• Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    IMO online commenters are increasingly showing pathological binary thinking - the attitude that there are exactly two sides to every issue - the Right one and the Wrong one. Questioning ANY aspect of the Right one means you’re obviously a hardcore supporter of EVERY aspect of the Wrong one. You’re either morally and ethically pure or your character is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. To me it’s a really paradoxical way of thinking about diversity and acceptance - more like we’re supposed to either wholeheartedly embrace people or despise them.

  • Geodad@lemm.ee
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    14 hours ago

    IMO, the reason is because scientists haven’t found a way to punch someone in their face over the internet yet.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      11 hours ago

      I’ve long thought that phones needed a taze button. Every telephone in the world should have the power to deliver a high power electric shock to the user, and the phone network should only allow the callee to taze the caller. So if you call someone, the person you have called can taze you.

      I don’t see any problem with the telephone network that can’t be solved by putting a 30,000 volt potential across the caller’s jaw. Make it work on call bots too, if a computer automatically calls you and you don’t want it to, put Shearon Harris on the line. Modern problems require 2nd Amendment solutions, and if you elect me as your president in 2028 it is these policies that I shall energetically enact.

      • Geodad@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        I like to carry an air horn for when scammers and other nuisances call.

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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    18 hours ago

    the platforms see it as lucrative, therefore its hating eachother time.

  • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Here’s the thing.

    The last 10 years have proven that organized online hostility is VERY EFFECTIVE at dictating public opinion.

    That’s how we got the new fascist movements. Trump and the like. Because right wing hostility and bigotry went not only unchecked institutionally but unchallenged socially.

    No solution has emerged for that from an institutional level.

    So yeah, my socialist ass is fighting back. I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the rest of my life under these fucking wastes of flesh and their bullshit antiquated opinions. I’m done taking it and I’m done tolerating it. Fuck every last republican and homophobe and transphobe and complicit liberal. All of them. And wouldn’t you know it, little by little they’re backing down when we stand up to them like the cowards they are.

    Yes, I am deliberately far more hostile online, because it WORKS. And clearly nobody with institutional control cares enough to try anything else.

    • 1984@lemmy.today
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      1 day ago

      The only problem is that you guys call everyone a transphone or homophobe or liberal or whatever, all the time. Its actually a bit funny because you dont see the forest for the trees. Everyone has to think exactly the same or they are THE ENEMY and need to be keyboard warriored into compliance with right-think :)

      With age comes a bit more wisdom (ok maybe not for Trump). If you have calm discussions and listen, you will absolutely 100% see that most people are actually quite alright. Even if they dont like trans people, they will eventuelly get there, by having discussions and chats and seeing them in the real world.

      I remember how this worked in Sweden where I live. At first, everyone was super racist. We had like 3 black people in school and they were of course bullied and thought of as very strange. This was in 1985 or something.

      Now, decades later, its seen as strange if you dont have black people at a job, or see them everywhere. Because its normal.

      The same thing will happen with trans people but you dont have to sit and hate people online to get there. It will happen as more trans people come out and join everyone else at work and in the cities, just normally.

      I have seen it. So just relax guys. Dont hate.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        5 minutes ago

        The problem is these are the people who won’t get there, plus they’re harming a lot of people in the meantime.

        Codger mode ….

        Back when I was a wee young’un, I lived in a small town in a rural area. Republicans ideals made sense (whose not to like fiscal prudence), we read about the crime ridden horrors of big cities, read about the inbred fear of education down south, read about drugs destroying peoples lives, read about welfare queens, read about illegal immigrants and crime. We “weren’t racist” but those dark skin people were violent criminals. Products of our environments I guess.

        Like you, I grew up. As I was exposed to a larger variety of people, I discovered they were people. As I saw more people in situations outside their control, I developed more empathy. As I got to know people with different preferences than mine, I learned their preferences didn’t do me any harm. Now decades later, it’s hard to understand the fear, oppression, racism, hatred, and it’s impossible to understand the unethical inconsistent self serving authoritarians that Republicans have become. I’ve seen it too. I apologize to everyone I hurt because it took years for me to grow into a better human being.

        The problem is these are the people who never grew out of it. They’re the people who saw their friends and family expand their horizons, but retreated ever deeper into their holes. Theyre the people who saw progress and desperately yearned for a mythical past that never was. They’re the people who saw everyone else growing out of their limitations, and turned to extremism. They are not joining everyone else but have turned their backs and headed the other directions. They are the diehards wallowing in their misery who don’t care about anyone else’s misery. They are the righteous who have lost their way, cloaking their hatred, spite and corruption is self-righteous desperation. They are the self-centered stealing from society and stealing from the future. They are the limited viewpoint building ever higher walls rather than venturing out. They won’t change.

