Just to clarify, I don’t think it’s a problem that hatred is minimal here, and I don’t just mean politics.
I feel like I very rarely see alternative opinions about anything, whether it be software, ai, news about companies, etc. it just seems like everyone universally agrees about anything with only a tiny handful of exceptions.
It makes me hesitant to believe I’m on the “correct side” and I never see any arguments from opposition. This makes me worried that I’m in some sort of echo chamber. In real life, I do see much more diverse opinions and, if I only used the fediverse for social media, would likely be weaker in defending my own since their arguments would be “new” to me.
I understand the reasons for which the fediverse has pretty collective opinion, but it does still worry me. I want to be able to see all the other people with their own thoughts (given it’s respectful) on the Internet, which should be the most capable tool to do so.
Lol, no. Where else am I going to hear from the proudly atheist, anarchist, socialist, not-mainstream-and-not-interested folks? Even folks on the outer edges from my own position, like hexbear and lemmygrad, educate in their own way: not so much about what they think but about why they believe what they do. That doesn’t mean I want to go roll my brain around in that full time, but I am absolutely better for having encountered them.
I love these comments and opinions when I see them in the wild, and while I may completely disagree, when they are presented courteously they are fascinating and informative.
This next bit is long, but relevant: it’s about getting yourself to a point where you are able to see and enjoy the diversity that is already here. Just my opinion, skip it if you want.
You don’t have to agree with something to be able to read it. And you don’t have to possess, or even form, an opinion of your own just because others express theirs strongly. That need comes from innate human evolution, a deep quiet fear that if you stray too far from the pack or disagree too strongly you will be ostracized and not survive, but in the here and now in online spaces it’s just a fear. You can, within your own tolerances, choose to set that aside and just read whatever you want.
Or to see it from the opposite direction, ALL people, including you, including me, derive comfort and security from being in agreement with the herd. But these days, in online spaces, and in every open space where public discourse occurs, that is no longer natural discourse, but a mindfuck: something manipulated beyond recognition by hooking into our primal human fears and using that subtly activated fear as a leash to drag people into thinking, and then doing, what they would otherwise not be inclined to think or do on their own.
That’s what fucks it up for the rest of us. Propaganda, bad actors, and endless marketing. Remember how it was when the internet was young? That’s the difference between then and now: those three things weren’t there then, and the internet was a space as great as we could all make it. But they sure are there now. And if you’re human, you too are susceptible to it. I know I am.
So you carefully choose your spaces, you make the effort to know and respect your own tolerances, you take the time to look up sources on your own, and you curate your own feed like your sanity depends on it, because it does.
Some young person told me off many moons ago about how “all people [his] age are overwhelmed” and how he could not be held accountable for his own shitty behavior online because of his resultant “anxiety,” while at the same time absolutely refusing to curate his own intake. To me, he was drowning in a flood of negative, low-value content he refused to turn off or even slow.
I feel bad for him because while it is absolutely true that everything, coming at all of us all the time, is a tsunami of mental and emotional overwhelm that never stops, he CAN easily take control of what he chooses to see, and choose to cut it off when it’s too much. No one’s going to do that for him. But I can choose to do that for myself, and I do.
And that’s how I can easily read differing opinions without being threatened by them: they are just that. Opinions. Not even necessarily factual. When you get to that place, the world is your oyster, but it takes constant vigilance. Get lazy and you’re back to just doomscrolling the propagandized mainstream mental and emotional manipulations again.
But hit that sweet spot in your own feed and viewing tolerances, and that’s when you can see and appreciate the diversity that is already thriving here. Instead of a glance and a discard in a world of one-line comments – what doomscrolling and social media are made of and count on – you can actually read, really read and not just skim, and recognize when something is worth more than five seconds or not. The more you actually read and don’t just skim, the better and faster you’ll become while still enjoying the pleasures that deep reads will bestow.
People are still making ten course meals of real content, but most readers are still hanging out at the food trucks. Only you can find what you’re really looking for, but chances are excellent it’s already here and you’ve either trained yourself to look past it, or actively cut it off by blocking it because it was too much trouble to deal with (high noise to signal, bad actors or behaviors, poor moderation, spam, etc). Look again.
I especially tip my hat to dbzer0 forcing new users to write a brief essay on anarchism just to sign up. I don’t know if they still do that, but their requirement made me think about something I already knew from the distant past that I had not thought about in years – Sacco and Vanzetti came to mind, though they are perhaps not the best example of real anarchism, lol – and given recent world events it has been a VAST personal relief to know that there is a huge, thriving set of alternative philosophies that are NOT just designed to move masses of people through orphan-crushing and value-extraction machines until we all die. (And that’s before you get to the scam that is politics in the US.)
