Ask Lemmy

No. I'm perfectly secure in my absolute hatred and rejection of bigotry and violence.

One reason you're noticing a homogeneity of opinions on here is the fact that Lemmy isn't botted like larger social networks. Larger networks have bots farms pushing all sorts of narratives for various reasons, and the one thing they accel at is finding people to argue with.

You are also certainly in a bubble on Lemmy. You have to know it exists and care enough to use it over other platforms. Most people choose the path of least resistance.

This isn't a fucking poll. It's a website with a bunch of jackasses on it. You want better sampling start poking for your opinions instead of shitting them out on whatever social media site.

I get argued with on here fairly often. The fact that the people arguing with me are usually morons reinforces my belief that I'm on the right side of things.

I don't know what your talking about. I'm very active on Lemmy, precisely because there is a lot of actual debate.

What I don't get, that Reddit had a LOT of, is trolls, bots, novelty accounts, puns, and especially Russian Propaganda Farmers who are just showing up to argue for the sake of arguing.

I also don't get a lot of MAGA trolls. Debate is one thing, but anybody who is still sticking by MAGA at this point is a truly sick person, and I'd rather not have to engage with psychopaths, thank you. I don't have anything good or polite to say to them, and they can't be moved by logic or morality, so what's the point? They just want to cause problems, because they think that's entertaining.

Actually, I sometimes get lots of downvotes in things I think I see pretty clearly. So I understand what you mean but still I see some controversy.

Express yourself. Fuck everyone else's opinions and correctness, value yours until it's defeated. It's not rare that what is generally perceived as correct, is still wrong. Turn off the voting system and express yourself without worrying about numbers, focus in the arguments.

This makes me worried that I'm in some sort of echo chamber

You are. Just consider how small the amount of people knowing about lemmy is, now take the ones who are interested in it (over using something like reddit) and now pick the ones who are technically capable to register an account. Those are us, those who have gone through this selection process.

hatred is minimal here

What levels of diversity are you expecting? I am here exactly to avoid the extreme polar opposite diversity many mainstream platforms offer. I see people agreeing and disagreeing but they are still having some common ground which enables the disagreement to look civil. Considering the mainstream social media this can look like a lack of diversity, but it's actually how it is supposed to be in a civilized world...

I believe that AI including chatgpt and genAI are a good thing and they bring us one step closer to where humanity should be going.

I also think that feminism was instigated by the CIA, that Israel is losing the Iran war on purpose, and what else can i tell you? Lots of diverging opinions.

I just rarely bother to formulate them because all it will cause is lots of people categorically saying "no you're wrong" and i don't really get anything from that.

With the caveat that I've blocked all news and politics communities... not saying you're wrong, but can you give a practical example of the kind of opinion you'd like to see voiced here?

To me the Lemmy userbase seems rightfully distrustful of corporate curated talking points and it's easy enough to see those by going to any social media platform. I don't know who you're talking to in real life, but after meeting hundreds of AI tech bros (and many others too polite to vocally disagree with them) that seems like a breath of fresh air.

I could do without the endless barrage of guillotine references though. Anyone who thinks of the French Revolution as the ideal model for societal reform would be wise to take a moment to read up on it.

If you truly have energy for this, focus it on growing the platform overall. That naturally adds more and more diversity of opinion. I don't think the problem you mention is real, I think it's more a commentary on how you process what you see generally.

First up, you are probably the most rational Person in the Internet, by not wanting to be in an ech chamber, and therefore also a nightmare for algorythms. Secondly, if you are seeing no alternative opinions, just go to hexbears, they dogpile in you for the tiniest shit you could imagine. Meow

That's why I'm still on Reddit half the time. Too many people here are vicious and condescending on every topic. At least it's funny on Reddit but over here it's usually annoying.

I see differing opinions all the time.

I'm guessing you don't see many people agreeing with you, and that's why you think there's a lack of diverse opinions?

Yes, this is an echo chamber. Yes, most things are very samey. You don't see alternative opinions because this is a TINY community. Like crazy tiny. Lemmy has what, 60,000 active users? You know a ton of those are bots too. Even after a reddit exodus that site gets what, 2 million daily users*? So you've got a crazy small group but it's also very similar in type of person who is here. It's overwhelmingly educated middle aged men with a tech background or focus. So you've got a limited pool of opinions to draw on, and then EVEN if you do occasionally get a different opinion, even within that narrow band of experience it can get voted down or swarmed.

Look, I only lurk here occasionally, and I see stuff I disagree with constantly. I see stuff in this thread I disagree with. But I don't post about it because it's not worth it. I also don't have time to argue a minority opinion on the internet, and my life is better since I stopped doing that. And I guarantee I'm not alone. But I ASSURE you this is a bubble.

...but if it makes you feel better though, most people live in bubbles. I have been lucky to grow up in a very different place than I live, and I've found that politically, most Americans absolutely talk past one another because they are incapable of understanding "the other side" because they've never truly talked to people on the other side or listened to them, much less lived with them and understood them. This isn't enlightened centrist BS, I have a side I agree with, but I also don't misrepresent the views of people I disagree with based on no actual knowledge. And with non politics it's very similar - small groups beget small opinion spaces based on a small pool of experiences. Whether that's cars or AI or Linux.

We used to get exposed to people with different life experiences and opinions in so-called "third places", and we don't have them anymore. Way fewer people go to chuch and the middle of the road protestant mainline has been subsumed. Social clubs like the elks and masons are far less popular. 12% of the population doesn't serve in the military with a socioeconomic cross-cut. Kids don't even have malls, sports start specializations early, and the Internet, almost worst of all, has made it easier than ever to get a social fix consuming only content from those most like you or what is algorithmically fed to you.

Anyway, things are bad, I do not have a solution, but I have a little bit of time and feel compelled to post when you are practically begging for unpopular opinions. So my unpopular opinion is holy shit is this place an echo chamber, and if you don't feel that deep in your bones you need to immediately drive 2 hours outside of whatever city you live in and go to a pancake breakfast hosted by some local scout troop, go to some small town festival and talk to people, or hell go visit a church of a religion you don't belong to. And don't talk to people your own age, or same familial structure. Talk to someone who thinks voting is dumb. Talk to someone who doesn't care which Linux distro you're on because they don't even HAVE a computer, they just have an iPad.

...and yes, realistically you're probably not gonna make a connection that way without moving somewhere, and I'm obviously being mostly flippant, but at least don't turn on conservative tiktok or watch Fox News and expect that to be "the other side". Experiencing a different bubble is "growth" I guess, but people aren't the bubbles they live in, and actually talking to them is a way better way to understand WHY we disagree, not just how. Again, like I said, I don't have real solutions on how to do that. I just have the answer to your question and yes this place is a bubble.

*Note I'm pulling those numbers out of my ass, but I bet I'm close on orders of magnitude. And yes I know reddit is half bots too.

Yes. Lemmy is a huuuge echo chamber.

think a lot of comments also think "Other opinions = MAGA crazy shit"

I've read and even participated in many debates here, there is definitely plurality of opinion going on here. So it seems to me that you may be missing some particular opinions - which ones are those?

visit any Linux community here for diverse opinions :) fuck Arch BTW ;)

Yep, it's pretty cringe.