Blocking doesn’t stop them from propagandizing others.
True but sometimes you have to pick your battles for your own mental health.
Very true, but be careful not to end up in an echo chamber
oh no my echo chamber of funny comics and cat pictures aaa oh nooooo
:3 you made me laugh. meow!
Echo Chambers are great. You just think they’re horrible because you’re in an echo chamber that says they’re horrible.
oh, yeah! sometimes we need to use the report button too.
But interacting with them will be interpreted as “engagement” and lead the algorithms to push them into more feeds and rank them higher.
If everyone blocks them then yes. I’m doing my part of the job.
If you block everything you don’t like, you end up in an echo chamber with no possibility of new perspective. Learning and Insight require thesis and antithesis. If there’s anything you should block, it’s rude, agitating, insulting rageladen discussions or users. Those also hinder Insight and new perspectives.
I block US politics because it’s same whining every day, that by and large has nothing to do with me. Even though I’d like to learn occasionally what new entertaining stuff the pedofascist came up with, I don’t think I’m missing much, and I’m getting closer to the last frame from the OP.
half the comments in this thread are straight up hypocrisy, which is a great way to see who to block.
I’ve never blocked a single person and I am old.
I don’t get the need. I just ignore them, and remove the “blocking” extra step. If some random Trumpy is super mad and messaging me often, it pleases me. I’ve got some guy on FB that has been messaging me for years, he’s like my best friend now.
Yeah, never do it on actual social media, but around these part it’s occasionally useful.
When I want to solve a conflict, I just close my eyes and pretend that everything is fine so I don’t have to defend my beliefs.
This is a tedious novelty account, yeesh.
I get the need, because I’ve been threatened, harassed, and had insane internet psychos call my workplace or home.
and easiest way to prevent that is to block them before they can escalate to that point.
That’s why I block everyone. I don’t even know what you just said. I blocked you before I read it because who knows where it might escalate.
Meh. I’ve learned some interesting things from some people I found a bit annoying.
It’s how I’ve come from card-carrying Republican to more or less fitting the label “progressive.”
I think this is for people who are less “annoying” and more “actively lying and being bad faith.” If someone says the elections were stolen, vaccines cause autism, and liberals hate America, I have other things I would rather do than investigate every one of the infinite conspiracy theories that I already know many others have debunked. It’s essentially an exercise in bad faith rhetoric at that point, which is just so incredibly boring. I’ll look into a few to see the patterns of how they lie, and then I’m good.
I think this is for people who are less “annoying” and more “actively lying and being bad faith.”
It can easily be co-opted by people willing to block either, as evidenced by the flame war in the comments here; the post suggests “I don’t like this” -> Block. I don’t like annoying people. I also don’t like people arguing in bad faith.
This is further complicated by the fact that a lot of people misconstrue good faith arguments from very different points of view with bad faith arguments. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been labeled as someone arguing in bad faith because my view differed from theirs and I didn’t immediately reverse my stance when confronted, or someone simply can’t read very well (literacy rates being what they are these days).
In part, this is because trolls sometimes like to be very subtle and drag a conversation out for 50 comments.
In part, this is because people are dumb and/or paranoid and don’t understand that people with other apparent viewpoints might not be trolls.
Well it’s truly pretty rare that I block people, and maybe people do do that for things that they just disagree with, but I took it as the “block negative things out of your life.”
Lots of crazy people on the internet, I just try to remember that sometimes I’m the one being smugly incorrect (and was that way up until like 25) so I can’t get too mad at other people for it. It’s why I heavily err on the side of caution, only when someone does the maga loop back to something they already agreed is false that I’m like ehhhh…
There’s plenty of documentation surrounding people getting banned for little to no reason. Blocking obviously has much less accountability and transparency to it; don’t you think people are much more willing to block for even less?
Not to be rude but, there are tons of people in the world and they’re all completely different. “I wouldn’t do it so nobody else would” is naive.
That’s a very heavy lifting interpretation of the comic. It literally says “I don’t like this thing”. Not “this person is arguing in bad faith”. This is how echo chambers form, and lemmy is a textbook example of one.
Well maybe bad faith wasn’t the right term, I think for me it’s just that if someone disagrees with me, my response is almost never even close to “I don’t like this,” unless they’re being hateful, unreasonably rude, saying proven false conspiracies, etc. Most of the time it’s “oh I think they don’t realize or haven’t considered xyz” and most of the time either they didn’t know or they correct me on something.
For things I would block, if a racist maga person comes in and says something, I gain absolutely nothing from hearing how climate change is fake, how libs are the real racists, how we hate trump for no reason. It’s just negativity conspiracy brainrot and it’s a huge waste of my time. Same for posts about what random out of touch billionaire #45 said, same for people generally being mean or super negative towards others, that’s what I actually don’t like and am happier having blocked it to never see again.
I like how many people interpret this as hiding from literally every problem that exists as opposed to not dealing with trolls or comics you don’t like.
Context is a thing, you don’t have to apply everything as a universalism. That’s kind of a stupid thing to do.
*blocked* /s
Hence:
X officially changes block function
Here’s a fun new one, no longer able to block accounts on pages. Thanks, Meta
https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1ps4r5d/heres_a_fun_new_one_no_longer_able_to_block/
Under the new system it actually lets the blocked person know they are blocked, which is horrible design because they now know that they need to use an alt to send you mean messages. Under the old system they don’t actually know if their messages are getting through, so it is better in that regard.
https://www.reddit.com/r/self/comments/1st24au/reddits_new_block_feature_is_bizarrely_antisocial/
Blocking someone reduces ragebait engagement, and they can’t have that, I guess…
yeah, and actually all those platforms have been shown on different opportunities to have a bot problem and it’s still unaddressed because it’s basically a conflict of interests to them (numbers go up : stakeholders go happy.) That’s basically how I’ve been drown to Lemmy (and before, other ‘niche’ forums, irc channels, etc.)
