The recent election produced an outpouring of anger and angst on the left, from pledging to leave the country to not having sex with men for four years. For others, the response was to retreat deeper into the echo chamber of the left. Many liberals are leaving X for a Bluesky, which promises the censorship and monitoring that was reduced after Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. Despite having most of the media and social media as allies, the opposing views of X have become intolerable for many after the election. One such aggrieved user appears to be New York Times tech reporter Kevin Roose, who wrote a column heralding the site as a deliverance for liberals left confused and afraid by the popular vote.Roose writes
“After an hour or so of scrolling through Bluesky the other night, I felt something I haven’t felt on social media in a long time: free.
Free from Elon Musk and his tedious quest to turn X into a right-wing echo chamber where he and his friends are the permanent, inescapable main characters.”
Because Musk dismantled the censorship system, the New York Times reporter now considers it a “right-wing echo chamber.” So, what does that make Bluesky?
Over at X, there is no shortage of trolls from the left and the right. However, it is hardly an echo chamber. Many liberals are among the most influential and criticize the right and others, including Musk and X. It also has its share of far-left trolls. However, it is the fact that it also allows such voices from the right that seems to produce the gasping, hypoxic response of liberals.
Back in the day of Twitter, it was just like the Allman Brothers song:
“BluebirdsSinging a songNothing but bluebirdsAll day long”
Many have shared their own “I can breathe now” take on Bluesky and how it is great to be again among friends — and watched over by social media guardians. Just like the old days. Notably, Roose admits that the site is no X and is unlikely to replace it. Roose admitted when he first joined Bluesky, it was more annoying than liberating:
“It was also, frankly, kind of annoying. The most active posters on my feed were all left-wing Twitter discontents, united in their hatred of Mr. Musk yet unable to stop talking about him. My account went dormant, and I moved on to other platforms.”
To his credit, Roose appeared to miss the diversity of thought in less “moderated” spaces. Nevertheless, it is now a godsend for those seeking greater insulation from opposing views.
Ironically, one lesson from this election is the danger of both the press and pundits in becoming increasingly out of touch with most of the country. The shock expressed by many is due to a lack of exposure to opposing views — not the need for further ideological isolation.
That cathartic effort is evident in many subscribers who are now boycotting the Washington Post and MSNBC. MSNBC contributor and Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin appears to support such efforts. Rubin is an avowed Marxist. Groucho Marxist, that is. Marx famously said, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.” Before supporting resignations at her newspaper (for not endorsing a presidential candidate) or the boycott of Morning Joe (for the hosts speaking to Donald Trump), Rubin was the self-identified Republican columnist of the Post before she called for the party to be burned down.
Liberals would prefer to leave the Post if it is going to introduce opposing views. For the Post owner and publisher, the newspaper is facing an utter disaster after alienating over half of the country by becoming an echo chamber. Publisher and CEO William Lewis put it bluntly by telling the staff, “Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
The response from the Post staff was calls for Lewis to be fired. These reporters and columnists would prefer to lose their jobs than their bias.
Obviously, Roose and others have every right to shelter in place within hardened liberal silos. However, it will do little to bring back readers to the media or voters to the Democrats by creating safe spaces for liberals to avoid being triggered by opposing views.
Now, it is different:
“Never saw the sun shining so brightNever saw things going so rightNoticing the days hurrying byWhen you’re in love, my how they fly”
Different except that things are not “going so right” on Bluesky.
In the 70s, those delicate flowers were called cannon fodder. Those who survived were fragged.
J
Not gonna lie Turls, your citing the lyrics of an excellent Allman Brothers song made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
Teflon Don.
It wasn’t teflon. It was Shinzo!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JSirwN4s64w
Aha…, just in case we forget that Rubin has been on your grudge list for awhile, you step up and remind us, Turls. Just remember what’s said in AA: resentment is the number one offender…
Also hilarious that you declare x censorship free while almost every week provides another story proving how Musk has sharpened his digital censorship skills on the site.
