Ask Lemmy

I guess it depends with me. There's things I have a hardline stance against like AI and bigotry and do everything I can to not support either, but I'm also too lazy to do research into if anyone involved is part of that. Like if I know a game or movie was made by a bigot like Rowling or used GenAI then yeah I won't support it, but there's often been times I didn't know till after cause I didn't care to look more into something.

I didn't leave Reddit for principles though. I was forced off.

Yep. I left Reddit during the initial API crisis. I've left jobs because of my principles, even without backup jobs ready. There are tons of places I won't shop (including Amazon), and it makes finding things I need difficult sometimes. I've also been vegan for over 20 years.

My mom's the opposite. I grew up seeing her hypocrisy, and it upset me. She'd outright tell me, "Do as I say, not as I do." Such a rich lesson for a young mind! I realized that a lot of people become hypocrites by repeating what others say without critical thought, and it turned me into a skeptic. So many people jump on the emotional bandwagon (see any hot button political topic for reference), but then later after hearing someone else confidently spout an opinion on it, they will stand with the opposite conclusion. If they'd stopped and thought the first time they heard about it, before opening their mouths about it, they wouldn't come off hypocritical later on. But the distressing part is less that they changed their opinion, but that they still haven't put any critical thought into why they hold it - it's all just repeating others' words. Which is why if a topic is brand new to me, I will refuse to take a side in it until I research it and come to my own conclusions. There are enough parrots repeating propaganda thoughtlessly, we have to be very careful with whom we trust.

My principles uphold the person I am. I came to them on my own, often going against the tide I grew up in. To me, the hardest part about having principles isn't upholding them, but in dealing with those that can't believe you actually have them. So many people seem to float on seemingly without a real sense of self, swayed more by those around them than by any sort of inner compass. I can't fathom being like that, and those people apparently can't fathom being like me.

All the more reason Lemmy is such a good place to be. We might not all hold the same principles, but at least many of us seem to have them.

I'd also like to note the seeming overlap of Lemmy's populace with neurodivergence, which can coincide with, well, being a principled weirdo like me. ;)

Very. Unfortunately, that drives me to making choices that make my life very hard.

Yes, in an inflexible way that ruins my life.

Somewhere between principled and petty. I’ve got a mental blacklist of places or brands I won’t buy from because either they’ve wronged me, given shit service or done something I don’t agree with. And in recent years I’ve added countries to that list too.

If I had the courage of my convictions then I wouldnt be on here either.

Probably not as much as I think I am.

I think most people would consider me highly, perhaps obnoxiously principled.

Tricky question, because the people who directly conflict with MY principles, probably feel that they are the one with principles, and I'M the immoral one.

I can be for the right price.

I think I am principled in some things and not so much in others. Reddit has nothing to do with it. I left Reddit because it was no longer fun. I don’t want to scroll reposts of engagement bait and read the dumbest bot comments under it. I would happily keep using it if it was fun.

Yeah, I guess fairly principled. That's probably related to my autism/sense of justice/not being controlled by social expectations, as well

Yes, I determine my thoughts about something based on how I feel about it and the available information. I actively try to avoid falling into group think on any subject. Or be told how I should feel about XYZ topic. It's lost me some friends along the way.

I strive to be, but I know I fall short of living entirely true to my values. I think we all do. But I at least try.

Kind of. But I'm also a pragmatic person resulting in a lot of contradictions. Just as an example, I despise authoritarian regimes, but my work email ends with .cn

I consider myself an anarchopragmatist at heart; I would love to have neither Gods, kings, or mayors, but the process of implementing an alternative would most likely be worse than what we have today, at least in my corner of the world.

Ofc, who would I be if I weren't? 😁

Ha, it's very easy to have strong principles when you're a weird shut-in who spends all their time online ( definitely not me /s ). It's not exactly as demanding to be here as so many make it out to be. Unless you're running your own instance, it's just making an account on someone else's server, you just get a little choice in what kind of server you sign up for and where its hosted n such.

It's not like making an impact on your bills like committing to only eating organically grown vegetables as well as ethically farmed chicken, beef, and pork because you're against pesticides hurting insect populations and only want animals who aren't in industrial farm hell. You have plan where to shop for foods matching your principles of minimal harm to animals and ecosystems, and the cost may be significantly higher than non-organic or factory-farm produced food. There is a larger buy-in on your principles in this example, a larger impact on your daily life and routines.

Making an account on a relatively niche set of sites on the internet is more like just being a stubborn nerd. Not to say our reasons aren't often valuable principles in themselves, just that standing by those principles is often easier and cheaper to do online than very impactful real life principles. It's easy to talk big game online and be a bum in real life. It's easy to make an account once and then its as easy as typing in your username and password.

All you need to be principled out here is a halfway functioning old laptop running Linux ("I use Arch btw" -Lemmy probably) and an internet connection fast enough to load a website. It's not big stakes.

Further, there's a gap between being principled, and having good principles while being a regretful fuckup because you didn't live up to your own principles. I'd wager there's a lot more of us in the latter group of regretful fuckups.

Yes but also no. I've come to the conclusion that being too extreme is just stupid. You always need a little bit of wiggle room.

I left reddit and do not contribute anymore. I do browse certain subreddits in my mobile browser, but don't login. Lemmy is better for conversation and I like supporting the underdog in the age of content is everything.

Not particularly, no. Unless doing the things I want to do, and not doing things I don't want to do, counts as principle.

Yes, I believe I am very principled. I struggle to live up to them, but it gives me something to strive for.

By principle I do many a thing that are against my "best interest" when it comes to relations and things that would help promote me financially. That doesn't mean I haven't also fucked myself over financially financially in other ways. But Ive walked from a job with nothing in savings and no safety net out of principles that the company probably will never know about nor care who I was at the end of the day.

My income ended up halved and my savings are still empty, but I sleep better at night, and now when I drink it's for fun and not the dread of who's lives would be ended/impacted by the fruits of my and others labor.

I got kicked off Reddit for daring to speak my thoughts regarding Stephen Miller.

Duty now demands that I never look back.

I'd like to think so. I'm not perfect, but I mostly do what I think it right and what I think is important for myself and for society at large.

...having strong principles and actually sticking to them might be a common theme among the userbase here.

That's what I've traditionally thought, but I've found there's less of it that sentiment than I'd hoped for. A lot more people willing to be 'content consumers' or opinion-spewers without doing much to help make the FV work than I'd imagined. That said, some of that's surely just whining on my part as someone who chronically wishes that more communities (including mine) received more help & participation, as well as someone on the 'snappish-side' due to constant pain. Also, not everyone here necessarily came from Reddit, or has any special respect for the Fediverse.

what would we be without principles? just dumb cavemen.

AM I? I'm the most principled materfucker there is.