this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Lemmy
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Guy is hundred percent right. Lemmy is a echo chamber for a certain demographic as vast majority of users are in it.
We either have tech, or politics. Literally every topic ends up in either. We also don't have the differing opinions aspect as just about every debater talks like they're just the different shade of the same color.
Even spicy news that would make any other site a warzone of opinions just echo chambered here. Literally everyone agrees on one conclusion and random two comments that disagree with that having at least -15 points.
To name a few (note, I am only refering to the loud obnoxious minority, not the majority who are mostly cool)
Sure you can. Look again at your link. You linked straight to one heavily down voted comment thread under that post. Click the view all comments link and you can see that virtually all the other comments there are positive, mainly, other funny wifi names. If you find one negative post, already heavily down voted, to be too much negativity for you then you are not going to be happy anywhere on the internet.
Yes, you are right, it has become more positive recently. When I first saw this, the comment in question had a positive point. Perhaps due to different timezone (some would be asleep while others awake)?
Also: look at the number of people who upvotes that shit.
Yeah reddit is already a tiny bit of an echo chamber (tech savvy, frequently online folks). Lemmy is worse (every other post is "big tech bad, Linux good, privacy ftw). Not that these are necessarily bad things, they're just not representative of the general population.
I would love to get the opinions of people who fall for Nigerian Prince scams, or people who actually click the ads that say "There are hot singles in your area" just to diversify my niche online social group.
Good. If I wanted the general population, I'd scroll Facebook
The general population:
spoiler
Reddit has echo chambers in the different subreddits, and they can be about as vicious or more than Lemmy instances.
This is what 35 years of right-wing talk radio turning any cultural event into a political crusade has gotten us. The right wing echo chamber has brain-poisoned so many Americans, that they no longer have any non-political schemata for interpersonal interaction on any topic.
Want to talk about how to keep the Internet fast and secure? That's political now.
Want to talk about the science behind the causes of climate change? That's political now.
Want to talk about making anyone's life better in any material way, other than a blood-sucking c-suite executive? That's political now.
Want to talk about medicine? Oh you betcha that's political now.
Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater, and Fox News have caused this. And I have no problem calling them out for it. Think saying-so is "political?" Screw off. I don't care if your politics get in the way of everything that's interesting to discuss. Deal with it, or move to Saudi Arabia where conservatives would be happiest.
The idea that something that affects society can be nonpolitical is just your bias towards the status quo.
Everything was always political, and the status quo has always depended on hordes of lumpen trained to identify with their own oppressors over their own interests.
Before there were networks of right-wing radio and websites distributing right-wing talking points, they just used TV, newspapers, mailing lists, posters, etc. The effect was still 100 million Americans cheering when the national guard shot students protesting against the state sending their friends to die while participating in atrocities in Vietnam.
Even gardening is political; the notion that you should only plant grass and ornamental plants, mow your lawn once a week, and any deviation was a flaw was popularized and enforced by William Levitt to keep people from having too much time to read and become communists.
Similar sentiments spring up after the civil war regarding edible gardening and use of fruiting trees in urban planning, for fear that black people will live off foraging instead of working.
People that act like the media landscape was better or people more informed overall when everyone got their news from the same big 3-4 networks and 2-3 newspapers BLOW MY FUCKING MIND. Like, please read Manufacturing Consent once.
This take that things only got "political" when conservative talk radio got popular...I honestly can't.
Right, and to some people of a certain temperament, being aware of, and concerned about a vast range of entirely different issues, all of which can be engaged with on a number of levels that build on your knowledge and understanding, all of that is just an "echo chamber".
The echo chamber argument doesn't account for the fact that people can have shared fundamental values and nevertheless have constructive valuable informative conversations that engage in nuanced analysis. Being concerned about climate change, for instance, you can have all kinds of productive conversations about new research showing how hot September was, or how to make cities more walkable, or any number of things, and those are valuable conversations where describing them as echo chambers is silly. They're actually good conversations where we gain something from having them. If your primary test of a community is whether it does or doesn't have echo chambers, it doesn't have meaningful things to say about cases like this.
There are so many "Well Acshually" people here. It's insane.
Well Actually not enough. Debate things till the end and know what is right.
We need some form of wiki to manage those debates so that we only have them once.
You forgot about Star Trek memes. Although often those are about tech and politics.
Star Trek memes are the only things keeping me on platform lmao
I agree. But candidly I feel like there are bots that contribute to the voting.