When writing this blog, I endeavor to be provocative from
time to time and usually get an earful from one end of the political spectrum
or the other – or sometimes both at the same time. However, the biggest complaint is that the blog is “too long”. I now limit it to 800 words
but that is still too long for many whose attention span is no longer than it
takes to read the screen on their smartphone without scrolling.
Perhaps I should emulate Donald Trump. The New York Times reports that Trump thinks
of Twitter as his own personal newspaper.
With a 140-character limit, a tweet has no room for any qualifiers. You can’t say, “Some may disagree with me and
I hope this doesn’t offend anyone; however, I believe….” You just type the words after “believe”.
Here are a couple of Trump tweets:
“I have never seen a thin person drinking a Diet Coke.”
“So many ‘politically correct’ fools in our country. We have to all get back to work and stop
wasting time and energy on nonsense!”
He gets his point across without all the research and
attention to composition that typically takes up about 6 hours of my time. Here’s his latest (as of this writing):
“For all my FANTASTIC supporters, and for the U.S.A., we are
going to WIN AND MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, maybe even greater than before.”
I notice that he doesn’t use any hashtags. He doesn’t need to. He’s his own hashtag.
So, I thought I should give it a try (notice it took me more
than 300 words to get this far). Here is
my best effort to summarize five years of blogging in 140 (or less) character
snippets:
#Capitalism = #prosperity = #freedom
For the long version, check out: ‘Let’s just understand what socialism means to us’ or ‘Progress or Greed… Which Is It?’
Or how about this one?
#Economics: You don’t get it! No, really, you don’t!
Long version… here you go:
‘Robert Reich, the corporate income tax and the middle class’ or ‘One Issue and One Issue Only’
Lest you think I am a dogmatic, right wing conservative, I
offer the following quite liberal views:
My tweet: Open the #border with #Mexico, no really… I mean
it!
Or how about this?
My tweet: I don’t care who you #marry
Are you ‘pro-life’?
This will piss you off:
My tweet: My body, my
#choice
From time to time, I get philosophical. I have to work hard to clarify my thoughts
and even harder to articulate them. One
of my favorites got virtually no response:
Hope, Love, Forgiveness… Can Society Achieve It? Yet, another struck the right chord: Leadership and the Space Between the Notes. The first title could be a tweet,
the second, not so much.
I could go on. (I
usually do.) I’m just wondering… should I
just tweet it a la Trump? If you’ve read
this far, please let me know.
WHO WILL LEAD?
I read every blog to the end. If I wanted cute sayings, I’d stick with reading my Facebook feed.
ReplyDeleteHey, how about “Conservatives love freedom and liberty unless it’s about abortion or marriage.”
I read it; I enjoyed it. Write on John!
ReplyDeleteEd
I don’t do tweets. I like the blog – screw the snippets! Blame USA Today – they started it all!
ReplyDeleteHi John,
ReplyDeleteI think you also should experiment with the new medium of video. If Trump can get by with that hair, you can easily out do him with your insightful professorial oration with at least as many insights. Who knows, we might just get you to run for president of the blog-o-sphere. J
Nice one, John!
ReplyDeleteHey ! Stay with your current format. If at that moment in time people have a minute they will read all…. If not……their loss !
ReplyDeleteI’m just getting the hang of how to use Facebook. I might need a little space before I can take on Twitter.
ReplyDelete“Republican candidates like the 10th amendment until a State legalizes marijuana”