Monthly Archives: December 2022

Republicans are so rude

Rush Limbaugh, Republican media bully

We all know that many Republicans are fine with a violent, illegal insurrection against our government, as well as lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, graft and corruption by GOP leaders and minions. But what many of us have learned over the past few years is that Republicans can also be so damned rude.

In particular, there is a noticeable trend of Republican strangers who hit us with their political beliefs within minutes of meeting us, as well as acquaintances who do the same thing without knowing or asking about our political beliefs and values.

–It’s the Uber driver who, with a captive audience in his car, starts complaining about “Biden” being responsible for “these gas prices.”

–It’s the neighbor who says the problem is “the New York libs” without knowing or caring that the person they are speaking to may indeed be one.

–It’s the a service person who walks into your house, and within five minutes, starts denouncing our “corrupt government” with its “high taxes” and how it’s “disgusting” that “they’re gonna spend another $1.6 trillion on the pandemic.” Yes, all of these are real examples, and the last one just happened here this week.

Let’s mention the Toxic Bird Guy less

Replacing the bird with the Mastodon

This past month, social media platform users and just about everyone else who follows or uses media have witnessed a flurry of movement away from Twitter. So many people are folding their Twitter tents that the activity has been given various monikers, such as #TwitterMigration and #twexit. Messaging Matters is part of this migration, having moved over to the rapidly-growing Mastadon site @MessagingMatters@mstdn.social. The reason for numerous Twitter refugees, of course, is that upon Elon Musk‘s takeover of Twitter, he has systematically wrecked the place, and turned it into a right wing, conspiracy-embracing, Nazi-enabling propaganda network. Musk’s stated intentions of “free speech” have gone out the window, as folks who still post there (such as @joshuatopolsky@mastodon.online) are even reporting that “Twitter is now automatically marking links to mastodon as ‘sensitive’ (aka dangerous) and forcing users who get them to ‘appeal’ the claim.”

Twilight for Twitter, marveling at Mastodon

All eyes on the growing Mastodon platform

The fast-growing Mastodon platform

A month ago, we pondered “What should Democratic Twitter users do now that Elon Musk has taken over?” The three main choices seemed to be: Cut and Run, Stay and Fight, and Wait and See. We chose Wait and See. Well, we have waited and we have seen. What we’ve seen is that, in those few weeks, Musk has wrecked Twitter. Most troublesome is that Musk let banned Nazis and other extremists, including Donald Trump, back on the site. Some of these extremists reportedly have been banned for the past 10 years or so. At the same time, Musk got rid of thousands of Twitter content moderators who monitor hate speech, and is reportedly purging left-leaning accounts. Moreover, Musk himself posts one right wing, intolerant screed after another on his platform, even attacking alarmed advertisers who have paused their support of the site. The result is that, counter to Musk’s promises about a free exchange of ideas, Twitter is becoming another bubble of right wing hate and misinformation, similar to Parler and “Truth” Social. Therefore, Messaging Matters is checking out of Twitter.

So where did we end up? After setting up placeholder accounts at Tribel, Counter and Mastodon, we have joined millions of others on Mastodon. Our page can be found @MessagingMatters@mstdn.social. Thus far, the experience has been completely positive. Mastodon has surpassed eight million users, and is growing at the rate of 1.5 million new users per month. It is free of ads, and, better still, free of Nazis and other hate speech purveyors. The users have been polite, and even juvenile name-calling (of the type Musk keeps engaging in on Twitter) is noticeably absent.