I came here around the time the rif app shut down, and the general vibe I get from this place is much more negative than when I joined. Is Lemmy growing more toxic or is it just my imagination?
It’s not a Lemmy thing. People (at least here in the States) are feeling anxious and defeated about the state of the world. That shit makes people irritable. Irritable people are prone to lashing out at anything that trips over their last nerve.
My wife works for a nonprofit that focuses on providing services to families with children who have emotional or intellectual needs. She told me she’s witnessed more meltdowns from parents these last 6 months or so than she’s seen in her 15+ years in the field.
I think part of it at least is reaching a critical mass.
Lemmy was definitely a collection of relatively like-minded geeks at the start. Even when we disagreed on issues, we all agreed that we needed to work together to make the community grow.
Now that it’s grown to a respectable size, there are more dissenting opinions as well as less tolerance for dissent; and more to the point, there is space for absolutely vile content that used to get choked out. Now to stop this sort of thing, the ‘old-timers’ are more likely to say "shut the fuck up, sit the fuck down, and behave!!!’ before they can get a solid foot hold.
Meanwhile, the worst of those people are feeling both entitled and persecuted, and shouting their garbage louder than ever.
This happens everywhere that gets to a certain size. I remember when reddit stopped feeling like a secret community and more like a warehouse.
Of course, there are other reasons that people have mentioned below: The world is tired, worn out, and PISSED OFF at the half that disagree with them. The president of the United States has broken every rule of diplomacy, grace, and civility that people tended to follow in social life. Social Media has made it far easier (too easy) to dehumanize people and turn them into a one-dimensional pastiche of their posted opinions.
And we’re facing the destruction of the planet, genocide, and the global resurrection of fascism.
The world is getting worse, I’m afraid. I really wish it wasn’t true and I spent a lot of time emphasizing the good to my mom before she died; but honestly, it’s getting worse.
As the space becomes more popular, the level of social cohesion goes down.
Also, every space on the internet where users talk is now infested with shit chatbots trying to keep poor people angry with each other to prevent us from flaying rich people alive
Facism is making the people that would normally be reasonable get really emotional and people love to lash out anonymously.
I haven’t noticed much, but I do have a lot of people blocked…
The most important thing for me is that the amount of truly thoughtful comments I’ve seen is higher than on any other platform I use.
And discourse is generally more respectful. Disagreements are handled in a constructive manner at a much higher rate than on any other platform I have used.
Yeah, it’s nice to be able to have actually constructive discussions with people I don’t agree with. That’s rare on the internet.
I’ve blocked a few, makes a huge difference.
No, fuck you
/j
Jarcasm?
It was just a soke ;)
Jargasm
I hate that writing this comment made me think of jar jar binks from star wars
Can’t wait for the “Jarjargasm” category to pop up… in places.
Posting that question here, in a subreddit that says no stupid questions! How dense can a person be? OP is a cunt.
Fuck off /s
While Lemmy might be getting a larger variety of personalities, some of them being jerks, I still find it a far more pleasant place to be than reddit.
Lately? Were you not here during elections when a bunch of kids were accusing everyone of supporting genocide?
“Republicans are fascist”
“I know. That’s why I’m voting Democrat.”
“Democrats aren’t real leftists”
“I’m aware but this isn’t the time for purity politics.”
“Democrats support genocide.”
“And Republicans don’t?”
“Both sides are equally bad so voting is dumb. Don’t vote.”
“Listen, I’ve got friends and family with skin in this game. Both parties fucking suck but you know what really sucks? Having a fucking fascist dimwit who thinks your cousin is subhuman because she was assigned male at birth as your president.”
“So you support genocide? Typical libshit.”
“Ok, then what is your alternative?”
“You would know what it is if you read this dry, arcane bullshit about the reification of contemporary autonomous groups in Third World popular movements.”
“Both sides are equally bad so voting is dumb. Don’t vote.”
The lack of perspective from leftist that say that. Sometimes I’m not sure if they are fed posting.
The lack of perspective from leftist that say that.
Those ain’t leftists. They’re enlightened centrists. I.e., poorly disguised fascists trolling and sowing dissent.
Nailed it! That’s damn near a perfect representation of ever conversation with them.
