It started with Swifties leaving Twitter/X in droves and heading to Bluesky. They were the first to be noticed, but they were the tip of the iceberg.

Bluesky gained its first wave of high-profile users last spring, and switched from being invitation-only to open to the public in February. In the past week 700,000 to a million people have flocked to the platform after the election.

As of this writing, it’s the number one free app on the iPhone’s U.S. App Store.

The past week has seen diverse luminaries from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Dionne Warwick join or reappear on the site. The Guardian announced it was quitting Twitter/X, and it only seems like a matter of time before the news organizations and journalists start posting on Bluesky.

Personally, I’ve locked down my Twitter/X account and threw away the key. Before I did that, I had already used a service called Tweet Deleter to remove all my old posts and likes from the site. It wasn’t free, but I only needed to run it once. I have a single post on Twitter/X and that’s what’s staying. I’ve removed the app from my phone.

As for Bluesky, I have an account, but I’m still mulling over the benefits of attempting to create what I had on Twitter/X. My only post is the same one I have on Twitter/X.

So far, Bluesky delivers exactly what you want, when you want it. While I have not spent hours doing so, Bluesky allows you to curate your own feed, fostering an authentic social media experience.

Am I advocating for Bluesky? Sure, if you want to try and recreate the “old Twitter feeling,” but it’s still social media and social media is really good at making you feel bad. Still, Wired has a great article about getting started with the hot new social network.

However, my thinking echoes Ian Bogost’s piece in The Atlantic. He writes –

A network of any kind—social, communication, epidemiological—is only as effective as the scope of its connections. Two decades ago, when social networks were new, it was easier to develop a rich, broad network because nobody had one yet. MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn helped people build databases of the connections they already had—friends, family, schoolmates, work colleagues. Twitter was among the first social networks that encouraged people to connect with anybody whosoever—to build a following of strangers. That, as much as its distinctive, short-text format, made Twitter what it was. Among other things, it became a distinctive venue to follow live global events, and to share and engage with journalism. It also was a place for brands to interact with their customers, and for businesses to provide customer service.

Bluesky has not yet found its distinctive identity or purpose. But to me, one user among many who started using the service in earnest this week, it feels more like the early days of social networking than anything else in recent memory. The posts I have seen, and made, are dumb and awkward instead of being savvy and too online. For now, Bluesky invokes the feeling of carefree earnestness that once—really and truly—blanketed the internet as a whole. Gen Xers and Oldlennials who had already finished college when Facebook started will remember the strange and delightful experience of rediscovering lost friends on that service—people you hadn’t seen or heard from in years. Now that strange delight itself can be rediscovered: I’ve felt something like it as I watched my Bluesky migration plug-in locate and auto-follow thousands of users whom I hadn’t seen on X or Twitter for years.

But the internet’s media ecosystem is more fragmentary this decade than it was during the last. Uncertainty about social media’s future produces existential questions about the major platforms: Will TikTok be banned? Will X become state media? Will the Bluesky bubble grow beyond this week? Whatever happens, I still hope that social media itself will fade away. In the meantime, though, hundreds of millions of people have become accustomed to this way of interacting with friends and strangers, noshing on news, performing identities, picking fights, and accruing cultural capital or longing to do so. These unhealthy habits will be hard to shake. And so we can’t help but try to keep them going, for however long we can.

My whole operating philosophy now is to just stack good days. If I had a good day, that’s a win. Then I get up the next morning and try to do it all over again.

I had a good day today. Onward we go.

— Drew Magary (@drewmagary.bsky.social) 2024-11-19T23:58:54.481Z

Alex Dobrinko, at his Substack The Sublime, has a conversation with Adam Mastroianni, the writer behind one of Substack’s most popular newsletters Experimental History.

He asks him how we might find optimism and hope in a world that often feels dark and cynical. His answer is glorious.

“I think the root of the problem is the globalization of all problems.

Now, it feels like anything bad that happens anywhere in the world is somehow relevant to me and my responsibility. It’s like, I’m not allowed to be happy as long as someone, somewhere, is having a bad time.

Especially with global problems, it’s like, how are you allowed to smile when there’s climate change? These problems are really bad, but you can’t change everything yourself.

No one benefits from you scrolling on your phone and feeling sad and then going to Starbucks.

The antidote is figuring out what you care about, what you’re good at, and what you like doing that can make the world a little bit better.

Then, really do that thing.“

That bit about no one benefitting from doomscrolling is spot on. My goal in 2025 is to actively not do that and doing the things I care about.