So yeah, I’ve learned more about grassroots populist movements and beliefs just browsing Lemmy in three years than I ever learned in the space of many decades prior, and I can honestly say that while my values have remained the same, my entire worldview has been transformed by quietly hearing and listening to others talk about their own, even when I did not agree.
TL;DR: If you’re not seeing diversity, that’s a sign to carefully broaden your own scope and tweak your own viewing boundaries.
Damn. That was, apropos to your themes, an excellent read. I’ve seen several comments here reference the shifted Overton window and how it offers a diversity distinct from larger, more mainstream platforms. But you really did a great job writing about the value a discerning eye can glean.
I do have one gripe with your comment, however:
I will not stand for this food truck slander! Food trucks are to the world of food what Lemmy is to the landscape of social media. They present an alternative starting point from which to derive ideas contrary to established conventions. I implore you: don’t pass them off as the culinary equivalent of doomscroll slop. Instead, recognize that a discerning connoisseur can find flavors driven by passion, unbound from convention!
Okay, enough melodrama. Seriously though, I think your comment was the best-considered take on OP’s question.
Wow, thank you. When I wrote this, I was trying to explain something I have been thinking about and understanding innately for years but have never really put into words, and as a result it got long. But it has to do with how the act of consuming short-form content like social media (tweets and tik-tok videos, for example) has the effect of placing us in a semi-trance state, where the usual walls between ourselves and the outside world blur or even disappear, and our trust is the default even as we are certain it isn’t.
When we go in to consume that short-form stuff, because we think we actively chose it and believe our own chemistry has nothing to do with it, we’re walls down, thinking we’re in charge, but in fact our inner landscape has changed dramatically: mentally we’re in another world that we’ve created for ourselves. It’s made of the combination of what we brought and what we’re seeing, and how our imaginations combine that mix into something almost trustworthy at the moment of consumption when in reality it’s anything but that. Entirely Hitchcockian in a sense – “let the viewer create the fear” – but for the technological age where the mantra is “let the reader create the sense of trust” where trust could NOT be less deserved.
So later I was thinking about a TL;DR for all that, and honestly, if I could offer one, it would be that the more intentionally and forcefully we hold our own mental space, the freer and safer we are to read and skip whatever we want, because we are not feeling the same pressure to stay and get more. We can literally drop something mid-sentence and not feel a loss. The usual hooks of alternating dopamine and subtle fear just don’t hit the same when you really can just take it or leave it.
And because there’s no part of us feeling trapped and unable to let go, the need to hit back at something disagreeable also lessens. And that’s the part that lets the subtlety of diverse opinion in: it’s no longer a threat, because you’re not in the same kind of trance mode. You never stop maintaining that critical inner separation from its content. But that takes work and vigilance: I have to know what I’m up against to do it and actively continue working at keeping myself separate.
Yeah, not at a good TL;DR yet. Still needs work, clearly. Also, no denigration to food trucks! It’s not unusual to get better food from a truck than a sit-down restaurant, depending on where you’re located. And speaking of diversity, especially national, they can offer a lot more than the usual. To be clear I was thinking more the smaller, limited item ones – hot dogs and pretzels – they have at amusement parks than the real street trucks in NYC and LA, for example, and totally forgot about some of the amazing, unusual ones I’ve had the privilege of trying.
I genuinely hope no food trucks were harmed in the making of my comment, lol. But it’s a point well taken. Thank you for the correction!
Very true. I also found it to be of refreshingly high quality!
Thank you for saying so. Makes it worth writing.
Also at the very least regurgitated through ai.
Lol. No. I’m what AI trained on.
Throughout history, there were people who read, and in reading, gained the ability to write. Look at my post history. (I looked at yours: it explains your stance perfectly.)
Let me know when you get something that idea-diverse out of a machine that isn’t actually a list or start out as one.
this was a long good read, I think I’ve done the same in terms of curating my online diet but with maybe an order of magnitude less intention lol
thanks for writing it!
in terms of db0 signups, I don’t remember there being a “short essay” but I was asked to share my beliefs and my favorite anarchist. so I’m not sure if they’ve changed what you’re referring to or if your memory of it is a bit off but it did get me thinking more than any other web sign up probably ever.
i especially appreciate your recognition of the diversity that’s already here, I agree.
It was several years ago so in regard to dbzer0 signups I bet it’s my memory, lol. Thank you for the correction!
We actually never asked to share beliefs. Just favorite anarchist/FOSS/pirate/tool and two small anti-LLM riddles
ope, sorry for misrepresenting it I must have misremembered too!
ill add a correction to the comment o7
I had to do the writeup to get on the DB0 instance, I even stayed I’m not an anarchist but I think it has interesting aspects, and they accepted me ☺️
I love dbzer0 and have an account there, it’s a really well-run and well-moderated instance with a LOT of thriving diversity, but they are also very pro-AI and I am very not, so I didn’t move completely. But I keep that account open just in case. It’s a great place.