I hadn't checked my Bluesky feed in a long time, but something made me go there today.

Here's what it offered me:

Why did I sojourn there? Meade, for his reasons, happened to text me a video I'd posted there:

That, along with the words "A New Day," made up my first post after I'd opened a Bluesky account. I had the idea of expressing something that might bring Trump lovers and haters together.

I see I only posted once more on Bluesky. It was the same day, the same minute:

A Lincoln Sunrise — yesterday, on the University of Wisconsin campus:

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— Ann Althouse (@annalthouse.bsky.social) October 18, 2025 at 4:20 AM

I see I got one like. It was probably Meade. This positive content thing... eh. Maybe I didn't try hard enough.

Bluesky posts on its X account to remind us of its existence and admit that it has been what its whole point was not to be: toxic.

If you haven't checked us out in a while, we've been busy. Doing work to make conversations less toxic and more civil, and adding new ways to help you find your friends on Bluesky. See what you've been missing: https://t.co/exCdOOXRC1

— Bluesky (@bluesky) March 4, 2026

"Guys. No one believes you on here."

The White House joins Bluesky. 

The results are predictable:

Scroll here to see more of how Bluesky receives the White House.

Here's how AP reports it: "White House joins Bluesky and immediately trolls Trump opponents." That's fair, because...

The first post included mentions of the administration’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, a doctored image of Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries adorned in a sombrero with a faux mustache, and stream of photos and video from other big moments in the early going of Trump’s second term.

“What’s up, Bluesky?” the White House said in a message accompanying the video. ”We thought you might’ve missed some of our greatest hits, so we put this together for you. Can’t wait to spend more quality time together!”

Here's that first post:

What's up, Bluesky? We thought you might've missed some of our greatest hits, so we put this together for you. Can't wait to spend more quality time together! ❤️🇺🇸

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— The White House (@whitehouse-47.bsky.social) October 17, 2025 at 4:21 PM

"I checked in on BlueSky to see how people there are reacting to the release of the Israeli hostages, and it’s the eeriest thing."

"It’s not trending. There’s no mention of it on the 'Explore' tab. I started scrolling the feed and went through hundreds of posts without seeing a single one that mentioned it. Instead, it’s all posts about Mamdani, John Oliver’s new episode criticizing Bari Weiss and Jamie Reed, the “No Kings” protest apparently happening this weekend, Taylor Swift, the Epstein Files, complaints about anti-vaxxers, and snarky takes insisting that Antifa doesn’t exist. That's it. It’s honestly blowing my mind...."

Writes Colin Wright, at X — via Instapundit.

I signed up for BlueSky so I could do a search over there. My search word, "hostages." This was the main thing that came up:

 

I also saw things like "Now release the Epstein file hostages" and "How about the US releasing all the hostages that ICE has recently taken?"

"People in Mississippi can no longer use the social media platform Bluesky."

"The company announced Friday that it will be blocking all IP addresses within Mississippi for the foreseeable future in response to a recent US Supreme Court decision that allows the state to enforce strict age verification for social media platforms.... The company says that compliance with Mississippi’s law—which would require identifying and tracking all users under 18, in addition to asking every user for sensitive personal information to verify their age—is not possible with the team’s current resources and infrastructure...."

From "Bluesky Goes Dark in Mississippi Over Age Verification Law/Bluesky has chosen to block access in the state rather than risk potential fines of up to $10,000 per violation" (Wired).

JD Vance — signing onto Bluesky — starts a conversation about the Supreme Court's upholding of a state law banning transgender drugs and surgery for minors.

First, the site takes him down, but he's back up, and they're saying that happened because the account was flagged as a possible impersonation. I don't know what Bluesky's rules are about that, because when I searched for "JD Vance," I got various un-cancelled accounts that look like impersonations:

The one with the blue check is the real one, and maybe those others are marked clearly enough. The third account on that list, if you click through, says, in small print "(parody account lol)."

Anyway, what I'm more concerned about is whether JD Vance was able to make himself available for respectful conversation on Bluesky. Here's his set of 3 posts, which highlight Justice Thomas's expression of skepticism about "experts."

