Ok so idk if this is the most appropriate place to post this, but are the extreme views and statement we see on these platforms really just “bots” and “internet noise” are these genuinely the worst parts of humanity?
For context/elaborating on it, I kinda drifted off from lemmy to reddit due to lack of content here and holee fuck, its just horrifying, the amount of pro genocidal statements and cheers for extremism genuinely makes me feel at extreme unease, but it also makes me ask a question. I come from a conservative southasian society and whenever you bring up topics like treatment of minorities, lgbtq+ rights, feminism etc, people normally dont comment on this stuff or make a “harmless joke” out of it, but seeing reddit pages of the same grp of ppl it makes me genuinely feel that these guys hold on to genuinely insane beliefs, and are just afraid to present it to anyone in person…
Reddit is not the worst parts of humanity.
That would be /b/.
Shhh, we do not speak of such places. We do not wish for people to know their names and seek such dark recesses.
I was too young when 4chan was arnd lol, afaik /b/ was some unmoderated canvas or smthng right?
Yes. You can and would stumble across the worst the Internet had to offer on /b/. Hardcore shock porn, CP, gore, extreme animal abuse and torture, etc. Was not a good place to hang out for anyone with a shred of decency. There’s a reason they call it the asshole of the Internet.
Reddit is populated by a lot of bots. Most social media is. This is the new propaganda war and it’s been going on for well over a decade. The bots do drag people along with them, but it’s a lot of bots, man.
I recently read an article though i forgot which outlet, which was about how israel funded sm crazy amt of money to manage its image on social media, seems pretty plausible considering how monotonous and repetitive pro israel comments are…
conservative southasian society
Friend, you ain’t seen nothing. I’ve seen stuff in the US South that you wouldn’t even see in Reddit. Stuff you wouldn’t believe, and I’m afraid to type out, stuff way worse than “If that n***** steps foot here again he’s getting lead in his belly.”
Personal beliefs (and drama) can be pretty extreme.
…That being said…
Lemmy’s extreme too?
I see dead serious “we should bludgeon X and his family to death” posts that make me very uncomfortable. Mods don’t care. When .world admins step in, the community cries censorship and ‘extremist right wing.’ I’ve almost left Lemmy over it.
Maybe sh.itjust.works is better about that, though.
I see dead serious “we should bludgeon X and his family to death” posts that make me very uncomfortable.
Common fedpost lol.
Yeah…
Actually i also left lemmy partly because it can get pretty black and white too, but honestly its much better than any other form of such platform rn tbh
Btw idk if u r confusing south asia with southeast asia but trust me when I say its not pleasant here lmao
Btw idk if u r confusing south asia with southeast asia but trust me when I say its not pleasant here lmao
Fair. I’m a bit ignorant of how it is there, heh.
honestly its much better than any other form of such platform rn tbh
Yeah… Outside of a few more niche focused places, anyway.
The ‘brainpower’ here on Lemmy is higher too. Like, when I lurk in my old niche Reddit subs (which I can’t post in since I’m inexplicably shadowbanned?) I see no academic discussion, mostly memes. No decent help on question posts, but hostile responses or probable bots, even when I know the exact answer OP needs and can’t give it.
Well i remember when i first made my first ever lemmy account like 3 yrs ago and that process of figuring out all the instances and federation thingy prolly filtered most binary thinkers out i suppose haha😅
Maybe racists keep in on the down low around me, but I live in the South and never hear anything racist. And as a middle-aged white guy, and somewhat of a redneck, I’d expect them to think I’m safe to rant to.
When I moved here 20-years ago, I experienced racism from black people like never before, weirded me out. Can’t remember that last time I felt that. We’ve all changed.
Counter anecdote though! Traveling Mississippi last year with my Filipino wife was distinctly uncomfortable for the first time. Can’t put my finger on it, can’t describe a single incident, but I felt we were shunned for the first time. Those people were formerly outgoing and hospitable. Not now.
Oh that’s it. There’s the veneer of Southern Hospitality (and a lot of it is legitimate) but folks keep the nastiness behind the curtain. Like, I have family that looks back on some relatives and had no idea they were racist until they thought a lot about some incidents, or caught something weird.
It went both ways, 100%…. Reconstruction failed. There’s a lot of resentment.
