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this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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The problem I see with echo chambers is that people start to believe their views are normal, but often times they are the extreme minority. It can allow unproductive and toxic ideas in society to spread like a virus that undermines things.
For example, there are groups of people out there who believe the government is trying to give you microchips in vaccines and that they cause autism. The reason people often end up believing these kinds of things is because they get pushed out of regular communities when they start to get attacked and censored for "wrong-think". Instead of being able to engage in some rational conversations with more rational people they get pushed out if they question things. This often results in them finding a fringe echo chamber of people who are already far deep into this weird viewpoint. Their viewpoints now start to seem to make more sense because everyone around them also feels the same way. They no longer feel like they could be wrong in how they think. Now not only do they get more hardened in their beliefs, but now they also HATE that group that kicked them out.
So in my opinion these echo chambers often lead to more division and more hatred in society. I think when people are forced to absorb more opinions and a differing set of viewpoints they become a smarter, more intelligent thinker.
I'm not sure if you've seen this shift, but for most of my life I've held more liberal values. Nowadays I find I need to call myself a more "traditional liberal" as a lot of current liberal ideologies have shifted to become more far-left. It seems like the division between being liberal and conservative has immensely widened and previously liberal people can often get called conservative despite their views not having changed over the years. Often the vocal minority in a community is able to force people to adhere to their more radical viewpoints or they kick them out of the community.
Overall I just think echo chambers often can just be called a "cult". Because that's usually how they operate. Anybody who refuses to accept one narrow viewpoint of the world is cut out of the cult.
They don't. They follow a political ideology that tells them to ignore facts. Studies have shown they're truthful and able to discern facts if incentivised (paid) for doing so correctly.
I can't speak for your echo chambers, but in my own, those who are simply questioning things are reasoned against, and only when one acts in bad faith does one receive bad acting in return. I have no duty to educate those who have no desire to be educated.
If they don't support human rights just because some people were mean to them, then they never supported them in the first place. Bad people can be bad in their own spaces.
I agree with this broadly, but every community has their own overton windows and their own safe space. I'm not looking to combat right wing fascism every day when I'm just vibing in my space.
Liberalism is a conservative ideology that upholds capitalism. If you're on the left, i.e. against the structural hierarchies, which is what the term was used to describe back when it was coined before the French revolution, you're not liberal.
You can make this argument for literally any social grouping. A family can just be called a "cult", and all too often actually are. A religious order, a fraternity, a group of drinking buddies, a workplace. "Cults" aren't measured by the social structure, they're measured by their impact and the level of control they take over the members within.