Were you not here for that same year when anyone who said that democrats shouldn’t be supporting genocide was accused of being a russian chinese trumper republican tankie bot? Oh, and as you accused in your comment just now, a child.
democrats still have no business supporting genocide. It’s shameful and there needs to be accountability. None is forthcoming.
As you can all see, some of them are still around.
I was just saying that there was also hostility and accusations against the anti-genocide left from the pro-genocide center.
Which continues to this day. Not gonna start accepting genocide just because you don’t like hearing that it’s wrong.
Removed by mod
Genocide is not a new thing.Genocide is not a new thing. It’s always been around. And no matter how much people cry about it, it’ll continue regardless. It’s always been around. And no matter how much people cry about it, it’ll continue regardless.
Gloat.
They still are but I’ve learned to love the block list and use it judiciously with people who go beyond good faith arguments of any sort.
That’s most of the people here in political conversations.
I think it’s still like that, actually.
It’s actually quite a bit more tame than it once was.
Not that I’ve noticed, but the whole world is growing more toxic as far-right ideology becomes more and more accepted everywhere, so I wouldn’t be surprised.
The world has been deteriorating a lot in recently years and inflation is high.
Yea the shitposting has steadily increased. That is probably to be expected on a platform that is also steadily increasing.
However please don’t let the trolls think they turn this into the failure that is now Reddit.
Instead just call out the bullshit for what it is and carry on.
The world is kind of a shitty place right now. And to be honest, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t, at least to some degree, affecting everyone’s calm.
It seems like some AI bots with contrarian comments in order to drive engagement or strong arm wild political platforms have started to leak into the fediverse as a whole. Still better than other options though.
Yeah, I’ve seen a bunch of what appear to be bot accounts dropping douchey comments. They’ve been down voted to oblivion, but it sucks seeing it here.
Got some examples?
There’s a facet of internet culture that revolves around ridicule. I’m not sure but I think it stems from the streamer world. It’s like a modern form of celebrity gossip (read: harassment) that got commoditized into social media. So it’s not just gossiping about celebrities like in the past era of media.
Harassment used to be driven by publishers. In this era of social media anyone and everyone is a content publisher. People trawl the internet for things they think can be made spectacle. Right down to a random internet comment 100 replies deep in a thread. If for whatever reason they think this person is to be made a fool of then they proceed to reply with such belligerence.
They engage as if they are an outside observer. As if they’ve an audience like it’s Jerry Springer or something. As if they are the only human being. They don’t see others as human. Everyone else are caged animals for them taunt. To throw objects at through the cage bars or to tap on the glass. They think they are the main character.
I think there’s some psychological effect where their parasocial relationship with their favorite streamers and the herd of loyal viewers gives them a false sense of power based on the crowd effect or something. They can’t see it from the perspective that they are a lone poster being deranged.
I think the vote/like/share model gives them a false sense of power. When they see the uplikes number go up, they think they have a herd of supporters behind them. A simple little number on a screen emboldens them.
Nobody seems to see anything out of the ordinary with this. Such is the nature of this era of internet and the hostility. It’s normalized. They don’t know of any way of being.
You’re not a streamer with a herd of followers. You’re just a sole internet user. You have no crowd behind you. It’s like you think you do. It’s bizarre. From observers outside your perspective, you’re like an unstable person wandering the city streets. Pedestrians avoid you. They don’t want to aggravate you. You’re seen as someone possibly having a mental break. Or is it drugs or some kind of substance abuse.
On the internet now it’s unavoidable. These crazies are out here. They’re aggravated. They jump down anyones throat. On much of social media it’s the only way they know how to be. Just belligerence against belligerence all the time. Nobody talks like a normal human being. It’s like they’re derealized. Dissociated.
A basic fact that internet has no moderators anymore. They’re moderators in name only. The definition of the word is lost. To “moderate”. To preside over a discussion. Nobody does this anymore. The crazies are allowed to run amok. There’s some hints of actual moderation on Lemmy instances. The extremists have been grinding away at wearing this down though. In general this kind of thing is completely absent on social media anymore.
The only time I see it anymore comes from people from the older eras of internet. Those to came about in the modern internet have no concept of civility.