this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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It would be interesting to know more about the additional users. The banning of Shitter in Brazil is very much tied to internal politics and AFAIK it might be the Brazilian equivalent to MAGA that is currently mass-migrating to Bluesky.
If so, this might be a bad thing for them, as they probably don't want to get perceived as the Brazilian truth.social.
actually, the opposite. The MAGA types are doing whatever they can to continue sucking on Elon's balls. It's journos and normies who are moving to Bluesky.
I would assume that since this whole thing is more or less a result of left-ish policy, and the opponent in the scenario is the far-right platform formerly known as Twitter, lead by the aspiring far-right icon Musk, the right-wingers would more likely opt to complain, cry several rivers and eventually turn to alternatives catered specifically for them (not even sure which ones are still alive after former tweetyplace took the crown) instead.
Haven’t done a vibe check on bluesky, but I assume it almost has to be more tolerant and potentially more progressive-ish than the old nazibirdhouse. If you lean towards the far right, why choose that, if alternatives exist?
Bluesky is explicitly promoting their system as "choose your own censorship" kind of deal, which in the way it is framed could look very attractive to right-wingers looking for an alternative platform. While this is technically also true for the Fediverse, it isn't promoted as such, and rather has a reputation for the opposite, as most fedi server admins are center-left leaning.
Bluesky might be also more left-leaning right now as obviously there is little reason for right-wingers elsewhere to switch away from Shitter to another (mostly) centralised platform, but given the overall low user numbers this could switch very quickly.
I guess we will have to see how this develops over time and get some answers from Brazilians that have a deeper understanding of the current social dynamics there.
Due to the language divide it might end up as two distinct social spheres, like Fedi's Japanese bubble, but that's a best case scenario for Bluesky I guess.
That's why I don't use it. I am not ok with bigots sharing my network. This is true whether I can see them or not. If they're welcome, then I won't be there.
Let me know when I can disconnect from spaces that host bigots rather than just hiding them
This reads like satire. These are people you're talking about, probably your fellow citizens. Their wrong opinions are not going to pollute you from the other side of a wall. Seeing (apparently sincere) takes like this really makes me worried about the future of democracy.
Let me clarify so I understand your position
I said why I don't use Bluesky. I didn't say it shouldn't exist, or that other people shouldn't use it. I didn't pass judgement on people who do use it, or suggest that their having a different opinion on how to deal with bigotry is an issue. I simply said why I don't use it
You then insisted that I am the problem with democracy, despite you being the person insisting that everyone has to do things your preferred way?
Do I understand your position correctly?
Sort of. Essentially I am saying that in a democracy we need to talk to each other, and sticking one's fingers in one's ears and chanting "lalalala I can't hear you" seems like a poor way to go about that. These people can vote too. Like it or not, you have an interest in understanding what makes them tick and what might help them to see the world in a way more conducive to you.
That doesn't happen on bluesky either though. The moderation approach on bluesky means that people can control who they see, and who can interact with them. So people can still remove bigots from their timeline.
I also take issue with your insistence that bigots have the right to be bigoted and spread hate, and that their targets are somehow in the wrong for not wanting to be exposed to that hate.
Assuming that "bigots" is not a synonym for "anyone I disagree with", then fair enough.
My underlying point is that technology is making it very easy to wall ourselves off into comfortable echo chambers. Some are even calling that "safety". From my understanding of history, this looks like an obviously slippery and dangerous slope to be on.
But if are talking about what most of your fellow citizens would also identify as "bigots", then fair enough.
Why would it be?
Your experience is different to mine. I wish I could wall myself off from people who want to remove my rights and target me with hate, but I've yet to find a way of doing that.
Well this is at least honest!
Perhaps it's a personality thing. Perhaps generational. Technically I'm a member of a minority community but I've never defined myself by that, and "hate" in the contemporary sense (I think its meaning has drifted unhelpfully) is not something that especially bothers me. My experience is that most people are well-meaning, so I tend to be intrigued by the question of why they think the things they do.
Anyway, this is not a debate with a single correct answer. It is of course your right to shut out whoever you want, I won't question that.
There are multiple governments, political parties and hate groups explicitly focused on taking away my rights and ensuring I can't exist safely and openly.
It's got nothing to do with personality. I'm exposed to a barrage of hateful media targeting folk like me every single day, and it's next to impossible to escape.
So finding spaces where I can just not have to deal with that shit is important
Brazilian MAGA = Most Bolsonaro supporters. Of course, there are some decent people who aren't 100% fanatic, but most of them would be the equivalent to those hat-wearers.
Even though I still don't understand those platforms, I had a look at the site. It seems like 80+ percent of the content is from Brazil or at least in Portugese.
If you enable and check nsfw content it is also 80+ percent dicks and furry content. One of the dick posts was a self declared "15y" which I promptly reported (a day later the posts & profile seem to be gone, presumably banned, which is good). You can mute hash tags of your choice, but then 90+ percent of the feed will be muted posts or those that did not get caught because they did not use hash tags. Muted users still show up in those feeds too, you have to properly block them to hide them but that is also incredibly tedious when it is basically all that there is.
A lot of posts also seem to just be weird spam, using the same odd list of hash tags that I can't make sense of (but maybe that's just weird local online trends there). I tried looking for various topics but could only find fringe posts & accounts, worse than even here. But that again might just come down to the fact that the majority of users seem to be from Brazil, so the English content is simply lacking on all fronts. You can specify languages in your profile, but I did not notice to what purpose when it still shows you all the non English stuff.
Aside from all that I once again couldn't figure out what to do, just like on Twitter back then or on Mastodon. I suppose those platforms and their hype will remain a mystery to me. But I can't help but wonder how people from Twitter who think about switching will react to this experience though...