Much of what my anecdote was about, the veneer has slipped. And yes, much of it is legitimate. Much seemed to come from, “I’m not the racist my parents were!” But it was weird and borderline scary seeing that veneer peel off on that last trip.
In order to be civil, thoughtful, and graceful, a person needs to reflect and understand complexity. The platforms of the internet incentivise the opposite. Extremity is louder than resonability so it floats to the top of the discourse.
Additionally, seeing 100, 1,000 or 10,000 people on a platform, from around the world, express shocking or anti-social viewpoints represents an infinitely small sub section of the population. A group that includes provacateurs, bots, nation-state actors, and wing-nuts.
The real trouble comes from others who aren’t taking time to reflect, who see this content every day and begin to believe that it must be valid because they keep seeing it. Slowly they twist and adopt pieces of rhetoric because there isn’t enough of a counter balance of opposing views sharing the same weight in their feeds.
Hmm, yeah ig it maybe a fair possibility that most are just agnostic, and get influenced by opinions that are propagated by a ridiculous amount of funding
I think it’s generous helpings of both.
Reddit is not really anywhere close to the darkest parts of humanity. They’re “merely” extreme in some cases.
The problem is this:
makes me genuinely feel that these guys hold on to genuinely insane beliefs,
That’s irrational. I know it doesn’t feel that way, but you have a belief system and from that belief system, they look insane to you, but also vice versa.
You know that saying “the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent”? Kind of the same is true for ideologies. They’re not rational. People just believe stuff and occasionally they can get interrupted, shown a contradict and if you’re lucky they will reconsider. But it’s not automatic or guaranteed.
And something that’s dawned on me as well, is that we have some kind of “historic, cultural optimism” that assumes that of course, justice, truth, rationality, tolerance will win. That’s not actually a guarantee. And even if it does work, it’s not guaranteed to work for you in your local environment.
For a different example, a lot of history that we have records of, slavery was an accepted reality. Is it “genuinely insane” to hold that belief? We think so in modern times. But it was normal a mere few hundred years ago. And if it wasn’t explicit slavery some different social orders that were effectively the same existed.
tldr: no, that’s just normal human behavior. Our filter and our “higher standard” is the weird thing. You’re not like that and neither are your friends? Good. Cherish that exception. Try to preserve it.
Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit for the effect. But still, you get the idea.
I mean if you push me yes i can get how people might feel “polarized” by the ideas of “accepting” feminism, lgbtq, or other groups, but advocating to kill and destroy then, maybe its just me, but directly opposes human conscience, I am not exactly sure how can you cheer genocide when you actively see people suffering who are trapped in such situations
the amount of pro genocidal statements and cheers for extremism
whenever you bring up topics like treatment of minorities, lgbtq+ rights, feminism etc, people normally dont comment on this stuff or make a “harmless joke” out of it
Not sure what corners of Reddit you’re browsing, but from what I’ve seen on r/all, the active majority don’t make extremist statements and don’t make jokes out of minorities (with the exception of the weird “women am I right” on r/SipsTea). In fact, Reddit is pretty leftist by US standards, considering USians are the majority of active posters and commenters.
However, it does have a penchant for ridiculing both Pakistanis and Indians — which, though, is lately supported by Indians themselves posting videos of uncivil behaviour on r/indianrailways and such. Plus, Indians and Pakistanis on Reddit do disparage and dismiss each other — idk about any particularly extremist sentiment. But this disparagement is typically limited to Indian subreddits, which mostly consist of ethnic Indians — judging by the prevalence of Hindi — who I guess have strong feelings on the matter (dunno about Pakistani subs, as I haven’t seen them).
Also, Reddit is implementing automated moderation lately, which does stuff like detecting bigotry based on nationality. This moderation is very stupid and ineffective so far, as it removes one comment and issues a warning, while hundreds of comments with the same sentiment are visible plain as day, but don’t contain the same keywords. Meanwhile many completely innocuous comments are getting hidden because the automation felt wonky about them.
You are right that the european/US side of reddit is uhmm decently left leaning (apart from the strange fetish for israel, not sure how many of them are bots), but the indian side (the one which was the most prevalent in my feed) was absolutely horrifying; i perhaps should have made the distinction clear hehe in my original post
