I will try bluesky and see how it feels. You make an interesting point. It is good though to have alternative social media to x particularly as the "boring" owner yields its reach to perpetuate his own rightwing message.
In my lifetime (70 years) I have seen this same divide and bubbles (Reagan era and the 'silent majority'), where the two groups ( or more) do not communicate. Of course it's worse now more than ever because of social media and online news. But eventually the strongest, most sustainable ideas win - like them or not - but always in time, not right away. One has to get bored of the echo chamber first. We are still staying out in our chambers. Ask Africans, Rwandans, South Africans , they all have told me the same thing: "we have to live together".
I think Alon's broad point about Bluesky is spot on, though I'm not sure it's just elitist liberals who want to live in silos. Nor am I clear about what white elitist liberals even look and sound like. I'm an educated Canadian and I live in a nice house in central London. I look "white" to most people. But I am 100% Lebanese by blood, much of my father's family live in Lebanon, and the slaughter in Gaza - unconditionally supported by the Canadian and UK governments - has illustrated precisely how conditional the acceptance of people like me is in our society, whatever my liberal bona fides.
With that in mind, I'm kind of tired of how the "woke"/"snowflake" designation is routinely deployed for ideological reasons.
A few years back, when the singer-songwriter Lorde cancelled a concert in Israel after one of its routine blitzes in Gaza, some Israeli teens attempted to sue the concert promoter over their "trauma" about the cancellation. This was after scores of Palestinian children just like them were slaughtered. As in, dead.
Here in London, two years ago UK Lawyers for Israel - an organisation whose raison d'etre is to blockade the humanizing of Palestinians - had Palestinian children's art removed from the walls of Chelsea & Westminster Hospital because they claimed it made Jewish patients "uncomfortable."
Last week, in Ottawa, Canada, after a high school played an Arabic song called "Peace" at its Remembrance Day service, a local politician went berserk, claiming that a song in Arabic was "triggering" for Jewish students. She called for an immediate apology and disciplinary action. The school's principal has now issued a grovelling mea culpa.
So how is it that the people denouncing Israel's unspeakable orgy of violence - and the decimation of post-War multilateral institutions - are the wounded, self-marginalised folks flocking to the gated community of Bluesky? Meantime, a frisson of discomfort Jewish students might feel at the fantasy that Arabic constitutes a threat of violence requires urgent remedial measures according to the very folks sneering at woke, leftist liberals?
All that said, as I sat (wokely) weeping on the stairs of my house last week after I learned that my father's town in Lebanon had been flattened by Israel, my dog Paco squeezed next to me to give me some comfort. No pics for Instagram, but I couldn't have gotten through this without him
If you are living in the west Bay Area, you are living in a bubble of affluent, liberal leftists, intellectuals mostly highly educated/indoctrinated people. Not all of America is even close to that narrative. This has been proven by Trumps landslide, whatever his shortcomings may be. It shows flyover America’s disgust for the present administration and its narratives. Rural Americans in particular are fed up with wokeness and all that it entails. So this new social media may be exactly what you describe, I don’t know because I don’t do social media, but I would caution you from putting all Americans, or even a vast majority of Americans in the basket you are describing. Or from judging “white Americans” by those I have described above. I lived in the west bay for 20 years and worked for Hewlett Packard, so I know the people you are describing. They are not indicative of Americans or of American values even, but a small microcosm of elitists I would almost dare to say. Anyways, I just wanted to express my experience and impressions as a third generation Californian, who has lived all over California.
The CIA has been there for a while now🤣 Frankly, I'm happy the shitlibs are leaving Twitter 🤷♀️ And it's unsurprising that they're ceding ground to the enemies. I'm on there trolling Anthony Blinken, CENTCOM, etc🤣 I love posting fuck Israel and free Palestine memes on their posts😈🤣 If the enemy gives you a powerful tool, turn it against them🤦♀️
Thank you for this, Alon 👏🏼 I just got to bluesky and haven’t done anything there other than look for twitter mutuals. I agree with what you’re saying! And yet, staying on twitter when the person who owns it is getting a regime job, it just seems like an obvious no. I’m not running bc I’m white, I’m running bc I’m Arab.
