The Left’s collective action problem that is Elon Musk and X

Roderick Graham
8 min readJul 23, 2024

Here is this from the New Republic:

“Following Kamala Harris’s announcement that she is running for president, users on Elon’s Musk X (formerly known as Twitter) found themselves banned from following the vice president’s political campaign account. When users went to follow @KamalaHQ, the official rapid response page for Harris’ campaign, they were greeted with a message that said they had reached their “limit” and could not follow any more accounts at this time. This message usually is deployed to prevent spam or “rate limiting,” such as if one account is following hundreds of others. But it seems that the Harris account is the one being limited, rather than the users.”

Well, of course, Musk wants to limit Harris’ social media footprint. As a Trump supporter, he is ideologically opposed to Harris and the Democratic Party’s goals. Many people in the center and most especially on the Left, grouse about Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and how he runs the platform. Well, if you feel this way, know that Musk’s ability to influence the cultural and political narrative could have been prevented…by you.

Let me explain.

I don’t want you to get off my lawn — I want us to mow it!

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Roderick Graham
Roderick Graham

Written by Roderick Graham

Gadfly | Professor of Sociology at Old Dominion University | I post about social science, culture, and progressive politics | Views are my own