Memes

Like I'm forgiving of artists because most of their customer base is there, and internationally, alt platforms are even more unknown. I am somewhat forgiving of journalists who want to reach the widest amount of people possible, despite the fact that Musk has been intentionally targeting and censoring journalists he doesn't like.

I really don't get a lot of leftist or liberal content creators though. Many constantly push the message that you vote with your wallet, and discourage patronizing businesses, services, or franchises that actively hate or harm marginalized people. Yet at the same time, they are using a platform owned by some who is literally trying to make the platform as hostile to marginalized people as possible. A lot of users have left twitter because they no longer feel safe using the platform. In fact, the reason you see a lot of queer people here on fediverse is because many of them are twitter refugees.

And yet many leftist and liberal creators remain on twitter, exclusively in fact. I could understand it if they pushed some content to alts to keep within reach of users that left while still maintaining their fanbase on twitter, but many of them won't even touch any of the alternatives, much less make themselves more reachable on youtube or other social platforms. By remaining on twitter, they are encouraging their userbase to remain as well, which creates engagement, which benefits ad companies who pay Musk, who funnels that into groups and causes that undermine their audience.

At this point, It is an integrity test for me. How large is this creator's following on twitter? How often does this person post and interact on twitter? and what have they said in the past about interacting with harmful brands? What's their excuse for remaining if any, and would they had accepted that excuse if the shoe was on the other foot?

I accept some people have an addiction, and as someone who tried to leave reddit many times, I know it can be a hard one to kick. But if your brand is built on integrity, standing up for the marginalized, and being ethical with your consumption habbits, remaining active on twitter is not a good look to me.

But what about the comic?! The comic says I don’t have to change my lifestyle to align with my purported values! It absolves me of my responsibility to do anything beyond complain, no matter how trivial the change required! Doesn’t the comic say complaining about a problem is basically just as good as actually contributing to fixing it?