Seems to me the threat of Bluesky to you idiots is that it could cut into the numbers of people to troll…, and how are you going to deflect from the looming disaster of trump ‘policy’ when you can’t troll the libs???
Truth is, with this last ‘3rd strike’ election (Bush Jr., trump 1, now trump 2) America has proved itself not just racist, misogynist and ignorant, but aggressively stupid as well. Not having a way to slip the inevitable punches coming your way for it is a daunting reality, isn’t it? Better hope project 25 steps up and does what you’re hoping for it to do by silencing the opposition, ay Jon?
“Aha…, just in case we forget that Rubin has been on your grudge list for awhile, you step up and remind us, Turls.”
Nothing more bitter and viciously angry than a commie troll that was rejected at Bluesky and had to come back to Professor Turley’s blog for at least acceptance and attention.
Hard to believe a human being would want to shut themselves off from the opinions of others. Has “safe spaces” and “shout downs” brought us to isolation? You have to consider as smart as someone is they may very well be suffering some mental issues? Seems their creating their own asylum and expressing a withdrawal behavior of some type?
Factual correction: “Blue Skies” — the song whose lyrics you quote in the article — was written by Irving Berlin and the most popular recent version was sung by Willie Nelson. The Allman Brothers performed a completely different song called “Blue Sky” but not with the lyrics you quote.
Anon is right. And Irving Berlin was a fierce copyright protector! So be sure to give Irving his due!
Adolph Hitler University, and The Liberal Mindset
A Short Essay by Floyd
Imagine an Alternative Universe, where Adolph Hitler did NOT invade the Soviet Union and did NOT declare war on the United States. America would have been obligated to focus its war efforts on Japan, and thus, Hitler prevailed in Europe.
Post-war, Hitler set up universities all across Europe – The Himmler University of the Humanities, The Von Braun Institute of Technology, and most prestigious of all, The Adolph Hitler University, with campuses in all the former capital cities of Europe.
Now, it is 2024, and all the educated classes of Europe, have been brought up steeped in anti-Semitism, fascism, and a belief in the superiority of the Aryan Race. They are quite comfortable with the Gestapo, and with Goebbels’ control of the media. Through the auspices of Gleichschaltung, that same elite, educated class has basically lived in a bubble of self-confirmation. That same elite class lives in nice neighborhoods, drives nice cars, has good, well-paying jobs, and goes to all the right cocktail parties.
Without delving into their politics, do you think that you could distinguish between this set of elites, and the college-educated white elites in 2024 America?
I do not think so. Both have lived their lives in insulated echo-chambers, and are immune to the realities of life faced by the average citizen, or the poorer classes. Both would be convinced of their moral and intellectual superiority. Neither class would have any use for competing world views, and would not even deign to debate the matter. Because – why? They are doing just fine in this world as it is.
Now, assume that an Elon Musk-type bought out the Nazi equivalent of Twitter – Zwitschern. And, that he began allowing competing points of view. Can you not see that class of person fleeing Zwitschern for whiter pastures???
Frankly, this is the problem faced by America. We have an elite class of people, who run most things, and they have been brought up to believe all sorts of silly stuff, and there is just no fixing them, short of a nuclear war, or a civil revolution ala The Reign of Terror, horrible financial depression, or horrendous national calamity like Yellowstone cooking off or a large asteroid strike.
Floyd,
Great essay! Unfortunately I think you are right. They need a big old slap to the face and even then I dont think they are capable of some kind of self-awareness or reflection of what they have become. And that is fine. Let them live in their safe space bubble where never a thought outside of their echo-chamber will be uttered.
Professor Turley,
Twitter IS a right wing echo chamber by design. Twitter’s algorithm boosts Musk’s posts. His posts received 138% more views and 238% more retweets than before his endorsement of Trump. Other GOP-leaning accounts received similar boosts.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/17/24298669/musk-trump-endorsement-x-boosting-republican-posts-july-algorithm-change
This study was corroborated by the WSJ, which found that X feeds Users political content, whether they want it or not. A majority of this content was from conservative figures and pro-Trump accounts.
