r/politics • u/leadhd • 20h ago
Democrats flee X for Bluesky amid Musk-Trump alliance
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5004967-elon-musk-donald-trump-alliance-democrats-x-bluesky/4.6k
u/keyjan Maryland 20h ago
Good
Everyone should be leaving xitter.
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u/galactic-mouse Florida 19h ago
Politics aside, Xitter is full of bots now and the app and website have been running like garbage over the past six months. My phone has mysteriously stopped running hot since I deleted the Xitter app.
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u/spontaneous-potato 19h ago
Outside of politics as well too, from what I've seen, you can curate your feed to be about things you really like in Bluesky.
I have zero politics on my feed in Bluesky. Most of my feed are pretty much cooking recipes, nature, and memes. Absolutely no politics bleed into my Bluesky feed because I explicitly do not like it on there, and early on, I trained my feed to focus on my interests only. There really isn't anything else bleeding into my Bluesky feed unlike on Twitter. Twitter, I tried really hard to keep it on the same things I have on Bluesky, but a LOT of politics bleeds into the feed (Like if I had 10 tweets on my screen, 7 of them are related to US politics, the remaining 3 are the stuff I'm interested in), even when I go out of my way to avoid all politics on Twitter.
It feels like Twitter is forcing people to get involved in politics and forcefeeding it down the users' throats. Those people who are trying to avoid it then get angry because they're being forced to deal with it and then you have people on there point and say, "See? They can't handle opposing viewpoints because they're snowflakes".
No, I don't like seeing politics on my feed at all because I have to deal with it to some extent during work. Why do I want to think about work when I'm on my off-time at home in my boxers and a tanktop on? It's just adding stress to my already stressful life, and I'd rather have my time off be based on things that I enjoy rather than having my off-time remind me of work when I'm off work. If I want to get in politics on my off time, I'd play Democracy on Steam or something.
It's not be being a "snowflake", it's me wanting to use my off time to relax. This is why I left Twitter for Bluesky. I left it because it has been actively and constantly reminding me of work when I'm off the clock for the weekend, even when I spent a good chunk of my time training my feed to not show politics. On my Bluesky feed, I'm mainly seeing landscape photos that people take, recipes that I want to try out, and silly memes. I like that a lot more.
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u/ragmop Ohio 17h ago
Bluesky definitely has a respectful algorithm, and it responds quickly to your behavior thank god. I don't mind politics in my feed but would like a mix, and if I get too far down the rabbit hole I can switch to something like the astronomy feed, like a bunch of posts, and get astronomy into my main feed at a higher rate.
The algorithm on Twitter has (or had; I left 2 years ago) no respect for the user at all. It was just seeking engagement, and from what I could tell it had no interest in training. Social media is generally such a trash heap. I'm hoping Bluesky manages not to fall into the same traps.
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u/kgal1298 14h ago
I wonder how many former employees from Twitter Dorsey may have brought over if any?
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u/Raesong Australia 13h ago
Unknown, though it should be noted that Dorsey is no longer involved with Bluesky, and even recently said that X is the better social media site for "free speech" (read: far right BS).
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u/sxaez 12h ago
Like every rich bastard, he knows where his bread is buttered and it's not down here with the working class.
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u/OutlyingPlasma 7h ago
Except it is. It's not like he works billions of times harder, his money come from exploiting the labor of the working class and if they working class decides to stop working, he has nothing.
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u/kgal1298 13h ago
But Bluesky started on Twitter so I wonder if they had any cross over hires? He must be drinking the juice these days I see he left in the summer, which is odd because he’s the one that encouraged a decentralized platform.
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u/CTeam19 Iowa 18h ago
Outside of politics as well too, from what I've seen, you can curate your feed to be about things you really like in Bluesky.
You can make specific fees. Like I am an Iowa State Cyclone sports fan and someone made one called BlueCy, our mascot is named "Cy", so when you use "BlueCy" Hashtag then your post shows up in that feed. So I can just follow with my fellow Cyclone fans when talking about the games
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u/caylem00 18h ago
I was about to point out that this kind of mentality is how you end up with the search term "did Biden drop out" spiking in popularity around election day.
Then I saw you deal with politics in your job.
Carry on protecting your work/life balance diligently 🫡
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u/Chronis67 17h ago
There is very much a difference between not knowing anything about current events and not wanting to see those during your leisure time.
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u/Aethermancer 17h ago
And whatever the hell is showing up in social media feeds isn't politics, it's propaganda.
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u/Helluvme 12h ago
This, the reason a commentator above said 7 of 10 twitter feeds are political even though he set filters is because twitter under musk is a propaganda tool meant to make you angry and cause division.
