k of any model that would be better. Can you? You know the obvious thing you think is like oh let's get rid of all moderation. Do you think that would work? Do you think you could build a platform with no moderation? No. Do you think you could have a platform in which you're not doing a lot of fact checking and that works out okay? No, no, that's not going to work out okay. There are no solutions.

So before you criticize the way it is just remember you're not comparing it to anything. You're comparing it to some imaginary thing in your mind in which there's both no censorship and it works out fine. That's not a possibility. That is not even slightly a possibility. Human beings will exploit every opportunity to be terrible.

So what's happening now, sort of dovetailing this, is that Elon Musk wants to take away the block feature. And people are asking me, Scott, what do you think about this? And here's my opinion. I'm one of many millions of Twitter users. Personally, removing the block feature for me and my very specific situation of a million followers and I talk about politics and people hate me and people love me and they're all going to be fighting it out in the comments, in my very specific situation removing the blocking is all bad.

But that's not my opinion of whether you should do it because I'm just one person and I'm an elite, at least in terms of Twitter users. I'm an elite Twitter user because I have a million followers. Should Elon Musk modify his rules and his features to satisfy people like me if it's at the expense of everybody else? And the answer is I don't think so. I'd love to tell you he should satisfy me and let the rest of you who have small accounts fend for yourself. But I don't think that's the way you run anything. I think not.

Now I'll go further and say if I had as many followers as Elon Musk I wouldn't care about blocking. Do you understand that? If I had 20 million followers I wouldn't care about blocking. Do you know why? If you've got 20 million followers you're not looking at comments. You wouldn't spend a minute looking at comments because there would be a million of them. What are you going to do, block three of them? Oh there's 300,000 people saying I'm a Nazi. I'll block three of them. But I can actually block 100 of my trolls without much effort on any given day. There might be fewer than five. You know, I click things five times a day and I feel good when I click it.

So my experience is unique. There's this little zone of influencers, you know somewhat in the size of my account, let's say a quarter million to a million and a half. And there's lots. For that group of people it's all bad. The removing blocking for us tiny, tiny little sliver of users is all bad. And there's no way to argue that. Does everybody agree that just for our personal enjoyment is just all bad?

Now whether that — and I've said it before — that I use blocking for mental health. That's literally true. I'm not making like a weird analogy or anything. No, my actual physical state of mind is improved by blocking and I can feel it immediately. And the inability to block would bother me all day long if something just sat there and I couldn't do anything about it. So even though blocking doesn't make other people not see it so much, it makes me feel good. So I would say that my mental health would absolutely, no doubt about it, suffer. And that muting would not be nearly as satisfying. That's my first take.

However, you know what I say about things that can be tested? I should not have an opinion because it could be tested. It can be reversed. So if you can test it and you just find out did it work for me, did it work for most people but not me, I'd like to know. So I would love Elon Musk to show the rest of the country how decisions are made. First he said I'm going to do this thing. But you have to know in the back of your head — and I'd like to hear him say it directly, but you know he's thinking this. This is one where mind reading is easy because everybody's smart thinks the same way. Yeah, if you can test it and if it's reversible, which software is, test it. So I'm not going to say yes or no. Just give it a test. If it works for everybody but me I'll say go do it. You know, I'm not your boss. If it works for you I would be happy for you.

Honestly I worry that I would quit using X because if I have to deal with Ben Garrison comics on my timeline again I don't know if I'd stay. I honestly don't. Because that would make me feel bad every time I logged on. But by blocking the people who said that I don't see it. Would muting do as well? I doubt it. But I'd be willing to see.

Let's see what else has happened. So the news is that DeSantis is barely trying these days. There's a clip in which he's taken a little bit out of context I would say. Unless you're kissing his rear end — he's talking about Trump — he says unless you're kissing his rear end they'll call you a RINO. And then he referred to listless vessels who follow whatever comes down the pike on Truth Social every morning. And people said are you running to get those votes or to alienate Republicans? It feels like exactly the wrong approach compared to the smartest guy in the race, Vivek. He just says good things about Republicans and people in general and even Trump. Does anybody hate Vivek because you think he doesn't like you? He seems to like people. He even seemed to like the LGBTQ reporter who there was a famous viral thing of them having a discussion. He seemed to like her. He seems to like people. That's a real good quality in a president.

But DeSantis did a little bit of the deplorables mistake I would say. He's taken a little bit out of context. If you heard it in context it wouldn't hit you the same. Out of context it does. It's more grating. In context he's making a point. You could argue about it, but I think it was a mistake. I would say it was a mistake to word it that way. Certainly mocking people who use Truth Social is just a big mistake. So yeah, it doesn't look like he's serious about it. I don't know what it — I feel like he already knows that he's wasting his time. He acts like a person who's smart enough to know none of this will help him.

All right, was it the Wall Street Journal I think who's reporting that the war in Ukraine could go on for years because neither side has a clear goal that's attainable. So they both have goals but they're not attainable. You know Russia is not going to own all of Ukraine. Ukraine is not going to get its land back. So how do you ever have peace? And so the Wall Street Journal is saying could be years of war.

Do you think we're that dumb? Are we going to do this again if we know we can end it a day? And honestly we can. Now when I say we I think Vivek could. I think maybe DeSantis could. I think Trump could. I don't know how many of the others could, but you know maybe, maybe Mike Pence could. I don't know. But it seems pretty doable to me. I'm pretty sure I can do it myself if I were president. It looks so doable that I don't believe any of this.

And you know what's wrong with the framing? Did you see what's wrong with the framing? I'll say the frame again. You tell me what's wrong with it. That neither Russia nor Ukraine have objectives that are both clearly stated — I want this — but also reasonably attainable. So they're saying that their conflicting objectives are the problem. Do you see what's wrong with that framing? I want to see if it just jumps out to anybody. What's wrong with that framing? It's pure propaganda. Oh my god it worked. Oh my god it worked. They're diverting you from the obvious and it worked. Oh my God I'm having a moment here where I'm actually horrified. I am horrified.

You're going to be real mad when I tell you. When they frame it as Ukraine and Russia want things but they're having trouble getting them, here's the part you're missing. Who the cares what either of them want? Who the cares? No. If the United States wants them to stop fighting we're going to make them stop. That's it. I don't care if Ukraine wants it. I don't care what they want. I don't care what Putin wants. How did you all miss that? Was that, did they do such a good job of propaganda that every one of you missed t