Musk has every right as the owner of Twitter to do this, but to suggest that his site is NOT a right-wing echo chamber BY DESIGN is simply contrary to fact.
Do better.
Sorry, link to WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/x-twitter-political-content-election-2024-28f2dadd
“Twitter IS a right wing echo chamber by design. Twitter’s algorithm boosts Musk’s posts. ”
More cryin’ commie troll Bull Schiff.
Why is it here when it would be happier over in the commie bubble of Bluesky
Do you have any actual evidence to rebut the above?
Scott Jennings Pulls Hilarious Reversal During Argument About X With Fellow CNN Panelists
When Scott Jennings pointed out X is more ideologically balanced after @elonmusk bought the platform, Cari Champion and the host, Audie Cornish, asked what the source was for that reporting.
Jennings said it was from CNN.
“It’s not accurate and you know it,” Champion replied. pic.twitter.com/Hwh3RFDjBC
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) November 26, 2024
“The party ID among those who regularly use X/Twitter for news — back in 2022, 65% of those who regularly used Twitter/X for news were Democrats,” said the CNN reporter. “Just 31% were Republicans.””Look at where we are today. Just a completely different picture. Now it’s basically split between Democrats at 48%, Republicans at 47%.”
This is not evidence to rebut the fact that the platform’s algorithm books conservative viewpoints. In fact, it is simply the obvious outcome of self-selection following Musk’s takeover of the platform. The exodus of liberal users from a once-heavily liberal distribution of users would, of course, lead to a more balanced set of users.
More to the point, you are conflating “right-leaning” with “right-led.” The point I made above was that it is right-led, and thus, an account of the political leanings of its users is an irrelevant response.
Every online political forum is “right-led.” Simply because the left, which, comprised of techies who typically create such forums, has repeatedly proven itself incapable of attracting enough members to sustain the site. The left cannot sustain itself in any public forum. Because their ideology is highly unpopular. That’s now an historical fac. And X/ Twitter is just another example of that.
Any data to support that ridiculous argument?
X and truthsocial are a fire hose of lies. Why would I want to page through crap that dehumanizes people? Keep your firehose of lies, stay on X, please.
How’s that impeachment of Biden going? Any day now?
Has he come out of the rainforest yet?
Every single thing you branded as lies from Hunter Biden’s laptop to Russian collusion to Biden’s “sharp as a tack” mental fitness has turned out to be true.
Not too long ago, Musk posted that some people he knew commented about all the additional Nazi related posts they were seeing in their feed. Musk investigated and discovered that they had started commenting on, and forwarding Nazi posts to their own group, so the Algorithm gave them more of the type of thing that they were opting to interact with.
I wonder how much of this sort of thing is happening to those calling X problematic.
“the Algorithm gave them more of the type of thing that they were opting to interact with.”
I have no problem with any alleged “political leaning” at X. I tried it early on (well before the Musk takeover), and found that the “workflow” did not conform well to my thought and writing practices to continue use. I do, however, take issue with the “more of the type of thing that they were opting to interact with” mechanism as it is implemented on other platforms. This purported “artificial intelligence” method as it typically is implemented appears to make no allowance for a user clicking on something, not because of an actual, direct interest in the subject, but because the application did not present it clearly enough to determine the level of interest. I find it maddening to click a link to find out what the H it actually is, find out it is of no interest, and reject it, only to have my feed in that application inundated by analogs of the rejected item for my next several visits. If any of these sites/apps want me as a user, they will need to give me adequate (meaning much improved over the current state of affairs) control over defining and seeking out my explicit interests, otherwise I have absolutely no time for them.
I can explain this phenomena with another song lyric: “Freedom of choice is what you’ve got/Freedom from choice is what you want.” Devo, Freedom of Choice
Jennifer Rubin used to call herself a “conservative” and was so described by others. It is now clear that such a description was no more than a pose. https://www.mediaite.com/politics/washington-postsjennifer-rubin-id-prefer-to-be-a-19th-century-liberal-or-a-wet-tory-than-a-conservative/
Thank you, as always, for your thoughtful insights. There are few folks I appreciate reading or listening too more than you.
