comediatriste

Not a fan of social media, actually. But interacting with humans is a very different thing from chatting with others through a text box. Opposite things, maybe.

If only you had a slightly more even handed political discussion in Mastodon; I guess its understandable to not allow the hard right in, because of typical moderation policies regarding discrimination. But seeking among Mastodon instances, you find no moderate right, or center right servers. Zero. In fact, you find no political center servers at all. And if we try to search for even one reformist or democratic left server, in any human language, we won't find a single place out there. Not one. So all this talk about Mastodon being "open" to all, or just a matter of ignorance about system settings, is frankly insulting or hypocritic. If we're going to talk politics, and the topic can't be avoided, at least be open to other trends that don't pressume to know what's "better" for the majority of the people, than what the people itself chooses in election day.

I have said it before, and I say it again: It is the default experience of newcomers not following anything, its simply what's by default in the feed. Honestly, would you accept an answer like this, if the feed for every newcomer was full of anti immigration toots or pro-police commentary instead? Bet you'd feel unconfortable, thinking that stuff doesn't fit with the expectations of average users. You'd be right. But you're ok with things as they are now, only because you perceive them as favoring your own bias. And, seems to me that politics are more important to you than seeing this platform grow by bringing people in. You see it merely as a means to an end, instead of an end by itself.

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 I'm pretty fragile, then why I'm sharing my opinions in the Mastodon reddit? There are more people not using Mastodon than people who do, so while it might seem easy to single me out in this reddit, in truth, mine is not a lone voice.

No. When you pick up the default or official instance from the phone app, you expect a bit of everything but not, in any case, a political room. Why was I directed to a radical Mastodon instance in the index? If I changed no settings, just went with the default.

I have studies in social sciences, talked to sociologists, anthropologists... if this dose of politics on Mastodon is making me gag, I can only imagine the reaction of average people, who will make their minds about it from the first impression and default settings. Sorry, but sometimes less is more.