this post was submitted on 23 May 2024
521 points (93.2% liked)
Technology
58303 readers
6 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This sounds like a general issue of: if you're at the margins of society, you're going to have a bad time on social media. Social media is a distillation of the majority opinion on things (i.e. the most extreme versions of majority opinions), and if the majority is intolerant, you'll get the worst of the intolerance.
For example, society's general perception is that sex work is gross, so the most extreme view of that is that sex work is literally corrupting our kids, so you'll get that kind of pushback on social media. A lot of people are uncomfortable with LGBT issues, so the most extreme form of that is attacking LGBT people. Unpopular opinions tend to get attacked, extreme forms of popular opinions tend to stay and get boosted (usually the extreme form is hidden 3-4 levels deep in a discussion thread).
Important to remind people that it's not theoretical when we talk about it. It's real human beings that are being scapegoated. It's real abusers that get a smokescreen.
I 100% agree, which is a huge part of why I don't engage much with social media. Lemmy is literally it for me.
I'm not in a marginalized group, I just refuse to engage with that nonsense. I don't have any solutions for those who are impacted, other than try to build real-world connections with people. Maybe local meetups are a good option here, idk.
Good luck out there! Stay safe!
Thanks. Vest advice I have to any person looking to help, is dont just be a passive ally. Step up as an accomplice. When there's a police protected parade of alt-right demonstrators, show them that they're outnumbered. The SRA does a good job of that, as one example.
The other advice is that whatever space you exist in, be proactive in showing bigots that there's no place at the table at your club.
To anyone reading: Just dont do nothing. You are as powerful as your solidarity.