This discussion was thought-provoking for me and I found it very worthwhile reading everyone’s points. I had a lot of thoughts:
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When someone conjures an image of the State - of the ruling class - and they’re blocking my posts I feel vindicated against them as “tyrants against free speech”
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When I imagine a space collectively organised to stop fascists from acting, imagining the success of such an effort makes me feel empowered
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It’s worth reflecting on what people are trying to achieve in their speech. On Twitter and in competitive contexts, I think people are often trying to craft an image of themselves which other people like. It’s something that we do anyway but we’re rarely able to measure in likes and retweets. This to a great extent hinders the “freedom” of their speech?
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The philosophy in Twitter’s design (e.g. of likes, of individuals like islands in one global sea) should be brought under the microscope. Mastodon makes only small changes to this (e.g. by allowing people to choose their communities), and even then creates a radically different experience to people who use it
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The federated nature of Mastodon means that we can build into the fediverse other designs - which a friend of mine is doing around the idea of Heterarchy
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Mastodon has its’ own centralisation problems
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Speakers are sometimes trying to manipulate the listener or cause them harm
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Some communication I would view as malicious, like when people are trying to recruit you into a cult or into a gang. I wouldn’t advocate platforming fascism outside of ex-fascists rehabilitating current fascists into ex-fascists
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Listeners are often preoccupied in trying to categorise what is being said - which sometimes results in them staging a debate. The algorithm gets involved and it’s like a competition on who can have the loudest voice. The opinions often aren’t very nuanced, they can become polarised and lowest-common-denominator
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I think that in “mutual” communication people are trying to express a need and have it met, while the listener is trying to hear this need and anything else which they might find fulfilling. The competition for the one “global” space might be the primary factor causing people on Twitter to be bad at this, because I’ve seen a lot of compassionate communication on Mastodon where this competition doesn’t exist. That said - it’s true that Mastodon is much less popular, so it’s hard to tell. Without popularity then maybe nobody would care what someone tweeted. Many articles talking about what someone tweeted invoke more scandal than they would if someone had posted it online somewhere else. “They said that? But not in the arena, surely?! We told them already, the arena is ours!”