the conclusion that they are generally unimpressive in the least, and an actual psychopath at worst.
The Destruction of the Online Psychopath
Elon Musk, the new owner of the single most influential social media platform in 21st century politics, will now be selling these people’s egos away for the fine price of $8.
The verified class have predictably revolted against the idea that anyone could be as important as they are. The idea that the IdahoTribune’s voice could hold equal psychological weight over political discourse as our Neo-liberal competitors sends the latter into outrage.
They got boosted, got on their knees for BLM, burned down cities, got on their knees for men dressed as women, got boosted again, reveled in your anguish as you were locked down, they stole an election, wished you dead, and gave their children hormones for that verification badge. You on the other hand, you paid $8 dollars.
It is the online political equivalent of a middle-lower class uprising against the oligarchs.
The aged Hollywood A-list actor who hasn’t had a gig in 10 years, who’s newfound popularity in political commentary—due to repeating the Neo-liberal mantra—will now be a dead-end career path, or, more personally relevant to them, the end of the road for their intravenous dopamine hits.
The unwashed masses, many of whom are far more intelligent than the likes of Lebron James or Ben Shapiro, will now, for the first time in recent online history, enjoy a leveled playing field, and this is why it is driving both the verified left and right mad.
Speech online may never go back to the freeing boundaries of the First Amendment, but, arguably, the complete universalization of the verification badge might be the final nail in the coffin for constrained political discourse online.
If the verification badge is universalized, as Elon Musk has stated it will be, he will become the internet Robinhood, stealing the lifeblood from the artificially influential, and giving it to the plebeians who have had their necks under the cyber-knee of constricted political discourse for the past 6 years.
You will no longer be Stephen King’s psychological punching bag, or Ben Shapiro’s intellectual inferior. The battleground will be leveled, and you will quickly find that these men are merely men, and that maybe they aren’t as important—or right—as you’ve been forced to believe.
