X has all the jerks

Lex Friedman (on what has to be the best new tech blog of 2026) writes I can’t believe we’re still arguing over whether X is for jerks, which you should just go read:

People can post wherever they want to post. I’m not trying to dictate where John spends his time online. My disappointment isn’t merely that he’s returned to X. It’s his seeming refusal to acknowledge that much of the community on X is genuinely awful, and that his personal experience of the platform is not representative of everyone’s.

I've had longer versions of this post drafted, but I'll just say I think Lex has done some of the best writing on why many people choose not to use X. He's not only argued his side well, he's also intentionally avoided demonizing those who make different choices than him.

As a side note, many Mastodon users have a burner X account that they mostly use to browse the feed occasionally and to see posts that require a login, and I'm no different. I can absolutely say that the algorithm has gotten way better over the last few months. A year ago, I would accidentally hit the feed and I would see Elon Musk, rage bait, and maybe some offensive content if I was really unlucky (Elon's posts were often all 3). Today, even though I don't post to it and don't go to it that often, it understands that I want developer tools and design inspiration, and that's basically all it feeds me, along with people being very supportive of each other.

All that said, this doesn't mean the awful stuff on the platform has gone away. X has just realized they can't show that stuff to everybody if they want to keep people sticking around. So yes, your corner of X may be very friendly, but the platform as a whole is not, and it's going to be especially unfriendly if you happen to fall into a category of people that the awful people on X don't like.