Unpopular Opinion
Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!
How voting works:
Vote the opposite of the norm.
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
Guidelines:
Tag your post, if possible (not required)
- If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
- If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].
Rules:
1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
2. Be civil.
Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.
5. No trolling.
This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
6. Defend your opinion
This is a bit of a mix of rules 4 and 5 to help foster higher quality posts. You are expected to defend your unpopular opinion in the post body. We don't expect a whole manifesto (please, no manifestos), but you should at least provide some details as to why you hold the position you do.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
view the rest of the comments
Small talk, obligations etc. can leads to deep talk, real friendships and platonic and romantic love.
Learn some semi-eccentric small talk. When you get to know what someone works with, there is always something to learn. No exceptions. Don't play entirely by social norms and rules, just ask non-invasive questions about their lives, hobbies, work etc. Example: "As a elevator technician, what security mechanisms exist? What prevents it from falling if the wires fail?", "As a pharmacist what kinds of medicines is it that are a lot more popular than many would assume? Which is truly prescribed more than expected?"
There is guaranteed something you can ask that are interesting. Talking to someone about having kids can be interesting, feel free to get a little personal. "Was it difficult when he/she was a baby?" "What is it you like the most about being a parent?"
Politics can be a lot of fun, but needs to be kept to two parties always, never more at the time. It should also be an open and safe place, even if that person is a bit of a bigot. Just ask why they dislike x, y, z. You can always say "I don't really care that they are x. It don't really affect my life in any way, so I think that as long as they don't hurt anyone they should be left alone. I care more about z (corporate greed, exploitation, poverty, corruption etc)"
After a while you can get into the juicy stuff that creates connections and the deep conversations. This is where you want to be. Why bother with being stuck in the small-talk zone. God it's boring, but it is where both parties learn to feel safer with eachother.
As long as it is not offensive, its mostly just fun for both parties to skip past the most boring parts. Most people are cool and chill.
Stay away from discussions about abortion, domestic violence, suicide and rape. Pretty much everything else is okay-ish.