Twitter just became “X.” Here’s a screen grab of the two logos side-by-side on my browser at the same time. Don’t ask me how that happened.
Twitter, Elon Musk’s social media platform, is about to undergo a major rebranding. Musk has announced that the platform’s name will soon change to “X,” and all bird symbols, a long-standing logo for the platform, will be phased out.
The Verge reports that Musk took to Twitter to announce the upcoming changes, stating, “Soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” The tech mogul has been steering Twitter through a series of changes since acquiring the platform last year for a massive $44 billion — even though about half his purchase price has already been wiped out.
In a series of tweets, Musk also hinted at a potential change in the platform’s default color. “Paint It Black,” he posted, followed by a user poll asking whether the platform’s default color should be changed to black. He further added, “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow.”
It’s basically Extreme Makeover: Social Media Edition.
Personally, I think this is a good move. It breaks past associations conservatives and liberals make with “Twitter.” Conservatives and moderates remember the censorship aimed primarily at them. Liberals remember it as their power center and now resent that some weird billionaire has taken it away from them.
I hope Musk follows through on his promise to make it a more open platform free from government and blue-haired censors.
Ace of Spades HQ (a daily read) writes about a report showing that wealthy LIBERALS use zoning laws to keep poor minorities out of their neighborhoods.
A new think tank report shows how liberal New York suburbs use restrictive zoning laws to drive up housing prices and prevent poor minorities from moving into their neighborhoods.
The Century Foundation released a study about zoning laws and educational opportunities in Scarsdale and Port Chester, liberal suburban areas in Westchester County, New York, located north of New York City. The study compares zoning laws, demographics and public school performance in the neighboring towns as a case study for how liberal suburbs prevent low-income people and racial minorities from moving in.
“Today, among the most important government policies and practices driving segregation include (1) decisions about where to place public housing; and (2) flagrant income discrimination through exclusionary zoning (which disproportionately hurts people of color),” the study reads.
Scarsdale has a median household income of $250,000 and its population is 71.2% white, with 90.7% of adults having attained a bachelor’s degree or more of education, according to data from New York University’s (NYU) Furman Center. Port Chester has an $88,093 median income and its population is 64.2% Hispanic, with 31.1% of adults attaining at least a bachelor’s degree.
I call your attention to this because I saw something very similar in person last week. I attended a Planning & Zoning Commission meeting at a local village hall (I’ll keep it anonymous to avoid embarrassing them). The agenda included a discussion with a public hearing on annexing a 2.6 acre property to provide affordable rental apartments for people with limited means.
Renters would have to prove credit-worthy, undergo a background check, and the government would subsidize their rental to make it affordable. The plan would require the property to be rezoned from single home residential properties to a multi-family residence (specfically a two-story apartment building).
The property in question sits adjacent to a neighborhood that is unincorporated and therefore not part of the village. However, the residents of that neighborhood were out in force to oppose the planned development and rezoning. They weren’t the only ones who spoke; there were a few who spoke in support of the affordable housing. But those who supported the development were in the minority.
The town is not a liberal stronghold, but skews Democrat. Although 48% are Protestant or Catholic, 46% claim no religion. 81.2% of residents have earned a Bachelor’s degree or higher.
As of 2021, the village has 20,000 residents, 87 percent of whom are white, 1% who are black, 9% who are Asian, and 4% who are Hispanic or Latino. 3.8% of residents live in poverty.
The median income is $118,000, the average cost of a single-family home is $401,000, and the tax rate is 9.5%. 81% of residents own their home, while the other 19% rent. The cost of living is in the “Highest” range as compared across the United States as a whole.
In other words, it’s a wealthy town.
With that as background, I was stunned at what I heard as person after person got up to oppose the planned development. Almost to a person they started off their comments with something like, “No one here opposes helping the underresourced, but …”
After issuing this disclaimer, one homeowner got up and literally said, “I live next door to the property. I’ve lived there for 30-some years” and then he described how he had succeeded through his own hard work to live there. He then proceeded to say, “You’ve heard of NIMBY — well I’m that guy.”
“NIMBY” means Not In My Back Yard. I’m all for helping the poor, but do it somewhere else.
Another woman, a German immigrant who still has her accent, got up to oppose the project. She literally said, “Will you do background checks on anyone who visits the residents?” This was such an affront that a person in the audience gasped, “O-M-G” and was admonished by the deputy chair to keep it quiet.
I was told that at the June meeting, one resident said that they wanted people like themselves to move in, not the icky poor people.
My church fellowship supports this endeavor, but several residents of the neighboring community made it a point that “God” has nothing to do with rezoning the property. In fact, many sent in what seems to be a form letter, one of which reads, in part:
Keep God out of it. Well, what do you expect from a community where nearly half of the residents don’t practice any sort of religion?
What’s amazing is that a mostly white, wealthy community that leans Democrat is doing everything they can to keep the poor out of their neighborhood, and thus reflect the opening paragraph of The Century Foundation’s report:
New York State, like many other states, has a housing affordability crisis, which also exacerbates large inequalities between local public education systems. Government zoning laws that constrain the supply of housing and exclude people of modest means from living in high-opportunity communities are a major cause of both problems. While most of the debates in New York over housing policy have centered around the first problem—the ways in which restrictive zoning drives up housing prices—this report focuses on an equally important and often overlooked challenge, the impact of zoning on the educational opportunities of children.
Liberals talk a good game but are hypocrites when it comes to practicing what they preach. They’re ready to label you a racist if you oppose throwing our borders open to hundreds of thousands of the world’s poor, but once those peasants wind up in their town, they scream “Not in my backyard!”
