i think in thirty years or so we will look back on the invention of the quote tweet as the societal equivalent of the invention of chlorofluorocarbons
The quote tweet is a case study in how a seemingly innocent design change can, when it's replicated at scale, have some absolutely brutal effects.
Unlike Tumblr reposts, quote tweets are structured with the reposter's text first, then the quoted tweet at the bottom. This inherently puts the quoter in a position of discursive privilege over the quotee – you are setting the framing of what the other person is saying, before your own audience gets a chance to read it.
This massively encourages dunking, because it makes dunking easy; with the rhetoric leg up granted by the format, almost anyone can compose a halfway successful attack. This is particularly useful for dishonest or sloppy arguments; it's so much easier to put words in someone's mouth when you get to speak before they do.
