Thread by @catvalente

Hey, fun story!

I live on a small island in Maine. Post-election, a writer-friend & I decided to start a little islander group to share emotional support, info & resources. She posted about the 1st meeting on NextDoor.

Easy peasy.

There was nothing in the ad beyond "hey, things might get tough, let's get through this together."

IMMEDIATELY, MAGAs sailed in to scream, mock, & threaten us. For a support group.

I can't stress enough how this was just a potluck support group with an autumn bonfire & snacks, for islanders. To talk about our feelings & share some hope & logistical ideas for the future.

Yet all these conservatives, 98% of whom *don't even live on the island* started shrieking SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP & WE WON DEAL WITH IT.

I mean...yeah, man. We're dealing with it. By starting a group you don't need to come to because you don't even live here?

Now, I should probably say that I wrote the support group ad, but my friend had to post it, & I couldn't help with the replies. Due to having posted twice about an election night get-together & once about selling a treadmill within 72 hours, I'm apparently "spamming" & on a temporary suspension from NextDoor for two weeks.

This will be important in a minute. It's also extremely stupid.

At first, my friend with my support, felt fine about keeping it up. Assholes gonna be assholes.

But the threads of abuse got so intense & scary that she took it down for all our safety. We have kids & our addresses are on ND.

And most people don't have 25 years of dealing with goblin behavior online like I do. It's REALLY frightening when that suddenly happens & you've never experienced it before.

The streams of utterly untethered, red-faced, spittle-flinging fury on a post about a post-election SUPPORT GROUP on a TINY ISLAND in a BLUE STATE got so weird my EX, who lives in the city, called me on the PHONE to make sure we were okay & taking precautions.

Because NextDoor's algorithm, like everyone else's, prioritizes high-engagement posts & puts them on EVERYONE even remotely nearby's feed.

(Were any of the abusive shitjackals on that post suspended from NextDoor? Of course not.)

So after winning an election, these winners are so happy & at peace, so relieved & confident they're right, that their man's gonna benefit everyone's lives everywhere, that...they're compelled to screech fire & acid at two middle-aged writer ladies on an island *they do not live on* for the high treason of...*checks notes* having a potluck to support each other.

The next four years are gonna be SPECTACULAR.

These are just randos in PWM suburbs, sitting around their computers scrolling NextDoor for cheap furniture or roof repair. Not DC operatives or weirdo militia bros or high-investment GOPers or cackling Machiavellian millionaires. Just regular people.

LOVE THIS JOURNEY FOR US.

(Spoiler: I fucking hate this journey for us. But this is where it starts: the most innocuous private activist groups getting burnt down before they can share a casserole.)

By the way, this is the group I talked about in my Patreon essay about the election, and on the Discord for said Patreon last week.

You know, the thing I felt I could do that gave me a little hope. The thing I had just enough energy to try for.

YEP. THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED. FANTASTIC.

What amazes me isn't that they wanted to win & rub it in people's faces a bit--let's be real, we wanted that too--but that they simultaneously want to "own the libs" and *never have to see or hear a blue voter talk about it*.

How can you own the libs & taste their tears if you lose your mind, act like a gibbon with the rickets, & demand they be silent every time you see one upset about the thing you wanted them to be visibly upset about?