If you’re on Bluesky, maybe bombarding him with followers there would shift him in that direction https://bsky.app/profile/stephenking.bsky.social

Edit: For the record…
https://www.threads.net/@stephenking 268K followers
https://bsky.app/profile/stephenking.bsky.social 223.9K followers
https://x.com/StephenKing 7M Followers

Wouldn’t be too bad if they did the model of showing you a persistent banner ad with the option to pay $35 a year to get rid of it. I’d be down with that.

Pft. Ain’t that the truth. Gotcha journalism has been around for over a hundred years and we still suck it up.

Strike a window = illegal.
Murder someone = legal.

I’m generalizing. But the larger issue is who the heck is reviewing these “policies” to determine if they’re legal (or smart)? Would it take bringing this to the Supreme Court to determine the legality?

The report said the shooting was within police policy because the officers reasonably feared that Amaya’s life was in danger when he stood in front of Ghaisar’s stopped vehicle and it began to roll forward.

I am not familiar with the case but this statement alone appears ridiculous. What’s reasonable here is that if a vehicle is approaching you, standing in front of it is stupid and killing the person operating it is even stupider. This isn’t self defense, this is attempted suicide (or attempted lawsuit). Police Policy should be: don’t be a dumbass.

Yeah - it feels more organic to me. Bluesky feels like a more well thought out Twitter. Mastodon feels like something built from Google Wave scraps.

I’m not sure how much of Dorsey’s DNA is left but it’s hard to imagine someone who has had so much success wouldn’t know what they’re doing. The board could certainly screw it up, just as Twitter’s did by selling, but it seems like they’re growing slowly and doing things in a productive way. Slow and intentionally growth seems to be the growing trend in tech.

With that said, I’m aware of the funding concerns and I’m trying to pay attention. Where will their money come from is still a question. Will they use ads or subscriptions? I’d prefer the option for either and not both. Is it actually an issue that someone tied to blockchain is involved? I’m not sure but I’m open to a plausible argument.

I don’t know what this is supposed to mean. I’m making a correction to the claim that more than one person is doing this and saying it’s possible other companies could start manufacturing these parts.

I fully agree. This is why it won’t work. I dunno - maybe Gen Alpha or Gen Beta will care about this, assuming there’s a pendulum swing?

So, what a lot of people get wrong about tariffs is that, if they’re used properly, they “incentivize” an increase of American businesses and jobs. By making it uncomfortably expensive for importers, businesses sprout and flourish locally to offset the costs. Alternatively, the government can literally hand out incentives.

If we could remove the bullshit-politics of it, we’d be having more productive conversations about whether the consumer should be paying for goods and services they directly or tangentially use (tariffs) or if the nation as a whole benefits by using tax payer dollars (congressionally approved federal spending) to lower costs.

This here is one of the distinct differences between Democrats and Republicans. The Republicans want to eliminate federal sending on practically everything not in the constitution and leave the rest up to the States and Wall Street investors. A lot of the conservatives I know resent having to pay for things they don’t use. Democrats believe a rising tide lifts all ships and there are certain services that benefit the entire population of a nation when funds are pooled; even from people who don’t directly use a service. These are fundamental differences that are worthy of debate.

The media today drives me mad. They’re lazy and feeding off each other. One outlet runs a headline and that’s the lede for all. Sure, Trump is an idiot and it’s entirely plausible that has no idea how tariffs work. The fact that he’s saying 50% or more in some cases is evidence of that. Or, what I have not seen discussed at all is how tariffs have been used and the repercussions/benefits of them. We’re all so fucked because no one wants to seem like they’re defending the guy. Giving him an inch gives him legitimacy. In the meantime, people are being misinformed and not learned about the larger picture - by the media.

Anyway, I hope people realize how incredible Biden has been as a president. We’re so obsessed with bullshit-politics that the man’s actual accomplishments go unnoticed without any appreciation. Maybe he’s just old or maybe he’s actually humble enough to not make a big deal about his administrative accomplishments. I forget how Presidents and normal news coverage used to be to make a comparison. One thing is for sure, anything positive of the Trump administration will be thanks to the Biden administration.

Mastodon emerges as the clear winner. It’s free from investor influence, ad-free, and controlled by a community that values user autonomy over profit.

That’s a gross assumption that people care about any of this. The tech-abled and tech-writers are in as much of a bubble as the Democrats were this past election.

The vast majority of people using social media do so for entertainment and passive news consumption and a ton of rage bait. Who owns or controls it is entirely irrelevant - ex., TikTok.

