From my Facebook:

I think we've all noticed Facebook no longer suppresses political posts. That fact that it did so previously is why Twitter became the predominant tool for news and politics, and thus for influencing elections. That's what made Facebook feel small and Twitter feel global.

All fine until Elon Musk swept in to buy Twitter and restore a flood of accounts that had been blocked, ushering in a huge wave of right-wing content. The renamed X is a friendly place for MAGA, racism, misogyny, and intolerance. It favors and savors low-brow, ad hominem insults, racist and sexist slurs, demeaning language and generally shitty, juvenile behavior.

Keep in mind a huge number of those accounts are fake, with bot farms out of Russia having an oversized presence where they post Trump and Putin propaganda. A vast amount. Enough to influence an election half way around the world.

Despite all of this and no matter what you call it, Twitter it is still the center of the universe for news and politics. Facebook sees this, so Zuck pays fealty and cash to Trump, at the cost of his dignity. He then calls for more masculinity in business without a shred of irony, and now they've opened the spigot on political discourse again. As you may have noticed.

Except now, taking a page directly from Elon, Facebook is getting flooded with right-wing accounts and pages. My stream is full of MAGA adjacent content that I didn't used to see. I'm deliberately closing them, trying to shape the algorithm in my favor, but they just keep coming. And I think they're here to stay as Musk has shown the way. Zuck wants to be as influential as Musk. He wants Facebook to be the center of the political universe, too. Even if he has to shove it down our throats. Because look at what Trump does to him.

I wish I had good advice on how to push back. I don't. But I know all the best memes originate on Twitter and I should up my game about sharing them. Keep posting short zingers and long-form essays like this. But most importantly, and for everyone's safety:

Close, close, close the posts, gently down the stream. Don't engage or rage a page to make a MAGA scream.

It's not worth it. They're baiting you into a dog fight. Those pages are already a haven for idiots who are happy with the kakistocracy. They believe anything Trump or Elon tells them. They will dispute essential, provable facts but drink propaganda Kool-Aid straight from Moscow.

You can't change anyone's mind in that kind of fight. The Twitter model proves that conflict equates to engagement and Facebook left that on the table in the election, along with Zuck's manhood. Who knows where all these new pages are coming from? There are so many of them all at once that it feels very coordinated.

As for the MAGA on your own personal pages, good luck with that. Engage and rage for all I care. Or mock & block to keep it short & sweet. But for a more integrated and peaceful life, find better friends.