Hi there. In these times, folks are becoming more aware on how the social media companies are tracking their activity online, and selling the data for AI training purposes. They're getting tired of being sold to third parties as a product, instead of being the customers or users of these platforms.
Sadly, Mastodon is losing its chance to become a real alternative to this business model. Why? Because the majority of users, me included, are no less sick and tired of online radical politics, regardless of orientation, being forced 24/7 upon them. They just want a friendly conversation on life, job and hobby topics... and perhaps also opt-in from time to time on the denser subjects of social and political issues. Mastodon claims to be ad-free... but in fact, the majority of contents over there can still be considered political ads disguised as personal takes.
An example: I went to instances.social, picked up spanish language... users and content were just the default. And this was the very first entry coming out:
"Todon.nl is een radicaal linkse anti-autoritaire Mastodonserver. Wij verwelkomen anarchisten, socialisten, (klimaat)activisten, LHBTQIA+-personen, milieubewuste mensen, intersectionelen, antiracisten, antifascisten, antikapitalisten, veganisten, piraten, mensenrechtenactivisten, enz. Als ze maar radicaal, links én anti-autoritair zijn".
The default instance on most of the Mastodon apps for the phone, is equally focused on radical politics in the feed, and its not reflective of the interests of the general public as a whole, but rather alienating. This is a boon to Zuckerberg and Musk... not to the majority of users, open source, or internet privacy. It is not surprising, given this fact, that Mastodon moderators have repeatedly tended to ban the users for the most perplexing reasons (likely because of not being politically radical enough). Regardless, not the way an alternative to the mainstream social media should ever be.
Everybody should be able to enjoy a conversation in a wide array of controversial topics if they desire to, but users should be able to opt-in, not being forced-in. Unless this changes, so that Mastodon becomes a truly welcoming site (even for the people who're sick of ideology being fed into their throats, which are many), there's no chance for it to become the alternative to commercial social media that it aims to be.
It sounds like Xitter politics would be more up your alley, so just use that then.
Your comment kind of proves my point. But Xitter, as you say, is not free. I pay it with my personal data, and as I said, I'm not ok with that, because its not honest or moral. Mastodon on the other hand, isn't free either... because its seemingly sponsored or held together by radical politics (which aren't money-less, since it receives funding for promotion purposes... not to mention the personal benefit/enjoyment of the organizers).
If Mastodon goal is solely to be a political platform, then there's nothing to argue and you'd be right. But the project doesn't present itself like that, instead as a decentralized platform open to everybody, which protects our privacy and its free to use. Politics is never mentioned, so I feel that my critique is grounded.
If you care so much about the principles of software freedom, then you are quite political yourself. I don't see why you'd have a problem with something like Anarchism in that case. Maybe you just aren't familiar with what philosophies like Anarchism are really about.
Mastodon is not an organization that controls what anyone posts. If you're a free software aficionado, you should know that. People will post what they like, it's up to you to choose who to follow and curate your own feed.