Post #1023864

2026-04-06 23:05 UTC

How does a community know itself without actually checking in on every individual about everything? By a weird mix of representative politics and lazy generalisation. Some people end up holding a bullhorn and saying what’s what, and some people participate anyway while agreeing or not agreeing. No one can possibly know what everyone is doing, but the bullhorn holders get a bigger say. Meanwhile everyday practice defines lived experience, and that comes to you through another weird mix of social norms and random behaviours. Now multiply that by many communities each with different norms interacting with each other, and try saying “this whole culture is definitely this one thing.” We do it all the time with cities, countries, religions, platforms. It’s small town sense-making, and it leans heavily on gossip. It seems to me what really makes the difference is listening deeply to people talking about their lived experience, believing them, and acting in solidarity against harm to them. Just as in any street.

Replies (3)

@kate@aus.social 2026-04-06 23:10

This thread brought to you by another round of people generalising about “the fediverse” and “mastodon” both on here and on BS. Generalising is often less helpful than listening to people talking about what is actually happening for them* from good things to less good things, and then working out if you can act on what you learned. *including what you can’t see for yourself for reasons, from tech reasons to culture reasons

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@econproph@mastodon.social 2026-04-06 23:36

@kate best post I've read today. Thanks, Kate.

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@cogdog@cosocial.ca 2026-04-07 00:18

@kate a bit sounds like a brilliant early piece from ages and bird places ago about generation social proprioception via small glancing interactions. It might not be the same as the megaphones are much bigger than they used to be. But listening/sending feels right.

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