Philip Cardella
#histodons I love #HeatherCoxRichardson and if you follow me you know I do. She's why I decided to go to grad school.
But while Substack is PAYING misogynists and antisemites to post on its site don't you think it's a bit odd she stays there? I'm not trying to call her out I'm using her as example. She makes $14,000 a month from subscriptions alone there.
And most of the top substackers get PAID on top of that. Is she?
I'm NOT saying it's wrong or bad that she makes money. I am saying...
Philip Cardella
Yes BlueSky is run by Jack.
You know Glass Onion was about Jack, right? And he's friends with Musk.
I suspect our most popular historians aren't staying there to make a difference so much as they're making too much money to leave.
There's nothing wrong with making money! For God's sake I wish we all were.
But WHY THERE?
We can do better. If our field is going to survive (and they do NOT WANT OUR FIELD TO SURVIVE) we should find somewhere else to make a difference.
Philip Cardella
I know people are heading to Threads. But Threads is just Facebook.
Some are going to BlueSky, which is literally a Twitter offshoot.
I'm not trying to promote Mastodon here or whine about people not being here.
I'm saying Zuckerberg and Musk are actively anti-democracy. And they have total control.
Staying so you can make a difference is like saying you're staying in Saudi Arabia to make a difference.
It's VERY hard to do from within. And UNNECESSARY. AND DANGEROUS.
Philip Cardella
She has a ton of reasons, at least $100,000 a year, to stay there. But if she left you know we'd follow her. That her fans would. She COULD lead people away from Substack--which is EXACTLY why many top substackers get paid on top of their subscibers.
What about Facebook. Zuckerberg actively works to destroy democracy. What would happen if she and other popular historians left?
Would you stay?
And what about the owner of X--who gave us the CyberTruck? Why are any of us there anymore? Seriously
Paranoid Factoid
@philip_cardella Mastodon is closing in on 15M accounts. There's a real user community here. I'd advocate for it!
But it helps to understand their perspective.
Philip Cardella
@ParanoidFactoid As I said, I'm not advocating Mastodon. I'm advocating not using sites run by a man who literally just promoted his truck line embedding KKK in the logo.
Paranoid Factoid
@philip_cardella A lot of people here were rude to professional journalists. There's also an activist streak which is dismissive to professional standards in the field. So many of the pros picked up their accounts and left.
The FefiVerse must do better.
Philip Cardella
@ParanoidFactoid I do advocate for it. Just wasn't in this case. 🥰
But to be brutally honest the complaints about Mastodon are frankly absurd to me. I'm sure they're honest. I'm also sure whatever cultural shortcomings of Mastodon Facebook and Twitter are as bad or worse--except on those platforms IT'S ENCOURAGED by the owners.
And though the learning curve exists it's way overblown. They're not using it because they want to stay put or to not learn new things. NIMBY mentality.
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