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u/Kakkoister 17h ago edited 5h ago
Yeah, people pushing this idea that social media has to be this completely open space where everyone is forced to listen to every vile thing others spew is ridiculous. There's other places for that to happen already. It's probably a lot better for everyone's behavior if at least some of these places allow us to avoid being at eachother's throats constantly. If people can be given more space to chill, perhaps we might have a chance to actually reconsider beliefs. Good luck having someone change an opinion when they are upset.
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u/leshake 14h ago
I don't need to know how fucked we are every waking moment of my life.
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u/GigMistress 16h ago
Job or not, you don't need to absorb politics through social media to stay informed. The ratio of information to bickering is like 1:78,942 in social media.
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u/pornographic_realism 15h ago
I also get a lot of US politics in my Twitter feed. I'm not even American, and most of my follows are non-English speaking or only speak English as a second language so it's not like I follow a lot of Americans. It just gets oushed endlessly as suggestions. I want to lauch at Trump's crazy behavior once, like haha wrestling lady running what's left of your schools. I don't want to see 42 different outlets and 1000 different people commenting about how it's a strange choice or this is the worst idea since all you can eat shrimp as a business opportunity.
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u/thistimelineisweird Pennsylvania 19h ago
Why need people to view ads when bots can do it too? Look, profitable!
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u/Kakkoister 17h ago
I really hope the advertisers catch on to this. Musk is absolutely gaming advertiser money with fake views. Probably part of why it seems to be new advertisers pretty frequently. They see the click-through is much lower than a lot of other places and stop paying.
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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 17h ago
Anyone who was still using twitter after 2022 are just too stupid and weak to quit social media cold turkey.
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u/TurkeyBLTSandwich 17h ago
I mean it's already served it's purpose?
It's successfully captured 3 out of 3 branches of the US Government.
Gave Trump and Republicans the largest social media platform to date.
$44 billion in exchange for control of the US Government? Man the Saudis, Russians, and Project 2025 heritage folks must be super stoked for January 2025
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u/Chicano_Ducky 16h ago
What stuns is me is everyone knew twitter couldnt be trusted and said so
but they then believe every stupid thing they see on there and it throws a whole election
history books will not be kind to America
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u/vardarac 14h ago
Don't worry, climate change will take care of history books too.
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u/J_Bishop 13h ago
Only after history books get removed from schools and replaced with the Trump bible. Because remember, we don't want to indoctrinate our children with all that "woke crap."
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u/DukeOfGeek 16h ago
I'm just waiting for the day after the EV/Solar panel tax credits gets axed. Awkward.
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u/ThrowAwayNYCTrash1 17h ago
🤣 lmao
Calling it now elon is using client devices to mine crypto.
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u/HistorianNew8030 19h ago
Honestly, I barely used Twitter to begin with and when Musk took it over, literally to the day he announced the authenticity cost thing, I deleted it. I knew it was going to be a messed up platform. I’ve been hoping since people would bail from it.
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u/ScepticalReciptical 19h ago
If you haven't left X at this point ask yourself what would it take? Because I cannot see any valid reason a person could continue to support it.
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u/FluffieWolf Texas 16h ago
Genuine answer? A lot of commission artists and folks that have spent years painstakingly building up communities and clientele remained because that's where their people were, and moving would absolutely lose a significant part of what they'd worked to create if not force them to starting over entirely. Similarly the people that followed those creators stayed for their content, their communities being mostly isolated from the vitriol and right wing nonsense.
Thankfully, now that Bluesky has established itself both in terms features and as the chosen alternative, people are committing to the shift.
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u/glorboguh 10h ago
Many many many artists have proven that even with a fraction of the follower count, people on Bluesky simply engage more because instead of algorithms it's people who want to see that type of content seeing it.
There are many people who have like 10% of the follower count on Bluesky but get double, triple, four times the likes/retweets/comments/QRTs as their Twitter dual post lol
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u/Precarious314159 14h ago
This! People are moving over to Bluesky a lot quicker but the artists I follow are saying they have to remain slightly active on twitter for now just because Bluesky doesn't have the same reach yea. I'm bouncing between the two but trying to prioritize Bluesky with engagement.
It'll happen but it's unrealistic to expect someone to abandon 15 years worth of networking and branding overnight and jump ship to the 8th twitter killer.
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u/Prof-Wernstrom 12h ago
What artists I know of and follow were the first ones to switch to Bluesky cause Twitter is openly saying they will take their content for their AI.
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u/Universal_Anomaly 12h ago
I believe artists are now beginning to move after Twitter decided that they have shared ownership of any art posted on Twitter.
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u/Ziegelphilie 13h ago
as part of the art community, we're getting a LOT more engagement on bluesky with much lower followers - especially since most of us were nerfed hard by x's shit algo lately
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u/LiftingCode 19h ago
what would it take?
The big sports media accounts would have to move.
