Adam Serwer, writing for The Atlantic (gift link) on how Elon Musk’s right-wing takeover of X/Twitter contributed to last week’s Republican Party midterm shellacking:

The Twitter takeover went wrong for conservatives in two ways. The first is that they posted more and more toxic content in an effort to drive engagement. The second is that they had no idea how unpopular that toxic content had become; both influencers and politicians mistook engagement for approval. Political influencers and parties’ incentives can align. In the end, however, the former is looking for engagement and the latter for votes, and those interests can diverge—leaving politicians chasing engagement while not realizing they are shedding voters.

If you were spending hours on X, you might have believed that most Americans were delighted by cruel memes celebrating deportations, or that affordability issues were a “hoax,” as President Trump kept insisting, or that a “red wave” was inevitable.

They were manifestly mistaken.

My hope is this weakens X sufficiently to make it unappealing to the right-wing rabble-rousers and unwelcoming to their rhetoric. It’s a lot to ask for. Perhaps they can take solace at “Truth” Social.