With all that's going on in the world, I wanted to introduce you all to the best thread on Twitter.

If you haven't heard of 'Eastbourne' and the old people that live in our town, get ready.

First up, it's the time when it kicked off between Edith and Dorothy.
#EastbourneEcho

"Leftist" twitter (i use quotation marks bc twitter leftists are bogus, not that Leftist ideology is bad) makes real progressives look really bad. And if you're wondering, *Britney Spears voice* I'm Not a Liberal, Not yet a "Leftist"

I'm fairly progressive. Elizabeth Warren was my #1. I know there are associations ppl make w white women who support her, but my black self liked her bc she has progressive values and seems fit to hold office. Bc progressivism in practice needs someone who knows how to govern.

She was called a snake by "leftists" for myriad reasons, but one of them was not quitting so Bernie could win. LMAO. Seriously.

That's when I noticed twitter "leftism" was a cult of personality. Bc if the closest person ideologically to Bernie is a snake for differing on her healthcare plan (not ideologically btw, just practically), then this shit is about that man. Not ideology.

Twitter "leftists" also have a race problem. HUGE race problem. "Solving class will help racism" is a STUPID political philosophy anyway, bc foundationally American economics is racist. Literally we're a world super power bc we didn't pay slaves for a century

After spending a couple of days engaging with #DisruptTexts and its most vociferous Twitter defenders, here is what I've learned:

1. Many of its most outspoken defenders are also outspoken racists. Almost every one that I spoke to focused on my skin color and whatever stereotypes they could fabricate from it in their responses.

2. On a related note, their primary means of argument seems to be largely ad hominem. There was very little discussion of the actual issues. Instead, insults, insinuations, and mockery seemed to be the rules of the game.

3. I think this need to focus on ad hominem arises from the ideological rather than evidential nature of #DisruptTexts itself. There's a lot of social justice jargon and feeling used to support it, but no talk that I saw about student outcomes or efficacy.

4. Relatedly, there is a religious feel to the whole thing. Heresy is not to be reasoned with but rooted out and destroyed. Only the truly initiated understand the secret gnosis. The plain meaning of words is disregarded in favor of a mystical interpretation.

The most valuable Twitter feature you aren't using:

Advanced search.

Knowing how to use it will help you find the hidden gems of the Twitter archives and 10x your Twitter experience.

Here's the step-by-step guide:

Most Twitter users know nothing about advanced search.

And the few that do think you have to access it this way: by clicking the three dots in the search bar, then clicking advanced search, then using these fields.

This is painfully inefficient.

Luckily, there is a better way.

You can leverage the power of advanced search right in the search bar using text.

And there are six different things you can create filters for:

• Date
• Keywords
• Number of likes
• Number of replies
• Number of retweets

Let's dive into how to use each.

Before we do that, you might be thinking, what does this do for me?

Twitter is a real-time platform.

But the Twitter archives are full of gems.

Especially from some of the most prominent people on Twitter, you can learn a lot by combing through popular things they've said.

The foundation of advanced search is the "from" query.

Every query will start like this:

from:handlename

An *important* note: do not include the @ before the user's handle.

In an effort to keep myself accountable and to “build in public” as many do on Twitter, I’m going to share my training and thoughts in my build up to running the 2021 Barkley Marathons.

A thread:

1/ I’m out of shape right now.

That needs to chance quickly as the race is approximately 3 months away. If you don’t know what the Barkley Marathons is, there are some great documentaries on Amazon & YouTube you can search for.

2/ Essentially it’s a 100+ mile ultra marathon held in Frozen Head State Park in TN. It is a 5 identical looped course of unmarked trails and cross country scrambles over steep terrain.

Each loop is over 25 miles in length with +14,000 feet of climb.

3/ Just 15 people have finished the full five loops in the event’s 35 year history. You have 60 hours to finish and no one has finished under 52 hours.

Most years there are no finishers.

4/ I first toed the line at the Barkley in 2014, but I first read about it in 2005 or 2006 just as I was getting into running ultras. I found the website, read this poem and immediately added the event to my bucket list:

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the tweets
Not a user was stirring, not even in fleets
The drafts were all scheduled for the a.m. with care
In hopes that virality soon would be there

The children were all nestled all snug in their snaps
Their instas, their twitches, their lit tiktok apps;
And mamma in her Pinterest, and I in my LinkedIn,
Had just settled down (the edible had kicked in)

When out on the lawn there arose such a ruckus!
I cursed the doorbell stream app I'd deleted for 'Among Us'
Plus the wi-fi was down, so I leapt from my bed
Flung open the window and lifted it over my head.

I could see nothing, I was in no mood for jokes
Snowblinded by moonlight, climate change is no hoax
When what to my furious eyes did appear?
The outline of a sleigh, and eight tiny... I wanna say, deer?

With a round little driver, he was no kind of runt
It was either St. Nick or a damn YouTube stunt.
More rapid than retweets, they came on like vandals
And he whistled and shouted and called out their handles