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The “hivemind” ignoring the correct information or even worse, encouraging the wrong information.
Does anyone else remember the whole Boston Bomber fiasco (i.e. We did it, Reddit)?
A lot of people would just upvote the first bozo to reply with a confident answer and never bother to check for the full story. Scrolling 3 comments down you’d find someone who actually knows their stuff. I learned to at least read most of the comments before committing any Reddit info to memory as fact.
It's most noticeable when the topic being discussed is your area of expertise. Then you clearly see what kind of grossly oversimplified or even blatantly false comments get made with so much confidence and upvoted.
I tried to keep this in mind while reading stuff that I'm not an expert in, but that's hard.
Then you come out facts swinging, and despite possessing vastly more knowledge on the subject and presenting factual/cited corrections to their claims, you are the one downvoted because the userbase has already decided the false claim is more fun to believe.
Let them continue to devolve in their cesspool. They can have it.. They deserve it...
This was a really frustrating part. Just the intensity of which people defended their beliefs because they suited their internal narratives, rather than those beliefs being based in truths.
Its one thing to argue that the grass is green due to chlorophyll; it's an entirely other thing to argue the grass is blue because it makes you feel good about yourself, and your (fart) echoing chamber agrees with you
Similarly asking for proof getting downvoted to hell. Asking for proof is so important online and pretty much every statement should be able to provide proof
That was the story that first drew me to Reddit.
Unfortunately this might not be something from Reddit. It could be universal to all human communities. People want to feel that they are in the right but not be questioned, when countering opposing arguments is the way to truth.