Actors like Star Trek: Voyager and Starfleet Academy's Robert Picardo Are Finding It Harder To Quit X Than They Thought
Actors like Star Trek: Voyager and Starfleet Academy's Robert Picardo Are Finding It Harder To Quit X Than They Thought
This last week saw celebrities flouncing off of Elon Musk’s X because they were mad about the election results and even angrier that X allows free speech and Trump supporters to get real information out despite the wave of disinformation forced by companies like Google. It’s a new era, but some people, like Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Picardo, have trouble quitting the dopamine hits he gets from the platform’s engagement.
The leftist establishment in entertainment all got the memo that Elon Musk is a bad person for supporting Donald Trump for president. As a consequence, they need to remove themselves from the most relevant social media platform on the planet. Most famous was Stephen King, who many alleged was paid by the Kamala Harris campaign for his constant political posting. He deleted every tweet that would have connected him to the campaign and then put up, “I'm leaving Twitter. Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic. Follow me on Threads, if you like.”
Even after he posted this, Stephen King clearly came back to check his post and to turn off replies so people couldn’t mock him. But some are finding it much harder to quit the platform where people are actually talking for the bluer skies of a tightly censored echo chamber where they get very little engagement.
Star Trek: Voyager and Starfleet Academy star Robert Picardo is one of those. He became very quiet on X after the election after relentlessly posting about Donald Trump, though was still fairly active after November 5th.
Some of his posts have been deleted, including talking about a Star Trek: Voyager documentary, which one would think he wants his X followers to find since it’s a promotional post and on topic. He instead left up a reply saying he posted about it on the Mark Zuckerberg-controlled app Threads instead, saying, “Just posted on @threadsabout premiere of @voydocumentary! What an evening last night! @ParamountPics Theater!”
While he deleted even more tweets, he then started following his fellow celebrities in virtue signaling about X being a pad platform. Jeri Ryan, who played Seven of Nine in Voyager as well as Star Trek: Picard, said, “So. I’ve spent years cultivating and (at least until the past several years) enjoying the following I’ve grown here. But I’m done. I won’t delete my account because I don’t want to give Leon the ability to take it. I may post occasionally for professional reasons if I have to promote something, but other than that, I’m out. I’ll miss all the relationships we’ve built here, and I truly hope we can all find each other elsewhere — I’m the same user name everywhere else, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find me. And so, with a hardy F*** YOU to Elon, I’m out.”
To which Robert Picardo quote tweeted, “In May 2012 I was at a convention with my friend & colleague @JeriLRyan. She said something like “ Whoa- - you’re not on Twitter? You have to be! Let me help you.” And she immediately set up my account. A dozen years later, @X is unrecognizable from the platform I joined. @elonmusk has destroyed its integrity. Sadly, he just got the marching orders for his next target.
This was as late as November 14th, though he had signaled he was getting his marching orders about Elon on November 12th as well, Although I have stepped away from @X, I’d like to end on a happier note: @TigNotaro provided some of her @StarTrek colleagues with a hilarious and joyful evening last night @comedybar @StarTrekOnPPlus #StarfleetAcademy”
It seems he is having trouble quitting the platform given his replies. It’s also double ironic as right before the election results, he thanked followers for disagreed with him, making it appears if he wasn’t interested in an echo chamber like so many other celebrities, saying, “Good night, good luck and may God protect our democracy! @X is getting murkier /muskier and I’m not sure i want to bathe in the sludge much longer. - - In any case, I thank my followers, especially those who have remained courteous when we disagree. If all who disagree followed your model, the world would be kinder.”
Andrew Torba, the purveyor of the social network Gab, says he predicted this kind of siloing of the internet all along, “As I predicted four years ago, the left is now creating their own alt-tech ecosystem, further accelerating the balkanization and fragmentation of social media into smaller communities of shared values. The period of consolidation in social media is over. The period of fragmentation has just begun. Social media is the new mainstream media and so we’re going to see a CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, etc only at the social media level.”
It's harder to quit X than many of these Hollywood elite think as they keep coming back to post already, and it is a good promotional platform for careers because the platform is where the general populace is at. Of course, the general populace voted for Donald Trump in record numbers despite the shrieking of Hollywood celebrities, so maybe they’re not interested in actually having fans anymore.
What do you think of Star Trek: Voyager and Starfleet Academy actor Robert Picardo having trouble flouncing from X? Join as a paid member to leave a comment and support our journalism.
For a great alternative to mainstream publishing, with sci-fi spy thriller action, read The Stars Entwined on Amazon!
NEXT: Star Trek Writer David Mack Accuses The Left Of "Racism And Misogyny" In USA Election