Ads? You think people in 2024 still care about ads? I think a lot of them enjoy it. Moreover, if you’re a small or local business, you want a platform that allows you to promote your goods and services. This kind of opportunity is what made social media explode. If you were a community business, would you prefer to operate on a platform that was strictly chronological or one that allowed you to pay to get noticed? What if you were an “influencer”? While normal people may dislike this stuff, it’s this stuff that generates revenue for the platform and, like it or not, increases engagement.

This lack of openness confines users to BlueSky alone, making it difficult to connect with friends on other platforms without creating a separate account.

How has this prevented Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube from succeeding?

You’re trying to force a platform to do what you want it to do. You’re not objectively looking at what the majority of social media users want. When I tell people about interconnected platforms, they have no clue what that means or why they would want that. They just want one platform.

You and I recognize the benefits of the Fediverse meaning one application to access many platforms. That may be a reality we observe one day but for now, nothing is fully developed. You’re trying to convince people that robotaxies will replace vehicle ownership today when they’re not done deploying them.

Mastodon’s structure, lacking an algorithm to push specific content, gives users freedom to create a feed that genuinely reflects their interests. For those who are politically inclined, Mastodon has communities and accounts covering all sides, but there’s no algorithm driving you toward any specific viewpoint.

If Bluesky has an algorithm, I haven’t seen it. I get chronological posts from the accounts I follow with an occasional and subtle suggestion to follow other similar accounts. Many of the accounts I follow are news outlets, journalists, civic leaders, etc. Some of the accounts I followed on Twitter are finally joining Bluesky while less than a fraction of those are on Mastodon.

I’ve been using Mastodon more than Bluesky. I like the instance I’m a member of which is operated by people in my physical community. Today I saw that more and more members of my community have joined Bluesky, including my local paper. I can not express the joy I’ve felt this afternoon seeing a platform blossom like the Twitter of old.

Betamax was superior to VHS. DVD Audio was superior to SACD. You may think the flexibility of Windows or Android makes them superior to MacOS or iOS. Ultimately, it comes down to marketing and convenience.

How do you make Mastodon better? You have to get brands over there. You have to get journalists and news outlets over there. When CNN reports that someone said something on Twitter, that’s marketing for that platform. When [the news] starts reporting that [celebrity] or [president] posted on Mastodon - then maybe you’ll start getting some traction. But why would that person post something so important on a platform with so few users?

“People” = literally one guy who has the tools and skills to disassemble an SSD board. Sure, it does leave the door open to third parties doing this as a service. Kinda jumping the gun on this though.

Mastodon has been around since 2016 and has 804k MAU.

The platform has 57 third party apps.

The platform is decentralized and has community ran servers.

Are you asking about “people” or “nerds”? People prefer Bluesky due to its simplicity and momentum. There are more popular outlets using it. If you’re assuming that People would prefer the complexity of the Fediverse and instances, if you think People know what a decentralized community run server is, you’re a “nerd” (for lack of a better term, I’m sorry).

The battle has always been the same: Windows v. Apple, Android v. iOS, SMS Twitter v. App Twitter. Some people prefer flexibility and investing time in making things work the way they want (Nerds). Some people want an out of the box product that’s well designed and efficient (People).

Fifty Seven Third Party Apps is not a selling point - that’s called anxiety inducing fragmentation. Some people want to walk down the grocery store aisle and choose between 57 options for toilet paper and some people just want “good”, “better”, “best”. The reality is that most people just want to be told what to do. They have too much shit going on in their lives to care about “decentralization”.

Mastodon will never challenge well financed closed or semi-open platforms. As it’s designed, it’s apparent it never intended to. It will continue to grow at a slow rate as an alternative. Hopefully, the fediverse is realized and you can choose to host your own server and gain access to other social platforms.

The reality is that this stuff costs money. In the near future, you’ll have the same three choices with social media as we do with other services: ad-subsidized, subscription, self-hosted. Anything with ads is going to have an algorithm. Anything with a subscription is going to have a board of directors. Selfhosting comes with a steep learning curve.

First, I’m not mad at anyone.

I’m only offering you the raw data to illustrate that your initial point, as you wrote it, was incorrect. Biden did slightly better than Harris in the swing state total. Trump seemed irrelevant to your earlier point.

It seems your point should have simply been that more people voted for a Trump than Harris. And, as the numbers suggest, it’s plausible many of them had switched from Biden to Trump. So, if you want to “be mad” at anyone, it would be either Biden’s administration or Harris’ campaign.

