Recently over the past couple of months, I’ve seen political discussion on every single social media (yes, that includes Lemmy) become a bear fight full of propaganda. Twitter/X is becoming a racist hellhole with people hating Jews, Black people and Muslims for existing whilst Lemmy is quickly fostering extremism. There is no where on the Internet, except for small chat channels, that is normal. What do I mean by normal?
Every single place is an echo chamber. Those inside it will shout that the other place is one, but we all know it. Lies and propaganda are constantly being cycled on Lemmy and the other Fediverse, but nobody bats an eye because “we’re better” and the other side is full of disgusting people. The same thing is happening in conservative spaces. I don’t want to talk about “race wars” “black fatigue” or “Jew bioweapons” nor do I want to talk about mass murder of billionaires and complete social destruction. I just want all of you to be normal.
Tribalism has influenced all of these spaces. In the information age, we have become the dumbest and most extreme political speakers in history. We no longer value the truth of information, just the optics. We sour the airwaves with filth, bringing it into schools, universities and even political administrations. We have madmen destroying the biggest country on Earth whilst people here defend the indefensible.
There is no more love in politics. No more “agreeing to disagree”, no more facts or intelligence. It’s just pure, unfettered hate.
Lemmy’s just the lesser of two evils. Whilst I post here a lot, let me be clear: this place is a shithole. Sure, you guys aren’t as washed and feral as conservatives, but you guys are still washed and feral. You guys infect everything with misplaced social justice, constantly finding to ruin everything on the basis of your apparent prejudice. You can’t wait to bring people down, and never the other way around.
There is no reason to talk about politics on the Internet anymore. Everyone is lying. Everyone has an agenda. Everyone is being a bad person.
I am so tired
i mean theres a reason for it.
real life has been made shit for most people and solutions involve politics.
“agree to disagree”. Wow man. I mean, maybe, that was possible, like 15 years ago. Possibly. But are you taking a look around? Israel committing outright genocide. Russia doing it’s best to do the same. America gearing up the 4th Reich. There is no room for the benefit of the doubt. There exists entire swathes of people ready to see me and my wife hang for our existence. I will not compromise, and you will have to pry that opinion from my cold dead body.
👆this
You can either be ‘political’ or you can have politics done to you.
It’s no accident that political discussion is everywhere. The world is in crisis and a lot of us are not willing to go along to get along. So be tired and check out, but don’t complain when the jackbooted thugs knock on YOUR door.
You get an upvote but I hope you realize you’re in ‘politics’ whether you like it or not. The apathy of the masses is why the authoritarians are alllowed to take over.
This is what I keep telling my family. They’re all right wingers and the political conversations tend to end with “well I just don’t like how much you let it affect you…” (because they can’t refute any of my arguments with informed arguments of their own).
Like, no, I won’t dig my head in the sand “for my own sanity”. To check out, when politics affects every aspect of our lives, is insanity. Especially if you’re a minority living in a pre-authoritarian oligarchy like the US.
Right? “Why are you letting all the oppression, rights violations, illegal government action, corruption, and ecological destruction bother you?”
I don’t think they’re complaining about the fact that political discussion happens, but rather the quality of it. It’s not far off to say that it usually ends up as either a circlejerk within people’s own bubbles or a complete free-for-all mudslinging match - which, in the entire history of the internet, has never produced anything other than deepening the divide between opposing sides.
Yep, this. Thanks for that. I had started to say almost the same thing but had to get back to my yardwork before I could wordsmith it.
🎯🎯🎯
Wow I hated this. Upvoted.
I just want all of you to be normal.
Normal is what got us here, so I’ll pass.
Incredibly privileged and misguided take. Upvoted.
Just a reminder: This community has a “No politics” rule.
However, as long as the discussion remains around the meta topic of political discussions, as a general concept, you may carry on.
Just wanna say I appreciate the leniency from the mods. I find this an interesting take and topic. Thanks for letting it stand!
Reminder that calling a genocide a genocide is NOT political.
FYI: Geopolitical affairs are under the “no politics” umbrella.
So many people sit here in the safety of Lemmy dunking on Republicans but everyone gets a vote at the end of the day so it’s all for nothing unless you actually change people’s minds.
And changing minds is difficult, and by all accounts requires kindness and understanding rather than blame and dehumanizing.
I get frustrated with how most outspoken people on the left seem to take the easy answer of “they’re evil!” when talking about people who disagree with them
Exactly. Nobody votes for Trump because they’re evil. They have worries and concerns that need to be addressed.
Didn’t bother saving off / making note of where I saw it, but was just browsing the comments of another thread and saw someone saying the only answer to anything slightly conservative is to “ridicule and make fun of them”. This tactic seems to cause middle of the road ish people bunker down instead of being converted, which only contributes to the extremism we see today (at least that’s the way I see it).
I get frustrated with how most outspoken people on the left seem to take the easy answer of “they’re evil!” when talking about people who disagree with them
Give me some examples and stop handwaving in vague terms.
Propaganda works yo, you ain’t changing minds yourself. A swell of like minded people could turn some heads, but without proper amplification this isn’t going to happen either. To put it perfectly, those in charge of our media have us over a barrel.
