For the last few years I’ve used a paid service to push GC Galore posts to Twitter and Facebook so that people who’d like to follow deals there rather than visiting the website can do so. I therefore wanted to give a heads up to Twitter users that this is the last GC Galore post that’ll be pushed to Twitter for the foreseeable future.
Ultimately I’m sure no one really cares about my reasons, but I wanted to share them in a post in case anyone did wonder why gift card deals are no longer going to be showing up in their Twitter feed.
As you can probably guess, it’s due to Elon Musk. It’s hard to believe that I once admired him and thought that he was a force for good. To be fair, I think that he was, but at some point in the last few years he’s lost his mind.
He’s been seeking advice from pedophiles (“allegedly” 🙄) and Nazi sympathizers while also courting insurrectionist sexual assaulting rapists (“allegedly” 🙄). He’s doing what he can to damage people’s faith in journalism, committing fraud by making it look like people are paying for (and thereby endorsing) Twitter Blue while also making them look like liars and hypocrites.
He’s being a child in ways that would embarrass 13 year olds, lying and spreading disinformation and misinformation, posted Putin propaganda, has been repeatedly anti-trans due to one of his children (who’s trans) rejecting him and his former girlfriend now dating someone who’s trans and constantly interacting with racists and other hateful people.
He’s obsessed with 420 day which even in my stoner days would’ve been lame, but which is also concerning seeing as 4/20 was Hitler’s birthday and he seems to enjoy the in-person and digital company of Nazi sympathizers, so I can’t help but feel like his obsession with 420 is some kind of nudge and a wink to them too.
All that, plus he’s just an all-round knobend nowadays.
Anyway, it’s gotten to the point where Twitter in its current incarnation needs to die. I’m hoping it doesn’t die totally. I’ve always been more of a Twitter lurker, with my only tweets in the last 10 years or so effectively being the ones pushed to social media when publishing posts on GC Galore, but I think it’s a useful resource.
Well, it was a useful resource, but there are now more and more problems with it on top of those listed above. I’m therefore hoping that he’ll continue to make it such a shitshow in the coming months that it’ll lose an ever increasing number of advertisers and he’ll have to give it up as he can’t afford the debt payments, at which point hopefully someone else will take over Twitter or something like Post or Substack Notes will be good enough to take its place.
There’s been a slow trickle of people and organizations leaving Twitter, but I imagine that’ll increase with his latest verification shenanigans yesterday. The best thing that could happen to Twitter would be for as many people and organizations to stop using Twitter with immediate effect. If that happens, advertising will correspondingly dry up and he’ll be screwed on his purchase, even more so than he already is. Only if and when Musk is no longer at the helm will Twitter be able to improve.
To that end, I realized I needed to practice what I preach (well, what I was preaching in my head anyway up until I wrote this post). As a result, I won’t be pushing anything to Twitter until the situation improves.
Don’t worry, I’m well aware that this will ultimately be of no consequence to Twitter given that the GC Galore account on there has 372 followers at the time of publishing this and some number of those are likely bots. However, hopefully enough people and organizations will similarly do something of no consequence so that cumulatively it’ll become something of consequence.
If Twitter survives Musk’s reign, I’ll restart posts getting pushed there. For now though, you can always catch the latest posts here on the site, by subscribing for email updates, following on Facebook (although its algorithm means you might miss posts) or following the RSS feed. Speaking of the RSS feed, you can likely set up some kind of custom alert system using IFTTT to get notified of posts in all kinds of other ways by using the RSS feed as a trigger.
I know it’s the slow season and all, but political posts? Really??? We aren’t here for this content.
I’m guessing that anyone clicking through to read this post will already have a good idea as to why I’d be choosing to not post on Twitter anymore, so that gives them the choice as to whether they want to read a post like this or not.
If its important that you quit Twitter, definitely go ahead and do so. And sure, in the current environment, we would be able to read through the lines a bit. But just leave the announcement as that, your readers aren’t here for your off-topic rants. I don’t really get the logic with investing your time in political posts that will mildly amuse half your readers, but aggravate the other half.
At the end of the day, we’re all human with emotions and connections that keep us rooted in our morals. I applaud GC Galore for standing up against hate, fascism, and intolerance. If you’re upset over these choices, maybe the problem isn’t Mr. Pepper…
You are supporting an opinion that wishes to destroy the person and platform that allows those with opinions differing from yours to be heard. But somehow I am the hateful, intolerant, fascist. The irony is so rich around here.
