Technology

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

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.

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.

I’ve always been a terse asshole.

“Why are online discussions about politics more hostile than offline discussions?
A popular answer argues that human psychology is tailored for face-to-face interaction and people’s behavior therefore changes for the worse in impersonal online discussions…
Across eight studies, leveraging cross-national surveys and behavioral experiments (total N = 8,434), we test the mismatch hypothesis but only find evidence for limited selection effects.
Instead, hostile political discussions are the result of status-driven individuals who are drawn to politics and are equally hostile both online and offline.
Finally, we offer initial evidence that online discussions feel more hostile, in part, because the behavior of such individuals is more visible online than offline.”

This fits with our understanding of personality disorders, which is that they are a small percentage of our society—around 10.5 percent, according to the recent DSM-5-TR.3

I try to avoid all politics online because it's all raging and it's honestly depressing that 10.5% can dominate a space like that.

The full study for those interested: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354152560_The_Psychology_of_Online_Political_Hostility_A_Comprehensive_Cross-National_Test_of_the_Mismatch_Hypothesis

What a terrible headline. All of us? No. Next.

Nope. Its the same as it ever way.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory

Some people deliberately come to social media for fighting. I probably used to. Maybe on occasion when I'm feeling cranky I will be less diplomatic than I really want to be.

But I find two things actually help:

1. I'm not friends/following anyone I know in real life. That helps with anonymity in case I do run afoul of someone who bears a grudge, but also when someone posts aggravating bullshit, it's not someone I care about. Which leads to...
2. I'm merciless about blocking anyone and anything that I can't engage with fruitfully. Attention is a limited resource and I don't want to spend it all on negativity. I'm happy to hold genial conversations with folks I disagree with, but if interacting with them becomes tedious, stressful, or annoying I just bin them. Hell, if someone is a big enough prick to someone else I block them. If someone is in every thread harping on some agenda, gone.

Bluesky has a feature to mute keywords for a set period. If I need a break from news about Gaza, Trump, some trending drama, sports (like the World Cup), or just want to avoid spoilers, I mute the topic for a while.

Together, these tools make social media much less negative for me. It usually keeps me from doom scrolling or taking the rage bait.

And when I’m emotionally charged or unclear, I sometimes draft my comments elsewhere before posting. I let it sit for a bit, and if I can’t say what I mean with the tone and clarity I want, I just don’t post. Maybe 30% of my comments get binned—some after spending an hour or more working on them.

In short, I heavily curate my social interactions—both incoming and outgoing—to reduce stress and negativity. As a result, social media today is far more pleasant than it was ten years ago.

No fucking shit we are. How did you crack that nut, Einstein?

yes and i don’t think it’s limited to politics either.

I think there are two sides to this. Yes, online aggression has probably peaked in recent years with the rise of worldwide pro far-right misinformation campaigns, no argument there. They were specifically targeted at the people more vulnerable to buy into hate speech propaganda.

On the other hand, I have personally noticed more constructive discussions, even after I deleted most of my anti-social media accounts and substantialy decreased my usage of Internet forums in general. It seems there's some positive trend in the middle of all that.

TL;DR: It's the .mls' fault. They're assholes all the time, but we don't see them offline because they don't have jobs

Yes. It is longer than just now though.

Jonathan Haidt recently wrote in The Atlantic:

Ok but fr tho fuck Jonathan Haidt.

Haidt was JAQing off about trans people in the exact way that the Onion called out and satirized hours after their article was published. He's a "centrist" who seems to exclusively punch left, and he's just whining about getting called out with legitimate criticism.

He also got deez nuts'd iirc lol.

Edit: Shit, I had him confused with another Atlantic writer, Jonathan Chait. My bad. Haidt is also a left-punching transphobic "centrist" tho.

Meet Anon.

Theres so much pedophilia, wanton violence, racism, misogyny, homophobia, ableism, transphobia... fuck all these people. May they never find peace or happiness. We owe no one politeness.