There are always two things in combative balance when dealing with liberatory politics. They are the benefits of sticking around and having conversations about liberatory politics, and the costs of sticking around when there’s little to no productive discussion going on. Reddit, I do not believe, is currently in a place where anyone but the most anti-capitalist or anti-moderation advocates will believe that continued participation on the platform will remain beneficial. For me, I’m in the former super anti-capitalist group, and I no longer wish to provide monetary value to a platform that’s being run in a non-inclusive manner. I, however, am self-aware enough to realize I might be bailing from communities that could still benefit from discussion early, so I won’t hold it against anyone who still wants to stay there and keep fighting. Worth noting, the anti-capitalist and the anti-moderation free speech absolutist are not necessarily friends, and in fact probably aren’t.

Anyway. The second position. The position where things are too far gone that the most beneficial thing to do is to leave and to advocate for leaving, and to advocate for external intervention. This is where I view Twitter as being. The benefit of staying on Twitter to keep it from becoming an alt-right echo chamber has evaporated, and the platform can no longer be saved from the abusive and exploitative owner and ownership group. By staying on Twitter, you are no longer helping guide conversations in a positive direction, you are only giving people a hook to keep them on a harmful platform.

It’s hard, possibly impossible, to recognize where on the sliding scale of beneficial to stay and beneficial to leave any community is on. I don’t have a good sign-off for this. I guess all I have to say in conclusion is that it’s hard.