I totally understand. It can get toxic😢 And I'm also referring to the toxicity of the white people Alon is talking about. I call them shitlibs. MLK called them white moderates. I'm staying and fighting to get the truth out by trolling Anthony Blinken, CENTCOM, et al😈 If you wish to follow me on Blue Sky I'm fireytopaz. bsky.social
Dear sweet Rasha, please don't be mistaken into thinking there are brands or platforms that are more or less government in this system. It is all government, all monitored, all manipulated. I don't argue with your sentiment, I just implore you to not relate actual political meaning to it
Yes, agreed! I have had that viewpoint for years, it’s all government monitoring and spying. What is the argument for staying on Elon’s site? It’s good for Gaza updates. But I had zero interaction bc I didn’t purchase a check mark, and it was just a way to stay in touch with about 3 people. I don’t need Elon for that.
Yes 🙏🏼👏🏼 I totally hear that. And it’s an excellent, necessary point.
And funnily enough I just checked twitter and saw some Arab accounts making similar points…and suggested that Bluesky is deleting Gaza accounts? If that’s the case I’ll stay and use both, for maximum government monitoring 😉
I won't convince you to be on Twitter, my point is to expose the fallacy of the system and its deceptions, and how it guides us to fantasize about solutions which only get us stuck in place
I checked out Bluesky a year or two ago and at that time it seemed like a sanctuary for snowflakes. A preponderance of wounded, sensitive, self-marginalized, nonbinary, self-declared empaths.
Granted, a superficial and unkind impression.
You are saying important truths so very clearly and directly. Just please, Alon, don't knock cats! 😹 Animals console and recharge many of us who are not sure humans are gonna make it.
I will try bluesky and see how it feels. You make an interesting point. It is good though to have alternative social media to x particularly as the "boring" owner yields its reach to perpetuate his own rightwing message.
think about getting money out of politics instead, overturning Citizens United... the beginning of the end ... Ameicanpromise.net
In my lifetime (70 years) I have seen this same divide and bubbles (Reagan era and the 'silent majority'), where the two groups ( or more) do not communicate. Of course it's worse now more than ever because of social media and online news. But eventually the strongest, most sustainable ideas win - like them or not - but always in time, not right away. One has to get bored of the echo chamber first. We are still staying out in our chambers. Ask Africans, Rwandans, South Africans , they all have told me the same thing: "we have to live together".
A couple of things.
I think Alon's broad point about Bluesky is spot on, though I'm not sure it's just elitist liberals who want to live in silos. Nor am I clear about what white elitist liberals even look and sound like. I'm an educated Canadian and I live in a nice house in central London. I look "white" to most people. But I am 100% Lebanese by blood, much of my father's family live in Lebanon, and the slaughter in Gaza - unconditionally supported by the Canadian and UK governments - has illustrated precisely how conditional the acceptance of people like me is in our society, whatever my liberal bona fides.
With that in mind, I'm kind of tired of how the "woke"/"snowflake" designation is routinely deployed for ideological reasons.
A few years back, when the singer-songwriter Lorde cancelled a concert in Israel after one of its routine blitzes in Gaza, some Israeli teens attempted to sue the concert promoter over their "trauma" about the cancellation. This was after scores of Palestinian children just like them were slaughtered. As in, dead.
Here in London, two years ago UK Lawyers for Israel - an organisation whose raison d'etre is to blockade the humanizing of Palestinians - had Palestinian children's art removed from the walls of Chelsea & Westminster Hospital because they claimed it made Jewish patients "uncomfortable."
Last week, in Ottawa, Canada, after a high school played an Arabic song called "Peace" at its Remembrance Day service, a local politician went berserk, claiming that a song in Arabic was "triggering" for Jewish students. She called for an immediate apology and disciplinary action. The school's principal has now issued a grovelling mea culpa.
So how is it that the people denouncing Israel's unspeakable orgy of violence - and the decimation of post-War multilateral institutions - are the wounded, self-marginalised folks flocking to the gated community of Bluesky? Meantime, a frisson of discomfort Jewish students might feel at the fantasy that Arabic constitutes a threat of violence requires urgent remedial measures according to the very folks sneering at woke, leftist liberals?
