(1) "Blueskyism" is an unfortunate term for the phenomenon since it emerged on Tumblr and Twitter even if Twitter refugees brought it to Bluesky.
(2) It deserves a discussion which is entirely separate from "the river", whatever X is now, MAGA, etc. That is, it needs to be contrasted with what a healthy political culture of the left would be that would set us up to win.
(3) If you go looking at random Bluesky profiles you will find many that say something in the summary like "Blue Crew", "Always Vote Democrat", "No MAGA" and if you are unwise enough to click on it you will find they repost 20 items about Trump administration outrage a day. If you've got any sense you don't follow them or your feed will be nothing but that.
If you have a policy of not following that kind of account, blocking on the first hint of negativity, and blocking a few keywords, you can have a really nice feed.
(4) For me, the algo feed for Bluesky suppresses about 75% of that kind of content as opposed to the "following" feed. The thing is it has "More like this" and "Less like this" buttons which I use consistently... They work.
(5) Looking at random Bluesky profiles a lot of people have dropped out. I don't have real statistics that I wish I was keeping (if I did I could get my agent to accelerate things) but my impression is that scientists and other experts have a high rate of attrition -- I think the jerk users drive them away
(6) Folks like Silver, Yglesias and Noah Smith can most effectively create controversy by promoting this sort of antagonism, it's even possible they can peel a few people off to their point of view. Personally I think the future of the left is deliverism combining some of Ezra Klein and some of Matt Stoller.
PaulHoule•36m ago
(2) It deserves a discussion which is entirely separate from "the river", whatever X is now, MAGA, etc. That is, it needs to be contrasted with what a healthy political culture of the left would be that would set us up to win.
(3) If you go looking at random Bluesky profiles you will find many that say something in the summary like "Blue Crew", "Always Vote Democrat", "No MAGA" and if you are unwise enough to click on it you will find they repost 20 items about Trump administration outrage a day. If you've got any sense you don't follow them or your feed will be nothing but that.
If you have a policy of not following that kind of account, blocking on the first hint of negativity, and blocking a few keywords, you can have a really nice feed.
(4) For me, the algo feed for Bluesky suppresses about 75% of that kind of content as opposed to the "following" feed. The thing is it has "More like this" and "Less like this" buttons which I use consistently... They work.
(5) Looking at random Bluesky profiles a lot of people have dropped out. I don't have real statistics that I wish I was keeping (if I did I could get my agent to accelerate things) but my impression is that scientists and other experts have a high rate of attrition -- I think the jerk users drive them away
(6) Folks like Silver, Yglesias and Noah Smith can most effectively create controversy by promoting this sort of antagonism, it's even possible they can peel a few people off to their point of view. Personally I think the future of the left is deliverism combining some of Ezra Klein and some of Matt Stoller.
(7) Even Silver is starting to realize that "The River" has aged poorly https://www.natesilver.net/p/one-year-later-is-the-river-win...