The first, most central and foundational principle of international diplomacy and conflict resolution is that you must always afford both sides a voice. If you don’t, there can be no communication, no progress, no way forward but conflict.
Take a moment and try to feel what you feel when someone ignores you, as if you were thin air. Does that emotion lead somewhere good?
You can always “block” (i.e. not use) forums and platforms that don’t work the way you like.
Takes a lot to block all the idiots on Lemmy. After a few months it starts to become a usable platform.
sitting at 468 users on my list right now.
I don’t know what the upper limit is, but by god I’ll find out.
What is really funny is that the person who commented on this is blocked by me.
Edit: Either the blocked account or someone else who is blocked by me commented. This is just too good. If a comment can’t be read does it even exist?
Blocking people is fine. Caressing your nipples because you blocked them is… less fine.
I’m not doing that. I just find it funny that in a post about blocking that the top post has someone who I blocked under it. Most people I block never know it. I guess this person does now and had some kind of opinion about it. As long as they don’t inflict it on me.
Okay, but you do see the difference between finding it funny and telling everyone about it, right?
A few people thought it was funny and one for sure doesn’t. I can live with that. Goodbye.
I don’t know how you’re measuring both or why you’re apparently missing my point.
I haven’t blocked that many people, but I’ve also blocked whoever the other commenter is. That likely means they are an obvious troll, if they made my meager list. It looks like they also replied to you, which is pretty funny.
keep going! I’m almost there!
edit: “I blocked this user but I’m still completely infatuated with them to the point that I check to make sure they are indeed commenting about me.”
I prefer a more direct approach…
I’m a devoted user of blocking. Happy to converse with people who take issue with my comments, but if they shift into angry insult mode, or all they’re doing is arguing against their own weird extrapolations of something, that’s when they get blocked. There are plenty of people in the world who are able to act civil when they don’t agree with somebody. There’s really no need to bother with the ones who can’t.
Same. I’ve blocked ~75 users so far. I’ve had more than enough of bad-faith arguments and concern trolls in my life, shaving away the worst offenders doesn’t magically turn my experience into an echo chamber.
Every time I use incognito window to see a reply from someone I’ve blocked (cuz old.lemmy does this thing where you can’t see any replies under you if someone you blocked replied as well), they confirm I was correct in blocking them.
What the fuck did you just say to me kiddo? I will have you know I have over 300 confirmed blocks.
Careful. Thats how echo chambres happen. Disagreeing can be uncomfortable and people might not like that feeling especially around facing and understanding bigotry. even more so if they havent learned to disagree amicably. Which youre not going to learn in flowers and meadows.
A healthy life is a reflected life. a healthy mind is an examined mind. playing only to a comfort level isnt exactly seeking growth.
i know a tonne of white ppl who you cant even fathom discussion around racism let alone politics without them going ‘youre bumming me out. why cant we only speak about flowers and meadows’
which is privilege pushed by spoilt racist people who call themselves ‘blessed’ for being white and never having to experience such things and love waving that comfort bubble in everyone’s less privileged face.
I wish this would work, but unfortunately even if you try and block for example news, us politics or the middle east content, agitating posts creep into other communities all the time. Even if you search for anything on lemmy you can bet sth agitating about the classic rage inducing topics pop up.
yep. you can block individual things, but you can’t block all content, and people love shoving controversial content onto everything.
even in my own offline hobbies… lots of folks grandstand over social/political issues in the hobby and try to make people ‘pick sides’ so they can call them names. today i saw a post to a FB group I used for local events… demanding everyone boycott this company… that nobody uses anyway and isn’t even related to the hobby in question… it’s insane. and if you remove the post they cry foul and you are trying to ‘silence’ them and you’re on the ‘bad side’ of the issue.
and face it, the vibe of lemmy has changed substantially over the past few years, and it’s way more full of controversy-seeking nutjobs than it was 2-3 years ago. making any most with subtley and nuace on any issue here just gets you harassed and labeled and attacked, because dumbasses can’t see things as more complex than absolutely good/right, or absolutely evil/wrong.
This is likewise how you cater your feed to be super comfortable so you see the same shit over and over and never grow or develop, and develop a rather strong intolerance of opinions other than your own.
Controversial opinion but seeing people repost the same tired ass arguments that we all get from the media actually isn’t that helpful to anything.
Put another way, I already have to tolerate people who disagree with me all day every day at work and in daily life and so on. If I want to learn something I’ll go read an actual book on the subject. Subjecting myself to online shitposting may not be as helpful.
There is nothing intellectually stunting about seeking community with people who are less argumentative, just like there is nothing enlightening about arguing with people who are posting in bad faith.
I think there is a time to build up and a time to tear down. True growth only happens when you are outside your comfort zone, but it is perfectly fine and dandy to want to have control over that. At the least, there needs to be a passive force within the system to entice people into growth that can be stepped away from or engaged for general positive growth. There needs to be beneficial governors of men (people).
I’ve blocked a shit ton of people here. I don’t care about open discussion when people are not interested in discussing in good faith in the first place. Also it’s just Lemmy I’m here for entertainment I don’t care about your whack ass opinion. The real discussions are done IRL face to face where people can’t hide behind an username. It’s not like the opinion of a permanently online basement dweller on the other side of the planet is important for the development of my world view when they don’t know anything about my country.
Image source btw?
Edit: I found it on a reverse image search https://x.com/cuptoast/status/1887605740241887352
We made this rule no. 1 for a reason people
