saikatdIt's easy to blame others for the toxicity. But those of us who moved here -- are we introspective about the mistakes we made inadvertently?
The unfortunate aspect of social media is that it isn't very social. It quickly descends into cliques or closed communities, where echo chambers thrive. There is no real egalitarianism, even though we claim to uphold it.
When we start recommending lists, people to follow, we end up building social capital that is inherently non egalitarian. It becomes an exercise of our privilege, or adding to the privilege of others. How is that egalitarian?
Isn't everyone equally good enough to follow? Should I arrogate the right to recommend others? Why can't I leave people to decide for themselves? And why can't they exercise their agency to discover new voices, new thoughts?
This inherent tribalism (is social media parochialism) is inherently toxic by nature. It ended up justifying all sorts of toxicity that we eventually witnessed on #birdsite. But we never thought to introspect. Instead, we brought the same habits here. The same privileges and the same inequalities.
varkychen@Saikatd Birds of a feather flock together. This is largely true and just human nature. People move in herds, socialize in cliques and tend to gang up on new comers, making cost of entry high. It requires a bit of altruism (or incentive) to allow another person into this exclusive space.
@Saikatd We need to transcend this sort of tribal antagonism and follow others, especially those who may not be 'influencers' to beat this hegemony of elites.
Ironically, this is probably the same reason why RW people don't like liberals or rationalists. 
@varkychen Exactly. Had we followed a more inclusive approach, I suspect, we would have much lesser toxicity.Of course, with some toxic folks, you can't do much either way. 🙂