We Need Our Own Communication/News Platforms-How Long Until Bluesky & MSNBC Captured By Right?

I've added a Bluesky account to my social media. I should delete Twitter because it is a right wing sewer. But for the moment I'm keeping Twitter.

(My Bluesky address is @neilaquino.bksy.social Please follow me and I'll follow you back!)     

Bluesky says it would be difficult for a billionaire to show up in the future and ruin the place like happened with Twitter.   

From NPR:

And Bluesky...is "billionaire-proof," since the company is not one centralized feed of content, but rather a "protocol" from which endless feeds can be created. Think of a protocol like email, or the internet itself, Graber says. It would be difficult for a single person or company to control it, since the underlying technology is open-sourced and maintained by many contributors, like Wikipedia.

The full NPR story is interesting.  

I don't believe Bluesky is billionaire proof. Or immune to becoming a right wing network. Why should anyone have any confidence about these things at this point?    

I've never watched much MSNBC. It seems I won't be starting now. The Morning Joe hosts who genuflected to Trump did a lousy thing. Morning Joe viewers appear to think the same. Ratings are down.

Comcast now says it is going to spin off MSNBC. Who knows what'll it end up being. Musk has already "joked" about buying it.  

We need our own channels of communication.

One channel of communication is in front us of each day. We must be strongly-connected with each other. We must build local networks of trust, democracy and mutual assistance. 

These networks have value in the volunteerism that helps win elections (In exploitive labor markets where the consultants get paid win or lose), and in knowing who can be trusted no matter what happens in the days ahead.

We must be able to contact one another without relying on big social media networks. Keep the addresses, e-mail and phone numbers--whatever you need--of people you'd want to communicate with in a political  or authoritarian crisis.

Support independent local media. A great source of independent local media is Politics Done Right hosted by Egberto Willies on KPFT each weekday at 6 AM. He does another independent version of the show each day at 3. The Houston Democracy Project has a weekly hour long segment on Politics Done Right on  Thursday mornings. Politics Done Right has earned your support.        

Another source of information, local connection and power is the Houston Democracy Project.  I have full autonomy. I show up for others. Please help the effort.    

A network of autonomous advocacy I'm part of is the Texas Grassroots Alliance. TGA is a statewide organization of grassroots activists working to change Texas politics with new voices and new approaches. TGA held its 2nd annual statewide summit last week in Fort Worth.   

I'm also going to be talking here soon about the Unified website and app which is an invite-only organizing tool for Texas activists. The folks at Unified are looking to create a platform activists can rely on.
    
There is a lot of trouble ahead. We don't have to confront it alone or rely on social media platforms or sources of information built for profit. Use and consume well-known social media and news infrastructure as it works for you. That's what I do.

Don't neglect the resources that you and the people around you bring to the fight. There are a lot of good and hopeful tools right here at home. Make use of them.        
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I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. ​​​

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