I got curious about Bluesky, the social media platform that Democrats saw as their refuge once Elon Musk had the bad taste to turn X from a censorious leftist redoubt into a free speech platform. Today, I set up an account there, and I was absolutely dazzled. This is leftism unhinged, although for the real purists, like spoiled (and very rich) Hollywood brat, Rob Reiner, Bluesky is still too polluted by non-approved ideas.
Bluesky is a Twitter derivative. In 2019, Twitter did some research into a more decentralized platform that couldn't be controlled by a single company. That actually sounds like a good idea and one more closely tied to the free market than any other social media platform. However, when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, Twitter severed Bluesky, making it an independent entity.
All might have gone well with Bluesky if it had remained true to the notion of decentralization, which is, of course, the opposite of the leftist love for central control in government and business. However, those Democrats who are offended by free speech announced that Bluesky was their destination of choice. Currently, the site is growing exponentially, but I suspect a lot of the growth comes from people like me, who sign up out of simple curiosity and have no intention of returning.
Why wouldn't I return? Simple: Bluesky is all about content moderation.
Theoretically, it moderates through crowd-sourcing and AI learning from that crowd-sourcing. But rather than sharing opposing or correct information via community notes, as X does, Bluesky shuts down information the community determines is offensive. Currently, the leftist community is going crazy trying to silence people with whom it disagrees:
And no wonder the community is in an uproar. Conservatives have been posting controversial things that require Bluesky users to get eye bleach and counseling. The Babylon Bee didn't even get past the first post:
And End Wokeness was blocked within 30 seconds of stating a biological truth:
Even with this rigorous gatekeeping, though, the site's intellectual impurity is alienating its core users. So it was that Rob Reiner had another of his public meltdowns. The following series of posts demonstrate that when the problem is you, you can never outrun yourself. Wherever you go, there you are:
His complaint reminds me of the joke office sign saying that "the beatings will continue until morale improves." In leftist land, the heads will explode until all is aligned.
So, what is approved Bluesky content? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's a sampling, for your enjoyment and edification, showing what leftists get up to in the categories of politics and news when there's no one there to challenge or ridicule them. Please note that I didn't follow anyone or express a political preference. I just asked for politics and news.
There are the communist messages unironically imposed over the highly profitable Simpsons:
There are Antifa-sponsored anti-capitalist pro-illegal posters:
There's the anti-Israel propaganda:
Naturally, there is scatological anti-Trump stuff:
And of course, there are the professions of woke loyalty, over and over, with some more loyal (going by list length) than others:
Original thinking isn't a thing here...
Contrast this groupthink with the exquisite balance over at X now that it's a truly open platform. While it, too, was once a sort of Bluesky (although not as extreme), now it's a place where all sorts of political ideologies exist and, if they like want to, get exposed to opposing ideas:
And that's why I'm sticking with X (you can find me here, in case you wondered) and not migrating with the blue herd to Bluesky.