25 Comments
User's avatar
Greg's avatar

Never tweeted nor xitted - don't use social media at all, no twitfuck, no facefuck, no instafuck, no tiktokfuck, no whatever the fuck. If I have friends worth talking to I call them on the phone and suggest we get together and hang out and have some nice conversation, or any other kind of conversation, whatever... hanging out with real people where you can see their faces, understanding all the critical elements of social communication that come from direct human interaction. It's just not there in digital social media and thus an entire evolutionary aspect of human communications is tossed.

Social Media ain't - social I mean.

Expand full comment
MzNicky in East Jesus, TN's avatar

Where do you get your news?

Expand full comment
Greg's avatar

Not off of any social media site - and asking where someone gets their news is like asking where someone gets anything else, right? OK, LOL, kidding ya.

I load and review a number of well known sites - local newspapers and various national and international sources. I have saved 'favorite' links to them.

I do not read any news sent to me via an unrequested link. I do not read any "feeds".

They can go fuck themselves.

Edited - Try this site for an entirely different view. https://asiatimes.com/#\

You want a different take? Here's another one https://www.atnews.co.za/

Expand full comment
Greg's avatar

People in this country should know that pretty much all local and national news services are captured and owned by fascist pigs. Don't bother with them, they're all lying.

Expand full comment
MzNicky in East Jesus, TN's avatar

Ever heard of independent media online sources?

Expand full comment
Greg's avatar

Yes, we're probably aware of many of the same. Again, I like getting my news from various geographic and external sources from the USA, since I don't trust most media sources from within the USA. I understand that there are some good, independent media outlets in the USA and don't doubt we're both reading them.

Expand full comment
Biff52 is Tariffied's avatar

Way ahead of you, never tweetered in my life. My shame was being on faceborg for as long as I was. I hadn't contributed on it for over five years, but the account was still there. The day zuck handed over the million dollar bribe, I logged in to delete my account. They don't make it easy, but I'm free of them!

Expand full comment
Jessica Marcillo's avatar

Dems should be on fox news though as long as they are whip smart like Maxwell Frost, Pete Buttigieg and Jasmine Crockett or Katie Porter to name a few.

Expand full comment
Jessica Marcillo's avatar

Uhhhh...what the hel have you been on Twitter for so long since that nazi bought it???

Expand full comment
MzNicky in East Jesus, TN's avatar

People have their reasons.

Expand full comment
Uncle Milburn's avatar

I went as far as to spin up Wonkodon.com, a Mastodon instance for our type of people.

Expand full comment
Old Man Shadow's avatar

I signed off when Musk's deal to buy it went through.

Musk was grossly honest about what he planned to do to the site. I wanted no part of a world where Nazis were accepted and given a voice, let alone promoted.

Expand full comment
bjkeefe's avatar

>>> We can do better.

How?

(Serious question.)

Expand full comment
Stephen Robinson's avatar

I think liberals might feel good when Buttigieg proves Republicans wrong on Fox News, but it’s not necessarily productive. Connecting with our own coalition, who we’ve lost over the years, building trust and explaining how we can improve their lives, is more effective.

Expand full comment
Lesley's avatar

thank you, Stephen. I wrestled for a while about getting off Twitter, but Elon made it easy for me last September when a totally anodyne comment ("he needs the strokes") supposedly broke some rule and got me suspended. all I had to do to get back on was delete the comment, but that would be admitting it violated the rules and that felt like a capitulation for access (in its micro way) I didn't feel like extending to the algorithm. so I went cold turkey. it was rough for a while. supposedly my appeal is still pending six months later. so now I'm on Bluesky and mostly relieved to be out of the swamp, though my account is still active, I suppose.

question for you, Stephen: do you think Musk is strategic, that is, did he buy Twitter with this goal in mind, or did he just end up wandering up this path as his politics rapidly exploded into radical madness? does he see around corners or is he just winging it, and at the moment Twitter is crucial in Musk's world domination plan? what if anything would it take for Twitter to actually come apart or sink under its own weight?

sorry, that was a bunch of questions, but youth wants to know...I'm just so sick of the Elons getting a free pass as designated geniuses when the more I see the guy, the more of a malignant dumbass he proves to be.

Expand full comment
SethTriggs's avatar

Already deactivated my account months ago.

Remember, everyone!

Stop Giving Apartheid Clyde Clicks!

Expand full comment
Steward Beckham's avatar

“If a normal person’s home lost 80 percent of its value in two years, they’d consider arson, but Musk isn’t normal and only vaguely resembles a person.”

You have a gift! And this dark humor cracked me up.

I really enjoyed this piece. I wrote about limited imaginations on my Substack in regard to the commentariat acknowledging the irrationality and prejudices that guide an irrational public (spoiler: the pundit class thinks the electorate is entirely rational). But I also think we need to incorporate in our collective imaginations that the media is fragmented and never going back to the collective fire model that previous generations are familiar with. Accepting the new landscape means playing to the fragmented sections that favor one’s perspective and amplifies it. Especially in a world where people aren’t really absorbing political media to begin with. To do this also means incorporating into our collective imaginations the hard truth that the moderate middle is shrinking and not a turf worth fighting over at this current moment.

Expand full comment
Cateck's avatar

Unfortunately, Substack also has a nazi problem.

Expand full comment
BrandoG's avatar

One thing that keeps people on Twitter is their relationships—but if enough of us just say “find me on Bluesky” they can always rebuild at a better place. Eventually Twitter becomes a scammer hellhole and the remaining Nazis and assorted losers will be stuck with each other.

And if liberals like Frost fret that they don’t have other spaces to communicate in—well, at least that lays the problem out, and maybe some skilled liberals (or even smart opportunists) will realize there’s a demand for liberal media and social media that they can build and profit from.

But it starts with cutting loose from Twitter, Facebook, and yes much of the MSM that is already going collaborationist. News and engagement won’t end while there’s a demand for it, it’ll just be in a less tainted place.

Expand full comment
Linda1961 is woke and proud's avatar

Bravo for still calling it Twitter!

I left Twitter a few months after Musk bought it. In that short period of time, it was quite clear that he intended to trash the site, and it's a shame, because it was as close to a town square as 21st century America could get.

As for what he's done to USAID and its employees shows that he cares nothing for working people. And to point that out won't move him, because the cruelty is the point. Some, who are cheering his cruelty, may be moved by another fact - that closing USAID will hurt America in the long run, because it's a form of soft power, which forms friendships and coalitions. You never know when you will need a friend or an ally in any part of the world. He won't be moved by that, because he's not very bright, and no doubt thinks that we need no one. That has never been true, and we will find out the hard way, sooner or later.

Expand full comment
BrandoG's avatar

I’m all for dead-naming Twitter and the Gulf of Mexico. Fuck the Orwellian freaks.

Expand full comment
Eva Porter's avatar

I logged in the other day just to say “F you” to a few people. I had to get it out of my system. Then I logged out.

I didn’t use it much before Musk so no reason to keep it around.

Expand full comment
BrandoG's avatar

If you have the urge to connect with people on social media I recommend Bluesky. No trolls or right wing shit in the feed.

Expand full comment
SethTriggs's avatar

Or Spoutible!

Expand full comment
Karen Gold's avatar

I'm on both Spoutible and Bluesky. Bluesky so far is the closest experience to old Twitter. Spoutible is a smaller community, but I like the homey feel of it.

Expand full comment