The Josh Innes Show - Random Thoughts: Why I Quit Twitter

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

Hi Friends! I decided to deactivate my Twitter account. I'm going to lose 35,000 followers, but who cares? I'll share with you the reason I made this decision and how it relates to the way media covers stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So I made the decision over the weekend to quit Twitter. And when I say quit Twitter, I don't mean like, oh, I deleted the app from my phone or, oh, I'm just not going to tweet anymore. Oh, I'm not going to read it anymore. I felt the need to completely eliminate it from my life because for whatever reason, I am an addict, a masochist even when it comes to our glutton. Maybe I'm a glutton for the pain and the punishment of reading a bunch of assholes telling me how terrible I am all the time. And I can tell you what it was that brought me to that decision. It's pretty simple. It was Saturday and I was sitting around the house with Jilly waiting for LSU and Ole Miss to start and was in a good mood, you know, just hanging out, cutting loose, you know.

And I saw, I think it was Chris Gordy from 790 posted a video. And the video was of him asking Aaron Boone some question about his comments about the roof being open at Minute Maid and how the ball that was hit would have been a homer if the roof wasn't open, whatever. And I made a simple comment on this post. And the comment was that he was asked a question and he responded to the question. He answered the question. I think I had this issue with the Philly people earlier this year whenever they were ripping. Who was it they were ripping? Oh, Rager, Jalen Rager.

Some guy asked him a leading question. The leading question was, do you view this as kind of a revenge game against the Eagles? He's like, yeah, sure, it's a revenge game, whatever. And that became every headline. Jalen Rager says Eagles game is revenge game. Because I hate the media and they're misleading assholes. And I actually got into a text conversation with Meltzer about that. I've got to remember to go back to it in a second.

About whether or not people are on it. Like why people do what they do in the media and if they know any better or not. But anyway, we'll get into that in a second. So I commented that he answered a question. I don't think he came out and just said, we were robbed to that in a second. So I commented that he answered a question. I don't think he came out and just said, we were robbed because the roof was open. And then I followed that up with Astros fans bitched about the roof being open all night long. So now a Yankee guy does it and there's no grounds to stand on. And of course, this led to a barrage, like an onslaught of tweets. And if the tweets

were just, hey, you're wrong and here's why, I'd go, okay, that's fine. Because people don't believe this, but I honestly don't care if people tell me I suck or whatever. I'd like to know why you think I suck, but I don't care that you think I suck. That comes with it. It's when you start saying dumb shit is when I start getting annoyed. And then one of my great flaws is I try to dissect you and try to understand why you feel the way you feel about me. And then I try to paint you into a corner and make you look stupid. And if I hang out long enough, I can make people look stupid. But it's one of my great flaws. Like Andy used to do that at WIP. Someone would email him, say,

I sucked. And then he would try to spend an hour trying to paint them into a corner. And it's just not a healthy thing to do, but it's what I do. So people are commenting. And instead of just saying, hey, you're wrong, whatever, it becomes very vile, very personal. It's always, well, you got fired and nobody cares what you have to say because you're a fucking loser and you're not on sports anymore because you're a fucking loser and you're fat and your girlfriend or your wife's ugly. Fuck you. Just really gross stuff over a rather innocuous comment that was, hey, the guy answered a question, which is a legit statement, by the way. Like, I'm telling you a fact. Like, I think in their minds, Brett Boone came out, sat down, slammed his hands down

and said, we got fucked. Well, he didn't. He was asked a question. And I hate media people who ask a question and then act as if the guy said it himself or offered up that opinion or that thought instead of being led down that path. So these people just start going at me about it and just saying all this shit and calling me a troll, which is one of their favorite things to do. No, Josh Ennis is a troll. He sucks. He doesn't have good takes. It's all bullshit.

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See terms at picksix.draftkings.com slash promos. But anyway, so one of the things a person says, and this is the one that kind of put it over the top. Actually, let me rewind a little bit. So I'm stewing over this because it's just really annoying to me. And I'm kind of working up a lather. My chest starts to hurt. Like I feel like I'm having a heart attack. Like there was a tightness in my chest and I started sweating. Now it could be a heart attack because I am fat and morbidly obese according to the body mass index. But I'm sitting there and I'm like, I thought I was dying.

I was either having a panic attack or a heart attack. I felt like my dad. I was like, Joey, I need a baby aspirin. But I was just like petrified. I thought I was going to keel over and die. That's honest to God what I thought. So I'm sitting there and I'm just kind of rocking back and forth. And Jilly's worried.

