Ah, I see the problem here; you mistake me for liberal.

Afraid not, buddy boy. I'm just not a dick. I'm the parents who want you to grow up and function, not the cosplayer who called security after you threatened her.

Aww, it sounds like someone needs a nap.

Scared no one will want you around once they know they can survive without you? Have you tried maybe not being a creepy asshole?

These numbers show that the people ruining gaming for everyone are actually a small minority: more to the point, not a population big enough that any company truly "needs" them to survive anymore. Time to bring on the long-overdue crackdown.

When did I ever say I was on AOC's side, politically speaking? Nothing could be further from the truth than calling me a fan of hers. Quite the opposite: you and I are not friends in any sense of the term, but no one who knows me would mistake me for a leftist of any sort.

But she has indeed been blocking a few incels who threatened her with rape. That much is true.

Mindless drone? Ah, I see the problem; you mistake me for liberal. It has been a long, long time since anyone to the left of Orrin Hatch mistook me for liberal. He probably would too, if the occasion ever came up, but that would be about it.

See, that's the thing. You and I, we really aren't as different as you think we are, even now. Have I shifted to the left since my creep days? A tiny bit, perhaps, but not to the extent anyone would notice, especially not on the left (they're pretty bad at that, as I'm sure you've noticed).

I'm just not a dick. I learned what I had to learn, made the change, and got on with my life. And just like that, I wasn't creepy anymore.

Of course. I was on that same path, once upon a time. The terms and the tech were different back then, so I never quite got all the way down the path, but you'd have recognized me. And it wasn't any particular heroism or principles that held me back: I just hadn't been exposed to some particular forms of your bullshit yet. At the time, I'd have drunk it up eagerly.

So what happened? Not to get into too many details, but someone not-quite-literally knocked some sense into me, and I realized that I had it coming. The ostracism was indeed fair, I was the only one with the problem, and all I really needed was to grow the fuck up. And when I did, everything changed. The ostracism stopped within weeks, after years of fighting and outside interventions and even moving to multiple schools with strong antibullying programs had "failed" (the last in quotes because it didn't fail: I hadn't really been bullied in years, but refused to see that because I thought I was entitled to popularity). I had my first girlfriend within a year. I mean, there weren't any miracles or anything -I'm still the geek I always was, with all the social awkwardness that comes with that- but it turns out that just growing up and functioning has a lot of benefits, even when you have to drag your brain through it kicking and screaming some days.

And you're just like me, all those years ago. A little further gone, yes, and you've had more time in the muck; it'll hurt more when someone comes to knock sense into you. But I don't think you're beyond salvage. I have no illusions that I'm going to be the one to put some sense into your heads; my opinion would have to actually matter to you for that to happen, and I'm just some random guy on the Internet. But I seem to be hurting your feelings, and hey, that's something. An arrow to the knee, so to speak?

Fair ostracism of rape-threatening incels is "EXACTLY the same thing" as silencing all disagreement?

Riiiiight.

You're adorable.

Oh, silly me; I thought separation of business and state was supposed to be one of the cornerstones of the whole techno-libertarian movement. You aren't turning socialist on me, are you?

How much do they know of your activities, I wonder? Would Mommy kick you out of the basement if she found out? Would Daddy cut the internet down?

I never called myself a progressive either; I see nothing of "progress" in their vision. Nor do I call myself a leftist, or a Democrat, or anything else; no stupid word games. I'm not the classmate you triggered, I'm the parents you disappointed.

So do Trump supporters. Really makes you think.

Just one problem: Twitter et al are not foreign entities. The concept of election tampering does not apply to them. Especially not since Citizens United.

Trump has over 60 million followers. Where did you get the 20 thousand idea?

It seems I was lowballing his total followers. Thank you for the corrrction.

Based on those updated figures, Twitter stands to lose some 20-30 thousand users. Oh, don't get me wrong, there'll be a whole lot of rage-tweets, a few shrieking YouTube videos... one or two may even wet the bed. But actually do anything? Not very many. Certainly not leave.

If anything, I suspect that actually holding users to the rules may provide a boost in business. Alot of people are fed up with gmaing sites and streaming services and social media for refusing to do anything about the chronic wrongdoers. The first one to actually be able to say that no one is above the rules stands to gain a lot.

Materially affect their ability to do business? Not likely. Realistically speaking, they might lose, what, 10-20 thousand users from this? For a Mastodon server, or for Gab, that would indeed be catastrophic. For Twitter, that's the average Tuesday. The boycotters will be a tiny blip on Twitter's radar, unnoticed and forgotten.