The public square has been taken over by the Joker.
It’s not new for respectable people to wring their hands in anguish about how Elon Musk has destroyed a once-generative platform. I’ve more or less agreed with that sentiment, but remained on Twitter anyway, even though they’ve been throttling me like crazy.
Why? Well, path dependence and network effects. I’ve built up a good-sized following on Twitter that I haven’t replicated anywhere else. BlueSky seems promising, but my following there is still small. Mastodon is derelict. And Threads, well, I haven’t even setup an account.
This newsletter has been growing like gangbusters, and in time, it may become my only community platform. But even Substack has not rivalled my reach on Twitter.
Most importantly, my personal engagement on Twitter has not involved much interaction with fascists or conspiracy theorists. I just haven’t been experiencing the horror stories I’ve been hearing from friends…until now?