Like, I saw a guy on here the other day who unironically asserted a right to harass people who post publicly on Mastodon and who was utterly, implacably opposed to the idea of controlling who can reply to your posts because it would deny him his "free speech" right to be an asshole to you.

And like, that guy. That guy right there. The world is full of those guys whether they're on Twitter or not.

Mastodon culture of old seems to have encouraged trolls, sea lions, and reply guys by advocating people go private or otherwise just tolerate them being assholes, driving a lot of conversation underground or behind server blocks for the sake of community level "peace and quiet."

Whereas on Twitter, at least before the Great Ensuckening, they would have been dragged to kingdom come and even eventually banned for messing with certain people.

So you know, you win some, you lose some. Que sera, sera.

I generally have far better engagement experiences here on Mastodon than I did on Twitter, but the ratio of reply guys and other trolls is higher, too.

But because I learned from Twitter, I am more than prepared to block a user or an entire instance on sight or to tell somebody to STFU because they're a fucking moron.

I don't do nice with assholes.

And honestly, I'm still resentful of certain people who want you to put everything behind a CW, even the daily news and politics, just so their personal calm is never disrupted.

And like, just block me then? If you want to live in a fantasy world where nothing is wrong. Because shit sucks, guys.

Like, I understand if your mental health is at stake. Do what you gotta do. But this is how I cope to some extent, personally. Because for real, shit sucks.

And I've personally had it up to here with people privileged enough to not only ignore what's going on but who demand other people make them feel better about it. Like, no.

At least the trolls are honest about being assholes.