Lethal Emotional Violence
People will say "Twitter can do what it wants with its own private decisions, even if that means censoring what it wants, and if you don't like it make your own." Some have, and, well, they're crap. Gab, Parler, Gettr, Truth Social I believe is Trump's recent attempt. Technologically it is easy to have something like this. What sets Twitter apart is two key things: it is indeed an excellent interactive communication network, exceptionally well designed, arranged, and accessible.
The other thing is even more important: its user base. This cannot be emphasized enough. Any old tech dude can make a Twitter-like site, but it takes years of what Twitter has already established to make it worth anything -- the hundreds of millions of people putting their ideas into the thing. If you don't already have that, you've got squat.
Thing is, we must also come to the realization that, actually, there are things that simply should not be shared, at least this openly. This is a critical issue. Should Twitter still keep off the platform the most rancid porn? Patently immoral or stunningly evil words or images? Slander and libel, you'd think? The stuff that could truly be considered some kind of fully instigated violent activity?
Many have this idea, valid or not, that the things they don't like politically are violence-inciting. These concerns come from many who don't like that Musk is just carelessly opening up Twitter to renegade voices who'll incite idiots to commit violent acts. I think much of it is melodramatic, but they have a point.
Emotional violence is just as bad as real violence -- Jesus said as much. Doesn't much matter that you'd actually kill someone, genuinely thinking you'd like someone dead is just as bad. And you know?
I see a lot of emotional violence spewed about on Twitter.
Can we still "judge righteous judgment" as Jesus also said to do? On something like Twitter? I think so. But the way the World System does it, allows it, even provokes it, is truly just a form of violence. It isn't righteous judgment at all.
I wrote about it in a home page piece a number of years ago. I wrote about some of the horrific things people say to murder others with their thoughts, often expressed widely in things like Twitter and especially through mainstream media news outlets. You can see many of those things there. Yes, an answer is the law, limiting the impact of the destruction those things bring, but the ultimate answer is not more law...
It is fully Christ.
God come in human flesh because He saw how much violence reigns in the human heart and He took the punishment for our entrenched lethality so that by His love and His power we may be redeemed, delivered, healed, and resurrected into life, joy, and deep abiding concern for our neighbor. He did that, however, because there is indeed the reality of things said to one another that are flat-out violence. Cain's Legacy does some work to mitigate it while also stirring it up, that's the legitimate ministry of condemnation.
Jesus is the Ministry of Reconciliation. This means clear acknowledgement of what must be reconciled. Scripture says we should not be deceived: the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, active homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, or swindlers (how many of these boast on Twitter about themselves!) will not inherit Heaven. But while you were once just like them, you were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus and by the Spirit of God. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
I saw an awesome Black Mirror episode the other night, the best one I've seen so far. "Hated in the Nation." I'd like to share it with you, so there'll be spoilers.
Mechanized bees are commandeered by a cyber terrorist to murder the one individual who ends the day at the top of the list of people a Twitter-like communication app encourages people to hashtag "DeathTo." The police get involved and throughout it is a thoroughly engrossing murder mystery as they try to solve these crimes.
Eventually at a particular prearranged time the reprogrammed bees end up attacking all the people who themselves attached a name to the hashtag, nearly 400,000 people. One of them is in the image above, a police officer who did it to the cyber terrorist just to see what would happen. The abjectly harrowing dread on his face as he watches those bees form on the window outside is... I mean... ::Ouch::...
Cyberbullying is nightmarish. Thing is, Twitter is great. Ah the tension. I want to see what people are saying. I definitely want to get an idea of who also wisely knows and affirms the Truth Rules that so many are dismissing... really when you think about it dismissing to the point that those rejections are almost like those mechanized bees -- eventually leading to the very real deaths of those subject to their attack.
Sure, so many of even the people I gain some measure of community with on the platform don't grasp it all themselves -- again I urge you to see my home page piece on this exact idea of "freedom of speech." And sure, so much of who I follow share stark truths, brutal truths, because they need to be said -- and hopefully will now be said much more widely.
But...
Then what?
Will Jesus find mercy out of that -- will He find faith on the earth when He returns?
Or will the World System-festering culture war just be that much more enraged?
Seriously, I sense another Black Mirror episode in the pipeline, you know, something titled "Dox.com." I fear even checking to see if such a site actually exists, I really do.
Oh my it is good to be in the mighty grip of my Lord Jesus, it really is.
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