.

@MaSherry I'm looking forward to listening through more of your work - and I will continually circle back :-)

@MaSherry I'm a third of the way through your Episode 6 - Men! and I absolutely resonate with and affirm your insights and contemplations. I continue to learn about, and speak out and stand against misogyny, chauvinism, toxic masculinity, sexism, with men (especially where this intersects with institutionalized white supremacy and racism) and as a parent.

@MaSherry I hear you! Self-care never needs permission. Refresh, renew, revitalize, rejuvinate...do take care of you. All I'm trying to do, at this point, is raise the level of conversation about platform ease of use to see/set it within a wider context.

@TheRuralProgressive Fair enough. I would like to HOPE that people on the bird site who see "[insert site here] is too complicated" may not be discouraged from trying. And, I'd also like to hope that new tools might make the new platforms easier to use. All I'm suggesting at this juncture is, however we get over the fallout from what's happened to the bird site, we must be resolute, and active, and deliberate, and communicative, and supportive, with an eye to 2024 (and 2025 in Canada).

@mPony Agree! #CoSo has its strengths (which is part of why I'm sticking around here!) Whether it will gain more widespread adoption is left to be seen. But, again, the bigger picture is, general society still needs town squares for civil discourse without hate and overt rhetoric, so we have to be prepared to make these new spaces work. What happened to the bird site is not random!

@KarenFT I agree with you, at our individual level! But, I also remember a time when people didn't "get" the bluebird site :-) All I'm suggesting is, we would do well to see the bigger picture and resolve to put in some work, because I think this is about much more than ease of use. If we're focused on the details of one tree, we may miss the forest. Bet your bottom dollar, Conservatives see it, and they've managed to all but destroy Twitter out from under so many marginalized communities.

2/ Conservatives have Truth Social. And Parler. And (now) Twitter. And they are fighting for #election2024 now.

So, whether Mastodon, or right here on #CoSo. Or Tribel. Or wherever. We need to help others adopt these new spaces with an eye towards #election2024.

Life will be MUCH MORE COMPLICATED if Republicans take back the White House in 2024. So, let's put in some work to help people learn these new tools.

1/ Hey gang, I've been seeing a lot of tweets saying "Mastodon is too complicated."

I think it's an attack on a new safe space, not unlike bombing Black churches or shooting up an LGBTQ+ club. It's tactical, specific, not random.

Progressives NEED a safe, stable, space for community, communication, information and education, and mobilization.

@JohnnyGenX It's going to be up to the 82 million people who voted Democrat in 2020 to mobilize, get out the vote, and repeat or do better in 2024. As for citizens of the world, even what we're doing here helps! We are not supporting right wing extremism or even platforms supporting their rhetoric.

@JohnnyGenX Good question! I'm no insider with any real knowledge behind the scenes, but $44Bn isn't a big deal in relation to owning a company flirting around in the $1Tn club. Also, SpaceX activities demand relationships with governments and military, right? It's actually quite scary.

@GenXAndBitter I can't articulate how this gif makes me feel or what it compels me to want to do, because I do not want to appear to incite violence.

@JohnnyGenX Payoffs from right wingers. Twitter was a machine for informing, organizing and mobilizing progressive initiatives. Knowledge, facts, and education are bad for the right. Dismantling Twitter scatters progressive groups, disrupts communication, while the right coordinates on Truth Social, Parler, etc.

@otter272 You can set up your interface to avoid politics quite a bit here (filters, lists, etc.) And Jester takes care of trolls and other right-leaning troublemakers from the top. However, at this time, most of us who are flocking here are doing so BECAUSE we too lean left and Twitter is becoming increasingly insufferable for like-minded people, and the leading issues are political. So, I'm sure few are "wondering"!

@sfleetucker @dcooper_resists It's funny because it's true!