The one thing I miss about Twitter was being able to follow journalists directly, especially journalists outside of the US/Canada/UK . It was a cool way to get news and updates on world affairs from the people most directly impacted by our foreign policy actions. It also was wonderful for being able to commect with LGBTQ+ creators and journalists, getting news and art/writing/etc from people whose voices are drowned out or intentionally silenced in the mainstream. I didn't use Twitter for news per se, but I used it as a sort of... way to hear the first murmurings of stories, that I could then read up on for myself. I've fallen out of the mainstream news cycle--I do still want that access at some point in the future but the pre-Musk volatility of Twitter, followed by the descent into pure radioactive sludge, has left me completely burned out and disengaged from that more rapid-fire style of news aggregation.
I only discovered you very recently, and I'm happy to say I found you via a restack, not via Twitter. I respect the hardship that leaving Twitter/X causes writers, and I also greatly appreciate you grappling openly with the choice to jump off that (hopefully) sinking ship. And congratulations on both of those monumental milestones! 🙂💚
I enjoy Mastodon the most right now, so I'm happy you're there. When it comes to finding well-written long form, Substack is the place to go. BTW I just gave a boost to the parable of the finger-taker's son. Thank you!
I'm enjoying Mastodon (or Heffalump, as I think of it) quite a lot. I've managed to curate a decent news feed by using lists, so I'm missing that aspect of Xitter less.
I had been thinking about leaving Xitter for a while since Jean Baptiste Emanuel Musk took over; the reinstating of the account that posted CSAM made me serious about leaving, but the fact that Xitter told the Australian ledge that there might be valid reasons for posting that kind of thing made me actually leave. Fascism is one thing, but "yes,but"-ing CP is quite another.
Tangent - and this is small, but immensely satisfying to me. I manually update apps in my phone and I refuse to download the update that turns Twitter into X. So I still have Twitter on my phone. My plan is to continue that way until it's no longer supported without an update, and then I will leave it behind. It makes me sad, though, as I've found so many writers, historians, and voices (such as yours!) I would never have found otherwise. I'm on the hunt for as many of them as possible outside of the app.
You remain one of my favorite writers on any platform and I'm grateful I can read you here, as I too limit my time on the platform formerly known as Twitter. And I'm hugely supportive of a book of your essays. They'd make great gifts for some of the not-so-online readers in my life.
I know Twitter is going down in flames (much like its owner's most recent rocket), but the idea of having to sign up for a new platform, figure out a password, learn how to navigate the site and then repeat until I find one as useful as I have found Twitter - if such a thing even exists - is just too much for me right now.
On another note, as awful a human being as Musk is, I'm pretty certain the similarity between his rebrand of Twitter and the infamous Nazi symbol is purely accidental, just as I'm certain he never saw the similarity between his Tesla logo and an IUD, which is a much closer resemblance. He's just not that aware of the things outside himself.
Anyway, thank you for what you do, wherever you are doing it.
I've been reading you for about 18 months, and supporting for about 6 months but I came to you based on a Twitter comment that struck me which led me to investigate your Substack vs. having found you from The Revisionaries. I'm finally reading it and HFS is it good. I'm only 100 pages in but if this keep up it's, like, Murakami good. (He's my favorite living author so whatever you think of him, that's meant as high praise.) Thanks for all the well-crafted articles and your mastery of parable, but now also, thanks for this fantastic novel. I'll continue to tell my friends they should be reading you (some are now doing so) and now I can also call out your novel as reason to get onboard. Kudos and thank you.
I didn't find you on Xitter. As I recall you were recommended as part of a trio of writers by Substack because I also read Dan Rather's "Steady", and the "Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American" and "Joyce Vance from Civil Discourse" newsletters.
Also, you might consider joining Tumblr. They're more Art/Animation/Anime-oriented, but I've seen numerous examples of excellent (and funny) topical writing there.
I love and appreciate what you've written here. Thank you! (I left Xitter a while ago and while I've lured a few of my friends to Mastodon, many are still in the Xitter. Alas.)
Very good advice. I frequent a pop-culture website (the Avocado, found at https://the-avocado.org/), and I plan to share your Mastodon toot with them so they can be inspired to quit the X-shit.
“ I’m giving serious consideration to pulling together a book of essays”
Yes, please! I’d buy it for every adult on my holiday gift list. Or maybe for birthdays. But I’d buy it.
