X has taken its stance. Nazis on the platform are allowed. Pro-Hitler posts are allowed. Holocaust denial is allowed.
If you stay on a platform like that, you can't escape this creeping normalization. Even if you think you can.
"Oh, there goes another Holocaust denier. Just part of being online, I guess."
"Oh, another transphobe calling people dehumanizing slurs. Well that's the Internet for you."
Creeping normalization is like advertising. Even if you think it won't influence you, it will.
Brilliant post!
Staying on Twitter will influence you.
And we can't let it take root here. Been hearing more of, "that's just the way social media is." It's not. Social media is what we make it. Open social media can be respectful and kind. We can do this.
[Edit: changed the second sentence because it was overly harsh]
@mastodonmigration FYI, just today I heard from another Black person who talked about how this attitude is a big part of why they and their friends find Mastodon so hostile.
As I so often seem to say to you if that's your goal, great, carry on as you are. If that's *not* your goal, consider a different approach.
Jon, can you say more about what attitude this person was describing, and how either my post or the post you're replying to to manifests it?
@eloquence The attitude that white people on Mastodon can judge Black people remaining on Twitter -- in this case, "staying on Twitter will poison Black people's minds". Of course @mastodonmigration didn't specifically say it was Black people, he's talking about everybody on Twitter -- but that includes Black people.
And I've heard this from Black people who have left Twitter as well as ones who are still there. It's part of Mastodon's reputation for racism.
@jdp23 @mastodonmigration @inquiline
I agree that anything that comes across as lecturing or shaming folks from a position of privilege is counterproductive or worse, and I'm sorry if my original post is legible in that way. It's a difficult line to walk.
@eloquence I wasn't reacting to your post ... tbh I didn't even look at it. I usually don't even bother to bring this isssue up but @mastodonmigration is widely seen as an official account and has been making a series of posts that are hostile to POC -- for example asking people to "tone down" the use of the word genocide https://indieweb.social/@jdp23/111405573188637978 , and implying a well-known Black writer and comedian's interactions elsewhere weren't authentic.
@[email protected] You described your original post as "an appeal to tone down the inflammatory rhetoric" and then said "using the term "genocide" is not in line with toning things down." I don't think it's mischaracterizing that as "Mastodon migration" appealing to people not to use the term "genocide". [True, that's not the only thing you were talking about in the thread, but it's literally what that specific post said.] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
@eloquence So since a Black friend of mine and I had just been talking about this, when I saw the "Staying on Twitter will poison your mind." I couldn't help myself.
In terms of your post, I agree about the normalizing. Still, Black people spend their entire lives in environments where racism is normalized. Twitter was ridiculously racist even before Elmo took over, many Black people find their Mastodon experience has even more Nazis than Twitter
@eloquence So I'm not sure how much of that's reflected in your post. But, you're also not saying people are wrong to stay, you're accurately pointing out a very real cost of staying, so it's not judgemental. As you say, a fine line to walk.
Erik Moeller
Mastodon Migration
Jon (now at neuromatch.social)