Bob and Van and the embrace of both sides

Daring Fireball has recently posted a link to Marco Arment’s article on the good old days of ignoring people’s politics. My first thought, on this is that it was not that long ago he made it clear he cuts people off forever if he would rather not hear from them. If, for some reason, you cannot see the mastodon link, it says:

It's OK. This feature is awesome, and one I use heavily.

Every social network needs a few mutes here and there. Nobody inherently deserves anyone’s attention.

If someone replies in a way that makes me think, "I'd rather not hear from this person again,” I just mute forever. No aggressive block, no report or feedback, no way for them to know. It's not meant to send a message, get revenge, or influence anyone else — just tailor my feed for me.

To be honest, I think that is the way you should treat social media. Though I would say muting someone forever seems particularly excessive. That’s something I’d reserve for someone running scams, illegal content or a full-blown racist. For me personally, applying that to everyone feels a bit extreme. Especially when you then turn around and make the case of being ‘neighbors’ with everyone.

I could be wrong, but I feel this case of defending MacStories going all in on Twitter. Therein lies the disappointment. Attacking internet culture when you’re the one more often than not to make strong comments on podcasts feels odd . But more importantly, given that everything that has been said from Marco about Apple, Tim Cook, and Trump, to then play this card because your friend wants to hang out with the guy that help enable Trump to cause so much damage with Doge or has people claiming he was instrumental in the Belfast riots, just feels like you only care about anything as if it affects your wallet or your friends’ wallets. To be honest, that sounds like that is how Trump operates.

What I would say is life should not be black and white. It’s not a case of defending your friend fully or treating them like a mortal enemy. As any example, if someone were an alcoholic, what would be the best way to help them? Bury your head in the sand and tell them everything is okay or supportively try to get them off the booze? Sure, when it first comes up the alcoholic will probably even think they’re being attacked but unless you’re not real friends and this relationship is exceptionally fragile, the supportive opposition to their drinking is the almost certainly going to be more helpful in the long-run.

What most explains his behavior, in my opinion, is the book “We were never woke” by Musa al-Gharbi. He’s a wealthy guy looking to protect his own. Again, like Trump.

I know people will say he’s right and Apple should be expected to do more than MacStories. Don’t get me wrong, Apple should do something but as with many things (climate change), this idea that it all lands on the shoulders of big faceless companies is just wrong.

The reason the right can afford to keep going further to the right is because the conservatives also hold the opinion of not criticizing your own. The centrist Democrats hold the view that we need to be friends with everyone. It doesn’t hurt that someone with multiple houses and businesses is probably making out when someone like Trump gets into power.

Another example. When a neighborhood has a home with an abusive partner. What resolves that quicker, acting like everyone’s just a good neighbor or speaking up?

I would say you should be exposed to different opinions and the idea that if you have a neighbor whose beliefs are opposite to yours that along isn’t a reason to cut them off. That is definitely a true statement. However, any neighbor who acted like their trans child was dead, used a platform to stoke racism or their vast wealth to sway elections for their favor would absolutely be cut off. As would anyone who was okay to do business with someone like that.

In my opinion, joining a platform that causes real-world harms is not the same as your neighbor who is angry he has to pay taxes.

It’s easy to assume it’s all the same when you’re in a position that if life gets hard you can escape to your second home on an island away from it all.

Admittedly, some of my frustration probably comes from the fact that I thought some of the people I follow were complete sell-outs. That’s not me for being naive.