This one is nothing new though and has been happening since the inception of the US and before it in other countries. Separating fact from fiction, reality from propaganda, objective reality from the one we have constructed in our head is an incredible undertaking. It takes a lifetime to do this and no one cares if you accomplish it.
Everyone wants instant gratification nowadays, and that doesn’t go well with changing minds which takes a long-term approach and some tact.
My favorite horseshoe theory going on right now is the far right and the far left joining Thiel in his vision of not having to rule with popular consent. People can’t be convinced so why bother they say. Blinded by the fact that their ideas are unapproachable and moronic
My favorite horseshoe theory going on right now is the far right and the far left joining Thiel in his vision of not having to rule with popular consent.
You clearly actually don’t seem to even grasp even fundamental basic aspects of leftist ideology lol, that is a hilarious statement to a leftist because it makes it obvious you made a billboard showcasing your ignorance all by yourself.
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I understand the frustation. I hella do. But nothing can be solved by burying our heads in the sand and ignoring politics. Nor can we agree to disagree over the fundamental human rights that are in danger.
The word ‘fascism’ gets thrown around so much that I’m sure you’re ready to shut down and tune me out as soon as I say it, but it’s a real threat that is happening. And it must be actively fought, we cannot afford to ignore it.
It’s not extreme vs. extreme. It’s right vs. wrong.
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There we go.
Depends on which channels and groups you join. I have left IG, X, FB etc. the tone is (still) good on Bluesky, mastodon or lemmy… but naturally only if you unsubscribe any channel that’s too political, and if you block people that you find obnoxious. I downvote a lot too. You could now argue that Ive created my own echo chamber, but it isn’t much different from my life in the 80s; you dont have to listen and argue with everyone.
You guys infect everything with misplaced social justice, constantly finding to ruin everything on the basis of your apparent prejudice.
Absolutely agreed on this one. I like Lemmy because there’s no ads and at least mods and admins intentions are honorable. However, amongst the users there’s certainly some hostile, nutty, tribal types around. There’s a variety of topics about which any comments but breathless support for the majority opinion will get you brigaded and downvoted to hell.
I’m not quite ready to agree that we’re the same as a conservative echo-chamber. We don’t do nutty conspiracies like white genocide in south africa for example. We don’t do double standards on the same scale like accepting fancy planes from terrorists.
EDIT: after being so long winded myself I did go read your whole post XP
I’m going to be real honest and say I didn’t read your whole post, but I get and agree with the sentiment. Only thing I’ll add is that, to a degree, the easy creation of those echo chambers is the point of the fediverse. The point of picking your instance is to find like minded users you align with. This actually, to me, makes it feel more “normal,” like you describe. Your standard text and discord group chats feel homey. To me the word I like is “local”. Which is also the term the fediverse uses for browsing your instance. Just by filtering by local I know I’m seeing content from people I would happily join a voice call with, or even meet in person.
Maybe just browse by local more? Maybe move to a niche instance? Host an instance for your geographic area. Or use mastodon and just follow hashtags. These tools are exactly the point of the fediverse, to give you fine control over your feed and make a social media platform designed to be put down. You’ll see the new posts from people and about things you’re interested in and then you’re done. If you want to go find the toxicity of course it’s there, but that is in fact optional!
What is the adage? “If you let a single nazis into your bar, it is already a nazi bar”? We actually can and should be intolerant of the intolerant, otherwise tolerance will be wiped out. If you aren’t having fun because of the people in your particular echo chamber, find a different one. Healthy echo chambers exist, and I generally refer to that as community. I often call my instance and the board I mod “the comm” when talking about them. I think this more local feeling helps people put their humanity back into social media and actually get to know each other. Anonymity really twists certain people, but to me federated social media helps remind me there’s a human just like me on the other end of the keyboard.
I’m not necessarily sick of political discussion, just the knee-jerk mudslinging it always fucking devolves into (as you described).
You guys infect everything with misplaced social justice, constantly finding to ruin everything on the basis of your apparent prejudice. You can’t wait to bring people down, and never the other way around.
I agree, and those kinds of comments need to be reported for at least civility. Being passionate about what’s happening is one thing; that’s justified, understandable, and shows that there are still good people in the world. However, constantly beating everyone over the head with it, turning every comment section into “Six degrees of fascism/genocide/etc” by throwing out insane troll logic purity tests is another thing entirely.
I absolutely dread diving into any comment thread here when certain hot-button topics are posted.
Everything is political.
Don’t like politics? Don’t engage with anything or anyone.
Cat pictures are not political. The comet flying by is not political. Company’s newest phone release is not political. But somehow, some people manage to make all of that political anyways.
The domestication and widespread ownership of cats is causing local bird populations to become unstable, if this isn’t changed they will go extinct.
The comet being viewed was funded by your tax dollars.
Smartphones are absolutely political. From the shrugged responsibility for how these companies have now permanently altered our global society, to the economic issues of people not being able to afford what is now required for participation in society.
You being ignorant of the world around you doesn’t enable you to be a smartass.
I read two things from your response:
- Everything can indeed be made political.
- People who do so are a LLM with high probability.
Suck my pp idiot
You are ignorant of how things work and have ego issues preventing you from improving and growing as a human being.
whoah - username does not checkout.
The only reason you think Cats are not political is they are the ones that rule us and get to decide what is political and what isn’t.
