Let Teddy Win (come over to BlueSky)

It's Baseball Season! The old #Nats Twitter is back and better on BlueSky: all chronological, no ads, you control your feed. Bonus: No fascism. bsky.app/profile/letted…

@Nationals @AARP Oh... there's a lot more than just ONE: blog.letteddywin.com/tag/easter-bun… PS: Check out the former Nats Twitter over on BlueSky, where everything is better.

happy anniversary of that one clip of the easter bunny wrecking teddy to all who celebrate → Nationals.TV

@d_allentuck Get thee back over to BlueSky where you've been added to the Nationals Starter Pack.

The Nationals beat the Phillies 13-2. They are 3-1 to begin the season

Updated:

@MarkZuckerman First #SweetFancyMoses of the season is a great one!

#SweetFancyMoses Thank you, everyone! natsjournal.com

I don't come to Xitter very often but it's worth making an appearance for this. Become a Nats Journal paid subscriber to support this very important endeavor! (& come over to BSky which has become the superior place for sports. Look for the Washington Nationals Starter Pack.)

@chelsea_janes Absolutely insane. You are a treasure.

I, like so many people I respect and love, was laid off today. What an incredible honor it was to spend 12 years there. I am so grateful for everyone who read and encouraged and lived seasons with us. I am so sad the Post sports family won’t be there to live it with you again.

Making an appearance on Xitter just to say this: Repeat after me. 🖐️ Wherever Mark Zuckerman lands next, especially if he goes out on his own, I will be a paid supporter.

Blue Sky was a great place to be during the playoffs.

@HankGreene @SwipeWright @gmiller Correction: for saying truthful things about MAGA

@SwipeWright @gmiller Wow! You've really got this "thoughtful post-liberal" persona, but this is right-wing nonsense! They are literally trying to get people fired right and left for saying mean things about Kirk, *not* for advocating violence. (Though, of course, a few fringe people excuse violence)

A humble rant about free speech, Charlie Kirk, & 'cancel culture' There's so much confusion about free speech in America -- because there are two different forms of it. There's 'constitutional free speech', to prevent gov't tyranny through censorship, as codified formally in 230+ years of constitutional law around the First Amendment. Then there's 'cultural free speech' -- a set of informal cultural norms, traditions, and practices to encourage people to express their true beliefs & values to each other, without fear of reprisals, ostracism, or other non-gov't forms of punishment. Constitutional free speech is grounded in clear rights, laws, precedents, & principles, centered around retraining gov't from meddling in public discourse. We should strongly protect constitutional free speech, and be very wary of gov't censorship -- whether directly, or through gov't collusion with Big Tech, social media, or AI companies. However, cultural free speech is much more complicated, nuanced, and subject to renegotiation -- which is what we've been seeing over the last ten years, and especially in the last week. Civilized people accept thousands of informal restraints on cultural free speech. For example, we use the power of informal social rewards and punishments to discourage - kids from lying - spouses from dissing each other - journalists from acting like propagandists - teachers from indoctrinating students - companies from violating traditions and trust - people from burning our flag - sociopathic trolling on social media - comedians from making false & incendiary claims - politicians from demonizing their opponents to incite political violence among their supporters All of these are restraints on 'cultural free speech', and they could be seen as micro-versions of 'cancel culture', but they're widely supported, and they're not directly related to gov't censorship or First Amendment law. Yes, the First Amendment helps establish and reinforce the social norms around cultural free speech, and cultural free speech helps reinforce the willingness of citizens, politicians, & judges to protect our First Amendment rights. But I see a lot of people, on both Left and Right, confusing the two forms of our civilization's commitment to free speech. The tricky thing about cultural free speech is that it requires a high degree of public consensus and social trust. It requires political partisans to respect some basic grounds rules when dealing with each other, including a degree of mutual respect and civility. It requires a mutual détente that minimizes the use of 'cancel culture' tactics. Those ground rules around cultural free speech were seriously damaged by the Left's response to Trump's rise in 2016, by their treatment of fellow citizens during the Covid pandemic in 2020-2023, and by their demonization of everyone on the Right, for the last 10 years, as 'fascists', 'racists', 'sexists', 'Islamophobes', 'transphobes', & 'existential threats to democracy'. And the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week has utterly nuked the ground rules around cultural free speech in America. Leading Leftists repeatedly incited the assassination of the Right's leading advocate for cultural free speech, and then millions of Leftists celebrated, condoned, and defended his assassination, and demonized his views after his death. So, the Right is no longer willing to 'play nice' with the Left. That's what we're seeing. Not an attack on the First Amendment. But a long-overdue renegotiation between Left and Right of the norms and practices around cultural free speech. Given these special circumstances, and what they have revealed about the Left's true beliefs, values, and goals, many of the previous civilized norms around cultural free speech have been suspended. The burden is on the Left to apologize -- publicly, repeatedly, & profusely, with genuine remorse -- for their decade-long attacks on cultural free speech. If the Left can take a good hard look in the mirror, do some serious soul-searching, and tone down its rhetoric for the next few years, then maybe -- just maybe -- the Right can eventually forgive them, and we can re-establish a stronger, better, more honorable form of cultural free speech in America for the coming decades. Until then, the Right should still vigorously support and defend constitutional free speech. But there is no compelling reason for the Right to continue to respect norms of cultural free speech that the Left abandoned ten years ago.

