







Hearing other people’s uncensored opinions of you is an unpleasant reminder that you’re just another person in the world.
Assumed Audiences
Naming your invisible audiences to free yourself from unspoken obligations

Annoying Queer People Are Not Why We're Oppressed
An apology to the closeted, questioning, newly out, and cringe.

Not Everything Is For You - Personal Ethics & Thoughts
[blacksky makes private posts for its community] white atproto devs: oh my god this is vendor lock-in this is so bad for the atmosphere!!!!
the chronically online will become a new underclass
Free Speech on the Internet: The Crisis of Epistemic Authority
Abstract. Much of our knowledge of the world comes not from direct sensory experience, but from reliance on epistemic authorities: individuals or institutions that tell us what we ought to believe. For example, what most of us believe about natural selection, climate change, or the Holocaust comes from our reliance on epistemic authorities (scientists, historians). Sustaining epistemic authority depends, crucially, on social institutions that inculcate reliable second-order norms about whom to believe about what. The traditional media were crucial, in the age of mass democracy, with promulgating and sustaining such norms. The internet has obliterated the intermediaries who made that possible, and, in the process, undermined the epistemic standing of actual experts. This essay considers some possible changes to existing free speech doctrine to remedy the epistemological crisis brought about by the internet.

Art or tool?
The Internet spaces I tend to inhabit have more polarisation than at many other recent times, and little explication of the worldviews that lead to different premises for discussion, that in turn...

Sharing news you didn't read can feel like expertise
Social media sharers believe that they are knowledgeable about the content they share, even if they have not read it or have only glanced at a headline.

Moderation on Blacksky-Only Posts: A Community Proposal
Our team has explored several ways to make permissioned posts possible. Now we’re bringing the decision back to the community. Below are three approaches to moderation: a machine-learning system that automates moderation, a large-scale peer moderator program, or a hybrid model that combines both. We’re inviting your feedback to help decide how we should govern privacy together.

A World Unobserved
Humans have always generated knowledge and judged it. That's changing fast.

I do think this is a kind of novel problem with our current media environment - Serious people aren't good at making content, they have other things to do, but content is what drives attention. Tastemakers used to highlight the serious people but they're gone, replaced by content creators.
"We should be able to have an open discussion about what's good science and freely critique bad research. No not you! You shouldn't be having an open discussion about what's good metascience or freely critique bad metaresearch. That's censorship." Idk about you folks but I'm tired of the bullshit.
The forced global adoption of puritanistic American cultural norms vis sexuality and nudity via app store/payment processor rules is one of the least-discussed free speech issues of the last decade and this lack of attention is going to hurt online expression so much in the years to come.
♍ Bee 🐝
I think also we cannot ignore the potential social and cultural ramifications of normalizing the demonification of anything adult or sexual The whole system is stacked against any sort of movement in the other direction and it's not something the porn industry can handle alone at this point
humble opinon: it's hard to be taken seriously when you tell everyone about respecting users' agency and then force a change of *their content presentation* with no controls in other words: why do y'all have so much care at the protocol level and seems to have so little on everything user facing?!
I wish the Atmosphere had content warnings (like on the fediverse)... because I'd like to show you the limits of free speech absolutism and the kind of content that is allowed on #WSocial: blatant racism, xenophobia and transphobia. X vibes... but hey, it's "hosted in Europe" 😒
Lately I have noticed anti-immigrant rhetoric from #WSocial users - as well as posts containing hate speech that are NOT moderated. Thankfully I subscribe to @blackskyweb.xyz moderation and I want to thank @jdot.blacksky.team and his team for labeling one of the worst W accounts. #WSocialPics
ABC Australia has a YouTube series called “You Can’t Ask That” in which they bring in people from various marginalized/stereotyped groups who have volunteered to answer “inappropriate” questions. I’m sure they aren’t fully representative but they do foster empathy & I think they’re generally great.
Muslim women on hijabs, gender inequality, abuse and faith | You Can't Ask That | Full Episode
youtu.be