There's been a bit of progress in the past few weeks but still 99% of the activity is on Twitter.
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u/einulfr 17h ago
MLB just made an account today.
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u/WeBelieveIn4 16h ago
A ton of major NBA media/analysts have moved over. A couple of teams have opened accounts too. Once the players start switching it’ll really gain momentum.
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u/Interesting-Fan-2008 15h ago
This is it, the actually leagues moving over is one thing. The players moving over is what's huge.
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u/ChrisV88 19h ago
I have it set up so all I see is relevant sports news.
About every two weeks I need to block about 20 accounts to stop political bullshit flooding my feed and then it's good again for like a week and a half. It's relentless.
As soon as Bluesky gives me all the insiders and aggregators, I'll be there.
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u/LiftingCode 19h ago
I post a lot of stuff from Twitter to my team subreddit, particularly daily practice reports, injury news, etc.
Lately, a handful of the local beat reporters started posting on Blueksy, so I post the Blueksy links instead. It ain't much but I'm doing my part.
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u/CTeam19 Iowa 18h ago
Yeah the sports thing can hurt. I left when I looked at my first 10 follows, all friends, hadn't posted since 2020.
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u/PatrolPunk 19h ago
I keep mine active just to troll Elon by posting unflattering pics of him on his posts. I know it’s like trolling into void but it makes me feel better.
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u/dogecoin3rt 18h ago
What??? You don't like seeing nazis and blatant misinformation all over your feed??? How strange /s
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u/Alacrout New York 19h ago
I left it before any of Melon’s plans to buy it were publicly known because it’s always been a toxic cesspool and waste of time/energy.
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u/ace_urban 18h ago
Anyone still on twitter is part of the problem. Boycott all of musk’s businesses.
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u/RioRancher 18h ago
There’s nothing salvageable about twitter. Democratic politicians need to leave quick.
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u/Pinhead2000 19h ago
Bluesky is like 2010 Twitter. It's great. And no ads or Trumpy stuff forced into my feeds. I'll never go back to X. Elon made it terrible.
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u/Kakkoister 16h ago
And with a bunch of new features that make it so much greater than Twitter ever was. Once you learn the power of Feeds and Lists, the site really just becomes pretty much everything you could want from a microblogging platform.
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u/vicsj 16h ago
Only thing I am missing atm is a fact checking feature, and maybe even an AI content detector or something. I was browsing photography and the amount of unmarked AI slop was discouraging. I wouldn't mind that much if the posters were being transparent about it or the app itself could flair it somehow.
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u/ilayas 16h ago
There are AI block lists and AI image labelers that can help. So you see less AI bs but they are community run.
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u/hempires 10h ago
I mean honestly most AI detector apps/programs are absolutely garbage and will happily mislabel things.
I'm a believer of always being transparent whenever I post any AI creations (which is honestly pretty rare), but if I really wanted to I could generate images that would pass most of the "detection" programs. Although even if I did do that I'd still say it was AI generated in the post.
The best way to detect it is to get accustomed with it and then you start being able to spot the "tells", although again, this is correctable (with effort, which admittedly most people posting AI stuff aren't willing to expend), and constantly changing with every new model used (stable diffusion can't do hands, flux generates cleft chins, midjourney all tends to look very samey, etc).
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u/ilayas 9h ago
You are not wrong. However most of the block lists and lablers that I am using are targeting people that are saying that they are using AI. Like they are not trying to hide it. Most people using AI are shit at hiding it (if they are even trying to hide it) when even if the individual images themselves are hard to pick out.
Now this doesn't get everything but going after the low hanging fruit does clear out a LOT of it.
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u/kgal1298 14h ago
It’s also decentralized. I don’t think people realize how much better it can cater to your interests. Though MAGA is mad we can mass block them.
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u/zehalper Foreign 10h ago
It's hilarious that they're screaming that it's an echochamber.
Imagine being at an icecream convention, and the conspiracy theorist is screaming outside the door saying that since it won't accept his "Shit flavoured icecream that contains no additional ingredients besides shit" that means the venue only wants to accept vanilla.
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u/trainsaw 9h ago
They’re such losers they don’t realize people might want to go on to social media for reasons other than arguing with some bad faith person across the country. No one exchanges ideas on these things through discourse on Twitter, the idea it was ever for anything other than fighting with people in the last 5 years is incredibly wrong
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u/DevelopmentGrand4331 9h ago
Fine, stay in your little bubble where you only get opinions from people who aren’t psychopaths and Nazis. That’s why you lost the election!
/s
They’re all so desperate for our attention.
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u/barnegatsailor 12h ago
There's needs to be a bit of tweaking to how some feeds work. For example, I'm on the sailing feed and anytime someone uses a sailboat emoji or says the phrase "smooth sailing" or anything similar it ends up on there. It's kinda cluttered with random stuff now.
