My social media environment (mostly Lemmy for the last year, after I left Reddit) is very leftist. I’m finding myself floating more and more left because y’all have a point and there’s not many counter-arguments in this social media environment. I sometimes wonder if that’s how MAGA folks feel–floating more and more right because that’s what they’re surrounded by.
Of course, my floating is (naturally /s) based on reason and leftists making good memes/arguments.
Anyways, that’s this morning’s introspection.
Side showerthought: my convictions are based on memes. Anyone have nice, accessible resources for giving those convictions a more solid base? I’d love something like a graphic history of leftist thought (similar to Queer: A Graphic History). Something approachable but with citations. Thanks :)
ironically, this leftish area has caused me to go from thinking the right was terrible and the left was good to realizing there are really annoyingly aggressive people on both sides. I generally can’t stand oppression, so I am naturally on the side opposed to antiLGBTQ oppressors, racists, and sexists; which causes me to fall on the left side. But, now being in a leftish area a while, I dislike how the sheer vilifying and mob mentality disrupts calm logical thought. I will get downvotes for saying this (and that’s exactly my point), but, for example, if I were to think a policy of trump or elon was smart and good, you know there is no way i could mention it without 80 downvotes and constant personal attacks. If Trump liked gummi bears, saying ‘thats cool gummi bears are good’ would instantly result in 40 people yelling how terrible Gummi Bears are… because Trump likes them.
So lemmy caused me to go from leftist to instead having a distinction between respectful, nonaggressive people and those that aren’t. I would value a respectful, wellmeaning republican that I can have a meaningful conversation with (even if I disagree), over an aggressive lefty attacking any hint of an ideology other than their own.
The most annoying/worst person you know can share your political ideology and that’s both unsettling and makes you wonder “are we the baddies?”
Part of being online is that folks will just be a jerk to you sometimes, I suspect to feel better about themselves and their position.
Yeah it’s the pile on mentalities that every online social media seems to get.
If you’re in the “wrong” on that specific site there’s rarely room for calm discussion just a pile on of abuse solidifying everyone’s echo chambers