Teri Kanefield@licked These are comments I get on social media, not big names.
One option is using my social media accounts to post links to my blog posts and just engaging on my blog.
I think I'm getting a skewed view of the world reading social media comments.
Mastodon MigrationMastodon is going through something right now. Sorry you are a focus. An increase in this type of behavior has been reported from a wide cross section of popular posters over the last few days. It seems to be a combination of deliberate trolling to sow dissent and demoralization, and genuinely frustrated but naive posters energized by the provocateurs. Cleaning up your feed by blocking these doom-sayers seems to be the best strategy for both the posters and followers.
I am also getting people who want to argue about one of my blog posts, but they absolutely refuse to read the blog post.
Someone just accused me of "promoting" my blog.
I pay almost $300 per month to maintain a blog. I don't use Substack because I don't like asking people for money. Sheesh.
Long form allows me to explain complex ideas. Threads are easier to fire off, but a blog post takes more care.
Yesterday two other popular US politics accounts were targets of a lot of this kind of off-the-wall nay-saying and ad hominem criticism. The reason they do it is to generate frustration and despondency in an effort to quiet your voice. It's ugly, but effective. The thing about social media, that we actually saw play out in the trial today, is that a determined few can make life pretty miserable for popular figures.
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What we can do as a community is express our support. These folks are a vocal minority. The vast majority here appreciate what you are doing and value what we are learning from your posts. We should not hesitate to convey our positive feedback.
The other thing we can do is help police the feed. When someone is out of line, it should not be exclusively up to the poster. Call them out. Block them. Treat these feeds as a shared resource and help defend their integrity.
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Thank you.
I do worry that I direct too much of my blog writing toward those voices.
How many people really believe that "there is never enough accountability."
OnTwitter, the Garland heckling is going full-swing. I assume the average Democratic voters has no ill feelings toward Garland
The idea of blaming all of our woes an an AG is really bizarre when you think about it.
I want my writing directed at most people not a vocal few.
It's hard to ignore the noisy disrupters, which is why they do it.
It is an interesting point that reacting to them can also distract from more substantive and creative analysis. It is, in effect, thread hijacking.
Keeping in mind that this is heckling, and becoming more comfortable removing them from your feed may help. Unfortunately, seems like guilt free blocking is becoming a social media survival skill, even on Mastodon.