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In the wake of President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, X users wary of Elon Musk’s new power in his administration fled the site. Bluesky, one of its main rivals, reported a massive influx of users as the app rocketed to the top of the download charts.
And while those joining may appreciate a social network site that doesn’t have the MAGA trappings and fascist aesthetics, they need to be ready to live through 2017 all over again.
At the onset of Trump’s first administration, Twitter operated at a frenetic pace as a spate of posters coalesced around a self-styled resistance (Resistance Twitter as it was deemed) who all breathlessly shared every single inane rumor, detail, and specious claim about Trump, all certain they were one single 140 character post away from ending the Trump presidency once and for all.
Remember “It’s time for some game theory?” Remember fake Will McAvoy? Remember Angry White House staffer? REMEMBER BOOM???
BOOM may have not brought down Trump, but … perhaps pivoting to an even more closed ecosystem with even less clout while speaking in the same hyperbole will be the difference this time?
Resistance Twitter is migrating to Bluesky
Where to fucking start?
Say hello to Fake Jack Smith.
“Good morning. It’s official. The resistance is rebuilding on Blue Sky,” the account wrote yesterday.
Real Jack Smith ended his prosecution of Trump after the election and is likely to resign his post, but Fake Jake Smith, he’s still fighting the good fight.
Fake Jake Smith declared Resistance Bluesky (doesn’t have the same ring, alas) should remember that “Facts still matter” and the platform needs to interrogate “how we move beyond the age of disinformation.”
Unlike a lot of political posters, he’s putting his money where his mouth is … reporting other fake Jack Smith profiles to Bluesky’s trust and safety department.
“There is an account here pretending to be me. @jacksmith22.bsky.social He has copied my twitter profile so my followers will think it’s me.”
“If you want me posting here, take action,” he added.
But that’s just one tiny little cosplayer, of a character who didn’t even exist in 2017. Fret not, all your faves are back. America’s national parks are standing up again (uhh ask not how the fight for Bears End went).
In 2017, AltNPS racked up 33,000 Twitter followers as the “official ‘Resistance’ team of U.S. National Park Service,” mostly doing tweets saying other parks were joining the resistance and selling stickers.
You better believe they are now on Bluesky, demanding Trump deliver them proof his decision to relocate the EPA is justified.
“Trump plans to move the EPA HQ outside D.C. We’re simply asking for a clear business justification for this decision,” wrote at @altnps.bsky.social.
Sadly, a demand like that is unlikely to reach Trump on the platform, as he doesn’t use it. But that’s a new feature of this (I’ll say it, soft) resistance.
“I’m going to commit to keeping Bluesky free of any Trump tweets Is anyone else planning to do the same?” wrote ProLib to thunderous cheers.
Shaking my head. 2017 would never. 2017 would never want to miss a tweet threatening Rod Rosenstein’s oversight of the Russia probe because Rod Rosenstein’s independence is sacrosanct.
Bluesky has those 2017 Resistance Twitter theories
But fret not. There are still real freaks, ones who’ve convinced themselves that the 2024 election was stolen and that X, being controlled by Elon Musk, facilitated that effort and also Russia and or Qatar plus Jared Kushner = Trump being bars?
Say hello to Rigged Election on Bluesky. (Which Bluesky suspended prior to publication for reasons unknown).
“When you were atacked on X by ‘MAGA’ most of them werent MAGA but russian ‘bots,’” the account wrote, because “Russia has millions of digital warriors and Elon Musk just gave them covert access to X as part of the deal with Putin. Im not saying all of them are russian bots but a lot are. These people are psychopaths.”
Yes, Musk’s backchannel bot pipeline to Putin. That’s 2017. That’s some good ass 2017 . Especially when combined with a highfalutin sense of destiny and absolute faith in the most nonsensical of beliefs.
So, Rigged Election, is X, the billion-dollar site with hundreds of millions of users that was apparently so powerful it changed the course of human history going down?
“X is doing down.”
Hell yea. I bet it won’t even open when I log on tomorrow. But where’s the person unraveling those spider webs that Rigged Election is spinning?
“The reason behind the Rubio pick—the only borderline rational one Trump has made—is now explained. And yes, it’s about corruption. Co-POTUS Musk and his fairly obviously racist mom are backing Lara Trump for the Florida Senate seat, and you know she’s getting it.”
Is that….. Is that Seth Abramson?
Only he could deliver a hit of resistance I haven’t had in ages. “CO-POTUS.”
Tell me, is CO-POTUS about to foster a constitutional crisis?
“BREAKING NEWS: The So-Called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Is An Immediate, Acute Constitutional Crisis.”
Yes, yes, Trump will cause a constitutional crisis the likes of this country has never seen and will never recover from just as Abramson predicted would happen when Trump … fired James Comey in 2017.
Fuck, remember James Comey?
They’re still very mad at him on Bluesky.
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