Popular BlueSky Anti-Shipper Blocklist Goes Rogue
BlueSky, the Twitter/X alternative site that has taken off in recent years after Elon Musk’s unfortunate acquisition (and descent into madness), these days remains the bastion of normalcy in fandom, featuring useful protective functions against harassment and unwanted posts on the timeline. One of these protections is “lists” which any user can make and moderate and to which other users can subscribe, allowing whatever moderator to curate their timelines for them rather than developing their own blocklists. This, of course, makes it easy to never see something one does not wish to look at…of course, if you’re comfortable putting your timeline into someone else’s censorial control.
Many users have chosen to put their trust into their friends or celebrities or even just complete and total strangers, confident (read as: gullible enough) in their belief that the stated purpose of these lists will remain steadfast. Naturally, skeptics sounded the alarm immediately, pointing out that anyone could make a list promising to block unsavory types only to put up a few false flags before they started blocking prominent activists in progressive communities, subverting their purpose and passively weaponizing a tool meant for safety.
Naturally, fandom has encountered its first(s) of these Rogue Lists. “Centrist, Bootlickers, and Fash Bait” along with “Antis, ‘Proship/Basic DNI’, and Fandom Fascists Mod List” moderated by BlueSky user heauxoftaste (alt nimi0us) began attracting attention as the ClearSky app began showing that quite a few prominent proship and trans voices across BlueSky had been added and thus subsequently blocked by a great number of their own friends–some of them close. When heauxoftaste was questioned about these people, they were dismissive, adding those who questioned the inclusion of these progressive voices to the list in retaliation or allegedly calling those who were added to the list “nazis.”
The latter, of course, could simply be the fact that those added most recently were people who follow me, relegated to the waste heap simply because of their proximity to Nazisploitation artwork and prose: a third rail kink even in proship spaces for its usage of Nazi imagery in set dressing. Nevertheless, it was relatively alarming for most to see that a great number of transgender folks were added to the list just as the Trump Regime has begun its egregious assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, targeting not just LGBTQA+ and BIPOC, but women, veterans, and the disabled as well. A rogue blocklist made by some random on one of the only progressive SocMed strongholds serves only to subvert the purpose of those strongholds—they serve only to passively and secretively divide allies without the consent of those who’ve subscribed to them. At least when the Our Flag Means Death fandom had its Izzy Canyon formation, every block was purposeful and not at all at the whims of a single angry user with an axe to grind.
So who is heauxoftaste? It’s difficult to tell. Their bio is a strange mixture of bric-a-brac that is almost too Leftist to seem believable though if one has been online in said spaces for long enough, it very well could just be how they are.
🔞18+ Only🔞 33//Black//queer//agender//ancom//sex+ feminist//too many hobbies antis/fiction fundies DNI expect problematic content out the ass — heauxoftaste bio
Most of this is puzzling and what’s even more puzzling is that according to ClearSky, they’re a member of several lists by other users allegedly for people who don’t know how to make lists (haha), who’ve posted racist rhetoric, or who’ve abused other users in the past. One or two strange lists associated with your account, I can forgive, but this many? They can’t all be wrong, can they? Whether heauxoftaste is some kind of subversive right-wing agent of chaos or an ideological purist in a militant Leftist headspace, the result ends up being the same: an abuse of power and a splitting of allies or potential allies against their will.
My advice? Do your own blocking. If you don’t want to do that, subscribe only to lists that are moderated by close friends and confidantes or people you’ve properly vetted. Of course of all these options, I would strongly recommend the first as friendships online are sometimes tenuous things subject to whimsy and one can never trust a stranger. It does not matter whether or not someone’s politics are Left or Right, it matters only that you’ve offered them power over your flow of information and your access to people who might be able to help you if you need it. Do not give anyone that power with ease for they will use it.