The one thing I miss about Twitter was being able to follow journalists directly, especially journalists outside of the US/Canada/UK . It was a cool way to get news and updates on world affairs from the people most directly impacted by our foreign policy actions. It also was wonderful for being able to commect with LGBTQ+ creators and journalists, getting news and art/writing/etc from people whose voices are drowned out or intentionally silenced in the mainstream. I didn't use Twitter for news per se, but I used it as a sort of... way to hear the first murmurings of stories, that I could then read up on for myself. I've fallen out of the mainstream news cycle--I do still want that access at some point in the future but the pre-Musk volatility of Twitter, followed by the descent into pure radioactive sludge, has left me completely burned out and disengaged from that more rapid-fire style of news aggregation.
I only discovered you very recently, and I'm happy to say I found you via a restack, not via Twitter. I respect the hardship that leaving Twitter/X causes writers, and I also greatly appreciate you grappling openly with the choice to jump off that (hopefully) sinking ship. And congratulations on both of those monumental milestones! 🙂💚
Same here, I'm not on Twitter, I found about this place from Roy Edroso's Substack.
New reader coming in from Mastodon. Just so you’re aware.
FWIW- I found you via Notes here!
I enjoy Mastodon the most right now, so I'm happy you're there. When it comes to finding well-written long form, Substack is the place to go. BTW I just gave a boost to the parable of the finger-taker's son. Thank you!
I'm enjoying Mastodon (or Heffalump, as I think of it) quite a lot. I've managed to curate a decent news feed by using lists, so I'm missing that aspect of Xitter less.
I had been thinking about leaving Xitter for a while since Jean Baptiste Emanuel Musk took over; the reinstating of the account that posted CSAM made me serious about leaving, but the fact that Xitter told the Australian ledge that there might be valid reasons for posting that kind of thing made me actually leave. Fascism is one thing, but "yes,but"-ing CP is quite another.
Tangent - and this is small, but immensely satisfying to me. I manually update apps in my phone and I refuse to download the update that turns Twitter into X. So I still have Twitter on my phone. My plan is to continue that way until it's no longer supported without an update, and then I will leave it behind. It makes me sad, though, as I've found so many writers, historians, and voices (such as yours!) I would never have found otherwise. I'm on the hunt for as many of them as possible outside of the app.
You remain one of my favorite writers on any platform and I'm grateful I can read you here, as I too limit my time on the platform formerly known as Twitter. And I'm hugely supportive of a book of your essays. They'd make great gifts for some of the not-so-online readers in my life.
*Sigh*
I know Twitter is going down in flames (much like its owner's most recent rocket), but the idea of having to sign up for a new platform, figure out a password, learn how to navigate the site and then repeat until I find one as useful as I have found Twitter - if such a thing even exists - is just too much for me right now.
On another note, as awful a human being as Musk is, I'm pretty certain the similarity between his rebrand of Twitter and the infamous Nazi symbol is purely accidental, just as I'm certain he never saw the similarity between his Tesla logo and an IUD, which is a much closer resemblance. He's just not that aware of the things outside himself.
Anyway, thank you for what you do, wherever you are doing it.
hey, you're already here, so no need to go somewhere else if you don't want to
so glad you are
I hope everyone takes your advice and that you leave X soon.
as the saying goes, If you lay down with dogs, you get fleas.
"severe toxic trajectory" and "slide into hate..." pretty much tells the tale of what happened to Twitter.
I've been reading you for about 18 months, and supporting for about 6 months but I came to you based on a Twitter comment that struck me which led me to investigate your Substack vs. having found you from The Revisionaries. I'm finally reading it and HFS is it good. I'm only 100 pages in but if this keep up it's, like, Murakami good. (He's my favorite living author so whatever you think of him, that's meant as high praise.) Thanks for all the well-crafted articles and your mastery of parable, but now also, thanks for this fantastic novel. I'll continue to tell my friends they should be reading you (some are now doing so) and now I can also call out your novel as reason to get onboard. Kudos and thank you.
Murakami is about the highest praise possible, so I thank you.
I didn't find you on Xitter. As I recall you were recommended as part of a trio of writers by Substack because I also read Dan Rather's "Steady", and the "Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American" and "Joyce Vance from Civil Discourse" newsletters.
Also, you might consider joining Tumblr. They're more Art/Animation/Anime-oriented, but I've seen numerous examples of excellent (and funny) topical writing there.
I love and appreciate what you've written here. Thank you! (I left Xitter a while ago and while I've lured a few of my friends to Mastodon, many are still in the Xitter. Alas.)
Very good advice. I frequent a pop-culture website (the Avocado, found at https://the-avocado.org/), and I plan to share your Mastodon toot with them so they can be inspired to quit the X-shit.