I’ve said it before, will doubtless say it again: These folks are going to be permanently resentful because they’re seeking political power as a substitute for cultural power, and it’s never going to give them what they actually want.

— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) 2024-11-15T04:53:32.853Z

I genuinely think this is sort of the crux of our political dysfunction, and has been for at least a couple decades now. Listen, if you can stomach it, to a random MAGA grievance rant & ask yourself “how much of what they’re most upset about is something public policy can realistically address?”

— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) 2024-11-15T16:37:44.762Z

Even when there’s a policy hook, it’s almost a meaningless symbolic proxy for the underlying issue they really want to address but can’t. Think about the insane amount of energy devoted to fretting about queer books in public or school libraries.

— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) 2024-11-15T16:50:23.540Z

It’s 2024. In the unlikely event your semiliterate tween wants to crack a book, let alone one about gender identity or sexuality, pulling it from the local library is comically pointless as an access limitation. It’s just an impotent shriek of disapproval that these things are culturally accepted.

— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) 2024-11-15T16:53:21.093Z

Kevin Drum, on his site Jabberwocking, lists a few nuggets of wisdom. All of them are worthwhile, but these are my favs.

Tax cuts don’t boost economic growth in any meaningful way.
The real dietary villain of the modern era is refined sugar.
One out of seven people have no interior monologue.
Most people seem to have no idea what the racial makeup of America is. For the record, it’s 58% white, 20% Latino, 14% Black, and 6% Asian.
On a huge range of measures—economic, social, cultural, technological, and recreational—life in America is stupendously good. We should all feel a lot better about things than we do. One of the reasons we don’t is that both liberals and conservatives have a vested interest in claiming that the country is on the precipice of imminent collapse due to moral decay.
Vaccines do not cause autism.
Fox News is a cancer. It should be burned to the ground and the earth salted behind it.

Jennifer Sandlin, writing for Boing Boing, has a post about regret.

Here’s a twenty-minute video recounting stories of regret, grief, and, honestly, pure ignorance, from people who voted for Trump and are beginning to suffer the consequences. The video was shared by MeidasTouch and features, as host Brett Meiselas explains, “Trump supporters already suffering after voting for Donald Trump in the 2024 election.”

I wish I could revel in schadenfreude, but, honestly, this video just makes me sad and angry that so many people unknowingly voted against their best interests or against the best interests of the people they love and care about. Sure, many folks knew exactly what they were voting for, but many didn’t, and that’s a sad commentary on the strength and pervasiveness of GOP propaganda as well as on the sorry state of education and critical media literacy in the United States. So, I get no pleasure from this video, only grief and outrage.

The Onion has purchased Alex Jones’s Infowars out of bankruptcy [unlocked article via Nextdraft]. This is hilarious.

Most importantly, they did it with the blessing of the Sandy Hook families, who have spent years working to hold Alex Jones to account for the spreading of his terrible conspiracy theories. InfoWars repeatedly alleged various false details about the school shooting, claiming that it was a “false flag” operation staged with “crisis actors,” in which no children were actually killed. Jones’s lies led to his listeners and fans harassing the family members of the children and teachers who were killed.

Bryce P. Tetraeder, Global Tetrahedron CEO, in an op-ed for The Onion:

Through it all, InfoWars has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society — values that resonate deeply with all of us at Global Tetrahedron.

No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds. And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars.

Make no mistake: This is a coup for our company and a well-deserved victory for multinational elites the world over.

What’s next for InfoWars remains a live issue. The excess funds initially allocated for the purchase will be reinvested into our philanthropic efforts that include business school scholarships for promising cult leaders, a charity that donates elections to at-risk third world dictators, and a new pro bono program pairing orphans with stable factory jobs at no cost to the factories.

Best satire on the planet. SNL should take notes.

Nicholas Bate –

It’s true that the luxury of a ‘free’ day simply to write is a joy.

But such days are not necessary to produce your writing, your novel, your poem, your art.

Grab moments here and there. Resist the temptation to scroll; instead open the document and continue.

Neither the amount you write nor the quality of what you write need be defined by the time available.

Go write.

In this time of madness, Heather Cox Richardson shares wisdom and small seeds of hope* regarding the days to come. “The rift between the pre-2016 leaders of the Republican Party and the MAGA Republicans is still obvious, and Trump’s reliance on Elon Musk and his stated goal of deconstructing the American government could make it wider.”

While Trump is claiming a mandate to do as he wishes with the government, Republicans interested in their own political future are likely noting that he actually won the election by a smaller margin than President Joe Biden won in 2020, despite a global rejection of incumbents this year. And he won not by picking up large numbers of new voters—it appears he lost voters—but because Democratic voters of color dropped out, perhaps reflecting the new voter suppression laws put into place since 2021.

