Dem blue checks.

Are you going to explain why that supposedly was an issue though?
What problem was there that when Will Smith with a checkmark replied to viral tweet about Men In Black, I could safely assume it was the actor Will Smith who starred in the film, and that his tweet is relevant to the subject?
If I'm interested in the subject, then I automatically know that I probably want to read what he has to say.

But in your scenario, I instead see a bunch of checkmark accounts from random people posting cute animal videos, crypto schemes, etc because their posts get pushed above everyone elses.

How is it better that I'm forced to sift through a bunch of (usually) irrelevant comments from people who paid for the checkmark, fishing for clout so that they can earn ad revenue?
It's at the point where I find that it's better to just not read them as soon as you see the checkmark, and not have your time wasted.

And even if they made a relevant comment to the subject, why on earth would I have any interest whatsoever in whether this random person has verified who they are?
You can see why it matters in the Will Smith example. But I don't see how it would matter to me for random users.
Just like it doesn't matter to me right now if you had verified who you are. And vice versa.

That it was more difficult to get the checkmark in the past also matters.

I know of several public figures who tried to get it for years and didn't get it. Usually until they managed to speak to the right person who had connections at Twitter.

Nowadays, spam bot accounts buy them in droves because they easily can, and it pushes their visibility above everyone else.

Twitter turned into a Nazi cesspool so gradually, I barely even noticed....

...ten years ago.

These people aren’t new. They’re the urine-smelling people at school who were obsessed with guns and had no friends. Nowadays, thanks to Elon Musk’s Twitter X (Twixxer?) they’re able to gather in larger herds and spout off their cringeworthy lunatic fringe nonsense. They’re mostly just angry because no one wants to fuck them. Pity them, as these posts are the result of their fucked-up heads telling them to cry like this for attention. Otherwise, each and every one of these guys is on the constant verge of putting a gun in their mouth.

Nah, as a centrist I feel like this take mostly comes from the fact that with society so polarized, at least in America, people tend to instantly lump you in with the "other side" if you don't entirely align with their views. "You're either with me or you're my enemy" basically.

Granted there will always be bad faith actors who will use it as a smokescreen, they do exist, but don't make the mistake of assuming this is the case. Believe it or not, there are people who genuinely find both sides too extreme.

I lean more towards Pi-Guy's view from what I've seen, I wouldn't say it's all of them obviously, there are quite clearly some actual centrist but I've seen a lot of people who claim to be "centre" but dig deeper and they're full with right wing beliefs, I see a lot of people who claim they're centre but still vote Donald Trump cause "Dems bad" and I'm sorry you aren't centre if you're voting Trump, Lol.

I believe a lot of them Trump voters claim they're centre because they're deep down ashamed of some of their beliefs and then some of them pretend to be centre because they believe it makes them look more intelligent than those on the right or left, they will claim that they know better simply because they're centrist, that left and right are both bad and they're very smart for being in the middle.

Then there's people who pretend they're centrist to look unbiased but only ever criticise the left like Elon Musk, he is the perfect example of someone pretending to be centre but only ever parrots right wing talking points and only ever criticises the left wing. But there are a lot of legit centrists too and it depends on what country you're from I think, I think this "right wing pretending to be centrist" thing is more common in America.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Sunday opened an inquiry into Elon Musk for obstruction of justice involving social media company X, according to a court document.

Musk is challenging a decision by Moraes ordering his social media platform X to block certain accounts.

Musk earlier on Sunday posted that X will lift the restrictions because they were unconstitutional.

In his decision, Moraes said "X shall refrain from disobeying any court order already issued, including performing any profile reactivation that has been blocked by this Supreme Court."

If X fails to comply with the order to block certain accounts the company will be fined 100,000 reais ($19,740) per day, the judge said.

Brazil Judge Opens Inquiry Into Musk After Refusal To Block Accounts On X | Reuters

Musk is losing his mind at Brazil telling him to block certain accounts, claiming it's free speech violations.

Meanwhile, when a right wing government tells Musk to do the same, he happily accepts it.

Elon Musk’s Twitter Widens Its Censorship of Modi’s Critics in India

Twitter Censored Accounts in Turkey Due to Musk and Erdogan Deals

Twitter Has Complied With Almost Every Government Request For Censorship Since Musk Took Over

Elon Musk Shares “Extremely False” Allegation Of Voting Fraud By “Illegals” | Ars Technica

Famous centrist who spends his days interacting with far right Twitter users and parroting right wing talking points.

Also, a little humour.

Meanwhile: X's AI Chatbot Grok Made Up a Fake Trending Headline About Iran Attacking Israel | Mashable

And interacting with Bjorn.

Who is Bjorn?!

Björn Höcke is a German politician and a member of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Along with Andreas Kalbitz, Höcke was the leader of the AfD's far-right Der Flügel faction, which the German government's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution declared a right-wing extremist organization.

In November 2021, Höcke's parliamentary immunity in the Landtag of Thuringia was cancelled. He was accused to have ended a speech in May with a phrase used by the SA whose use is illegal under insignia legislation. The phrase was "Everything for Germany".

The slogan “Everything for Germany” was introduced by the SA and its public use is punishable by law in Germany.

Sturmabteilung - Wikipedia

To be clear about a few things.

I didn't say "that's what centrism means" or "every centrist is actually a right winger" or anything quite as definitive as that. 99% is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's a frequent problem. Either in calling themselves centrist and yet not actually believing an centrist viewpoints or they'll deride both sides, while strongly advocating for a particular side. 

This isn't to say there aren't centrists or anything like that. But I think frequently actual centrists don't actually call themselves "centrist". 

There's a difference between someone using the label and someone actually being that thing.

Why do you think of yourself as a centrist? What do left and right wing mean to you?