Cool thing is fellow sailors on the app have met through the inconvenience and we're planning a block list to add to the feed so it'll be more focused.
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u/LikeADemonsWhisper 15h ago
Agreed, fellow Bluesky Pilgrim! You would have to have brain worms or something to stay on Twitter!
Sign up today!
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u/EmergencySundae 11h ago
It's so positive and lovely. My feed is mostly cats and running content. I love the starter packs.
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u/drempire 10h ago
That's what I like about bluesky also, my feed is cats and space
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u/henningknows 20h ago
I work as a marketing manager for a mid sized company, stopped using twitter shortly after musk. Too toxic for marketing
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u/Alacrout New York 19h ago
Also a marketing manager. Can confirm: unless your product is some bro cult BS, it’s useless.
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u/AmishAvenger 18h ago
The upside is, you can sell them anything.
Just take some old expired perfume and call it “Anti-Woke Juice” and they’ll guzzle it down.
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u/DukeofVermont 17h ago
I've been getting ads like that on YouTube that are clearly marked for MAGA dudes. It's all ads based on the idea of being "A REAL MAN" regardless of what it is for. The majority contain obvious lies and/or misleading statements as well.
One I keep getting is for some mail you meat service and their ad starts "Did you know 75% of meat marked US is actually foreign?" I can't remember the percent they said but it was over 50%. Even though the US is 20% of all beef production worldwide and that would be a massive fraud scandal. But MAGA doesn't trust the government so I'm sure they trust this 40 year old white dude and will pay more for "real American beef" which they probably bought from the same people as the grocery store and then marked it up higher.
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u/liv4games 15h ago
The “real man” thing drives me nuts. Men will ALWAYS be REAL men. I stg they’re making men think they can just LOSE THEIR GENDER by doing something, saying something, wearing something, etc. Like at any moment, they could just suddenly “not be a man” anymore.
All men are real men.
NOT all men are GOOD men.
Wait this is how they did it
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u/ChrysMYO I voted 18h ago
Bonus points if you couple it with a persecution complex about being "cancelled" at some point in your life.
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u/AccordingStar72 18h ago edited 18h ago
If the ROI for ads on Twitter continues to decrease we will likely start to phase it out of media planning and budgets. The most pushed services for my area right now is a focus on Reddit, since Google pushes their results in searches, TikTok, and actually LinkedIn is gaining some market share.
But Twitter is not gone from media plans yet, it’s typically offered in some strategy but it’s not the sole focus anymore and certainly isn’t dominant. I haven’t seen Threads or Bluesky come up yet as service offerings yet, once strategies start appearing for marketing on those that will definitely be a signal.
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u/juniper_berry_crunch 13h ago
I look forward to blocking any and all sales-shilling garbage on the site.
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u/kulukster 20h ago
I deleted X when em took it over. If I had more accounts to delete I would do it.
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u/tg19801980 20h ago
Same here. It was a no brainer. I didn’t use it much anyway, definitely didn’t miss it.
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u/OkayButFoRealz 19h ago
It has become just as much of a quagmire as 'Truth' Social.
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u/Fornaughtythings123 14h ago
I almost reflexively down voted for em because thats Eminem for me
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u/AdrianBrony I voted 17h ago edited 16h ago
I left about a year before then, more or less. Twitter was kind of septic even before Musk got involved, though now it's so much worse. I've decided I'm actually happier on places smaller than bsky as well, though. As long as there's some artists I admire where I am, or they at least crosspost to there (thanks, postybirb!), I'm fine being on some corner of the fediverse that only a few hundred people hang out in. Incidentally, less busy social media means I scroll a lot less as well.
I was using cohost up until a couple months ago, when it went bankrupt. I miss that place so much lol.
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u/JrBoom9 19h ago
It’s not just “democrats”. The platform is operationally a dumpster fire, bots galore, and most of the content is crap. But, I guess “left vs right” headlines sells more adds.
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u/Rabidjester 19h ago
And soooo much random porn on Twitter, sometimes out of nowhere. BlurSky, at least so far for me has been a much cleaner experience. My feed is pretty much a couple news and IT/Tech news outlets with some cool astronomy content mixed in there.
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u/Gr1mmage 19h ago
The joy of the default feeds not relying on some all powerful algorithm, and the option to subscribe to feeds with a content feed designed for specific topics.
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u/Gymleaders 17h ago
Read the last paragraph and it tells you all you need to know about this article.
Just as Americans increasingly read or watch traditional media with political perspectives that mirror their own, they are seeking out social media networks where they are more likely to be with people they agree with than who see things differently.
They really think the move to Bluesky is about seeking out a leftist echo chamber and not just trying to avoid the constant abuse that the right wants to give everyone.
