Thread by @paulkrugman

So, I've opened a Mastodon account as a precaution against the possible Muskocalypse on this site: mastodon.online/@pkrugman

Let me talk about motivation, which may be a bit different from other Twitterati 1/

I use Twitter in a somewhat restricted way. I don't, for the most part, respond to or even look at replies — too many followers, and too much hate even with content moderation. I do dialogues, when I do, via retweets 2/

What I use the site for is partly broadcasting, but mostly to follow people who actually know a subject, whether it's energy policy or national security. Getting information from such people in more or less real time is extremely valuable 3/

So a mass influx of crazy people won't directly hurt the way I use Twitter. But I worry about loss of critical mass. As Musk's apparently uncontrollable nastiness and childishness drives away users and advertisers, it's easy to see how Twitter's usefulness could collapse 4/

I have no idea what will replace Twitter if and when that happens. But I'm doing what I can to retain an alternative social media foothold 5/