She's like, do you need to go to the hospital or something? Like I was truly just drenched in sweat and worked up over these people. She's like, why are you so worked up over this? And again, it's not because these people hate me. Hate me all you want. That's part of it. But I'm so annoyed by people who have inaccurate, stupid opinions. It bothers me to the point that I go fucking crazy over it.

I fucking hate it. So I start just going nuts over it. I'm yelling about it. I'm like, jelly, these motherfuckers, they like, they're fucking idiots. They don't fucking get it. They're fucking petulant little fucking children. They don't understand. They don't get what goes on in the world.

They don't know how the world works. They're fucking sycophants. Fuck them. I've done so much for these motherfuckers. I've given away countless tickets and spent my own money to give people tickets. And people act like I'm some big piece of shit. Fuck you. Luther like cowers in the corner and Jilly's like, you need to calm the fuck down, bro.

And I said, I think I need to just finally delete Twitter. Now, it's important to note that every time I've suggested just deactivating Twitter, Jilly's suggestion would be don't deactivate Twitter because deactivating Twitter will cause you to lose all your followers. And what happens if you get fired and you need to find a job and people who are hiring will look at your social media and say, wow, this guy's got 35,000 followers. And while that's not a ton, it's a decent number. And they're all seemingly legit because I never bought followers.

I'm not some sort of asshole. So they're seemingly legit, as legit as they can be. So I'm like, all right, I'll never delete. Every time I think about it, I'm like, yeah, I guess you're right. Don't delete it. That's probably not a good idea because I want to make sure that I still have these followers because it looks more impressive than it actually is. Okay, fine. This time she changed her opinion and said, I think you need to deactivate that because I think you're fucking crazy at this point. It's driving you nuts. It's driving you mad. I thought I was having a heart attack. I thought I was going to kill the fuck over. So I said, fine, let me think about it. We went for a walk with Luther. I was trying to calm down a little bit. LSU hadn't started yet, so I was just walking. And I said to myself, you know, I think I'm going to do it. I make it sound like I'm deciding whether or not I'm going to chop off my dick or something. I think I got to do it, guys.

I'm having a sex change. It's official. It's getting rid of fucking Twitter. But Twitter is a huge part of everybody's lives. You don't realize it, but you're on the radio. You read Twitter. You see what's going on. You know, it's kind of your window to the world.

Shit happens fast on there. But then I look back and go, what good has Twitter done for me? I got fired twice because of Twitter, essentially. That's what's happened. I've gotten suspended. I've gotten fired. Twitter has been a fucking disaster for me. There's not a positive.

And no one's saying nice things, John. Twitter, it's all fucking trolls and everybody else. So just fucking delete it. It is time to delete your Twitter. So I said, fuck it. I'm going to deactivate this shit. And I did. And apparently you get like a 30-day window that you can still reactivate it. But I have no desire to do that. I mean, there's no point. It's just vile and gross and terrible. And back to the point that I was talking about earlier with Meltzer, and this goes back to a media conversation. This is obviously a

different media world than it was even 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. And I'm not against new media. I'm not against bloggers and podcasters and shit. I'm all for it. Hey, the more the merrier. Go for it. My problem is we're getting into a world now because there was a comment that someone made. Really, the one that put me over the top. Let me rewind. The comment that really kind of put me over the top and made me go, you know what? Fuck this. Was the comment where someone said, you know, you're a troll and you never say the things that your audience wants to hear.

And they were ripping me for that. And I'm like, so you think that's what I'm here for is to just tell you what you want to hear and not offer what I really think because like we've gotten to a point where if you speak against the mainstream fan base or the opinion of the fan base you're a troll because people have very poor coping skills with this shit now and I know you're saying Josh you, you're deactivating Twitter. Who are you to talk about coping skills? And maybe that's fair. But these people, they don't know how to have a back and forth. They just call you names and want you to die on social media, and they cannot handle if someone says something different about their team. And this weird tribal mentality takes over, and they just want to fight people over it and call

you names and say you're a piece of shit. If I were to go out there on Twitter right now and say the Astros are the greatest dynasty of the last 30 years, I'd get a billion likes and people would say, all right, good job. And then Philly people would call me a piece of shit. It's just kind of the way it works. But when that person said that, it was almost like a light bulb went off. And the light bulb went off and I started thinking, why am I fighting this? I can't win. These people have basically told me what they want. They will only like me if I'm telling them what they already believe. So what's the point was kind of the basic gist of it. Why even bother? They're not looking for honest opinions. They're looking for validation. And sometimes I'll validate them. Sometimes we'll