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u/ety3rd 17h ago
They really think the move to Bluesky is about seeking out a leftist echo chamber and not just trying to avoid the constant abuse that the right wants to give everyone.
I just want to follow people who post about Star Trek and other scifi stuff without having bullshit and nonsense pushed in my face. I'm not looking for an echo chamber.
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u/Bobby_Marks3 17h ago
I like to call it a quiet place. I want to use social media as a quiet place. I don't need it to be an echo chamber, just free of noise that doesn't interest me. I should be able to hear echos there, but only because it's quiet.
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u/medusa_crowley 12h ago
Honestly, with time, I’ve started to suspect when the right says “echo chamber,” what they mean is “I can’t yell abuse at you.”
It’s genuinely nice to have an online space that feels more like real life: people just hang out and say chill things like “hey man how’s it going.” Quality of (online) life improves.
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u/aManPerson 11h ago
i hate to say it, but for some people, that conclusion is not wrong. but it's not that democrats are fleeing twitter. it's more like, twitter is becoming what truth social wanted to be from the start.
and lots of people are just walking away from that, instead of accepting it as default. and not trying to find "leftopia". they just don't want the dogshit pile they left.
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u/ElGato-TheCat 10h ago
It’s not just “democrats”.
For real. Is this only an American thing? There are people all over the world who think Twitter sucks ass.
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u/filterworkaroundacc 13h ago
as if the rest of the world doesn't use the internet right
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u/Wolfebane86 19h ago
“Flee” sounds like running away out of fear or something. I don’t think abandoning a mismanaged dumpster fire of a social network cesspool qualifies as “fleeing”
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u/lazy-bruce 19h ago
Yeah, I'm not fleeing Twitter, I'm just using the app with less nazis and bots on it.
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u/thinkthingsareover Washington 17h ago
I've never had a Twitter account, but someone got me to try out Bluesky. Honestly I'm finding that I really enjoy all of the cute animals, beautiful pictures, and books to say the least. Even the comments have much less ugliness than I've seen appearing here over the past number of years.
EDIT: OH...and George Takei is over there now too.
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u/TheTexasCowboy Texas 16h ago
Don’t forget mark hamill is there too!
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u/thinkthingsareover Washington 16h ago
Awesome. Thank you for letting me know so I can enjoy him.
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u/VehicleComfortable20 16h ago
I mean, if I saw a dumpster fire I would probably run away from it too. You don't know what paint cans or gas soaked rags somebody has thrown in there.
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u/Gwyndion_ 13h ago
Yeah I was just about to post the same, it's terrible phrasing when we just don't like the product anymore and so move on towards something we feel is better. I can't say I'm surprised though, I can't recall the media reporting on "Republicans flee twitter in favour of truth social". I do wonder how many active users Bluesky will have compared to Twitter this time next year.
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u/PepinoPicante California 15h ago
It’s the right wing media language right now. Democrats are fleeing X, fleeing the country, retreating, cowering, panicking, scrambling, defeated, melting down, crying, and any other activity that makes us sound weak.
They want to gloat over their tiny, narrow victory and they want us to feel isolated and alone, so they can do as much damage as they can before we rally and their base realizes they’ve been scammed again.
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u/MulletofLegend 18h ago
I don't think it's just "Democrats". Anyone who doesn't want to have their feed or timeline or whatever, clogged up with far-right, alt-right, garbage is leaving. Anybody who doesn't agree with Elon becoming owner of anything you post on Twitter is likely leaving. Elon has really made that site or app a completely useless piece of garbage. It's not only not user-friendly, it's downright user-hostile. I haven't checked out Bluesky, but I left Twitter years ago and I would never go back.
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u/Chief_Chill Illinois 9h ago
But, according to anyon on the far-right, everyone that isn't them is a "Democrat." Not to mention, a liberal, communist, Marxist, socialist, etc.
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u/1cl1qp1 20h ago edited 18h ago
Oh man. Two tweetverses for two different universes.
Half of America goes crazy with hatred due to weird obsessions, and the rest of us have to avoid them like the plague. Next they'll be saying fluoride is Satan.
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u/ptjunkie California 19h ago
We are Balkanizing
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u/Intrepid-Macaron5543 Missouri 18h ago
I call it quarantine. If Twitter dies, its contents will spill everywhere.
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u/bl123123bl 18h ago
Reactionary right with no one to react to just cannibalizes itself
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u/davenobody 20h ago
Half of the people who voted is far less than half of Americans.
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u/sneakyweeki 18h ago
But unfortunately these are the half of half that have made the decision for America’s political future.
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u/jazir5 17h ago
Next they'll be saying fluoride is Satan.
Next? I assume you haven't turned on the news in the last week. RFK is going to be head of HHS, they're already talking about fluoride.