Then, too, Trump remains old and mentally slipping, and he is increasingly isolated as people fight over the power he has brought within their grasp. Today his wife, Melania, declined the traditional invitation from First Lady Jill Biden for tea at the White House and suggested she will not be returning to the presidential mansion with her husband. It is not clear either that Trump will be able to control the scrabbling for power over the party by those he has brought into the executive branch, or that he has much to offer elected Republicans who no longer need his voters, suggesting that Congress could reassert its power.

Falling into line behind Trump at this point is not necessarily a good move for a Republican interested in a future political career.

*Hope that democracy may survive, despite the horrors to come.

H/T: Metafilter

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert Jones has decided to step down at the end of the academic year.

“I truly believe this is the greatest university in the world, which makes this the most difficult decision that has confronted me in my 47 years in higher education. My time at Illinois has been the most profound experience of my professional life, and I thank every single campus community member for that,” Jones said in a news release. “We are at the high point in our 157-year history in terms of our educational and research impact. Next is a period of transition with our institutional strategy and collaborations. This is an appropriate time to look toward the next leader who will build on that momentum and promote the bold ideas for which Illinois is known.”

He strongly supports Illinois Athletics and is one of the warmest and kindest people ever. This is a huge loss for the university. Here’s hoping they find someone of equal character.

This looks like a movie right up my alley.

Rami Malek is a nerdy guy with a vendetta in The Amateur trailer.

Seth Godin –

I love Zamboni machines.

They’re ungainly, they’re slow but they’re also majestic. Like an elephant for ice hockey.

After each period, when the ice is chopped up by play, the Zamboni rolls out and leaves behind a sheet of perfect ice. Cold, smooth and untouched.

It’s useful to acknowledge that the same service is offered to each of us, every night. We wake up in the morning with a freshly smoothed-over day in front of us.

Our intentions determine our first few moves, the way we’ll engage with today’s ice. And those moves often lead to the next ones, and on and on, until the day is over.

Add up enough clear ice days and the pattern becomes set.

Jeff Goins –

Art is the process of making something for someone. That’s it, that’s all I know. What I know is that when you try to make a thing for everyone, it ends up being for no one, because who wants to unwrap a present to “everyone”? No one. We all want something unique, something special, something that feels like it was made just for us.

Is it really final?

Mattel has issued an apology after customers spotted its Wicked edition dolls highlighting an adult website on the packaging. The box art copy mistakenly directed customers to the homepage of the Wicked Pictures pornographic movie studio, instead of the correct WickedMovie.com URL.

As someone who writes copy for packaging, I can’t believe this was an honest mistake. Some rogue copywriter conveniently forgot the “movie” part of wickedmovie.com just to see how far it would go and if anyone would catch it.

I bet this guy was fired pretty quickly.

Finally Professor Eddie Glaude of Princeton, confronted the issue as to why white people voted for Trump on a so-called liberal station like @MSNBC, you should see unless you too want to remain in the closet about the reality of what America is. It’s about time. pic.twitter.com/V9imvm6F5F

— Mr. Reynolds (@MrReynolds52) November 9, 2024

Caitlin Dewey, writing on her substack Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends, has made a good list of articles to read in this post-election time.

The next morning, we woke up. Drank our coffee. Did our jobs. Bought our groceries at the same corner store. Walked past the same houses, “Harris” signs in their yards.

Nothing feels the same, but it all looks quite unchanged — a dissonance sure to cause dizziness for some. Your eyes and your heart send conflicting signals; your brain isn’t sure what to make of them. Is this still my home, my block, my country? Do I understand who and where I am? I have the sense of sliding backwards through the world, like standing in the surf as the tide turns back again.

She then lists the articles she’s been reading –

“This Place Is All Fucked Up,” by Barry Petchesky for Defector. “How America Made Peace With Cruelty,” by Adam Serwer for The Atlantic “Broken Bones: America’s Violent Indifference Toward Women,” by Kate Manne for More to Hate “The TikTok Electorate,” by Max Read for Read Max “How to Live Under Rising Authoritarianism, According to a Philosopher Who Did It Bravely,” by Sigal Samuel for Vox

It’s a good list.

A long post by John Gruber about his Dad, the election, loss, and hope. It’s one of the best blog posts I’ve read in a long time.

To be clear, the election is hardly mentioned, but it does bring a different perspective on what’s important and what we make important. I was a bit more emotional at the end than I thought I would be when I started reading it.

Well worth your time.