have the same opinion. Other times we won't. But it's not good to live in a universe where if we agree with each other, great. And if we disagree, you should die and have your dick cut off and shove down your throat. It's a weird universe in that way. And I don't want to be a part of it. And that led to a discussion that me and Meltzer were having back and forth on text. Because Meltzer's done a better job of managing Twitter now because he used to lose his mind too. And what he told me is he only tweets things if he's prepared to deal with the firestorm from them. And I'm like, that's pretty smart. But we were talking about media people and if we believe that media people are honest or if they're just uneducated people and they don't realize what they're doing is bullshit. And it kind of goes back to the Aaron Boone thing.

Because every headline about Aaron Boone was Aaron Boone says the roof being open cost the Yankees the game. legit media person and isn't deliberately trying to pander for clicks for a radio station or a TV station or a newspaper or blog, podcast, whatever. Any person who is a legit media person understands that a question was asked and that person responded to that question. That's important to note, but they don't carry it that way or cover it that way. They cover it as if this guy went out and said, we got fucked by the roof being open. Thus, they're making excuses. And I wonder if the people doing this know what they're doing is bullshit and they just don't care because they want the clicks or if they truly just don't know what they're doing. If they don't realize because it's new media stuff and this is a different universe, if they realize that they're essentially lying, but they're not full on lying, but they're omitting enough of the important parts of a story to make it untrue.

And that bothers me. And maybe that bothers me too much, but because I lived in the world of having to get clicks as well. So I get it when we were at 790, it's like, hey, put a wacky headline on this. We're in a universe where you take a tweet, you copy and paste it into a story, you put it on your Facebook and hope to get a billion clicks. That's kind of what we are. Journalism is essentially dead. It's all bullshit. And I'm not a journalist, by the way, and I've never claimed to be. But we're at a point now where people omit such important factors of a story to make it say what you need to have it say.

Like Aaron Boone at no point made an excuse for them losing by saying, oh, the roof was open and it cost us. He was asked a question in the same way that Jalen Rager was asked whether or not he viewed the Eagles game as a revenge game. And the argument is, well, he could have just said he could have just said, no, it's not. Well, he was asked a fucking question. He was led down that path and he answered it. But he probably wouldn't have said it had he not been asked about it. But then these media people act as if, boy, this guy just offered up this little nugget here.

Well, fuck you. You're shitty at your job. And you're out there trying to bait people into saying shit so you can get a bunch of clicks on your shitty fucking website. And there's a lot of people who have only come up in this world. They're only used to the Twitter universe of these quick headlines that make you go, look at this poor, pathetic guy. Now, in some cases, they do whine, like Severino whined about the home run, right?

It was a cheap home run that wouldn't have been a home run in a lot of places. But in the same breath, Mancini hit a ball the other night that would have been a home run in 22 other parks. My point being in all of this is that, this is I guess what pissed off the Astros people and caused me to just say, fuck Twitter, this is a waste of my time. Was when I said that Astros, I mean, go back and look at, was it Friday that the roof was open or the first night the roof was open? Go back and look, and it was nothing but people whining about how they're taking away our home field advantage. We're getting fucked. This is terrible. I can't believe this. And the wind is, listen to the broadcast all night. The wind is affecting the ball. People bitched about it all night, but only your team is allowed to bitch about it. If the Yankees do, it's whining and complaining. Like you got, you got some fucking

issues with that shit, man. And part of the problem is that's the way the media feeds it to you the media feeds it to you in a world where um where it it's only viewed through the lens of being a fan of a certain team and people don't know how to cope with the other side of anything anymore and that's not just in sports media that's in all media it's with republican versus democrat and everything it's fucked fucked fucked fucked and that's in all media. It's Republican versus Democrat and everything. It's fucked. Fucked, fucked, fucked. And that's why I finally just said, fuck this shit. Like, this is, why am I doing this to myself? I cannot win.

And all I'm going to do is sit here and beat my head against a wall and be told I'm a piece of shit every day. And that I don't know sports. And that's why you're talking up fucking records. And all this shit by a bunch of dipshits who probably started watching sports five minutes ago because their team got good. And it was trendy. So fuck them. And that's why I deactivated my Twitter. And I have no desire to go back to it.

Do I still have a Facebook? Yes. Do I still have a gram? Yes. The gram's a fine place to be because most of the time you don't really get a ton of comments. You just post a picture. People like them or they don't like me. You say, hey, thanks.

But that is why I deactivated my Twitter. Thank you.