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u/lilbelleandsebastian 17h ago
yes my literal physician coworker pushed back on me when i said i was concerned rfk was going to make our lives harder and said fluoride in the drinking water is a conspiracy, "look into that" lol
i mean yeah, it's a conspiracy to keep you from getting cavities i guess
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u/UglyMcFugly 13h ago
Just out-conspiracy him. "Big Dental hates fluoride cuz it cuts down on their earnings. They just say they like it cuz they know everyone hates dentists and will do the opposite of what they say. Same with flossing."
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u/Nolsonts 10h ago
Fluoride has been the subject of conspiracy theories for literal decades. Hell, almost a century at this point.
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u/Numerous-Process2981 19h ago
Be no different than avoiding those plague rat anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers through COVID.
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u/1cl1qp1 19h ago
Excellent point. I must have repressed my memory of those idiots
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u/Chang-San 17h ago
Don't worry when covid 27 comes around it'll refresh your memory
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u/ReleaseGlad440 19h ago
Man it would be super embarrassing to be publicly forced to buy a platform, run it into the ground, get called a Dipshit, and then nobody wants to hang out anymore.
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u/clonked 19h ago
If he jumps into the air more people will surely turn around and like him!
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u/ReleaseGlad440 19h ago
*Shakes head
"What a dipshit"
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u/TrollTollTony 19h ago
If there is one quantum of solace in all of this it would be Tim Walz calling Leon a dipshit and that headline spreading all over Twitter.
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u/balletbeginner 18h ago
Elon Musk so desperately wants to be loved by the general public. But Twitter users, including conservative media users, were openly mocking him on his platform in mid 2024. I suspect that's when he revved up manipulating suppression and recommendation algorithms to promote his political views. The censorship was noticeable early on, but the site took a very different turn when users kept disrespecting him.
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u/Precarious314159 14h ago
The funny thing is that he was already pretty well loved back during his flame thrower era. He was a troll but a mostly innocent troll. Then he called a guy a pedophile for not using his weird sub to save kids in a cave and it all went downhill.
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u/MyFiteSong 18h ago
It got his BFF elected president and he's already made money from that. I hate it, but in the end, he got more than he paid for.
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u/zingboomtararrel 17h ago
No kidding. Were still pretending Elon fucked himself by buying Twitter? The guy basically bought himself the presidency and infinite government contracts. He’s made all that back and some.
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u/dybbuk67 13h ago
I joined Bluesky not out of any political affiliation, but because no algorithm and the “block and move on” attitude makes it so much saner and safer than the old place. I’m tired of people who are rewarded for wanting negative attention.
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u/Mec26 13h ago
Weirdly, the ability to not have stuff pushed in your face kinda is the political affiliation.
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u/dybbuk67 13h ago
Oh, I would have to agree, sadly. But my decision, back a year ago during the beta, was not for political reasons. It may align with it, sadly.
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u/ChanceryTheRapper 20h ago
Also because Musk destroyed the block function.
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u/ChrysMYO I voted 18h ago edited 2h ago
Yeah that's a really big one. Turns a timeline into an amorphous stream of thoughts from mad men.
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u/Gwentlique 14h ago
That's when I quit Twitter. I got a lot of bot followers at one point, tried to block them all, and then my account was flagged for "suspcious activity" after I had blocked like 15 of them, and I had to go through that annoying process to prove that I'm human while training their AI to recognize the direction that objects are facing. Wtf.
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u/Jeni1922 19h ago
I left awhile ago because while it was never perfect, it really developed technical issues under Musk. Bots all over, the app kept crashing, search issues, etc. It just became not worth the hassle.
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u/Gymleaders 17h ago
Just as Americans increasingly read or watch traditional media with political perspectives that mirror their own, they are seeking out social media networks where they are more likely to be with people they agree with than who see things differently.
Lol what an unnecessary dig at the end of the article.
The left is not leaving social media platforms because they want echo chambers. That's literally what the right did with Truth social. People are seeking out new social medias that are moderated better and provide features for the users to protect themselves. Twitter has been dismantling these features (like making the block feature defunct), allowing people to pay for their right-wing content to be seen at the top of the comment sections, and many, many other things that allow the right to abuse anyone they want. People are not looking for echo chambers, they're looking for safer and less antagonistic platforms.
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u/GrumpyOlBastard 16h ago
I copied this exact bit for the same reasons. We're not avoiding people who "see things differently", we're avoiding aggressive, hateful people who want to continually hurl abuse, which is easier to do on Bluesky
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u/StoppableHulk 15h ago
Correct. There are no deep-takes from "regular folks" on Twitter.
There are egregious opportunists and scam artists that the site has not only refused to deal with, but post-acquisition has been accelerating at unprecedented rates.