Who’s calling you hateful, intolerant and fascist? No one here has. If people who actually know you are calling you that, perhaps it’s time to self-reflect.
Well you know, since my reply was from a post that implied that I was against standing up to “hate, fascism, and intolerance”, I think I pretty reasonably took that as a personal attack.
Again, I just don’t think drifting into politics is a great business choice for this type of blog. The ratio on this non gc post demonstrates that. At least you will likely post a site record for most comments!
Dave, no need to be triggered. You’re welcome to take your blog viewing elsewhere.
Thanks, but I’ll stay here given the damn good gc content. Stephen kind of has a monopoly on that.
You probably believe the election was stolen and that the mypillow guy has all the evidence too, right?
Is it just easier to hurl one liner juvenile insults than deal with actual facts and realities?
I follow evidence, you are free to read through everything again, but this post was the one espousing conspiracy theories, not me. There is proof that social media platforms sidestepped their own rules and collaborated with government agencies to ban and suppress content on multiple politically hot topics, including during the week of our elections. That was not good, and Musk has taken actions to shine light on that and hopefully help prevent it from happening again. It absolutely baffles me that people have a problem with that and do not want to acknowledge the corruption.
gotta be the most juvenile reason I’ve ever heard for quitting twitter. i do find it hilarious that you were a fanboy before you realized he isn’t on your team politically
FWIW, I don’t have a team politically. I also wasn’t a fanboy – I just thought that he was trying to do good things for humanity via electric cars, solar power and space exploration and so didn’t understand the opprobrium some people used to have for him based solely on the fact that he’s a billionaire.
I don’t care what team he’s on politically, but do care about his actual actions.
yah sure i read your post. you pretty much parrot one particular point of view that is used by former fans of the guy who have been let down that he isn’t their political teammate
Isn’t it telling that it’s always the people who claim to be victim of being silenced by the mean tech companies and “main stream media”, are the same people who want to forbid everybody else who disagrees with them to shut up?
I guess I should have read that, before submitting: I meant to say “to tell everybody else who they disagree with to shut up”
Just so you know we’re out here, well done and agree with the points made, been a reader here and elsewhere due to the excellent work you do, and even more likely to stay that way now.
Hopefully those that disagree on your rationale will continue to recognize the quality of your work anyway.
Musk has nothing to with people losing faith in journalism. They did that to themselves WAY before he bought Twitter and still haven’t changed their ways. I’m sorry it seems like you’ve been programmed to believe this. Really, linking the 420 pot thing to hitler is quite the stretch. I had to laugh at that exercise in Godwin’s law. I think you should consider there may a different underlying reason people in the media are angry- they want control of which stories you hear and a lot of that comes from Twitter in the end
Having said that I use RSS and love your posts in this niche area.
TBH, I would’ve also thought that the 420/Hitler thing would be a stretch too. However, he’s been consistently interacting with Nazi sympathizers, sharing memes associated with them (e.g. Pepe the Frog), posting weird numerology stuff that only makes sense to Nazi sympathizers, etc. It’s therefore much less of a stretch for me nowadays to think that he might have those kinds of sympathies himself.
What an utterly deranged post. You’ve absolutely lost me as a reader/follower.
LOL. You might not use Stephen’s affiliate links but pretty much everyone who comes to gcgalore is still going to read unless they want to cut off their nose to spite their face.
Damn you are retarded
Agree 100%
Twitter has quickly devolved into a far right circlejerk, and it will continue down that path.
Elon is a profound POS, and now everyone can see that for themselves.
Yes, things were so much better when Twitter was a far left circle jerk. Actually, it still is far left circle jerk, except different views are now permitted to be seen and shared.
I have no problem with different views being permitted and certainly don’t think it should be the sole domain of the far left (which it never was, but whatever). One thing I don’t think should’ve happened is that people who are Nazi sympathizers, insurrectionists, etc. being allowed to return. If they want a platform, they should build their own or confine themselves to Gettr, Gab, Truth Social etc. where no one else has to listen to them scream into the wind.
“INSURRECTION!!!”
lol. Just gave yourself away.
(But still appreciate your gift card info.)
