We successfully stood up to, turned our backs on and walked away from abhorrent people on an dominant social media platform. Now, each of us must continue to do the same thing in real life situations. We can no longer count on social ethics to keep the worst aspects of human behavior in check. It falls upon each of us to close the door and lock them out.
Another terrific piece. This question came up in an article during 45 which I cannot attribute (I apologize to the author) in paraphrase the story went like this: he is sitting at a quiet bar in NY, just a few patrons, a young man walks in wearing white nationalist/Nazi symbols and the bartender gets up without a beat, grabs a bat and moves down the bar toward the door and says "No!". The Nazi turns and exits. Writer asks bartender why he won't 'tolerate' the guy who stepped in and bartender says, today it's him, next week he brings a couple friends, week after the bar is full of Nazis and nobody wants to hang out here but nazis and we are a Nazi bar. He says they can't, in any venue, be tolerated because they are uncivilized and destroy everything they come in contact with. Zero tolerance for Nazis so the rest of us can breathe was the takeaway. Humans are social animals, and Nazis can coffee clatch amongst themselves. We wouldn't put up with this at home or work or at a book club or social gathering, why do we put up with it in our politics? I'm so glad to hear bluesky has the ability for the community to self moderate and not devolve into hate speech forums.
I left X 15 months ago, and landed on Threads. It’s not perfect, but the folks on there kept MAGA off of it by blocking and hiding for everyone. While we were on Threads defending and promoting democracy, the last remnants of democracy were being shredded by Musk, and his followers, and that includes all the folks who didn’t leave until AFTER the election. I wish they’d been brave enough to stop feeding his bottom line a year before the election. It might have been a better impact on democracy. When I left X, I chose which poison would be less damaging, and 15 months ago it was Zuck over Musk for a million miles. Too bad the rest of X didn’t follow suit.
Bluesky was started by those who sold twitter to Musk (Jack Dorsey-former CEO). I don’t know enough about owner Lantian Graber. Does anyone else have additional info on this person. History? Political ideology? Just want to exercise caution.
Very good to be cautious. Jack Dorsey left the BlueSky board, which can cut either way. For what it's worth, I trust corporate actions more than statements – and from what I have seen so far, BlueSky is doing what it can to provide a safe experience for users. We'll all need to watch how things evolve...
There is one more, fundamental reason to quit Twitter for Bluesky/Substack that people seem to miss. (beyond Twitter/X political sympathies, and censorship, and propaganda). In Substack/Bluesky you own your audience, while in Twitter you don't. Twitter owns them. The moment you quit, you lose all your contacts. I just wrote about it: https://4two.substack.com/p/how-to-own-your-audience
Public domains such as socmed, BBs, and comments sections NEED moderation in order to foster free speech. Remove moderation, and everything drops to the lowest common denominator, which are trolls and bots. They don't speak with each other at all. Therefore no free speech. Eloon's too stupid to see that coming, but he doesn't care. He bought it to destroy and he's done a great job of it.🤷♀️
Thanks for the clarity of your writing, and the concreteness of simple actions to take (when it seems like a firehose pointed at us).
Thank you, Hans! 💙 It's truly my pleasure, and my honor. Glad I can contribute.
Great write up on why to leave X/Twitter. Thank you.
Thanks, Robert! 💙
Thank you!!!
I wish the news and media in general would stop using Twitter comments in their coverage. TV and tons of online articles.
What a wonderful post, Michele. Thank you, especially for making it clear that hate speech does not fall under the category of free speech.
We successfully stood up to, turned our backs on and walked away from abhorrent people on an dominant social media platform. Now, each of us must continue to do the same thing in real life situations. We can no longer count on social ethics to keep the worst aspects of human behavior in check. It falls upon each of us to close the door and lock them out.
Another terrific piece. This question came up in an article during 45 which I cannot attribute (I apologize to the author) in paraphrase the story went like this: he is sitting at a quiet bar in NY, just a few patrons, a young man walks in wearing white nationalist/Nazi symbols and the bartender gets up without a beat, grabs a bat and moves down the bar toward the door and says "No!". The Nazi turns and exits. Writer asks bartender why he won't 'tolerate' the guy who stepped in and bartender says, today it's him, next week he brings a couple friends, week after the bar is full of Nazis and nobody wants to hang out here but nazis and we are a Nazi bar. He says they can't, in any venue, be tolerated because they are uncivilized and destroy everything they come in contact with. Zero tolerance for Nazis so the rest of us can breathe was the takeaway. Humans are social animals, and Nazis can coffee clatch amongst themselves. We wouldn't put up with this at home or work or at a book club or social gathering, why do we put up with it in our politics? I'm so glad to hear bluesky has the ability for the community to self moderate and not devolve into hate speech forums.
Please keep on. The truly tolerant need to stem this flow. Thank you for your words and suggested actions!
Called Shumer's office!
As to BlueSky...I always found twitter (and of course FB) overwhelming cause of ads...how is it on that front?
Thank you! So far, it doesn't have advertising; I imagine that will change, but for now it's quite refreshing.
Thanks for this. I called and left a message about the PRESS Act - it literally took 30 seconds - easy peasy!
See! It takes so little time but when we all do it, it has a massive impact. Thank you!
I left X 15 months ago, and landed on Threads. It’s not perfect, but the folks on there kept MAGA off of it by blocking and hiding for everyone. While we were on Threads defending and promoting democracy, the last remnants of democracy were being shredded by Musk, and his followers, and that includes all the folks who didn’t leave until AFTER the election. I wish they’d been brave enough to stop feeding his bottom line a year before the election. It might have been a better impact on democracy. When I left X, I chose which poison would be less damaging, and 15 months ago it was Zuck over Musk for a million miles. Too bad the rest of X didn’t follow suit.
Enlighting
Thank you, Andrea! 💙
Bluesky was started by those who sold twitter to Musk (Jack Dorsey-former CEO). I don’t know enough about owner Lantian Graber. Does anyone else have additional info on this person. History? Political ideology? Just want to exercise caution.
Very good to be cautious. Jack Dorsey left the BlueSky board, which can cut either way. For what it's worth, I trust corporate actions more than statements – and from what I have seen so far, BlueSky is doing what it can to provide a safe experience for users. We'll all need to watch how things evolve...
There is one more, fundamental reason to quit Twitter for Bluesky/Substack that people seem to miss. (beyond Twitter/X political sympathies, and censorship, and propaganda). In Substack/Bluesky you own your audience, while in Twitter you don't. Twitter owns them. The moment you quit, you lose all your contacts. I just wrote about it: https://4two.substack.com/p/how-to-own-your-audience
Deactivated Twitter today!! Not tolerating the intolerant
Public domains such as socmed, BBs, and comments sections NEED moderation in order to foster free speech. Remove moderation, and everything drops to the lowest common denominator, which are trolls and bots. They don't speak with each other at all. Therefore no free speech. Eloon's too stupid to see that coming, but he doesn't care. He bought it to destroy and he's done a great job of it.🤷♀️
Please do not contact me again!