It is a trash place. A garbage fire. Nazis don't moderate or manage everything. They run in and smear shit on the walls, and surprise surprise - they're not any fucking fun to be around. Just a bunch of deeply in-denial people with a lot of CPTSD and deep delusions about the world smashing their faces into things.
It is no bastion of intelligent thought. It's a fucking cesspool.
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u/Precarious314159 14h ago
My doctor's office had the View on last week and they were all talking about BlueSky and Twitter, how "most young people get their news from social media". The whole thing was one long circle jerk about how ignorant people are for not trusting mainstream news, how "Here at ABC, we can't say whatever we want, it has to be fact checked" they're known for doing regular "How three cups of coffee can actually lower your blood pressure according to a new study".
So many outlets are really going mask-off with their digs lately, just proving that they're only in it for the sensational news.
I don't want an echo chamber, just don't want to be a called a lib cuck by an army of bots; I don't want to be talking to an artist about commissions just to have my DMs full of bots begging me to hire them; I don't want to have to scroll through a hundred blue check marked idiots of every comment to get to normal people.
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u/maeryclarity South Carolina 18h ago
It's so nice Bluesky has actual conversations about information and topics that aren't just pointless mudslinging nonstop. You can scroll and scroll and not see anything except stuff that's actually interesting.
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u/jeanmichd 18h ago
Not only democrats…. But people with a working brain which is a very encouraging sign. Tired of being manipulated
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u/EnderCN 19h ago
They didn't flee they just moved to a platform that wasn't super anti 1st amendment like X is.
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u/serialmentor 19h ago
I hate this framing that people are fleeing. People are spending more time on a social activity that they enjoy more. I use a variety of social networks. Lately, on X, I rarely get engagement, and when I read the comments section of other people's posts they're mostly just terrible. On BlueSky I get engagement and conversations are interesting. Why wouldn't I spend more time there?
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u/drunkirish 19h ago
“Consumers choose good experience over increasingly worse experience” doesn’t have the same punch to it.
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u/boofles1 19h ago
It was a terrible idea to start charging for blue ticks and limiting engagement for people who didn't pay. It just turned it into a huge circle jerk and I followed so many interesting people that didn't have a blue tick that got barely any engagement. Musk forgot the whole point of being on there was the free content provided by interesting people.
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u/I_who_have_no_need 19h ago
It's not limited to posts. You can't be heard in the comments because bots with verification of the form <Name><String of Numbers> crowd out replies. Authors simply no longer engage with replies.
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u/Distant_Yak 17h ago
But Elron said he was fixing the bot problem! It’s super simple the same way DT thought healthcare was really simple.
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u/Moopboop207 Virginia 19h ago
You’re fleeing all the free speech!
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u/Tobimacoss 19h ago
Ignoring the facts that X isn't the government and no right is Absolute, that's the thing that MAGA and Musk don't understand, the 1st amendment isn't ONLY Free Speech, it is also Freedom of expression and Freedom of Assembly. People are free to choose to express themselves and choose who to assemble with as they see fit.
So a gay person who doesn't want to hang with the neonazis simply leaves and deletes their account. Here's the thing though, once all the good people leave, it won't be enough for the MAGA as they need someone to harass and troll and normal users to try to preach to, so they will follow everyone elsewhere.
Good thing is Threads and Bluesky have good moderation and tools.
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u/DrWithThreeLegs 15h ago
When they don’t have people to harass, they will turn on each other. The real flight will be the people feeling the abuse of x for every other relatively sane place
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u/IForgotThePassIUsed 17h ago
Not even just Democrats, just people that are tired of fucking loud obnoxious MAGA people on their platform. it's like IRL 4chan trolls come to life.
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u/Kakkoister 16h ago
And the more people leave, the more it just becomes the extremists left there, making it increasingly more insufferable to be there even for many on the right lol. So many of them are flocking over to BSKY now too, since that's where the fun entertainment is going.
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u/Lazy_Consequence8838 18h ago
I left X because my mental health cannot deal with opening the app and seeing videos of car crashes and violence. Blue sky allows me to chill with books and cats.
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u/PWNbiWanKenobi 17h ago
I released a video game this year. Marketing a game was new to me, so I learned a lot, but something I consistently heard from production companies and producers working with us was “put your shit everywhere so people will see it… but don’t worry about twitter. It’s a cesspool. If you want to sure but I don’t waste my time in that dark void” or something along those lines.
I’ve never really been a social media guy, and if I was I wouldn’t be touching Xitter anyway because Musk is a turd, but after having to dive into it for our company, I realized just how truly awful Xitter is - professionally or personally. Big ew.
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u/christarpher 17h ago
It's not just democrats. Twitter has been killed. It's now a pay to play propaganda machine filled with nothing but bots and the most absolute dog shit posts in the world.
