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James Fell's avatar

Many comments here, some of them seeming rather angry, are telling me to leave Facebook. Do you realize what you are asking? You are basically asking me to take a job that I love, a job that I've work at relentlessly for 16 years to build out of nothing, and making it untenable.

The vast majority of books I sell and Substack subscription I get all came and come from Facebook. I have 320,000 followers there that I invested countless hours in attaining. It's a nice community. Facebook may be run by a ring-kissing immoral asswipe, but there are still plenty of good people using it. My page still gets a lot of interaction from good people. Most of the commenters are the same people who like my work and buy my stuff. I don't have the numbers on Substack to replace them.

So please don't be all high and mighty about me staying there when I am still reaching good people with anti-Nazi messaging, and when it is still critical to doing this job.

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ADHD Academic's avatar

I left Facebook, along with Threads and Insta, the day Zuckerberg got rid of fact-checking. I knew it was going to turn into a festering right-wing pesthole, and it sounds as if it’s well on its way.

Facebook was a way to keep up with friends and family, and I miss that; but it was passive, and too easy, and made me think I was staying in touch when all I was really doing was clicking “like” on the occasional photo.

I’ve read an argument that we should stay on Facebook and Twitter (which I left when Musk bought it), because we shouldn’t consent to being forced out of public spaces and let them become toxic right-wing troll-infested wastelands. I see that argument, but these aren’t people I need to read. And it sounds like most of them are bots anyway.

Let them entertain each other, and I’ll keep up with my friends the old-fashioned way, over coffee.

Very much enjoy the “Sweary Histories”, and recommend them to my friends.

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