Just to clarify, I don’t think it’s a problem that hatred is minimal here, and I don’t just mean politics.

I feel like I very rarely see alternative opinions about anything, whether it be software, ai, news about companies, etc. it just seems like everyone universally agrees about anything with only a tiny handful of exceptions.

It makes me hesitant to believe I’m on the “correct side” and I never see any arguments from opposition. This makes me worried that I’m in some sort of echo chamber. In real life, I do see much more diverse opinions and, if I only used the fediverse for social media, would likely be weaker in defending my own since their arguments would be “new” to me.

I understand the reasons for which the fediverse has pretty collective opinion, but it does still worry me. I want to be able to see all the other people with their own thoughts (given it’s respectful) on the Internet, which should be the most capable tool to do so.

  • darthelmet@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I do see plenty of disagreements, especially in the political sphere. While people seem to generally lean left, there is a decent amount of variation in opinions within that space. Although since they all still generally align with the same goals, the disagreements only get so heated.

    For things like media (games, movies, etc) I see less, but for me I just don’t really feel the need to rain on anyone’s parade. If they like something I don’t like, whatever. I wouldn’t be shocked if a lot of people felt the same way.

    For tech stuff… we’re on a decentralized open source platform and a lot of the users came over from corporate social media. Of course most of us are skeptical of big tech developments. Occasionally some nuance gets lost, but I even see some of that show up. There are plenty of threads where the OP posts something based on a misunderstanding and the top comment is someone who (probably) knows more about the topic and can clarify things.

    Also like some others have said, a non-trivial amount of the arguing that happens on other sites is likely egged on by astroturfing and prioritized by algorithms designed to keep attention rather than promote healthy discussion.

    Also, there are some topics where the disagreements I have at least just don’t feel relevant enough to post. For example, with the AI thing. I generally agree with the sentiment of opposing the current AI implementations being pushed by big tech. The environmental impact makes it a non-starter even if the rest of it was good, but then there are issues with privacy, companies using AIs that aren’t good enough to accomplish the task to replace workers just to save some money regardless of the consequences, and the involvement these companies have with the MIC, etc.

    However, I do have some optimism for uses of AI in the future. I think it’s cool tech that has potential to do good things, it’s just that a) It’s not actually ready yet and b) Some of those things would only work if we lived in a fairer society. But… honestly what’s the point of interjecting this into a discussion about what’s CURRENTLY going on with AI? What does my hypothetical sci-fi automated luxury gay space communism have have to do with a thread about companies spying on us or switching workers for AI and hurting both the workers and the consumers? Nothing really. It’s only really relevant for a discussion about academic research on AI. So I don’t bring it up. Not because I feel I need to silence my dissent, but because I recognize that it doesn’t really serve any purpose in this context beyond potentially derailing the discussion.

    So overall, I’m not worried. While it would be nice to have some more people on the fediverse, I’m fine with the disagreements we do see and I don’t need to argue both sides with a Nazi or a bot. As long as mods don’t get too heavy handed about unreasonable stuff, it’s fine.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      22 hours ago

      For things like media (games, movies, etc) I see less, but for me I just don’t really feel the need to rain on anyone’s parade. If they like something I don’t like, whatever. I wouldn’t be shocked if a lot of people felt the same way.

      I do feel the need to comment when someone dislikes something for what I think are bad reasons though. I saw a thread recently of someone who avoid roguelikes and soulslikes, but not because they tried them and don’t like them. They had an opinion of them that I think was wrong. (They thought soulslikes were difficult and designed to make people brag, and roguelikes were lacking content and used meta-progression to pad them out —which that’s the wrong term for the one with meta-progression, but whatever.)

      If someone likes something though, that’s fine. Unless they like it for particularly annoying reasons, I’m not going to comment or engage, besides maybe asking for more information. Everyone has different opinions. I like some weird games that a lot of people probably would hate, and that’s fine with me. It isn’t their concern.

    • foodandart@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      …Also like some others have said, a non-trivial amount of the arguing that happens on other sites is likely egged on by astroturfing and prioritized by algorithms designed to keep attention rather than promote healthy discussion…

      Reddit in a nutshell and what got me permabanned there after 15 years…