Hands up, who's now on Mastodon?
It's a nice app, not user friendly, but I can see the potential for networking. However, it is not as good as Twitter in terms of getting your stuff in front of the eyeballs of people who enjoy your genre. I very much doubt I'll end up doing much with it.
Why are we there? Oh, Elon.
With the nuance worthy of my long gone 15 year old Edgelord self, he comes in with approximately $44 billion to purchase the company known as Hell Site, Satan's Underpants and Beezlebub's Forbidden Drawer - Twitter. The amount of money being thrown around is scary. To put it in perspective - it's about a fifth of the UK's National Health Service Budget. Considering he was given a quote by the UN to end world hunger and seemingly went quiet (although, it does seem he will be giving a "mysterious donation" to unknown charities totalling $5.7 billion), it seems a bit weird that he's spending so much on a platform people call "the public square" where everyone takes themselves too seriously and perpetuate endless cycles of outrage to grease the rusting wheel of capitalism. My deep analysis is that Billionaires are wankers. Many folks, who much more articulate (je suis writor) and intelligent than I, have explained that Billionaires only exist due to a series of unfortunate factors and thus shouldn't exist in a fair society.
That said, what difference does one billionaire make when he replaces a bunch? Currently (remember, this deal has not gone through) a significant Twatter stock holder is wee ol' Al Waleed bin Talal. Little wee ol' Al belongs to a little family that loves freedom of speech so much, the head of said family sanctions the brutal murder of journalists on foreign soil. He's also (at time of writing) only worth a measly $16.4 billion. Edgelords to the left, Despots to the right, and here we are - stuck in the middle with each other.
I suspect this will be another case of the outrages, much like the Kickstarter debacle (blockchain for profit is an ecological nightmare). It's a scary display of power, but for people to posture that Edgelord Musk is a greater threat than his ilk, doesn't hold much sway. He is a threat, but you and I can't do anything about it. That comes from mass movements, solidarity and a will to do something in the Material World. Twitter is not the real world and I urge everyone to use Tweetdeck for a much nicer experience and limit your exposure to 15-30 minutes a day. You will not miss it. Go outside, talk to your neighbours and participate in your communities. Hell, even play online games with your mates. Twitter will still be there for when you get back, like a tyre fire full of turds.
To those who do choose to leave, I wish you well. Plenty of people using Twitter use it as a means to provide for their families and themselves, including marginalised peoples we so profess to support. It is not privilege to stay on these platforms (yes, I have seen accusations of this on Hell Site and been called this) - the privilege lies in being able not to participate in these platforms and still be able to sell your books/art/product. No ethical consumerism under capitalism, and all that. You can't simply use your "consumer power" when there's a damned monopoly in effect.
Hwyl fawr/goodbye,
-C
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