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It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Bluesky has been a net negative for US politics. They corralled everyone on the left into a little glass fishbowl where they shout at one another & everyone else ignores them. Meanwhile, all the pols & institutions stayed on X & are being dragged farther right.

Very telling that so many people are interpreting this as a defense of X.

All right, well, it seems I did not communicate my point very effectively! I doubt anyone involved in this goofy pile-on cares what I really think, but, just for the sake of posterity, let me clarify a few points.

I did not say, and do not think: 1) That X is "better" than Bsky. 2) That anyone should feel the slightest obligation to return to X, or indeed to engage with any social media in any way other than whatever makes them happy. 3) That it is Bsky's "fault" that X sucks or that people left it.

What happened was, Musk bought X & started pushing it in a nazi direction. This prompted a semi-mass exodus (including me). But the exodus basically petered out. To my dismay -- & to their eternal discredit -- lots & lots of prominent people, journos, institutions, experts, brands, etc. stayed.

This has left us in what is, IMO, a shitty equilibrium, something like the worst of both worlds. Enough libs (& only libs) left that Bsky basically became a lib echo chamber. (People are trying to deny this, but, c'mon.) But enough people stayed that prominent people can still convince themselves...

it's an echo chamber *until* the media and the pols leave X, something you're kinda assuming can't/won't happen

what's needed is a sufficient failure event to make more people give up on X, and I personally think Elon is up to the challenge of permanently breaking something

It sucks so bad already and they just keep staying!