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Ok, so inevitably, some of the "cooler" celebrities are actually going to find their way here (I use quotes, because being a celebrity is inherently uncool, and if you want that defended, that's another thread, and I'll happily get into it, but not here), and there are going to be some that you don't like and want to attack for their expressed views.
Let me present a case, that has nothing to do with "civility", for why that's not terribly effective or necessary.
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Celebrity is an infection that feeds on attention. Not on adoration, not on approval, but attention. Every toot, every reference, every @ of a celebrity at all, *even and especially* those that are negative, drive attention back toward that person.
Let's say that there are 25 of you who dislike them enough to talk about them or @ them, and 1,000 of you who dislike them enough to boost those toots.
Congratulations! You've just advertised their presence to the federated TL.
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For every 1,000 of you who hate this person, there's going to be probably, oh, 10,000 people who are fans of them or their work.
You just got that person 10K followers by complaining about them. You've also flooded the TL with mentions of them that keep getting boosted by people who also think they suck... great! Your reach is expanding! There's another 10K followers for them!
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If they do end up staying, and they end up playing nicely with a group of people who are their fans, or maybe even make new friends by *making the same effort the rest of us do* to reach out and engage in conversation, then great! A celebrity remembered today that they don't get to just coast on their name in social spaces forever and have to actually be a human.
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If they decide this place is "dead and boring" or "a ghost town", also great! We don't have anyone sucking up all the oxygen in the room!
Block them instantly. Every time. It's the only way to ensure that this place doesn't devolve into a total clout farm (which, sadly, is already happening and has been happening since the influx that would become the bofam).
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I understand that it totally sucks when a person with a lot of leverage has done something shitty to you or a marginalized group of which you are a part, and the desire to yell at them is strong.
If you absolutely cannot live with yourself if you don't @ them, send them a DM. Don't do it publicly. Criticizing them in public is advertising.
But perhaps the better move is to DM all your close friends and suggest they block the celebrity, too. Strip them of their unearned power.
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Take away their platform. Plain and simple.
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"Aw, give them a chance. Don't block them. Come on."
No!
"lol, no, get this: harass them relentlessly!"
Also no!
The former is *way* too nice, and upholds their power and clout farming.
The latter normalizes dogpiling and harassment, which because people are acculturated to corporate social media, spreads rapidly and starts taking over *all* relationships, not just corporate (non-)"relationships".
It's also sheer hell if you have sensory/social challenges
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@shoutcacophony Exactly! Like, yesterday, a bunch of people were piling on some (turned out to be false) celebrity I didn't know, and I was like, "Hey, buddy, I don't know what's going on, but if you need help navigating here, I am happy to be a friend," because I didn't know they were "famous" and thought I'd just be pleasant and welcoming... and that was not knowing who they were! Fans won't just offer friendship to the celebrity, they'll attack anyone who criticizes them.
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@SuzanEraslan See, I think that points to a larger issue when people start dogpiling, not just celebrities, but in general.
It is virtually *impossible* to have an ingroup "set" that's large enough to "get the joke".
People don't get jokes, for a variety of reasons. Assuming that they do is stinky cheese level ableist.
Watching this start to happen is like "ok, y'all are weaponizing shitposting and just *sprays gunfire into a crowd*.
Um, please don't
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@SuzanEraslan This is all a Very Good Takeβ’οΈ. π
Anticapitalist Mastodon instance. Party means fun, not political party. But we're still political.
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Now it's likely that, even if *you* hate this celebrity, you have mutuals who don't, or mutuals have mutuals who don't.
Prepare for an onslaught of boosts on the federated TL of the celebrity's every bad take!
Sure, you can block them *now*, but you've blocked them after you've given them reach.
Don't engage. Don't @ them. For heaven's sake, don't talk about them constantly.
Just block and move on and let their interactions and thus *their influence* starve.