Depends on the client, I think. Toot! for iOS visualizes threads like this and at least it's pretty clear: https://apps.apple.com/fi/app/toot/id1229021451

My biggest gripe is that it is just like twitter: there's no HTML page with text or images. There's only a javascript application to run. For twitter I could use a nitter mirror. For mastadon... I just close that tab because there's no way to avoid executing the javascript that I'm aware of. Does anyone know of a way?

edit I found a way. You can use the JS api, like:

https://mastodon.social/@bagder/109432034039353503

becomes,

https://mastodon.social/api/v1/statuses/109432034039353503

which returns the post in json form. Readable without execution.

Perhaps the implication is that it's poor form to publicly announce you understand How Things Work so you should use a more neutral handle like SoyLord66 or DankM3mer - same reason nerdctl is a worse Docker.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ocdtrekkie is also on here and a reasonably prolific poster.