A bit of nuance the headline misses:
a striking correlation between users’ engagement in partisan subreddits and the overall toxicity in their comments
You can be politically engaged without treating politics as a knock-about blood-sport.
It’s also important to look at those positions.
Like, abortion.
To some people, aborting a 3 week old fetus is murder. Because their religion goes even further and says a guy jacking off is mass murder because that “seed” should only be used for heterosexual sex that would result in a child. Which makes them incredibly hypocritical, but they’re used to that
To others it’s just a clump of cells with zero brain activity growing in a women’s body and she decides if she wants to let it grow.
Both sides see the other as evil and obviously wrong.
Which is why it’s been a “wedge issue” for decades. Both parties can cater to corporations and the wealthy, and disagree on stuff like this that makes it so a large segment of the population never agrees with the other on who to vote for, and both parties can agree on stuff like how little taxes the wealthy have to pay while still presenting themselves as opposites.
I don’t bother debating abortion because I will never get my “opponent” to view it how I view it. We can both see each other as completely in the wrong yet still be civil because neither of us are meaning to be malicious.
Good, you can’t expect to have a conversation and change someone just like that. An adult that is religious and not extremely sheltered is probably a lost cause when it comes to understanding anything complex. The best you can really do is plant seeds, cause them to question, encourage the questioning and point out the clever tricks they’ve been taught to shut down questioning.
We need to learn to thrive despite the existence if stupid people, they will be born at a consistent rate for eternity. It’s our job to organize society in ways that don’t facilitate psychopaths mobilizing them into their idiot army (e.g. MAGA).
It is, however, very important to note that when one side starts treating politics like it IS blood sport (I.e. populism), it’s genuinely difficult to push things in a positive direction by taking the “high road”.
More specifically, the paradox of tolerance is very much a factor here. Regressive and reactionary groups absolutely abuse the system as it exists today with the intent of fully corrupting and controlling it in the future.
Understand what bad-faith arguments look like, and the ways that they are often presented as “reasonable discourse”. When you see someone engaging in such disingenuous tactics online, consider dropping some bait to see whether or not they show more of their bad-faith hand; if they do, go (rhetorical) weapons free.
There’s a game series I play that just had a new version come out. It’s a silly puzzle game that you can just waste time with while doing something else.
The author does a little ‘story mode’ and this time they went through how they’re getting older and are starting to think of end of life stuff. I’m in a similar headspace myself really, though they’re a decade or so ahead of me. It ends with something about maybe that person with different political opinions was just born in a different place than you and you should take the time to listen to them.
I’m like, bruh… yeah, sure, that was okay back in the 90s. Have you looked at our current political space? Seriously, read the room
I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that they’re just privileged and the things going on these days don’t effect them personally so they just have no idea what the hell they’re talking about.
Game is still good and the best one they’ve made so far, but damn was the end of that piece tone deaf af.
Yep, I completely believe it.
I’m fairly political myself, and it takes pretty hefty amounts of effort to remind myself to let things go and try to just keep a respectable level of discourse. And I still fuck it up all the time.
A lot of it is mechanical. I have far fewer tools here than I do with irl political activism, I can’t use facial expression or tone or anything. So it almost feels like negative sarcasm replaces all that or something, I don’t really know, I’ll have to think about it awhile.
It’s also fucked. Like, what are we supposed to do? This is the only form of protest that some of us have. I don’t have the ability to get out and protest. I don’t have the ability to be an activist, I have a family that I need to take care of.
I know that change comes from political discourse, and we’ve VERY CLEARLY seen that has worked towards the Republicans benefit (reg. redpilling, QAnon, etc.). It’s the only way I know that I can fight back against that insanity.
Cultural change is slow, but it ultimately wins the war, and the best thing that I can do is be on the right slide of it. I understand that you win over more people by being nice, but my comments arent to “win” over the person I’m talking to…they are the “example”, and my argument is primarily for the hundreds of people that will ultimately read the post.
the religulous have a pretty sweet deal for themselves at this point. They don’t have to pay attention to anything except their favorite liars because anything else makes them uncomfortable, and if you try to talk to them legitimately, they go all special snowflake the second you let slip a profane word representing how strongly you feel and just totally stop listening. It’s worse than talking to children, at least children are trying to understand you some of the time. These people start from a place of dishonesty and never leave it.
The “True Believers” simply discard rationality. Logic no longer matters. They know with full conviction and absolutely zero doubt that they are right, regardless of any and all evidence to the contrary. There is unfortunately very little negotiation one can do with that mentality once a person in the grasp of it decides you’re an “agent of evil” - and that’s a comically easy line to cross.
Source: I’ve got a Christian Fundamentalist uncle, which is always… shall we say, interesting at family gatherings, especially considering that I was raised broadly similarly to him but am now staunchly atheist and he knows it.
Good thing lemmy’s not like that huh guys
Makes more sense if you reverse it: Toxic Redditors tend to be politically engaged. It’s not the politics that makes them toxic it’s because they are toxic that they engage with politics so much. Most people who are informed with politics don’t necessarily engage. Of course there are people who do who aren’t toxic but the loudest voices usually are abrasive people.
friend, sometimes shit needs abrading. you ever get anything done without changing anything?
Exactly. It’s like a sport to them, though they take it even more seriously than sportsfan, replying to everything with a sense of urgency, like it’s just one step away from total anarchy.
I’ve been surprised by the political discussions here. Far more civil and not as vitriolic as Reddit’s political subs. Even with disagreements.
Politics unlike sports has very real and serious implications for people’s lives.
What universe are you in? Lemmy is far more caustic when it comes to politics. Is a bit embarrassing to tell the truth.
Go through my post history. I’ve had nothng but relaxed convos. No vitriol or outright hate. Then again, I’m on Kbin so maybe that kind of stuff doesnt reach here. I know of Hexbear’s insanity but ive only seen them a handful of times.
The more you know about this shitty world, the angrier you get and the bubblegum people just find that intolerable. Reddit and social media are basically just Barbie fantasyland at this point. Reality is not actually discussed, it’s all just people’s feels, like that fucking matters.