The situation at Twitter has been chaotic. Over the once many weeks, new proprietor Elon Musk introduced a major product — and also broke it. He’s dismissed hundreds of workers — and also asked some of them to return.But nothingMr. Musk has done and undone is nearly as concerning as his decision to suddenly reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account. Like numerous ofMr. Musk’s opinions as the company’s “ principal twit, ” this bone

is hard to understand.Mr. Musk had preliminarily said he would n’t reinstate any accounts until a content temperance council with “ hectically different shoes ” convenes. It’s unclear if a council was ever convened;Mr. Trump’s account was reinstated afterMr. Musk conducted an online bean, commodity he’s historically done to get buy- in for commodity he’s formerly decided to do.WhileMr. Trump has lately said he has no plans to return to Twitter, that position seems doubtful to stick given his need for attention, the challenges facing his social- media adventure Truth Social and his recent advertisement to run for chairman.

As someone who has been studyingMr. Trump’s Twitter use since before he was tagged chairman, I believe that his return would mean the heightened spread of both misinformation and intimation, the proliferation of demeaning and dehumanizing converse, the farther mainstreaming of hate speech and the corrosion of popular morals and institutions. But there’s commodity differentlyMr. Trump’s return to Twitter could escalate the liability of political violence.Simply put, if you’re girdled by dry energy, add an accelerant and light a match, conflagration is the predictable outgrowth.

The most important factor in understanding whyMr. Trump’s possible return to Twitter is so dangerous enterprises the structural similarity between the Twitter platform and the content ofMr. Trump’s rhetoric. Twitter’s strict 280- character limitation, its hyperactive- focus on what’s passing at any given moment and its ease of use distinguish it from other social media platforms that allow druggies to intimately partake their ideas and opinions.

Like all forms of communication, the defining features of Twitter produce essential structural impulses. The platform is well suited for communicating simple dispatches extensively and snappily. But Twitter’s three primary structural impulses — simplicity, inconsideration and impulsivity — make it a lousy platform for engaging in thoughtful, sustained discussion of serious matters related to the public interest.

Twitter also participates in and contributes to the broader communication ecosystem of social media. Social- media platforms are poisoned in the direction of divisiveness and sectarianism. The beginning structure of these platforms generally invites and encourages druggies to seek out like- inclined people who, in turn, come indeed more convinced of the “ correctness ” of their views. Given that so much of our news and information is filtered through social media, much of what we’re exposed to simply confirms what we formerly suppose.

But it’s not just about what we suppose; it’s also about how we feel. Social media platforms are uniquely complete at marshaling emotion, especially negative emotion. When was the last time you encountered an angry, inflexible moderate who aggressively demanded that you see effects from several points of view? noway. principally, social media radicalizes us and primes us to be intolerant of others whose stations, opinions and views differ from our own.

Given that our communication terrain is structurally predisposed to heighten and cement our ever- growing political peak by telling us how right and righteous we are, one may nicely wonder why I’m concerned about one stoner in particular. First, a large number of people not only hear toMr. Trump but also are inclined to take direction from him. Second,Mr. Trump combines divisiveness and sectarianism with abomination and angry rhetoric that risks inciting violence. For reasons more left to psychologists, Donald Trump isn’t happy to forget or forgive people he perceives have wronged him. He wants to destroy them. So, he calls them out, frequently on social media, and also he incitements his followers into doing commodity about it.

One of the abecedarian demesne of those who study rhetoric is that converse always reveals motives.Mr. Trump’s converse since losing the administration in 2020 constantly suggests that he’s motivated by one thing only a desire for vengeance. He wants to discipline everyone who he perceives has wronged him, including anyone who has not shown unfettered fastness. ForMr. Trump, the desire for vengeance has long involved emblematic violence in the form of speech that aggressively demeans and dehumanizes others. similar speech pitfalls sparking material violence.

Trump’s amenability to partake a conspiracy proposition around the violence visited upon Paul Pelosi is a case in point, especially given that it appearsMr. Pelosi’s bushwhacker was radicalized online. This kind of callousness and incuriosity isn’t new.Mr. Trump has long traded in violent and demeaning imagery, and ever since losing the 2020 election, he has been marshaling his army to act on it.

Since leaving office, he has amplified QAnon conspiracy propositions, unreasonableness and far-right ideas on Truth Social. A short time latterly,Mr. Trump told his followers that Senate nonage leader Mitch McConnell had a “ death want ” for approving a deal to fund the government through December. To ramp up feelings indeed further,Mr. Trump threw in a racist poke aboutMr. McConnell’s womanFortunately, no detriment came to Senator McConnell or his womaButMr. Trump has demonstrated a harmonious amenability to bring racially and sexually charged rhetoric that contains an implicit call to violence.

Trump is an accelerant; his communication is a match.Twitter andMr. Trump represent a dangerous emulsion of form and content. Social media generally and Twitter specifically advance themselves to simple, critical, unreflective and emotionally charged communication. When the communication is one of dogmatism and violence, the result is all but certain.