As Bluesky Kicks Its Ass, Twitter Grabs Your Tax Money
In completely understandable news, I just saw an article stating that Bluesky is slowly taking over the “research hub” space from Twitter. I forget where I saw it and won’t hunt for it, because this is Medium, but trust me, I did see it. Upshot: Anyone who’s serious about their research profession can no longer use Twitter alone if they want to build a social media platform.
Anecdotally, I’m starting to see more celebrities spending a lot if not most of their time on Bluesky, Mark Cuban for one. About time, celebrities; you guys all said you’d leave Twitter if Elon Musk bought it, similar to how you said you’d leave America if Trump got elected. Twice. And yet, you persist.
The thing that’s dumb about both Bluesky and Twitter is that they charge subscription fees for creating normal-length posts (longer than 280/whatever characters). I’d never pay to use a social media app, but then again, most people don’t really want to do “microblogging.” To me it’s like Tetris and I find it kinda fun. Whatevs.
Also, you probably heard that Musk’s AI company “bought” Twitter, and then a couple of days later it was announced that the Social Security Administration will be communicating through Twitter exclusively. What does this mean? It means that Musk forced his conscripted lackey Trump to let Musk privatize Social Security’s communications method and he’ll profit from it by collecting fees from you and me for the government’s use of Twitter. And bonus, Musk will be one step closer to becoming America’s Sauron, with his shitty AI company watching for any monkey business you might try to pull with your Social Security check, like failing to notify them in a timely manner when your spouse dies so you’ll have an extra few pence to spend on their funeral.
That’s so disgusting that there aren’t any words to express it. The oligarchs have bought the place and are planning to make our lives more miserable, if that’s even possible. Waging trade war with China means those xenophobic morons really (ostensibly, and it’s certainly bullshit) think American manufacturing will happen. It’s not going to happen, not after 30–40 years of, you know, not doing manufacturing, but they’re definitely going to try to turn this country into a forced labor camp in order to keep us from building guillotines.
We really need to get moving here, you guys. Boycotting Walmart this week was a drop in the bucket. We need some Godzilla-sized acts of civil disobedience, for instance refusing to make any more student loan payments (around 97% of that nonsense isn’t even figured into the federal budget; it’s written off from day one). I really have no idea what the fuck we’re waiting for. Do you?
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My second book, My Year In The Online Left, is out. Meantime, if you want to be fully, genuinely informed about the political troll/bot invasion of Election 2016, 2020, and Elections-Yet-To-Come, buy my previous book. There’s the tiniest bit of technical stuff in those books, but you’ll get it, I promise. My Twitter is @esaeger, my Mastodon is @esaeger@universeodon.com (I’m spending a lot more time there now), my BlueSky is @esaeger.bsky.social (ditto) and my cursed Facebook is eric.saeger.9 (I do visit it daily).
