Is Elon Musk’s Twitter conspiring against AOC?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is blaming Elon Musk for gumming up the works of her Twitter account. The New York congresswoman thinks that her criticism of Musk has “gotten under a certain billionaire’s skin,” leading him to mess with her notifications and mentions. Cockburn wonders whether this might be wishful thinking on the congresswoman’s part, because it is unlikely that Musk cares enough about her criticism to waste his time trying to punish her.

Ocasio-Cortez, ever the card-carrying democratic socialist, went on to say that “money will never by [sic] your way out of insecurity, folks.” Cockburn is pleased to learn that AOC can steward us down the true path out of insecurity.

The congresswoman had been mocking Musk for his implementation of a subscription system for receiving the iconic “blue checkmark.” (Technically it’s a white checkmark in a blue circle, but who has time for pedantry?) AOC’s business background entails working as bar staff rather than running a bar — perhaps it is therefore a bit rich for her to pooh-pooh a multi-billionaire for trying to make an unprofitable company profitable.

In any case, Musk has far more important things to do with Twitter than mess with the account of a far-left congresswoman from New York City. And given Ocasio-Cortez’s history on Twitter, leaving her on the platform with a smoothly functioning account might be the best way to punish her.

Then again, maybe AOC is right. Maybe Elon is trying to sew dysfunction on his new plaything by meddling with the site experience of its most addicted users. Maybe then these users will spend less time on Twitter, go outside, have IRL conversations in person with family and friends — or even, dare Cockburn suggest it, voters? Feeding Alka Seltzer to the bird site could be the best thing that’s ever happened to Western society.