An email I just sent to the organisers of an international conference I’m speaking at this year. Social stigmatisation is a powerful tool against the far right. Use it any chance you get. Let others know it’s not all right and you won’t be part of normalising it.
So, quick update since some folks asked: just got a reply and there’s now a Mastodon icon with a link to my Mastodon account on my speaker page ;)
@aral Well done!
I am trying to share what is going on in the US with regard to the rise of attacks on the LGBTQA+ communities, and what is happening on twitter, which helps to facilitate some of this.
Started off by suggesting people need to think about how they can on the one hand be committed to safeguarding and be on twitter, given what is going on. More recently however I am trying to up this by saying why are you still on twitter.
Not sure if has any effect on people, but trying to suggest peoples reputations and that of their company / employer is at stake could make a difference.
Advantage is that these blog posts can have embedded toots, which in turn, have links to external sources to back the toots up, so we can't be accused of mis-information, when a toot points to local leglislation voting schedules or local newspaper reports.
There is very little hidng from this now as even the BBC are starting to give things a mention.
@aral I raised the point of getting a fediverse instance with our university comms team because twitter is so toxic, and the response was that mastodon has no moderation and it's not secure.
@LizEllisPhD Wow, that’s wrong on every count.
Happy to chat to them sometime if you like.
@aral I know. I actually sent them some links to MIT's Masto account but they don't care, they get way more engagement on LinkedIn. I've been trying to push the idea of using an instance which could serve as a repository as an alternative to academic publishing which is becoming increasingly predatory, but they are very resistant. I expect in about five years when every university in the west has it's own instance, the'll join up.
@LizEllisPhD @aral WTF, "more engagement on LinkedIn"? The saddest social media site on the inter webs?
@roadskater @aral lol, ikr? I tend to cut everyone slack (except HR who are cutting me slack) because we're in a pandemic and folks are frazzled, but they seem incapable of understanding that things have changed since 2019 and they really need to at least attempt to engage. We have falling student recruitment at least in part because of excreable comms. It's super depressing that the people I've got on my summer school have all come via my own networks or personal marketing.
@sentient_water @aral heh, blocked by my institution!
@LizEllisPhD @aral If your institution is a university then it's very likely. It's cutting into their business model. Wait till you get home I guess.
@sentient_water @aral I'm so institutionalised my only device now is a work one (looks reproachfully at my MBA with the spent battery and iPad with the unrepairable broken screen)
@sentient_water @aral
Haha! If I ever get a pay rise I might.
@aral
All I see is a crybaby spinning out words with little sense to them, which isn't better than the person you are trying to denounce
@fairlyn You should get your eyes checked.
@aral
Please let us know how the request goes.
#KeepUsUpdated
@VictimOfSimony Will do :)
@aral well done
@aral what are your thoughts about Bluesky?
@ronaldsvilcins My thoughts are Jack Dorsey can get bent.
@aral well said
@aral Will I appreciate your position, I think you'd have been more powerful with a less direct invective. "I do not want to be associated with that platform or its current owner" plays more to high ground. Everyone knows the reason but his loyal fans can't attack it as easily.
@obscurestar Oh, I say what I mean and see how people react. That tells me a lot about who they are. And that insight’s priceless. Especially with folks I’m going to associate with.
@aral That's fair. Like I said. I agree with you. Just been my experience that defenders will seek out and fixate on that kind of language to then try to make it sound like you're the baddie. I try to make them work for it.
(and maybe some pampers sent to birdcage HQ?