I didn’t realize we weren’t allowed to call an insurrection an insurrection. What should we be calling it – a rapid unscheduled disassembly of the Capitol? Or would an attack on democracy and the police suffice?
You gift card content is on point, really good work in this area.
On the political chatter, you’ve fallen hook, line and sinker for many of the tropes and smears done to those who don’t agree with the left platform, whose views and policy takes are so far gone that moderate independents are now labeled as “right wing extremists.”
lol. It was so much better when it was a far left circlejerk.
I tried to set up https://gcgalore.com/feed/ on IFTTT, but I get an error from IFTTT saying “Feed is not reachable at this time”.
It’s a little weird because I can reach it. I wonder if your host (Cloudflare?) is doing some blocking of IFTTT’s bots
I’ve had that issue before with IFTTT and had trouble in a similar way trying to set up a Telegram channel using the feed. Last night I created this feed, so give it a try with IFTTT and hopefully it’ll work https://feeds.feedblitz.com/gcgalore
I also tried Blogtrottr but it didn’t work. I contacted their support and this is what they said: “It seems we were getting presented with a captcha on that feed when checking from Germany – I’ve routed checks for that feed via the US and that’s looking better now, so if you try again you should have better luck.”
I know there’s a definite problem with Blogtrottr because Cloudflare doesn’t like their bot. Another reader had tried to get it set up and Blogtrottr needed to get their bot whitelisted by Cloudflare, but it seems like they’ve either not done that or not been successful with getting it approved.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. Blogtrottr didn’t work, but I emailed their support. They said they re-routed the feed and it does work now.
For IFTTT, I also opened a support ticket for the main feed. That’s still unresolved.
For the Feedblitz feed, both IFTTT and Blogtrottr are able to pull it.
OK, great – I’m glad things seem to be working a little better now.
IFTTT got back to me finally blaming Cloudflare for blocking them. I’ll ask them to reach out to Cloudflare to get themselves unblocked
Oh, IFTTT support also said “I’d recommend adding IFTTT to your site’s allowlist to ensure our requests aren’t blocked ”
Not sure what Cloudflare settings let you do, but maybe there’s an allowlist you can configure?
I don’t think there’s anything I can do in the settings unfortunately. There’d been the same issue with Blogtrottr as well; I’d whitelisted it on my end, but it didn’t do anything. Ultimately it seems to be due to Cloudflare viewing the crawlers/bots for these services as spam which is unfortunate. There’s some kind of process that services like IFTTT can go through to be whitelisted, so hopefully they can do that. Cloudflare and IFTTT have both been around for quite some time though, so I’m surprised they’ve not been able to get this resolved already.
Those claiming Musk is destroying faith in journalism are cut from the same cloth who said the same about Trump. I’m not a supporter of either but much of it really comes down to feeling threatened.
Blogging, twitter, and other services on the internet where one person or a relatively small group can reach a very large audience without the resources of a tv network or major newspaper are what has destroyed faith in journalism. There were issues with the old way of things. I’m not saying the new way of things is better but it reflects a society who wasn’t happy with the old way and those in journalism feeling threatened don’t know how to cope with this.
It’s your blog though. Post and say what you want. Just remember everyone else can also and over the top posts like this can be opportunities for others to take your viewership. I have enjoyed your blog here and use rss to follow it but this post doesn’t give me confidence in wanting to continue following. I’ve seen too many already build up the drama over leaving twitter because of Musk and frankly I don’t miss them.
Contrary to what it might seem, I’m not interested in creating drama either. However, I do think with matters such as these it can be important to voice the reasoning behind it in the hope that eventually there’ll be enough voices to effect change.
I’m all for people’s voices being heard who are citizen journalists, experts in their field, etc., so I think it’s good that nowadays they can gain an audience rather than it being only journalists who were connected some way and so managed to land a job. However, that doesn’t mean journalists should be denigrated to the extent that Musk has been doing on the basis that he doesn’t like being called out for things he says, does and believes.
How is this a political post? Musk’s actions are undeniable and not some Democrat/Republican thing; they are a sign of the poor taste of a prominent member of society.
It might be better to call this a philosophical post, FFS.
Right, because politics does not stem from our philosophies or world view, not at all.
Or maybe the association can be made because it is the obvious political leanings of the crowd that is choosing to quit twitter and sell their Tesla’s.
Or maybe because the post repeated multiple far left tropes about disinformation, transphobia, Putin, fascism, etc.
