I’ve been doing this for some time now. Even if it’s something that I consider important.
I just don’t see the value in participating in a discussion that I have seen countless times already where the same points and arguments happen over and over again. One that I know wilI turn ugly. It’s exhausting and I’ve decided to just opt-out.
Information is competition if it can change the world. Information is informative if it is widely known and simply repeated. Choose what innovative thoughts you share carefully. They spread timelessly to open minds once they’re out.
If the question is open, e.g. “do you like apples?” and the question is in my area of interest, I usually give an answer. But if the question assumes an answer or is deliberately polarizing, e.g. “why don’t you like apples?” I pass.
You know who else liked apples? Hitler. Coincidence? No.
How do you like dem apples?
As bottom jeans
Don’t forget the boots with the fur.
Coincidence? No.
Of course it’s not a coincidence. Everyone likes apples. If you disagree it obviously means you’re lying because everyone likes apples.
Everyone is Hitler?
That’s a great point! Not what I was driving at but the logic makes sense to me…
Yes. I’m on Lemmy for entertainment. If I’m not having fun or learning something interesting, I try to recognize that and disconnect. Easier said than done sometimes.
Yeah on another community there is a single user who tends to say stupid stuff just to entice a hell thread I started arguing with them once I realized that there was no further need for the conversation I had won because they started calling me a liar I just block them and went about my day
Yes, I do. Sometimes I disagree with something but I know my opinion will not be appreciated and I will be called names for just a different opinion. Often, it’s not that I out those opinions in public but I just think them to myself but let other people be as they are. But that nuance will not come across online.
Yes.
Anything even remotely, tangentially related to politics.
Yeah - I left Reddit long before the API crackdown because I realized people don’t create special interest subreddits to actually have a mature, intelligent discussion about their topic. They rather are places of worship, where criticism or rather anything but complete adulation is seen as “off topic” at best and as blasphemy at worst. And I’m not even talking about remotely political subreddits, rather than subreddits about e.g. cooking, podcasts, movies, music, etc. The result of which is of course is a completely imbecile crowd of people whose personality is 100% made up of being a fan of some thing, and who are unable to not discuss anything about that thing on a theoretical, non-personal basis. The type of people who send self-made cookies to podcasters hoping to become IRL friends with them ;-)
Yes because there are certain areas where paid actors, including bots, overwhelm any organic discussion. I have discussions about stuff like that in private chats with people I actually know.
Absolutely. Not even just online, but IRL too.
I’m a software engineer that works on tech that’s extremely contentious in public discourse. Most people have pretty negative assumptions about myself and my work to the point that I hate talking about it. Even most people in my industry can be a bit insufferable. So I’d rather just keep my mouth shut and keep doing my own thing.
Yeah, there’s plenty of topics I avoid discussing on the internet. I’m not here for an argument.
it’s been 8 hours and there’s no reference to the Monty Python “argument sketch”. That’s refreshing.
Usually in online arguments I don’t expect to convince the person I’m arguing with, but to show anyone else reading the thread that an opposing opinion exists. But that said, sometimes I simply don’t engage if I don’t have the energy.
This! You can never “win” or get the last word, but you can get the other person to show how bad their arguments are. You just have to trust that others will decide on what is right correctly.
I do appreciate posts like those.
My objective when I look through a comment thread, especially in a topic I don’t know much about, I’m looking for the well reasoned posts. I admit I’m a human (confirmed via captchas) and love to have my opinions validated, but I also like to read a different take on a situation or issue. And because I am not in a situation where I don’t feel like I have to defend my opinion I’m more open to seeing a different perspective.
So thank you for taking the time to write those out - and to others that do that thank you as well.
I’ve long stopped engaging in long political debates. Namely because every time, someone is debating you for the sole purpose of winning the argument. There isn’t a lot of lee way made to admit fault or see the flaws of any arguments including their own. It just turns into a pointless debate that has no end.
Religion is the same.
It is hard sometimes to talk about the flaws about LGBTQ communities without being branded. There are flaws that I’ve seen with it and I know they’re there and continue to be there. But nobody wants to admit it and hear it, so they just go straight to labeling.
All that anyone ever wants to hear anymore is just a validated response that confirms their opinion. Because people long forgot that opinions are opinions and not any scientific source.
Yeah, there are a few things I can’t discuss. I was trying to discuss antisemitism with a group of Jewish people and that was clearly a discussion where there was no point even conversing. Merely asking for information was too much. It’s a shame because I’ve learned a lot from various groups who have expanded my world view by sharing their understanding with me. But ultimately I think any area of discussion can end up being painful and pointless if the people you’re conversing with have immovable beliefs - climate change, identity politics, socialism /capitalism are all possible tar-pits
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The block button works for me
Yes. Especially Lemmy. People here love turning a discussion into an argument on shit they don’t know much about. Subsequently some of the most brazen and obvious strawmanning, wild out of field assumptions, and gaslighting I’ve seen online—usually with a lot of not reading full comments or disregarding context or 90% of the comment in general. You can constantly call them out on it and try to direct discourse back onto topic instead, but it’s almost always futile. For them, it was only ever a competition of feeling superiority of some kind.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it online. Reddit was mild in comparison.
So glad to see that others are noticing this too… The hive mind effect also feels even stronger than it used to be on Reddit somehow, probably because the audience here is less diverse.
Without knowing the data, I’m pretty sure I’m politically and ideologically pretty aligned with much of Lemmy’s overall user base. Still, I sometimes point out misinformation or misconceptions even if they “don’t fit that narrative” of what I believe in overall, and almost always get downvoted without anyone even responding with a counter argument. It’s extra frustrating because I know I probably agree with the opinions of those people downvoting me, it’s just that I believe there’s more nuance to many topics that I would like to discuss, but unfortunately the Lemmy audience acts as if everything is a black & white situation.
This. I am a leftist, but not the kind who thinks Lenin’s self serving ideas translate very well into the modern world. Which in Lemmy terms, apparently makes me a fascist.
More recently I seem to just be a marked man anywhere on .ml, after questioning some seriously petty moderating decisions.
When you’re somewhere whose TLD is “Marxist-Lennism” (or some other conjugation thereof), then of course you’d be targetted for being an outsider unless you’re literally communist, lol
Lemmy is honestly a pretty awful intersection of censorship and extremism. Reddit is shit because of the monetization push, but Lemmy is honestly far worse when it comes to just normal discussion being randomly removed for stepping outside a very particular orthodoxy.
As admitted by some, Lemmy is a haven for outcasts who are insecure and in need of some sort of validation. They’re clingy about the things that provide it and touchy about things that threatens it, thus projecting an intensity in their interactions.
I see it as coping with helplessly living within an unfair reality. We need more zen in our lives.
