this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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Unpopular Opinion

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I seriously cannot have any degree of nuanced conversation here.

Like I get it, we all know capitalism is bad, but it feels like every time I or anyone go towards discussing the steps that need to be taken to address current looming problems in the short term, someone has to jump in and shut it down with "capitalism bad >:[ " and tear down any idea presented because its not complete and total destruction of the current economic model.

The result just feels like an echo chamber where no actual solutions get presented other than someone posting whole ass dissertations on their 33-step (where 30/33 steps are about as vague as "we'll just handle it") plan to fully convert the world to an anarchist commune.

Edit: I still vastly prefer Lemmy and the fediverse and a whole, my complaint here is that many of you are TOO INTENSE. You blow up small scale discussion.

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[–] Kedly@lemm.ee 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I definitely feel like I can get away with posting against group think here on lemmy far more than I did on reddit.

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[–] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Just ignore the low-effort comments and wait for someone who is able to invest more effort to answer.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I completely agree. However, I also think its better than 'most' internet places.

There is a down-vote brigade around any kind of criticism of a knee jerk reaction people are having to a headline. I think because of the current political climate, nuance around responsibility for the state of things simply isn't suffered, which I do understand the sentiment. However, I've also been pleasantly surprised at the number of 3+ deep comment threads, which seems to be about where the nuance appears.

Its really the knee jerk downvoters and one line commenters who do actually lack critical thinking skills, but this isn't unique to lemmy. Its all over, hackernews has them too, there is simply a larger effort to 'appear smart' on hn than lemmy. Lemmy is more casual, which is fine. This is a space for casual discussion, and hot takes are fine and should be welcome.

I'll use a political example, such as my concern around how much water carrying I see for groups like congressional Democrats. If you push back on something coming from NYT as being a 'Democratic win', you'll be very quickly downvoted below 50%. However, I don't think the lack of nuance is because of lemmy or the demographic here. I think its from a place of real fear around what might happen if the US loses its democracy to fascism that is generally palpable across the internet and offline as well. People are materially very afraid, and reacting without nuance right now, and I think the fear is justified. However, if we want to find solutions, we need to maintain a clear head and keep discussions happening. Its open forums like Lemmy where opinions are made and nuanced developed; there needs to be space for that.

This same point can be extended to issues around global war, climate change, the rise of global fascism, the usurping of generations of potential by the oligarchical class, any of the innumerable ills we are currently staring down the barrel of. Its a stressful time and people are rightfully scared and worried. Scared worried people don't do nuance. They react. Up for things they think they agree with, down for things they don't. No nuance.

Largely I agree with the point, but I don't think its a lemmy thing in the current climate.

[–] RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

I like your point about a place of fear. I did an edit to clarify that I still think the Fediverse beats other social media and my complaint is a criticism coming from a place of love. It's very hard to continue wanting to engage in low-level discussion around issue when I know someone is about to take it over with either some grand (in scale, not concept) statement about the issue, or abject defeatism.

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[–] platypus_plumba@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

why do you expect random people on the internet to be smart enough to be able to have a position and defend it for such a complex thing as the economy?

I think you'll find a lot of nuance for more specific matters, but not for something this complex and abstract. You'll mostly get emotional responses and opinions. If you want to have an intellectual discussion on economics, I don't think this is the right place.

You could also be part of the solution and create a community for that type of content. You could be in charge of moderating it, to keep away the users that you consider are echo-chambering without actual contributions.... I mean, if you really care about actual solutions.

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[–] EssentialCoffee@midwest.social 6 points 9 months ago (3 children)
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[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wish there was an option to judge the content independently of form. A 2 types of karma kind of system.

There are times I strongly disagree with the idea behind the post, but it's really nicely written. And then there are other times when I agree with the general gist of a post, but OP is still a dick and deserves a slap.

[–] PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

It wouldn't matter. You could have 20 different metrics to rate a post and people would use all 20 to bury things they didn't like.

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago

I can’t agree with this more if I tried! Well said.

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

I've found the opposite to be true on Lemmy. It's definitely getting worse with time, but the exodus that fueled Lemmy initially seemed to consist mostly of the reasonable people. You can see a noticeable decline in attempts to calmly rebut misinformation with sourced arguments in Reddit (to the general detriment of the audience reading the posts there). Just my personal experience of course, but you have to scroll so much further to see the actual true in a lot of posts on reddit than you used to (if that truth shows up at all).

So it's nice for us personally to be in a bit more filtered existence here, with a higher overall quality of conversation, but the masses on reddit suffer, especially the kids - Gut feels like all the 30s-40s millennials went to Lemmy and left the Gen Z kids as chum in the water for the boomers and bots that make up the ceaseless repetition of unsubstantiated broken-minded talking points.

I'd also encourage you to look internally at the quality of your own arguments if you feel like nobody is entertaining your opinions on things.. maybe you just kind of suck?

[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

See? Even the post criticizing the lack of nuance says everyone thinks capitalism ia bad. :D

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 5 points 9 months ago

Upvoted for unpopular opinion. I don't agree though, I think it's still better than most other online places. It's just that "most other places" doesn't set a high bar and besides, I bet even if it was a lot better, people would still complain.

[–] getoffthedrugsdude@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago

Why aren't y'all just blocking the people you don't want to interact with?

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

/agree

Hot Take: I honestly don't know if I'm right or not about this, but it feels like it's a generational thing, and not just a Lemmy thing.

[–] doublejay1999@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Remember most people are teenagers.

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