> wild west that was IRC in the 90's.

There was tons of /kick and /ban there too...

But there wasn't the equivalent of Mastodon culture of "hello server admin, nice instance you have here, it's a shame if it were to be defederated simply because you chose not to defederate the people we tell you to".

Wasn't that literally how and why EFnet started?

Yeah, but generally that was on a channel by channel basis.

> I feel like centralized social media is a blessing and a curse.

This is what makes Mastadon interesting. I'm not using it, but a lot of people I pay attention to are.

“Free speech” is a term that’s been completely abused and used in bad faith.

Is your assertion that I'm using it in bad faith?

No, but rather that Musk has been using it in bad faith (I’m assuming “I support free speech” was meant to qualify the criticism of Twitter under Musk’s leadership).

Yeah, Musk's definition of supporting free speech wasn't much to speak of... better than the old guard, but really weird in ways too. For me, short of threats or calls for violence I'm pretty open to whatever... As long as you're able to as an individual block/filter. Though the NSFW content on Twitter can be pretty bad and wouldn't mind being able to selectively filter that as a user too.

I don’t think it is better than “the old guard” at all. I would agree with this piece (which contains examples to make the point), that all he’s done is boost ideas he likes hearing and suppress ones he doesn’t in nakedly partisan fashion: https://apple.news/ANuPT612pRca2DdolgCyu1g

And it does neatly summarize what I meant about the term “free speech” being abused: “ For them, free speech is when they can say what they want, and when you can say what they want.”

I'm guessing you also don't participate in more conservative circles either... The before and after is a stark contrast to say the least. I don't always agree with conservatives, but do follow a lot of anti establishment libertarians and conservatives.