This Just In — Heidi Cuda Suspended from Twitter
For suggesting Musk be shot into space, on the heels of my exposé in Byline Supplement — the Cult of the Genius Tech Bro
My friend Roger — a former Conservative who hates Donald Trump — has a solution for US traitors: ‘Shoot ‘em into space.’
He came up with that brilliant line after I explained to him that ‘throw ‘em in a ditch’ was too macabre — recollections of the Holocaust books I asked my German relatives to send me as a little girl. I wanted to have an uncensored understanding of what happened in Germany during the Hitler years. As a first generation German, I was called ‘Nazi’ as a child. I wasn’t a ‘Nazi’ and neither I — nor my parents — had anything to do with the atrocities that occurred in that terrible time.
But I needed to understand. So beside my book collection featuring Charlotte’s Web, James and the Giant Peach, and Homer’s Odyssey was my unfiltered collection of books on World War II and Hitler’s reign.
I am certain the images I viewed as a kid had something to do with growing up to be an investigative reporter. Once you see genocide, you can’t unsee it.
By eight, I understood that people who looked normal could be monsters.
So today, during Bette’s Happy Hour, I learned that my Twitter account had been suspended. The account where I published my investigations, did hundreds of threads, and for seven years, fought fascism on Twitter’s virtual battlefield. It’s where my work was supported, and where I met my allies and best friends in the fight.
In response to a Maddow Blog Tweet about a Bloomberg article reporting Putin praising Elon Musk while vowing more space missions, I wrote:
‘Perhaps we can shoot Musk into space.’
And then I linked to my recent report about the Cult of the Genius Tech Bro in Byline Supplement.
I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to note that I was exercising my First Amendment right at humor when I suggested a man with a space company go to space.
However, the Twitter snowflakes determined that I had made a violent threat. So much for Free Speech absolutism.
Unless the Twitter/X Gods decree from on high that I did not violate their terms — I will be off a site I noted last year was going the way of Vkontakte.
As someone who is taking care of a parent atm, the real world needs us too.
I look forward to having more time to expose traitors and slay monsters — real and metaphorical.
In the meantime, blessings to the team at Byline Supplement who just removed the paywall for my story — the Cult of the Genius Tech Bro. Please read it and share widely. And support them if you can. The world needs independent investigative reporters.
Love,
Heidi 💘