@aral I'm increasingly frustrated with people who will talk about the need to build alternatives to capitalism and fascism who are still on Twitter and won't even look at non-commercial alternatives.
@aral There are reasons to maintain a presence on Twitter; life in an oppressive society requires compromises we'd all rather avoid, which is the point of oppression.
It's the refusal to try to find a way out that frustrates me.
@Edwin085@aral I did by deleting my account several months ago.
Here in Germany we have a concept called "Erinnerungskultur”, roughly translates as "culture of remembrance”. For decades now, citizens are told about WW2 and fascism, as the nation must not forget what was done in its name. Personally, I think it’d be just lip service unless we don’t act on intolerance and shit rising when we see it.
That sounds overly grand; what I mean is: “If you see something, do something”. Every bit helps
@aral
Worth noting that now it's straight up neo-Nazism as Muskrat ia scapegoating the Anti-Defamation League for the loss of 60 percent of ad revenue (rather than letting neo-Nazis back in).
@oclsc I don’t know, man, what does it make you if you conflate people who use a social network with people whose lives are at risk because they’re stuck in a fascist country?
And what does it make you if you conflate people who decry fascism with fascists?
I’ll just hold this mirror here while I bid you adieu.
@aral
Also, some "influencers", who have spent thousands of dollars to buy followers, even not being fascist, militate against other social network for keeping their business. It's a complex tie to untie.
People are not perfect and to demand "perfection" from others is usually a behavior of fascist individuals.
@aral What's the point of being so absolutist and dichomatic? If everybody who wasn't fascist or sympathetic-thereto or “fascist-adjacent" really left Xitter entirely, then you'd really have a problem à la Fox News. Please don’t forget the nuances and the implications. If all creators who were (justifiably) concerned about the platform's ownership and recent policies just left, then all the consumers left would be left in an inadvertent bubble because many don't yet have the skills to migrate.
@aral For people who think they they need to be on Twitter to “counter” right-wing disinfo, keep in mind that all the original Nazi “safe spaces” (e.g. Parler, Scab, Lies Social) died off mainly because there weren’t any “libs” around for the MAGAts to “own.” Without any “libs” to “own” they quickly got bored because they had nothing to say or do—except share photos of their own excrement
In other words, they WANT your engagement and by sticking around you’re giving them exactly what they want.
@aral Every time I open my Twitter account my activity literally costs Musk money, by way of adblocking and the Blue Blocker extension. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
The BB extension in particular creates overhead that makes Twitter run worse and devalues the Verified program. I'm up to nearly 13k accounts.
@aral which is close enough. The death penalty in a sham trial should by itself be another deal breaker, but even that isn't. I don't know what it'll be.
Whenever it actually burns down is when those people are going to find a new medium.
@aral It took a while but I finally threw in the towel at T**tter. I’ll have to find some creative ways to get some news from great sources that are still not in the fediverse, but oh well I shall live. Thanks for the extra nudge with your recent posts.
@weirdwriter@aral Yes. For sure I’ve been using RSS feeds for 20 years and still do. Problem is some authors are migrating to platforms that don’t support RSS. Post.news being the most notable at the moment. I think I should just write a post.news to RSS converter.
@aral@Hey_Beth I believe it means you support fascism. We can quibble about terms about whether that makes you a fascist, but we need to call these supporters out by name.
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