Unlinked and out. The steady decline of Linked In.

According to Linked In’s own mission statement, the purpose of Linked In is: ” is simple: connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. … Today, LinkedIn leads a diversified business with revenues from membership subscriptions, advertising sales, and recruitment solutions under the leadership of Ryan Roslansky.”

If that is the avowed purpose of the site, then it is failing mightily in what is supposed to be its primary mission.

Now maybe it’s just the fact that I work in a field that tends to have more conservative people in it- but from my observation, Linked In has devolved into nothing more than a glorified version of Facebook – except that unlike Facebook, one has the inability to limit the audience who sees your content. But, of course, there is a reason for that – since it is supposed to be a networking site and a place where job seekers and job offerers can connect to reduce the unemployment rate.

For every post that is “professional” in nature on the site – you can find probably 10 posts that are political in nature only. And because every post is public – you get some sad and deluded people coming over to school you on ( and in no particular order): Why Critical Race Theory is dangerous, COVID is a hoax, and besides – “only old people are dying – so who cares?” ( This was a real answer some cold-hearted cretin put up on the site, not in those words but the sentiment behind his thoughts was just as disgusting); attacks on military leadership ( this has particularly become acute since the Afghanistan withdrawal took place), and a whole host of other so-called “facts” that the Wingnut Wurlitzer produces on a daily basis.

Here’s an example from one of a member of the sedition caucus:

As you can see, that post led to 618 comments; 75% were vaccine and science deniers trying to justify their own deeply flawed viewpoints. Anyone who jumped in to correct the record was immediately assaulted – because that is what happens on social media.

Some of the responses were purely psychotic and cruel – and ironic when you look at the field of work the actual responder was working in.

One brave soul summed up the rot that has overtaken a certain corner of the site:

He’s really summed it up well, especially the evangelical fervor of the MAGA true believers in spreading the authoritarian gospel, according to Trump. And it makes a great point that one can trace the increase in blatantly political postings DIRECTLY to the ascension of the vulgar talking yam to the highest office in the land. I’m not sure why so many people feel compelled to get out and preach the philosophy of fascism, but they are definitely there in greater and greater numbers.

Well, so what? You may ask, it is, after all, “free speech,” right?

Yes and no.

See, the thing is, this is Linked In, which is supposedly about trading information that would be useful to others professionally. And while I have strong feelings about the current political state of the nation, contrary to popular belief, I never voice my opinions on the subject at work.

Nor should anyone else. It’s astounding to me that a certain segment thinks putting a personal endorsement on cruelty and selfishness is a good career move and good for one’s “personal brand.”

Nonetheless, here we are.

I’m not sure the folks running Linked In recognize the decline. But they need to. Linked In should NOT be “Facebook for Urban Professionals.” Nor should it be a place where disgustingly partisan hacks like McCarthy can spout their lies for free. We have CSPAN and the broadcast and print media – not to mention the folks writing over at the Liars Club as well as the hacks at The Federalist.

It is progressively making the site less useful, and furthermore, since the advent of Trump and Trumpism, there is no longer such a thing as “it’s just politics.” Because when one wraps his arms around the truly destructive ideas behind Trumpism, one is making a value statement on exactly what their morality is. Or is not.

It’s clearly not a good form of marketing, except to a narrow audience that really has no place on the professional stage.

So I have some suggestions for the management at Linked In to save the site from the terrible emotions that have overtaken the American people.

Before I spell them out – I would offer an observation too. This phenomenon is primarily an American one. One generally does not see folks from other countries getting in the swamp and rolling around. I’m not sure why that is. But, nonetheless, it is primarily Americans leading the race to the bottom.

So here we go. My suggestions to improve Linked In:

1) Ban all serving political figures from the site as long as they are in public office. Members of Congress have plenty of other outlets to campaign. And make no mistake about it – when Kevin McCarthy posts his viewpoint, he is doing nothing more than campaigning to the MAGA base. They have other outlets.

2) Eliminate the comment sections of posts. It’s really not needed on a professionals networking site. Instead, let people DM each other if they wish.

3) If Item 2) is not possible – make it, so comments have to be moderated by the original poster. Before they actually come online. That will weed out the particularly offensive folks to a person and should reduce the hate and discontent because you will not be able to see it. Also, make the site allow a poster to turn off commenting on a post if they wish. That way, the poster can control the conversation they started.

4) Reiterate to the community at large what the site is for and what it is not for. And what Linked In is not for is for political grandstanding or soapboxing. Rewrite the algorithms to better catch political content. Or, at minimum, advertise that blatantly political content will be deleted. I know this puts a burden on the site, and they don’t have the manpower to police everyone. Nonetheless, if I can get a warning notice from Twitter right about the time I am going to tell Kevin McCarthy to go “F” himself on Twitter in response, I’m pretty sure Linked In can have its algorithms do the same.

5) CEOs of large corporations should get the same treatment as the guys in item 1). Not sure how you draw the line here, but they have their own outlets. They don’t need to polish their brand.


In writing this post, I discovered I am not the only person who feels this way:

The problem is real and, as I said, can be traced directly to the advent of Donald Trump.

They have American flags and “MAGA” in their profiles, share political memes and hyperpartisan news to their followers, and complain that their posts are being censored because they love Donald Trump. But instead of being active on Twitter and Facebook, these Trump supporters have brought the meme wars to the platform best known for Broetry, influencers, and professional networking: LinkedIn.

Facebook and Twitter’s crackdown on hate speech, false news, and manipulation has caused some people to move their political content sharing to LinkedIn. The result is an increase in MAGA and #Resistance memes and intense, sometimes, vitriolic, political discussions. This spike in political content has also led to the familiar problems of fake accounts, false claims and memes, and comment threads that devolve into name-calling and sometimes threats.

But for Trump supporters like Alex Lacayo of Miami, LinkedIn is the best place to be right now.

“Facebook banned me, they hate me. But that’s all good — I started posting on LinkedIn and everybody is following me,” said Lacayo, who works in the lending industry when not churning out pro-Trump memes or promoting cannabis oil on LinkedIn.

He believes LinkedIn is going to be key for galvanizing support for Trump. “I think it’s going to be huge for the president.”

Linked In today is unlike Linked In 5 yrs ago. And that’s not a good thing.