      • Almacca@aussie.zone
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        2 hours ago

        Apart from anything else, spending all that energy resisting change that’s coming anyway must be exhausting. It’s no wonder they’re so cranky.

      • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        I remember how this worked in Sweden where I live

        Yeah, things don’t work that way everywhere.

        We tried being nice in America. It got us here.

        You just go back to enjoying your ivory tower. We have actual problems here and your high road is not the solution.

        • 1984@lemmy.today
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          36 minutes ago

          How did you try being nice? You have a war on everything… Drugs, freedom, privacy… Im honestly not sure how you see yourself as being nice…

          High road? Im also not sure how you took the high road. Im genuinely interested, maybe my perspective here is completely wrong.

      • _core@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Conformity of thought, belief, or action isn’t the problem. The oroblem is treating some people or groups as less than human and not deserving of equal rights and opportunities.

  • thedruid@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    I have. I honestly try not to be. There’s just so many uncaring shits online. It makes me sick to think of how fucked up these trolls are to relish causing others distress. Then I become a dick

    I’m trying to be better

    • poopkins@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      I feel like I’m fighting a one-person crusade every time I respond politely to some jerk online. Last night I couldn’t sleep because some rando on the internet said mean things. Why are humans like this? Why can’t we just be nice? Sometimes I feel like we deserve to go extinct.

      • thedruid@lemmy.world
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        57 minutes ago

        Because everyone wants to be popular. Most people don’t have the tools to be popular through kindness so they simply act like the other orcs instead.

    • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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      20 hours ago

      There’s just so many uncaring shits online.

      I wonder how much “hate” on the internet is this… but the reality is that is how you “see” them in your head rather than what they’re actually saying/believe. A lot of negative responses to some of the things I say is a strawman of what I actually believe/said.

      • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        Someone hacked a roomba last year to yell the N word at people on a mic.

        The WORLD has become more hateful, it is not simply perception.

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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          18 hours ago

          I went to high school in the south, I’m not white.

          The hate is not something you can process, the worst we see online, the Andrew tates, the people calling for all brown people to be deported to El Salvador, that’s Disney compared to them.

          Becauae it was all they had, and the hate infused them down to the cells, such that it was all they had keeping them going.

          Trump took the lid off, let them feel more comfortable talking in public.

          But these are people who casually discuss how the only way to heal the world is to exterminate all the Muslims and jews, how we should nuke China now because we can, and how atheists and anybody more left than Trump needs to be castrated now for the good of America.

          To people shocked at the toxicity, I think you grew up in far more sheltered places.

          • thedruid@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            Dude I grew up dirt poor on govt cheese in the 70s and 8os. Homeless at times, hunted and fished more for food than bought it

            Sheltered? Nah.

            Saddened… Dismayed? Yes

            • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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              12 hours ago

              Maybe sheltered isn’t the right word.

              You grew up in a nurturing home.

              Everyone didn’t have that luxury, and many grew up to be assholes.

              • thedruid@lemmy.world
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                49 minutes ago

                I watched my father try to kill my mother and was on the streets at 16. Nice try

                I don’t say that in a mean way. I will not pretend to know your story. I can’t. Especially those who are poc( I don’t know yours and am not trying to be personal so I’m not asking )

                What I’m saying is I can’t understand a poc’s full experience. I’ll never have to tell my kid to watch out for cops because of his skin color.

                I can, however, understand how others sink into the anger despair and rage. I know what it’s like to wake in a jail cell, I know what hardship really is.

                I also know that it is never overcome through cruelty. In fact that puts everyone, including the perpetrator, in a worse place.

                So again. We don’t have to be this shitty to each other.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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          17 hours ago

          Okay? I never said “ALL HATE on the internet is bullshit”… I said “I wonder how much is just people constructing shit in their own head.”

          This is exactly my point. You chose to interpret my words in a way that I clearly would have never intended if you actually spent time to read the words and understand them for what they were rather than some magical interpretation that clearly was never said.

          Edit: Thanks for the downvote too! Proves the point further.

          Edit2: And on your specific point I would argue otherwise. In the past, humans would just kill each other rather than yelling words through a machine. Literal murder -> Mean words is a de-escalation. We can do better for sure… do not misconstrue that, but to claim that we’re more hateful now, when history shows us murdering each other for less is a bit silly of a stance to take.

          • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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            19 hours ago

            I think you’re actually doing here what you are accusing me of re: misinterpretting. My last comment was mild af.

            The world has become more hateful. It’s not just online or in people’s heads. We have evidence that massive online warfare happens, literal psychological warfare and soldiers paid to post hate online all day every day. One independent journalist estimated at least a trillion dollars spent for various election/political meddling in 2024 and 2025, with protests in Romania, Georgia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Korea, Germany, Poland, etc etc etc.

            So yeah, you got a downvote, grow up about it. You’re wrong and didn’t contribute anything meaningful to the conversation. This isn’t even “hate,” this is simple disagreement that you are too thin-skinned to handle.