All that said, as I sat (wokely) weeping on the stairs of my house last week after I learned that my father's town in Lebanon had been flattened by Israel, my dog Paco squeezed next to me to give me some comfort. No pics for Instagram, but I couldn't have gotten through this without him
If you are living in the west Bay Area, you are living in a bubble of affluent, liberal leftists, intellectuals mostly highly educated/indoctrinated people. Not all of America is even close to that narrative. This has been proven by Trumps landslide, whatever his shortcomings may be. It shows flyover America’s disgust for the present administration and its narratives. Rural Americans in particular are fed up with wokeness and all that it entails. So this new social media may be exactly what you describe, I don’t know because I don’t do social media, but I would caution you from putting all Americans, or even a vast majority of Americans in the basket you are describing. Or from judging “white Americans” by those I have described above. I lived in the west bay for 20 years and worked for Hewlett Packard, so I know the people you are describing. They are not indicative of Americans or of American values even, but a small microcosm of elitists I would almost dare to say. Anyways, I just wanted to express my experience and impressions as a third generation Californian, who has lived all over California.
❤️
❤️
LOL whole foods of social media :) <3
The CIA has been there for a while now🤣 Frankly, I'm happy the shitlibs are leaving Twitter 🤷♀️ And it's unsurprising that they're ceding ground to the enemies. I'm on there trolling Anthony Blinken, CENTCOM, etc🤣 I love posting fuck Israel and free Palestine memes on their posts😈🤣 If the enemy gives you a powerful tool, turn it against them🤦♀️
“The Whole Foods of social media” 😂
Thank you for this, Alon 👏🏼 I just got to bluesky and haven’t done anything there other than look for twitter mutuals. I agree with what you’re saying! And yet, staying on twitter when the person who owns it is getting a regime job, it just seems like an obvious no. I’m not running bc I’m white, I’m running bc I’m Arab.
I totally understand. It can get toxic😢 And I'm also referring to the toxicity of the white people Alon is talking about. I call them shitlibs. MLK called them white moderates. I'm staying and fighting to get the truth out by trolling Anthony Blinken, CENTCOM, et al😈 If you wish to follow me on Blue Sky I'm fireytopaz. bsky.social
Palestine will be free! 🇵🇸✊💕
I love you🤗
Dear sweet Rasha, please don't be mistaken into thinking there are brands or platforms that are more or less government in this system. It is all government, all monitored, all manipulated. I don't argue with your sentiment, I just implore you to not relate actual political meaning to it
Yes, agreed! I have had that viewpoint for years, it’s all government monitoring and spying. What is the argument for staying on Elon’s site? It’s good for Gaza updates. But I had zero interaction bc I didn’t purchase a check mark, and it was just a way to stay in touch with about 3 people. I don’t need Elon for that.
Yes 🙏🏼👏🏼 I totally hear that. And it’s an excellent, necessary point.
And funnily enough I just checked twitter and saw some Arab accounts making similar points…and suggested that Bluesky is deleting Gaza accounts? If that’s the case I’ll stay and use both, for maximum government monitoring 😉
Yay🥳 I'm @fireytopaz there. You can troll Anthony Blinken et al with me🤣 I have some choice memes😈 I'm more than happy to share😁
I won't convince you to be on Twitter, my point is to expose the fallacy of the system and its deceptions, and how it guides us to fantasize about solutions which only get us stuck in place
I checked out Bluesky a year or two ago and at that time it seemed like a sanctuary for snowflakes. A preponderance of wounded, sensitive, self-marginalized, nonbinary, self-declared empaths.
Granted, a superficial and unkind impression.
You are saying important truths so very clearly and directly. Just please, Alon, don't knock cats! 😹 Animals console and recharge many of us who are not sure humans are gonna make it.
You're funny (like, really). And I love cats, but I don't do collective rituals, like the over-psyched cat-admiring cult
Cats, like most things, are better offline.
Karl Drinkwater first showed me bluesky and I joined but have not really used it. Now hearing that US liberals are going is not good news.