In regards to this piece, I am concerned about one element; writing the words akin to “X is a right wing echo chamber,” or allowing someone else’s opinion that X is a right wing echo chamber to go unchallenged, allows for institutionalization of this opinion…I believe it’s wholey innacurate.
It’s my understanding that since Musk bought X, the percent of Liberals to Conservatives on X has gone from about 75% liberal / 25% conservative to almost 50-50…I think I saw that graphic that on CNN, but I can’t recall the source.
The point is twofold…delicate Libs moving off a 50-50 platform to an overwhelmingly supportive channel, while 100% yheir perogative, says somethong about their comstitution/psyche…but allowing X to be called a morass of conservative thought or a right wing echo chamber without challenge (either with data or by at least making sure it’s stated as an opinion of a progressive person) reinforces a false stereotype. X is now a balance and because it’s a balanced, it’sa threwt to the liberal mentality. Libs seem to feel 50-50 is tyrancial. And I think that’s an important perspective to make to add to pieces such as this one…I hope this made sense!
major Step…BAN Public Unions…which are against America and basically bribe Democrats…to reward them!
This reminds me of when I was an 8 year old, when one boy could not compete with the rest of us at basketball he simply took his ball and went home.
I call for the BREAK UP of any public former that censors based on political views!
Start with Facebook!
Anyone that Banned Trump…should be immediately PUNISHED!
Also this is trivial…I want 1000’s of Democrats jailed for Lawfare and Illegal Censorship!
Why do people seek orthodoxy in politics as well as religion? Because doubt creates anxiety. We feel better when we can think “I know”. Thinking “maybe yes, maybe no” or worse “maybe there is no definitive answer” leaves us unsettled. Thus, there will always be orthodoxy, and people who vociferously claim to know the truth will always have an appeal.
My only caveat to your statement is that those who are well grounded and mature CAN deal with the juxtaposition of diverse concepts and come to a rational accommodation. The problem is that the extremes on both ends are not the grounded and mature yet they are always given the megaphone to scream their anxieties.
“Because doubt creates anxiety.”
Is that is, or is it because logical thought and evaluation in inherently difficult, and the people seeking shelter in orthodoxy are just too frigging lazy to do the work?
“Because doubt creates anxiety.”
Is that it, or is it that logical, critical thought is inherently difficult, and those seeking shelter in orthodoxy are simply too lazy to exert themselves?
And the left wonders why Trump won? Just perhaps they might realize that others too have a right to free thinking! Such arrogance and intolerance on the left! This is the time for an understanding that there are many people who are just as smart, just as concerned about the quality of our lives as they are. If they thought Trump was a ‘poor looser’ last time, it is time to look inward?! Wow!
an infant
What kind of person wants to live in a censored space???
People who aren’t comfortable being objective and tolerant! It all fits!
Very fragile people with an overinflate sense of self-importance.
Fascist Democrat!
An infant
* I do. I want to live in a censored space.
I’d like to censor lies. Joe is as sharp as a tack. Obscenity– stick a fudge sickle sideways up your a$$. Dave Chapelle.
Lies– Kaitlyn Jenner is a woman.
Blah blah
“I’d like to censor lies.”
I tend to be allergic to BS myself, but… IMO lies help us discriminate for truth. If we were never told lies, how could we ever detect one?
Just a bigger bluer safer bubble for the cult. I think we have come to realize that these jihadis for wokeness are too far gone to be able to rationally discuss the real world. My biggest worry is how to nullify their insanity as they age out because I don’t beleive that anyone can undo the damage that 70+ years of the media/education industry brainwashing so many nor can we reach accommodation with those who have perpetrated this societal catastrophe upon us as their endgame is totally a rejection of everything that our founding fathers envisioned.
If we can government to stop subsidizing stupidity, it would be a great start to resolving the problem.