Justin Ling

The core problem is this, he doesn’t practice principled anti-imperialism. He practices inversionism: if the U.S. supports something, he reflexively takes the opposite side, no matter how brutal that side is, no matter the evidence.

Yeah, exactly. Us gays have already been through this, because we did app-based dating first.

It is also, I should say, an easy out to rage at. People who complain most about the apps are also the ones who refuse to be social or who are bad at it.

try their hot dogs

Disagree on that one bit. I think they want sex, but have outsourced all quasi-romantic stuff to the apps — which are, apparently, good for gettin' sex — and are finding out how miserable and demoralizing it is to reduce connections to a series of cold, unpleasant text exchanges.

Trump: "You're right. Why should anybody trust numbers?"

i think the problem is that the world is just less fun

if a social media platform can integrate to the wider internet — i.e. it doesn't penalize outside links, it effectively integrates outside content, perhaps it even allows cross-platform interactions — than *that's* the network effect.

and that's way more fun that living in a huge walled garden.

AND ANOTHER THING the entire premise that a social media platform *must* have the network effect is so entirely wrong.

the internet itself is the network effect. a platform can/should be a place for a small-ish number to allow both on and off platform engagement.

that is 100% what's going on in the LLM space now, yes

i am so not loyal to this app. if something better comes along, i'll switch.

but fuck me, tech bros have absolutely no idea how to build technology for people

that is to say: inherent in hypergrowth is the idea that you should focus more on forcing your users to stay than in keeping them happy or bettering your product

fuck that! the best thing about bluesky is that it allows endless user-driven customization and add-ons.

AND ANOTHER THING what i want from a service is reliability, usability, and increased functionality. most "hypergrowth" platforms basically give up on offering new services or tools, except those they copy from their competitors. their R&D money goes into making engagement more sticky

i agree, growth is good.

but not all growth happens thanks to a corporate plan and $200m in VC cash and a plan to integrate crypto. you might even say that kind of growth is artificial, enshittifying, and an affront to the actual users of the product.

what's wrong with a company remaining small and allowing its user base to drive growth, culture, vibes, etc?

that is exactly the standard that created the internet. Google wasn't obsessed with "hypergrowth" for usenet. it just....helped people use them.

AND ANOTHER THING why do we keep demanding that the platforms themselves are supposed to drive growth and community?

a corporation can't force social interactions, and indeed when Facebook tried to do that it broke everyone's brains

I still use it! Just not as frequently.

stop ruining the fucking internet

Bluesky Is Trapped in a Doom Loop once hailed as the future of decentralized ("nontoxic") social media, bluesky is shedding users and realizing

The premise of this article — that Bluesky needs hypergrowth — is exactly the problem.

The idea that internet companies should grow infinitely and monopolize their space, fattened on VC cash driven by optimistic valuations, is exactly what ruined the internet. www.piratewires.com/p/bluesky-is...

I think it's entirely fair to say that the manosphere rhetoric portrays men as victims, but that's often not how they feel. Often what makes these bros effective is by constantly telling men that they are to blame for their misfortune and need to fix it.

Obviously teaching men to be less shitty is a good thing, but I don't really think the state/media/society can directly solve for romantic or sexual failures of men.

But I think we can talk about how to create systems where men can more easily build a happy social/economic life.

Good urbanism, still the domain of progressives, is all about creating human-scale social spaces. That has been totally fucked over the past two decades. Everything has become private and unwelcoming. Pandemic super-charged that. "We want to make a world where you can meet people" is a good sell.

But there's one spot where I think progressives can advance: The creation of new third spaces.

Men, like women, fucking hate dating apps. The clueless bros of the manosphere can only suggest more aggressive app tactics or weird pick-up artist shit.

How about: Log the fuck off?

On self-improvement, it used to be progressives who had the edge. But Peterson really changed the game by rebranding "grow the fuck up" with lots of pop philosophy, to where it made men feel empowered and important again.

I think there's lots of room for an effective JFK-style "get to work" pitch.

The manosphere tells young men that the barriers to their success include DEI, birth control, women's liberation, etc. That's obvious bullshit.

But there *are* barriers to male success: And they're mostly economic and structural! Progressives have a way better story to tell, there.

The Jordan B. Peterson et al's take on the male loneliness epidemic is sold as

-Society must reduce barriers to male success
-Men must better themselves

Rather than trying to solve for men getting laid, it's on those two points that progressives can do way better

I disagree with the premise because it accepts that alt-right's framing of the problem, which I don't think is correct to begin with.

I think if you're trying to come up with state-based solutions for very personal problems, you're bound to fail.

I disagree with the argument (will explain in thread) but it's an interesting take, and definitely raises some good points. Worth the read.

People getting angry at Ian about it should chill. Bluesky is the worst when it lives up its (mostly unfair) reputation as full of lefty scolds.

Their East Village location is one of my absolute favorite places in NYC. Had no idea they had a spot in Grand Central.

A Man on the Street, A Movement of Weaklings The future of politics is street, if we let it

I wrote all about that this week www.bugeyedandshameless.com/p/a-man-on-t...

Trump Backs QAnon Call to Be ‘Calm in Storm’ Over Epstein It was not the first time the president has shown tacit support of the QAnon movement.

God, I missed that Trump is now actively grovelling to QAnon to stick with him. (It'll probably work?) www.thedailybeast.com/trump-backs-...