Most of the online places I visit are politically left-leaning. But I’m usually there for the content quality instead of the political persuasion. For example, the NYT is undeniably left-biased, but they do have news with extensive reporting and a lot of data and supporting references. When I visit Fox News, it is mostly just ads for catheters and testosterone therapy, plus some salacious Hollywood gossip. Even the comments complain about how little news is there. (Note: I’m specifically talking about the website. A select few Fox TV programs are pretty good.)
What about social/discussion platforms? X/Mastodon/Bluesky all feel similarly “lefty.” This, to me, gets boring and predictable, and I’ve always preferred a better, richer debate. I didn’t expect to find much debate on Truth Social, the famously Donald Trump-aligned platform, but I was hoping for some other points of view. The site advertises itself as, “… America’s “Big Tent” social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating on the basis of political ideology.” Sounds great!
Well… I’ve been on the site for a few days, and my initial impression is that it is not very interesting. My issues with it are not at all left/right related, but just the general type and quality of content:
Variety Link to heading
Or lack thereof. Here are the Trending Topics as of yesterday:
- MAGA
- Trump2024
- tiktok
- tiktokban
- TrumpWon
- Trump
- HunterBiden
- Truth
I’m sure conservatives want to discuss more than Trump, but it is not easy to find on Truth Social. All content leads back to Trump.
Noise Link to heading
An article will be posted, and then there will be 100s of “#MAGA”, “#FJB”, “#Bidenomics”, etc. type comments. That’s literally the whole comment. It is just noisy garage that adds nothing and makes it hard to find more substantive posts.
Ads Link to heading
Lots of ads trying to sell me gold, prepper supplies, weird investment schemes, clothing featuring Trump, flags, eagles, FJB, etc.
Begging Link to heading
So much of Trump & sons asking for money.
Conspiracy Theories Link to heading
- “Joe is in gitmo!”
- “Joe is dead!”
- “Nancy and the CIA colluded to make J6 happen!”
There aren’t even links to learn more about the theory, and it is usually just people repeating the same thing as the last comment (and saying you’re a traitor if you question anything). 🥱
Fact-free Zone Link to heading
On the contrary, when people post more scientific stuff, like NASA publishing a report about some research, the usual response is that it is all fake, made up, and that the agency is a deep state construct. This is genuinely strange to me. Who can actually take offense to a finding that there are earthquakes on the moon?!? Truth Social, apparently!
Low quality Link to heading
For example, from yesterday:
“Our military is a disgrace to our soldiers.”
That doesn’t make any sense. Maybe the person meant “military leadership”? The problem is that many comments are sloppy like this and hard to understand. It is tedious to read.
Conclusion Link to heading
Overall, Truth Social is a disappointing site and doesn’t offer a useful opposing view. I’ll keep looking.