Or I don’t know, maybe the insinuation that our previous president and presumptive 2024 Repub presidential nominee is an insurrectionist rapist.
So “far left tropes” = the truth given that everything I wrote about what Musk has said is true?
Sure, I think the post has some facts, but is also filled with a lot of opinion, and also takes some liberty with the truth. He obviously does not like, nor has ever liked Trump. He just said in an interview a few days ago that he voted for Biden and would prefer “normal person with common sense and whose values are smack in the middle of the country.” He is a political centrist, so attempting to frame him as a far right fascist because he engaged with politically controversial people in conversation, is just not accurate. Nor is it accurate for you to claim you know his motivations for his views on transsexualism. And the Hitler-420 conspiracy theory stuff, I mean come on, just do better.
It’s true that I’ve never liked Trump, but that’s because he’s a despicable human being in so many different ways.
As for who Musk voted for, that just goes to show that I don’t care who he voted for – I care about what he says and does. As an aside on that though, Musk has lied about all kinds of things, so I take him saying that he voted for Biden with a pinch of salt, but it certainly could be true.
While I can’t with 100% certainty say I know the reasons behind his views on trans people, from what I’ve seen he never said anything about trans people. Then one of his children comes out as trans and says they want nothing to do with him and Grimes (his former girlfriend) starts dating someone who’s trans and all of a sudden he’s sharing all kinds of anti-trans memes and posting other anti-trans stuff, so it’s not a leap to think that those two situations are the cause.
As for the Hitler/420 stuff, as I mentioned to someone else – I’d have thought that would be far-fetched too until recently. However, there have been a number of posts he’s made with content that only make sense to Nazis and Nazi sympathizers, so I certainly can’t discount the fact that the 420 stuff is a nudge and a wink to them with the cover of him making it look like it relates to weed.
As you alluded to in your post, Musk has done great things and has probably done more good for humanity than any other human being this century. Further, despite some of his missteps that you wrote about, twitter is running just fine. You, I, and the rest of humanity are still free to post and be heard. He values freedom of speech in social media as high as he does his other extraordinary ventures in sustainability, space travel, internet availability, constraining AI, traffic efficiency and safety, etc.
On the other hand, Musk is IMO a troll and I totally get why many people have grown to hate the man. Unfortunately people are reacting to his actions emotionally, leading us to our respective tribes and the 420 theories ensue.
I’d just encourage people to take a step back and take the whole picture in. The World is a better place with him in it. Call him out when he needs to be called out and I’ll be right there with you, and quit twitter if you want, it’s no biggie. But he deserves our rationality and arguments based on objective facts.
“Musk…has probably done more good for humanity than any other human being this century”
You are hilarious, I really thought you were being serious until you said this. A+ trolling, would read again.
Wow Dave, You sure have a lot of nonsense spuing from your mouth on a topic you criticized for being posted. While whining like a spoiled baby you must have thought this domain was only meant for you. Hate to break it to you baby boy, it’s not. It belongs to Stephen and if he chooses to inform his readers why he’s no longer on twitter due to the twit in charge, who the hell do you think you are to tell him he’s wrong?! Where do you get off, really!!! No, no, no, please no need explain yourself… again. Just grow up, get a life and move on. You are so boring!
So you are offering some personal attacks in a response largely void of any facts, and somehow I get framed as the baby?
And Stephen is a big boy. I think he can take some entirely predictable reader criticism for his posts.
Thanks for taking a public stand against Musk and the destruction of whatever remains of the first amendment online.
Only in the bizarro lefty world can more free speech qualify as “the destruction of the first amendment.”
“MORE FREE SPEECH! Except for speech I don’t agree with, of course.”
lol
Originally I applauded Stephen for standing up for what he believes in, but then I thought, you’d have to be an idiot to stop coming to gcgalore because it’s the best gc resource available. This rant is only going to anger the right and their political platform is about saving money.
I used to respect Elon Musk too, but I agree 100% that he’s gone crazy.
Good on you Stephen for taking a stand. We appreciate that hard work you do!
You have my full support! Huge thumbs up.
I think I asked you about IFTTT before and there didn’t seem to be a solution to get that to work with your site. I hope you consider another way to get notifications out since that’s why I was following you on Twitter. Maybe Chrome notifications?