@MarkZuckerman Nice summary. The thing that shook me about the interview when Rizzo promised soon the team would "hopefully" invest in a higher payroll. I thought: @AlGaldi will have a field day with "hopefully." I hate armchair guessing about ownership, but that "hopefully" felt so damning.

Pregame notes: Mike Rizzo voices support for Davey Martinez, plus your daily player rehab updates. masnsports.com/blog/entry/riz…

It's a good day to remind everybody here that the old #Nats Twitter is back and better, but it's over here:

It's Baseball Season! The old #Nats Twitter is back and better on BlueSky: all chronological, no ads, you control your feed. Bonus: No fascism. bsky.app/profile/letted…

@RonanLTynan Why are you on Xitter? You want to take down Musk? Get off the Xitter.

#Trump is not the United States as this massive protest in #Chicago against his egregious policies clearly shows. #ElonMusk #Tesla #TeslaTakedown #TeslaStockCrash

@mmpadellan Get off the Xitter

Good morning and Happy Wednesday to everyone who agrees that if it isn't "illegal" for MAGA to boycott Bud Light, Target, Starbucks and more because of the 1st Amendment, it sure as hell ain't illegal for us to boycott Elon's shitty Tesla. FUCK ELON. BOYCOTT TESLA!

@Nationals Hey @Nationals. This is my rare check in to remind you to post on BlueSky. We're all over there. Xitter is dying.

BRING IT IN.

Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure. wired.trib.al/ixWCW8k

@Raymitten @Nats_Chat @MarkZuckerman @AlGaldi And Bell's bWAR was dragged down by weak 1B defense, which is now irrelevant

@Nats_Chat @MarkZuckerman @AlGaldi Very welcome in a snow day! I think Al underestimates Josh Bell. He’s relying on numbers alone. Bell liked playing here and was more productive here than anywhere else and IMO will exceed 2023/4 numbers. These guys aren’t robots. Numbers only tell a part of the story.

Out a bit earlier than expected. Our 1st episode of 2025 w/ @MarkZuckerman & @AlGaldi. **Josh Bell back in D.C. **Nathaniel Lowe now at 1B **How the rotation now stacks up natschatpodcast.com/episode-posts/…

One year ago, I posted this, and I lived by it happily through an entire baseball season (and election year). If you don't want to delete Xitter, I recommend this approach. Separately, BlueSky is taking off. Please come check it out and follow me there! bsky.app/profile/letted…

@DugoutDiva And she's not alone: go.bsky.app/UA8sUnF

Hi #Nats twitter! Just letting you know I’m over here too. bsky.app/profile/dugout…