It remains to be seen if Parler can sustain the apparent increase in users and whether it will meet the same fate as Gab. Since the motivations for many of the departing seem to be aligned with Katie Hopkins, a notorious racist provocateur, it’s doubtful Parler will be a bastion of civility and moral fortitude. All the usual suspects of Edgelord Conservative World are flocking to the app, including Devin Nunes, Rand Paul, Kurt Schlichter, Jesse Kelly, Curtis Houck, Bill Mitchell, and Benny Johnson, plus even some erstwhile establishment figures like Ari Fleischer…

OAN Anchor Emily Finn tweeted that she wanted to see what all the hype was about as well. “So far seems like a promising alternative to Twitter! There’s way more people than I expected already using it,” she said in reply to a follower asking if it was worth it…

If Parler succeeds in siphoning off a portion of right-wing Twitter, it will be in keeping with conservatives’ decades-long practice of creating alternative institutions that allow them to indulge in a fantasy reality fetishizing persecution while isolating themselves from wider society.