@taylorlorenz
I deactivated my TwitX account about 2 weeks ago. It was bad for my mental health to be constantly battling MAGAts. I hung in there as long as I could. Elmo has ruined the platform. Such a shame.
After Elon Musk and other far-right influencers falsely suggested a South Carolina hospital was giving hormone treatments to transgender four-year-olds, political pressure by state officials forced the hospital to shutter their entire trans youth program despite care remaining legal in the state. https://www.propublica.org/article/musc-medical-university-south-carolina-trans-healthcare-emails
Sports Illustrated has been making up fake AI authors, claiming they are real, then deleting them when asked and offering no formal comment, editorial note, or other response.
“The problem is, there’s a certain type of pedantry that has followed the internet through its various forms, especially in more technical channels, and it often creates a negative experience because it seems to be driven by ideology or disdain for people who don’t think the same way.” https://tedium.co/2023/11/21/mastodon-reply-guy-problem/
Curious to hear if others on here are experiencing what’s described in this piece. I enjoy most of the replies I get on here (though I never have time to respond to most of them, I like reading them)
I do think Mastodon could use more safety/audience limiting tools though, like what Ernie describes. Esp for larger-ish accounts on here who get a lot of replies, it would be nice to limit conversations on some posts. I would also love a real DM inbox on Mastodon! but that might be a pipe dream 😅
I run up against a fair number of FOSS zealots from time to time. And a lot of folks who generally just... don't know when to hold their tongues.
Some of this is structural - replies listed in-order with no ability to signal affirmation and sort accordingly means a lot of the same things get said/asked again and again. That's annoying but easy to dismiss as clunkiness.
The zealots, though - especially when stuff gets boosted to a wider audience - are rough.
@taylorlorenz I hate that these people are projecting a world where my options are either full-throated support for Israel's war crimes or full-throated support for Hamas's war crimes.
The Oct 7th attack was an atrocity that all civilized humanity should condemn. (And for the most part, that's exactly what happened).
But the response by the Israeli state (led by the corrupt, incompetent and deeply contemptible Netanyahu) is predictable -- it is what Hamas wanted -- and deeply evil.
People have been trying to use Threads to follow the news about the war in Israel, and Meta is still wholesale blocking searches on dozens of words, downranking journalism, and does not seem to want news on its platform at all
Post Twitter I find myself visiting the homepages of websites more and it’s something I really like now as part of my morning routine. I constantly find stories I probably would have never seen on social
I totally disagree w/ this piece. Trigger warnings simply provide context on pieces of information so ppl can knowingly opt in to consuming it
Saying TWs are making ppl soft (as this piece argues) is like saying rating some movies as “R” is making everyone more scared, or saying parental advisory stickers made ppl unable to endure cursing.
@taylorlorenz i don't think the problem is that it would make ppl "soft" but that some privileged journalists said to themselves "hm, i think people affected by this topic shouldn't see this even tho it might gives them some helpful insight or advice" because someone decided that ppl shouldn't face their demons and overcome them.