Agreed. When I first came here I thought Lemmy would be open to all points of view.
Lemmy already experienced Wolfballs, the de-facto right-wing instance, which their admin closed once they realized they were hosting a Nazi bar who were actually serious about White Nationalist nonsense and not just joking to “troll the lib snowflake”. We tried it, it wasn’t fun. Free speech absolutism is a pointless idealist approach to society - building a community where anyone can express anything will drive away people who want useful discussions and don’t want to be regularly dehumanized for their existence (not their opinions or acts, but their existence). Diversity of opinion and the freedom to express is productive and constructive, but only up to a point. If someone came on here and persistently and seriously advocated that everyone whose name begins with an “M” should be publicly executed… what’s the point in tolerating that point of view? It brings none of the benefits of free expression. It’s a waste of time that doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. And if it weren’t so silly and people actually did get lynched for having a name starting with “M”, it would be threatening and make people uncomfortable being here. If this “M” example seems too ridiculous, replace it with something equally pointless like “not being straight” or “not being white”, which people do get killed for.
If this site were sprinkled with literal neo-Nazis and child abuse advocates (this isn’t a mythical “what if”, one can go to plenty of “free speech extremist” forums to see these people in action), then would you stick around? I’d go to somewhere else where I wouldn’t have to see that pointless trash. And this isn’t because of some mindless intolerance of political views - I’ve had serious political conversations with actual Mussolini-reading Fascists - but because some points of view are inherently antisocial, willfully repulsive and exclusionary, and they inevitably destroy communities. There’s no material reason to be open to their antisocial points of view, it doesn’t benefit the community or bring useful insight. It’s an abstract right which causes more harm than benefit, more oppression than liberty. It’s a waste of time and space.
Unfortunately no lol. Lemmy has a handful of stances that are “allowed” and if you stray from those you’re toast.
You can get banned from entire instances just because the mod of that instance saw you make a comment they didn’t like on a completely different instance and sub.
It’s fine though. Each instance can do whatever they want. I do think it inhibits growth and actual discussions from taking place though. If you ban everyone that thinks even slightly differently than you it just means you’re left with a bunch of people that all pretty much agree I everything. Not exactly a riveting conversation.
Not just bans. People in the Fediverse are knee jerk blockers too. Disagree with me? Blocked. Wow, now everyone agrees with me, so my take must be correct.
Yeah … I mean everyone is allowed to Taylor their experience however they want but I never block people because I never want to put myself into an echo chamber where I only ever see or hear opinions I already agree with.
People arent at the best on anonymous internet forums. While I believe in free speech, I dont believe I am required to sit around and lend them my ear if they have proven themselves to be terrible. That being said, I dont ban right away, I make sure first. I dont feel bad about that at all-- I think it cuts down on slapfights. No one likes slapfights.
good for you I want an echo chamber, listening to stupid mfs opinions for the last 10 years has done me no favors, the type of mf that I dont want to talk to is the one who refuses growth and doesnt change their mind off new information, instead they double down on their beliefs because of whatever stupid reason
See the difference between us is that because I never block anyone I might hear or see a perspective or idea I’ve never considered before and I might take stock of my current position and change. Whereas with your method you are cutting off that chance and then just locking in on your current stances assuming they are currently correct and will always be correct forever which I find to be an idiotic stance to have.
I can admit that all of my positions might not be perfect because I still haven’t thought about every single thing or learned every single thing there is to learn. It is illogical to assume that I already know everything and no longer need to consider anything else.
I don’t know about you but my political stances have changed over the years. Certain from a young kid to my teen years. And again from my teens to my young adult years. And yet again as I have gotten older. I am sure they will continue to shift and grow as I grow as a a person.
I research my opinions, I dont base them off conversations with strangers on the internet who all have their own agendas. Republicans are not changing their minds and arent open to new opinions unless the source is one of their own and even then theyll turn on them it its too far from what they know.
Agreed. When I first came here I thought Lemmy would be open to all points of view.
