Posted this on shower thoughts but Ig here is more appropriate, I feel like lemmy is not the place I remember it being last year.
I really liked the atmosphere of civil arguments and understanding here, which is the reason I started posting actively as well, even though I have always been a lurker, but I feel like I have stopped feeling happy but instead more and more agitated when browsing, I remember people having civil discussions and willing to listen to others, content was low, but what each post produced was really high quality, nowadays though I rarely feel like it
People here have now started acting like as if they are some sort of god gifted individuals who are right in every regard, they love to throw the word ‘propaganda’ around but fail to acknowledge they could be a victim of it as well, I remember we could still have discussions about controversial topics without things getting ugly, nowadays it is not like that, comments get weirdly personal and sometimes even turn into insults and even phobic, people are hell-bent that they are right on certain issues, and never consider any other opinion or that something might be more nuanced than they think
I can be a victim of propaganda too, but what I really loved is that you were able to have healthy discussions and put forward your opinions, which meant you were much more aware of everybody elses opinion and their reasoning, which meant you could see things with different perspectives, nowadays though it is very different, you say something slightly controversial and be prepared for the hate comments (remember the mildy infuriating post? The guy ended up deleting it)
I have learned a lot from lemmy, and I have had wonderful conversations with some of you but I feel like the days where we all were collectively trying to build a good, happy and accepting community are gone, I won’t be surprised if any redditor looked us and thought we are a group of really closed minded people who wont accept anything that is not the common sentiment here
I was a little kid when reddit was gaining traction, so I have no Idea what sort of thing happened, maybe it was similar to this? I would really like if some early reddit adopters who also came here add their comments
One of my favorite moments I remember here is when there was some sort of meme about Ramadan, I clicked hesitantly thinking it’s gonna be a war zone, but I was surprised to see people having fun discussing how people deal with fasting where the sun never sets for months, that feeling was beautiful, I guarantee it will be a different situation now
I am fine with a prolonged or even a heated discussion, but I am not ok with insults and name calling
It’s interesting to me that this pretty agreeable comment is being downvoted, and in a post about how lemmy might be having less healthy conversations now and in the future. It’s pretty illustrative of the sentiment being asked about in the post.
Surely people who are arguing about anything at all can agree that insulting people doesn’t lead to a productive outcome. I doubt if anybody has ever been called a name and responded by changing their mind about whatever topic was being disagreed about.
Thats my entire fucking point, the thing that is gonna correct a wrong opinion of mine is a good argument where the other side actually shows me reason through some means, not smartasses calling me names
Honestly I am glad I made this post, it has removed a lot of doubt I might have had about this whole community I have been a part of, I was thinking maybe I would be able to read other peoples experiences, what do they think about it, but there is not a single person here who have shared their experience in a meaningful way, just pointless downvotes, generic statements and honestly weird stuff which I don’t even see as relevant to what I said because I said something bad about all these divine beings or merely said something they don’t agree with
I have always loved this but it has now turned into something that I only use to browse memes after a long day
Maybe your argument isn’t against Lemmy, but against online discussion in general. Heating debates that break into less constructive postings have been around since the days of BBSes and Usenet. I don’t disagree with your point that people should try to act like adults when discussing topics, but a (not so) different format doesn’t change how people are, especially when they feel protected by anonymity to react badly.
Usenet is where the term “flamewar” got invented, for discussions that were almost entirely heat and almost no light. It’s very human, really.