I think my favorite thing about Lemmy is that it feels like Reddit used to. Less negativity, more engaged users (I think). I know it will be fun to watch Reddit die, but if I put spite aside what I’m really mad at Reddit about is more about what Reddit became and maybe part of that is when the general internet user started going to Reddit and it became less like the small community it was years ago. Feel free to disagree or share an argument 😉
Well that’s a stupid take and you are dumb.
(Sorry, I know, not funny…) 🤦♂️
More seriously, while I deleted my Reddit account, I haven’t tried to avoid landing on some Reddit threads linked from Lemmy, and for the past few days I’ve looked closer at comment sections, because I’m noticing I had forgotten how rotten they were compared to here. So much pointless aggressivity.
I think it’s credible that if Lemmy was to keep growing, that issue will also keep growing as you have noticed. So, a bit like op, I’m hoping it only grows big enough to keep the open source projects interested and staffed; but not so much so that most of the sucky aggressivity stays on Reddit or elsewhere permanently.
I repeat this a lot, but I think the most important thing to do is to stay sincere and not be a defeatist. No arguing just to win, but no hugbox mentality either.
I have no doubt at all that the reddit admins and powermods were algorithmically pushing flame bait and hatred (especially to the political subs) to drive traffic to the site, so now that we’ve have a place where that isn’t possible (yet, at least), I’m interested to see if that’s just the nature of political discussion on the Internet.
I don’t know, I think even in real life people get silly when discussing topics they have strong feelings about, and politics seems to be one of them fairly often.
I guess all I’m saying is I understand your point and it makes sense to me, I’m probably just a bit less hopeful than you are (and I commend you for it!)
It’s the idea of a New Sincerity, or post-postmodernism.
Yeah, the world is turning to shit, and nothing matters. So what? What are you doing to make it less shit?
It’s the idea that you should be trying to save everyone with the understanding that a small portion are just too far gone to be saved, and you should focus on the ones that you can, because even if you just save one person, that’s still a net positive.
I think it’s a very sensible approach, and honestly quite uplifting too.
I saw an economic’s professor start an argument in a coffee shop about Bernie Sanders. And he legitimately said something about Sanders’s socialism leading to firing squads.
Getting into an argument like that isn’t even worth it or possible to win.