Vance says hi like this: "Hello Bluesky, I've been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis. So I'm thrilled to be here to engage with all of you." I can see that some people are reading that as trolling. It's easy to hear sarcasm. 

Vance continues with a block of text from Thomas and the statement "I found Justice Thomas's concurrence on medical care for transgender youth quite illuminating. He argues that many of our so-called 'experts' have used bad arguments and substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth." And he adds: "I might add that many of those scientists are receiving substantial resources from big pharma to push these medicines on kids. What do you think?"

Does Vance get the "common sense political discussion and analysis" he says, perhaps sarcastically, that he wants?

"Of course, with a broadcast social network like X, everyone is both a patron and an owner of sorts."

"Followers can feel like a kind of currency, built up over years: Some people don’t leave the bar, because they’re invested and don’t want to dump their shares. Other people don’t leave, because the alternative hangouts aren’t enticing enough. Some simply don’t want to give the Nazis the satisfaction of successfully driving them out. There is plenty of commentary, even among users of other platforms, about how Threads is bloodless (and owned by Mark Zuckerberg), Mastodon is inscrutable, and Bluesky is humorless.... If a billionaire bought one of your local haunts... brought back many of the people who’d been banned for harassing other regulars, eliminated basic rules of decency... taking your business elsewhere would be perfectly rational. This is essentially what’s happened on X.... A critical mass of the nation’s politicians, news outlets, and major brands regularly post content for free... This platform is owned by the world’s richest man, a conspiracy theorizing GOP mega-donor who still holds a position in the Trump administration.... Let’s pause to sit with the absurdity of these facts...."

I'm sitting with the Atlantic article by Charlie Warzel, "What Are People Still Doing on X? Imagine if your favorite neighborhood bar turned into a Nazi hangout." 

Here's how I'd act when my favorite neighborhood bar turns into a Nazi hangout:

"A quick Bluesky primer: Content has a 300-character limit. Those entries are officially called posts, though some have taken to calling them 'skeets'..."

"... a portmanteau of sky + tweets, though that word has an alternate, vulgar definition, which is part of the joke for people who use it. The site also has a function called 'starter packs,' user-generated topical lists of other users, which people can follow en masse. It’s helped build up users' followings rather quickly, and many new Blueskiers post about how much more engagement their posts get here, as compared to X or Threads, and how nice and earnest people were in the replies. (Maybe a little too earnest for some X-fried, sardonic brains: 'sorry I’m being such a hater but the vibe on bluesky rn is people who say "notorious RBG,"' posted one X user.) In fact, a scan of many November conversations on Bluesky seemed to often be about how great Bluesky was. And how Blueskiers had to do whatever they could to keep it that way...."

From "X is Elon’s world. Threads is a mess. Is Bluesky any better? The virtual town square, once framed by Twitter, is now fragmented as people flee to bluer pastures" (WaPo)(free-access link).

A quote from a "35-year-old stay at home mom": "I have to find every mean person that’s on here and make sure that all nice people know there’s a meanie in our midst. I definitely think that we can keep that out if that’s what we continue to want."

I wanted to end with a clip from the end of "Yellow Submarine," with John Lennon saying "Newer and bluer meanies have been sighted within the vicinity of this theater," and though I didn't find one suitable for embedding, I did find this Ringo Starr apple juice:

@thebeatles247lover Ringo Starr apple juice commercial ❤️‍🔥Follow and like my video. Thank you so much #fyp #thebeatles #thebeatlesgetback #parati #fypシ #music #beatles #paulmccartney #johnlennon #georgeharrison #ringostarr #60s #lyrics #parati #beatleslove #beatlesforever #beatlessong #beatlestok #musicthebeatles #beatlesfans #epiphone #hofnerbass #hofner #gibson #rickenbacker #ludwigdrums #singer #songwriter #songwriters #singersongwriter #legend #music #rockmusic #rock #classicrock #georgemartin #brianepstein #photo #photos #singers ♬ original sound - thelmafields19951