Lemmy already experienced Wolfballs, the de-facto right-wing instance, which their admin closed once they realized they were hosting a Nazi bar who were actually serious about White Nationalist nonsense and not just joking to “troll the lib snowflake”. We tried it, it wasn’t fun. Free speech absolutism is a pointless idealist approach to society - building a community where anyone can express anything will drive away people who want useful discussions and don’t want to be regularly dehumanized for their existence (not their opinions or acts, but their existence). Diversity of opinion and the freedom to express is productive and constructive, but only up to a point. If someone came on here and persistently and seriously advocated that everyone whose name begins with an “M” should be publicly executed… what’s the point in tolerating that point of view? It brings none of the benefits of free expression. It’s a waste of time that doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. And if it weren’t so silly and people actually did get lynched for having a name starting with “M”, it would be threatening and make people uncomfortable being here. If this “M” example seems too ridiculous, replace it with something equally pointless like “not being straight” or “not being white”, which people do get killed for.
If this site were sprinkled with literal neo-Nazis and child abuse advocates (this isn’t a mythical “what if”, one can go to plenty of “free speech extremist” forums to see these people in action), then would you stick around? I’d go to somewhere else where I wouldn’t have to see that pointless trash. And this isn’t because of some mindless intolerance of political views - I’ve had serious political conversations with actual Mussolini-reading Fascists - but because some points of view are inherently antisocial, willfully repulsive and exclusionary, and they inevitably destroy communities. There’s no material reason to be open to their antisocial points of view, it doesn’t benefit the community or bring useful insight. It’s an abstract right which causes more harm than benefit, more oppression than liberty. It’s a waste of time and space.
All points of view can exist on different instances. Doesn’t mean that every instance has to federate with all other instances
Unfortunately no lol. Lemmy has a handful of stances that are “allowed” and if you stray from those you’re toast.
You can get banned from entire instances just because the mod of that instance saw you make a comment they didn’t like on a completely different instance and sub.
It’s fine though. Each instance can do whatever they want. I do think it inhibits growth and actual discussions from taking place though. If you ban everyone that thinks even slightly differently than you it just means you’re left with a bunch of people that all pretty much agree I everything. Not exactly a riveting conversation.
Not just bans. People in the Fediverse are knee jerk blockers too. Disagree with me? Blocked. Wow, now everyone agrees with me, so my take must be correct.
I dont see anything wrong with that.
You dont? Fucking blocked
oh no, please not that…
Yeah … I mean everyone is allowed to Taylor their experience however they want but I never block people because I never want to put myself into an echo chamber where I only ever see or hear opinions I already agree with.
People arent at the best on anonymous internet forums. While I believe in free speech, I dont believe I am required to sit around and lend them my ear if they have proven themselves to be terrible. That being said, I dont ban right away, I make sure first. I dont feel bad about that at all-- I think it cuts down on slapfights. No one likes slapfights.
good for you I want an echo chamber, listening to stupid mfs opinions for the last 10 years has done me no favors, the type of mf that I dont want to talk to is the one who refuses growth and doesnt change their mind off new information, instead they double down on their beliefs because of whatever stupid reason
See the difference between us is that because I never block anyone I might hear or see a perspective or idea I’ve never considered before and I might take stock of my current position and change. Whereas with your method you are cutting off that chance and then just locking in on your current stances assuming they are currently correct and will always be correct forever which I find to be an idiotic stance to have.
I can admit that all of my positions might not be perfect because I still haven’t thought about every single thing or learned every single thing there is to learn. It is illogical to assume that I already know everything and no longer need to consider anything else.
I don’t know about you but my political stances have changed over the years. Certain from a young kid to my teen years. And again from my teens to my young adult years. And yet again as I have gotten older. I am sure they will continue to shift and grow as I grow as a a person.
I research my opinions, I dont base them off conversations with strangers on the internet who all have their own agendas. Republicans are not changing their minds and arent open to new opinions unless the source is one of their own and even then theyll turn on them it its too far from what they know.