Can someone please explain to me what the fucke possible positive purpose could ever be served by fucken FOREIGN SERVICE DIPLOMATS spewing gibberish on goddamn motherfucken twitter????? I mean seriously. Isn’t the basis of diplomacy that you communicate using carefully worded detailed statements arrived at only after careful deliberation? And isn’t the entire purpose of twitter to completely prevent the use of carefully worded detailed statements and to absolutely destroy any notion of deliberation before emitting speech?
Is there something I am missing here?
20 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
timdiaz
September 12, 2012 at 8:47 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Their job is to present the messages the United States wants to present, via media and personal communication. Twitter is media. I’d actually be very disappointed if I found out our diplomats DIDN’T have some kind of Twitter to use. It would show ignorance of new media and would put them, and therefore us, at a disadvantage.
Randomfactor
September 12, 2012 at 8:48 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Especially these days, in that part of the world. Twitter is an important part of the information mix. Cthulhu help us all.
albertbakker
September 12, 2012 at 10:01 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I think we have yet to learn how to use these new ways to mass-communicate sensibly. The ease, the speed and the reach with which to broadcast half-fabricates mixed with unprocessed raw input of one’s thinking processes probably can not be guaranteed to always be conducive to convey the message one would have wished to put out, once the neuronal dust has settled.
The quantity of chatter may not always improve the quality of communication as perhaps is evidenced with some regularity for the keen eye. So one would expect when the quality of communication is of the utmost importance, tweeting your every brain-fart to a nest of dedicated retweeters is perhaps not automatically going to give you the edge over less prolific messengers.
Chebag
September 12, 2012 at 10:42 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The boat you dumbasse Luddite, the boat. That is what you are missing.
rq
September 12, 2012 at 11:34 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The diplomats? Heck, the POLITICIANS of this country are twittering, during important gatherings, too. And these are some people who should not be let close to ANY kind of mass media outlets (how the routinely get re-elected is well beyond my powers of comprehension) – but there it is, the modern world and The Way Things Work, apparently.
(If they managed anything coherent and sensible, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be so upsetting.)
Johnnis
September 13, 2012 at 3:12 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Who are these diplomats (plural) you are referring to?
Peter brown
September 13, 2012 at 3:37 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
To save their assssses!!!
slc1
September 13, 2012 at 4:30 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Nats and Orioles in the World Series!
blindrobin
September 13, 2012 at 7:20 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
For you edification.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/09/social-voting-really-does-rock-t.html?ref=hp
I hope that ling works in Netscape.
blindrobin
September 13, 2012 at 9:58 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Also-too-as well-for your perusal:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/3-ways-social-media-is-reshaping-the-political-landscape.php
blindrobin
September 13, 2012 at 10:06 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
That last one BTW is centrist claptrap but none the less illustrative of the changes in the way in which the proletariat and those that would successfully influence their perception of reality communicate. He who is unwilling or unable to engage in the vernacular of those to whom he wishes to speak will not be misunderstood or ignored to his detriment.
The rate of change in this particular arena is exceeded only by the influence of poorly designed and implemented software in the financial services ‘industry’.
blindrobin
September 13, 2012 at 10:09 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Well bugger me and for fuck sake I left a ‘not’ in when I restructured my statement in the positive voice. I meant exactly the opposite.
Johnnis
September 13, 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Am I the only one among the commenters that are skeptical to the truth of this post?
Dr. Isis
September 13, 2012 at 1:54 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Your privilege is showing
Ken
September 13, 2012 at 4:42 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Check out the BBC News article about various diplomats using Twitter from July:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18856295
F
September 13, 2012 at 6:55 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Because Twitter is such a goddamn top secret secure channel. Which is apparently how they try to do everything else in our name, regardless how good or vile.
Charles Sullivan
September 13, 2012 at 11:37 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
You are retarded, correct?
Johnnis
September 13, 2012 at 11:42 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
@Ken
Thank you for the link. It confirms that many diplomats use social media.
I apologize for thinking this post was totally without foundation. I am still critical to the truth of this post. The link said nothing about spewing gibberish.
jimvj
September 14, 2012 at 6:44 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Physioproffe, you must be a fucken moron since you seem to have swallowed the right wing assholes’ version of recent history!
What happened is that the embassy folks got word that there was a possibly violent protest brewing about a lousy right wing anti-Islam movie trailer playing on the internet. In a futile – because right wing muslims are just as immune to rationality – attempt to defuse the situation, the embassy put out the message that the US Govt condemns the defamation of any religion, blah, blah…
What do right wing assholes want the embassy folks to do? Just sit there and let the mobs foment, or try to calm them? They are putting their lives on the line for the USA, while armchair assholes sit at home and spout stupid STUPID garbage about First Amendment rights.
In summary, don’t be such a fucken MORON!!
name
September 15, 2012 at 5:00 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Much like your blog, right? I mean, really, for all you say, you might as well move to Twitter yourself, and avoid clogging up FtB with your occasional explosive rant peppered with pointless (and not charmingly idiosyncratic) ye olde Englishe.