which is exactly why the NFL went ahead with it, despite the backlash. at the end of the day, he was the most lucrative option.

you say this, but do I have to sacrifice being connected to online communities that are more local to my area? A huge privacy issue for me is just participating in online communities for my state and my city. I want to remain anonymous, but I also want to participate in these more local discussions. Just being subscribed to those communities narrows down their search by like 99%. Sure I could create a burner account to participate in those communities, but then I look like an astroturfing bot to other users because I don’t participate in any other conversations across reddit or lemmy or whatever.

How does one connect with their local community digitally without making a massive sacrifice to privacy? It feels unavoidable.