Although, I feel it’s worth more of our time focusing on the last bit - how is it that people are so disconnected from reality that Trump was ever a consideration. How is it that practically everyone believes everything they hear or read and use it to enforce their narrative?

If I’m mad at anything, it’s boisterous claims being spread through social media without anyone caring enough to determine if the claim is true or not.

Those of you downvoting me, look at the vote totals for swing states in 2020 vs 2024.

Ok…
https://www.270towin.com/2020-election-results-live/
https://www.270towin.com/2024-election-results-live/

Pennsylvania 20/19
Biden* 3,458,229^ 50.0%
Harris 3,396,770 48.6%

Arizona 11
Biden* 1,672,143^ 49.4%
Harris 1,534,391 46.6%

Georgia 16
Biden* 2,474,601 49.5%
Harris 2,548,014^ 48.5%

Michigan 16/15
Biden* 2,804,040^ 50.6%
Harris 2,733,352 48.3%

Nevada 6
Biden* 703,486^ 50.1%
Harris 702,079 47.5%

North Carolina 15/16
Biden 2,684,292 48.7%
Harris 2,689,067^ 47.7%

Wisconsin 10
Biden* 1,630,503 49.6%
Harris 1,668,077^ 48.8%

• Biden won six of the swing states. Harris won zero.
• Compared to Trump, Biden won a higher percentage than Harris in all seven.
• Biden got more votes in four states. Harris got more votes in three.

Totals:
Biden 3,458,229 + 1,672,143 + 2,474,601 + 2,804,040 + 703,486 + 2,684,292 + 1,630,503 ‎ = 15,427,294

Harris 3,396,770 + 1,534,391 + 2,548,014 + 2,733,352 + 702,079 + 2,689,067 + 1,668,077 ‎ = 15,271,750

15,427,294 - 15,271,750 ‎ = 155,544 more votes for Biden.

“Honestly, most people almost never use the power button a Mac,” one executive remarked.

Ford: Most people never open their hood so we put the lever under the back seat.

That’s the problem.

Trump’s win will accelerate the privatization and need for individual state control of all federal agencies not outlined in the Constitution.

Federal taxes may decrease by about 50% while state and homeowner taxes will increase substantially. The costs of goods and services will increase as publicly traded corporations take over agencies like the post office, weather service, social security, etc.

This is the kind of stuff that makes me turn on or at least waiver on the candidates I fully support. These interviewers are asking question on behalf to he public - the people you intend to represent. Answer them!

I welcome a Vance presidency. What has made Trump Trump is his stubbornness and defiance of “no”. He’s the kind of guy who comes into a meeting says, this is what we’re doing, make it happen or you’re fired, and walks out. This is the same playbook people like Jobs and Musk use(d). Vance lacks this gift and I fully expect Trump’s supporters to turn on him.

You can’t really point at today’s education system and use it to blame Americans.

People who voted for Trump:
65+: 51%
45-64: 52%
30-44: 47%
18-29: 46%

Our public education system has been abysmal compared to other “first world countries” and we should all be embarrassed.

This has been part of the GOP agenda for decades though. The public schools keep getting worse and subtly foster anti-intellectualism in favor or memorization while the private and higher education schools flourish. The GOP wants to abolish the department of education and replace it with either state run education and/or private corporate owned education.

“Education” is not in the constitution so with a conservative Supreme Court, it’s very likely we will see the DoE go away. Bear in mind that the DoE was only just created under Carter and Reagan campaigned on getting rid of it.

And, as teachers start getting wind of this and realizing what the future may hold for them, they’re going jump ship. Any hope we have of progressing as a country and competing with other countries is gone. This nation will be run by a handful of corporations paying crap wages to non-union workers without the benefit of social security or pensions.

The writing has been on the wall for a hundred years. We’ve laughed at it, maybe pondered it, but never took it seriously. All the dystopian novels that have been written are about to come true.

I think I’ve figured this out.

The idea that individual Americans should “do their research” about their health care and medicine is preposterous. Government exists, in part, to do this work for us. However, the Trump / GOP agenda is to strip these agencies from the federal government and replace them with private corporations.

So, who do we then get our medical advice from if not a medical professional at a government agency? The corporations who manufacture the drugs. And how do hear about them? “Sponsored posts” and “influencers” like Joe Rogan on platforms that we subscribe to. Privatization of government run agencies makes the wealthier more wealthy on the backs of clueless Americans still touting “trickle down economics” and “the free market”.

Americans, if they don’t die first, are about to go bankrupt in record numbers.