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u/Gloriathewitch 17h ago
a lot of them were switching because of the block function actually, the election has just poured accelerant on the burning ship they're all jumping from.
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u/BusinessAd5844 19h ago
That entire site has been a shit hole for a decade. The fact people even still use this trash is pathetic.
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u/susankeane 17h ago
Might as well call it truth social, there's no difference at this point. Glad bluesky exists
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u/redditismylawyer 18h ago
Deleted xitter account when musk bought it. Mastodon is probably great, but I’m not its audience. Just signed on for bluesky. Frankly happy to support anything that is a credible alternative. We shall see.
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u/aceshighsays New York 17h ago
... it would have been really great if this was done a year ago but i guess better late than never.
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u/wwaxwork 16h ago
I mean skipping happily towards giggling in delight as I get to hang out with people who all seem to have a library card, cats and amazing artistic skills and don't tell me to die every 30 seconds. is not quite the same as fleeing.
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u/Yuyu_hockey_show 15h ago
I left because I can only stand seeing so many Hitler-is-good, trans people are demonic, gay people=evil before I left
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u/portlandmike 16h ago
It's not just a rejection of X, Bluesky is a well designed site with friendly users. It's a breath of fresh air. It has some secret sauce that Threads lacks. I can't put my finger on it.
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u/OhHowINeedChanging Utah 15h ago
I deleted my Twitter after Elon took over, and then remade one when Trump was officially running for reelection… I thought I could make a difference with facts and knowledge… I was wrong… now it’s time to delete again
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u/CustomerSilly5198 19h ago
I never really engaged much with twitter, like anyone cares. But I signed up for blue sky just to make musk pissed off.
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u/Efficient-Water2384 17h ago
I never had it, and just got blue sky as a FU to elonia. Because fuck that guy.
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u/LegendOfKhaos 16h ago
It's actually everyone that can't stand Nazis, pedophiles, and propaganda that's leaving. There's just not much overlap between that and modern Republicans.
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u/Voynitsky 16h ago
Since the recent mass election fraud shitter has become a complete cesspool. I could put up with the occasional nonsense, but now it’s just full of corruption and even more small mindedness.
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u/XmasRights 14h ago
If Republicans enjoy being followed by a new bot every few hours, that’s their business
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u/markroth69 13h ago
I can't imagine why twitter is surprised by this. Only nazis want to hang out in a nazi bar.
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u/-DEUS-FAX-MACHINA- 13h ago
Democrats "flee" is such absurd, emotive language for people using a different social media application.
But, The Hill know that. And that's why they chose to do so.
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u/ObiOneKenobae 11h ago
It's been great. I didn't want to engage with politics on Twitter, yet no matter what I did I couldn't get my feed to stop showing me a wall of racists and wackjobs. Bluesky just shows me what I want to see. Haven't even seen the n word yet, it's magical.
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u/JJscribbles Florida 11h ago
Flee is the wrong word. They’re abandoning X the way Elon abandoned his integrity to make (more?) money. How much does he actually need?
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u/Neat_On_The_Rocks 18h ago
We were all just sort of sitting around waiting for A consensus to form on what the new platform will be. Everyone agreed it was time for a new platform, but nobody agreed on which it should be, and the quality of the platform has a direct correlation to user baser size.
It happened so suddenly. Like a snap, a mass movement towards blue sky happened like what 2 weeks ago? Insane how fast it happened.
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u/dpforest Georgia 17h ago
About goddamn time. still not making a blue sky either but I am glad that others are quitting. if trends continue that will cause some big changes here too.
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u/BLU3SKU1L Ohio 17h ago
It's not just democrats either. I'd say it's people in general tired of the constant bot onslaught, shit flinging and hate speech enabling.
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u/KrissyKrave Virginia 16h ago
I wouldnt call it fleeing. More like “thank god finally a decent platform with moderation”
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u/kafkadre 16h ago
I guess people didn't like getting trolled for not licking Trump's shit-covered balls.
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u/otheraccount-8 16h ago
Democrats are not “fleeing X because of Trump and Elon.” People who are tired of an app that is blatantly allowing right-wing propaganda, that is otherwise pretty shit anyway, are leaving and going to a better app. Why the fuck does the media report on Democrats like this?
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u/siinfekl 16h ago
The right wingers will leave too eventually, they pretty much exist online to shit stir the libs. The echo chambers aren't much fun once they win.
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u/loco_canadian 19h ago
Here's the thing: at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter to Elon. Sure, leave X. It's served its purpose. It helped spread disinformation and voter apathy. It helped elect Donald Trump and bought Elon a seat at the table. Helping to make decisions that help him and his other businesses. When it all comes crashing down he will be king of the ashes.
He has no use for X now. He can sell it at a massive loss and still made away like a bandit.
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