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May 19, 2021Liked by Caleb Crain

"It seems incumbent on me either to conform or to express disagreement—out of the hope of triggering a new conformism but this time in my favor, or my team’s favor. The independent mind who doesn’t tweet is the new unheard tree falling in the forest."

I imagine that this observation struck a lot of your readers. I've been thinking about it off and on since receiving your email. I heard a rather prominent movie director (of course now I can't think of who it was) tell his interviewer (Terry Gross) that he wasn't on Twitter. My first thought was "Good for him." (I'm not on Twitter either.) My next thought was "He's a middle-aged white male; of course he has the privilege not to need Twitter to find an audience." My third thought was "Do I really believe that? Or is it just a sentiment I think the Twitterverse would generate?" Then, "Oh wait, I don't have Twitter. I don't need to give a shit what the Twitterverse would say. But still...do I believe that? I can't tell anymore...."

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