Try using this feed for IFTTT https://feeds.feedblitz.com/gcgalore – hopefully that’ll work
Thank you @Stephen Pepper for posting your opinion.
Stephen, first off, congratulations on getting so much feedback on a post. 46 comments! Is this a record? I just wish your readers reacted like this about some of your past content like the amazing HBOMax or SimplyMiles deals from years past!
My kidding aside, I just want to commend you for writing this post in the first place. It would have been easier for you to say, “No more Twitter posts guys.” But as I’ve been trying to teach my young daughters, it is important to stand up and speak out for what you believe. Especially on a lightning rod like.Musk or anyone else who allows/tolerates/promotes (pick your word) hateful speech. Yes, it is allowed under the First Amendment (as is what you wrote) but anyone who thinks Musks type of rhetoric doesn’t lead or won’t lead to hateful behavior by someone, somewhere is kidding themselves.
it never ceases to amaze me the gaslighting/bullying the other side engages in to make their point while arguing freedoms when it’s convenient and then government control on the other hand when it fits their narrative. Hypocrisy all around. Good thing you ultimately cannot stop progress, no matter how hard the other side tries to delay it on the social front.
I look forward to sharing this post on bravery with my family and how you used your forum for the greater good. Certainly my family would much rather discuss this than what is this quarter’s 5% bonus on Chase Freedom!!
As I’ve told you in the past, thank you for doing what you do.
Thank you 🙂
I applaud you for having a firm stance on what is right and wrong, and taking steps that you feel are necessary. After all, you are the business owner and have every right to do that.
Ever since I’ve read this post, I’ve noticed things to the contrary of what you’re saying whereas I didn’t pay attention prior. It looks like Elon banned someone yesterday who posted an Alice Day (pedo) flag. Also, pre-Elon it looks like Twitter refused to remove child porn: https://nypost.com/2021/01/21/twitter-sued-for-allegedly-refusing-to-remove-child-porn/
To me, it seems like this is more political than based on any hard evidence. People forget that Elon has autism, he’s obviously crazy but also a genius. He seems to be around where Bill Maher is on the political spectrum – what was considered extremely left wing just 10 years ago. There doesn’t seem to be much proof to your claims when a better argument can be made for his opposing views to those same things.
I love how you focus solely on his troll posts but totally ignore all the good things he’s done and how he’s made Twitter better. I would’ve respected you much more if you were just honest about the reasons why you left and why you hate him – because he doesn’t play for your political team and you’re a tribalist.
A – He personally banned Kanye West for posting a swastika. Sure sounds like a Nazi to me.
B – He’s consistently said everyone should be able to live their life how they please regarding adults want to be trans or straight. He’s only criticized gender “affirming” surgeries being pushed on to kids when their brains aren’t fully developed and they can’t grasp the consequences of irreversible life changing operations, and has backed that up with studies showing how most kids who are confused about their gender/sex grow out it by the time they turn 18.
C – He personally banned someone who posted a pro-pedophilia flag.
D – CP has been considerably reduced since he took charge at Twitter. It seems the old owners didn’t care too much about it. https://nypost.com/2021/01/21/twitter-sued-for-allegedly-refusing-to-remove-child-porn/
How is he worthy of hate for the sin of posting memes in bad taste but removing material that exploits young children? It says a lot about your tribalism that you think those two things are anywhere close to being on a 1:1 level. But I’m guessing you don’t care as you seem like someone who voted for Biden despite the fact that there are tons of videos out there of him inappropriately sniffing children.
It’s hard to take you seriously when you bookend it with “Elon Musk has made Twitter better” and “Joe Biden is a child sniffer”. Yes, I’ve seen the purported photos. It’s only creeps and weirdos who seem obsessed with that kind of thing who see anything there.
The fact that the rest of your stuff includes things like suggesting Musk should be praised for personally banning Kanye West for posting a swastika. Kanye was already banned for being anti-Semitic – it was Elon who personally decided to bring him back to give him further opportunity to post the inevitable anti-Semitic stuff. As for the fact that he’s “only criticized gender affirming surgery” isn’t true as he’s posted lots more anti-trans stuff than just that he thinks under 18s shouldn’t have surgery.
It’d be an understatement to say I disagree with you and you with I. We obviously share extremely different perspectives but I will continue to support you and this site as well as FM despite our differences because you do great work and should be rewarded for it.