sometimes I think about posting something like "look I don't know the guy so I'm not setting myself up to defend his honor or anything, but I honestly don't know when and why did we all decide Taika Waititi is cringe now"
and then I think about what it means to believe "I want to live" and how it's different from merely "I don't want to die"
I don't think that embracing life necessarily means being offline or disconnected from pop culture, there are many valid ways that we share our lives and creations with each other, screens and the experiences they give us are part of reality
but
it's raining outside my window, and the new leaves are still soft and yellow-green and the water gathers on them until it spills off in fat drops into the spring mud
so I've been living a twitter-free lifestyle since january, and while there are those that say bsky is a lateral move at best, the experience of using a different niche microblogging platform with delusions of grandeur is, at least, different. for now.
actually it's been interesting seeing how much of why twitter is like that has to do with the format (limited characters, likes and replies improve post visibility, etc.), how much with the posters (the character of bluesky fundamentally changed about this time last year when some big twitter shitposters all got invites at once), and how much is actually twitter itself (I haven't seen an "I'm not a Nazi but we have to consider some of the good ideas Nazis had" convo in months, bsky has its problems for sure but at least really overt bigots still tend to vaporize instantly).
these days I block anyone I see being a shithead ("shithead" herein defined as unnecessarily aggressive, arguing in bad faith, engaging in social-media dick-measuring, etc. there are many ways to shit one's head) in anyone's replies, and my life is happier for it. the hardest twitter habit to overcome is trying to find out what everyone is joking vaguely about so I can joke about it too, and I am sad to say I succumbed to that impulse this very morning, and learned a very unenriching fact about a third-string political candidate, that isn't even very funny when considered in the wider context of the anti-vax movement.
so now, instead of trying to find out why taika waititi is cringe, I'm going to watch the hummingbird that is desperately trying to extract nectar from my newly-bloomed salvia, and the tiny wren who is working its little ass off trying to fill its nestlings, hidden under the corner of my deck, with bugs; I'm going to let my dogs bounce on each other and then I'll decide what to carve next.
people can prioritize whatever they want to learn about, including assigning all celebrities a Problematicity Score and Attack Value in ranked competitive Allyship, but it's not my thing and I don't need to let it become my thing.