            Hate is stuff like: ableism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia. Eg a roomba yelling the N word at people. It is not disagreeing with you and downvoting you, lol. For fucks sake.

            Edit for your E2: The massive online armies are using online hate to conduct genocides and kill people more efficiently. With massive networks of countries with camps and slavery including Assad’s knowledge of death camps.

            • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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              18 hours ago

              You’re wrong and didn’t contribute anything meaningful to the conversation.

              So you think that out of all the hate on the internet… NONE of it is constructed shit in people’s own head?(keep in the mind that the article itself talks about personality disorders and DSM-5, literally talking about things like schizophrenia and ADHD… mental disorders that affect how we think are in that book). That this number is so infallibly 0% that my thought doesn’t contribute ANY meaningful value to discuss at all? You sure that it contributed nothing to the conversation and that’s why you downvoted? Cause it would appear to me that you’ve just chosen to ignore the words, ascribe your own meaning to stuff that wasn’t there and then downvoted because you didn’t like it.

              It’s clear that this is happening on the internet in many cases. In saner parts of the internet (sometimes even here on lemmy) you’ll see two people arguing, a misconception clear up, and magically all the “hate” dissolved away and both parties walk away amicably.

              Hate is stuff like: ableism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia.

              https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hate

              It only means that as an adjective, or under pretense where it’s clear that we’re talking about a class of people, if that’s the case it wasn’t clear to me and I just took it as a general overall “the world seems more hateful”. Which it wasn’t used any other way in the comments up to this point this way nor the article itself. So now you’ve constructed some other thing that nobody has referenced just so you can argue some other point that nobody else was apparently making. Keep in mind that the whole thread started with “Hostile” from the article, and not “hate”. The article doesn’t reference anything about any specific classes of people, and even talks about personality disorders (so medical perspective) rather than " ableism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia" and other… uh… character flaws(? might not be the correct phrase to use but maybe the point comes across) that shitty people have.

              Edit: Oh and I don’t care about downvotes. But the fact that YOU downvoted the comment was part of the point. It literally is adding context to the actual discussion we’re actively having. It’s directly related behavioral response that’s worthy of discussing in this particular discussion. Trust me I get down-voted plenty on Lemmy and couldn’t care less otherwise. Usually for not immediately jumping on a bandwagon.

      • thedruid@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Yeah see, I don’t buy that. I can say things in a less than PC way, but it takes tow to argue. If I don’t make an effort to be understood, I can’t be pissed when I’m not

        And since I can’t force others do that, I can only do what I can

        We are all responsible for what we say , good and bad

        But thank you for sharing, sincerely

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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          19 hours ago

          but it takes tow to argue

          Eh… It really doesn’t though does it? One side can be sincerely stating points of fact/logic and others often can and do often ascribe that as “you’re a terrible person for saying that!”.

          We are all responsible for what we say , good and bad

          Good and bad are subjective though. There is often no black and white. I often cite and source things to show that I’m not stating anything as a matter of opinion… and out of the blue some rando comes out and tries ascribing some sense of moral straw-man claiming that I must believe something or another. Here’s an example from literally last night…

          I made no statement that could even be construed as putting words in other people’s mouths… yet someone straw-manned me by definition (and didn’t even know the word for it) by Smee there trying to make some grand point that nobody was even making at that point but they thought I was.

          Edit: Actually you don’t even need to look at an entirely different thread… Just look at the other response to me. Someone who wasn’t even in the conversation comes out of the blue and ascribes something I never said nor could ever have been construed as and took it to some straw-man end game nonsense.

  • shiroininja@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    I’ve been facing a lot more personal harassment over disagreements on the internet that should never lead to that level of harassment. Like taking photos of me from my profile, photoshopping them, sharing them labeled as a pedophile because of my appearance, and Last weekend I had an angry racist threaten to dox me to my employer that I— called out racism?— trying to get me fired.

    I feel like the paid trolls have gotten really aggressive since the election.

      • shiroininja@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        They take my profile picture. I don’t post about my job anywhere and it’s not on any of my profiles because I don’t associate with that place when I’m not there. I honestly don’t know how they found out where I work.

  • PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    No, fuck off, how very dare you suggest such a thing you horrid bastard you, just you wait, I’m going to punch you in the elbow and knock over your second-favourite house plant for insinuating such lies

  • Bieren@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Seems to be a positive trend happening. Instead of just nothing but toxic trolls. People are starting to push back on the mindless bullshit that is ruining the world.

  • C45513@lemm.ee
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    23 hours ago

    Yes, and it’s a good thing. The Paradox of Tolerance. If we want a world where people are free to choose and believe and live unique and different lives, we cannot stand by and do nothing while intolerant assholes live their lives.