Posted this on shower thoughts but Ig here is more appropriate, I feel like lemmy is not the place I remember it being last year.
I really liked the atmosphere of civil arguments and understanding here, which is the reason I started posting actively as well, even though I have always been a lurker, but I feel like I have stopped feeling happy but instead more and more agitated when browsing, I remember people having civil discussions and willing to listen to others, content was low, but what each post produced was really high quality, nowadays though I rarely feel like it
People here have now started acting like as if they are some sort of god gifted individuals who are right in every regard, they love to throw the word ‘propaganda’ around but fail to acknowledge they could be a victim of it as well, I remember we could still have discussions about controversial topics without things getting ugly, nowadays it is not like that, comments get weirdly personal and sometimes even turn into insults and even phobic, people are hell-bent that they are right on certain issues, and never consider any other opinion or that something might be more nuanced than they think
I can be a victim of propaganda too, but what I really loved is that you were able to have healthy discussions and put forward your opinions, which meant you were much more aware of everybody elses opinion and their reasoning, which meant you could see things with different perspectives, nowadays though it is very different, you say something slightly controversial and be prepared for the hate comments (remember the mildy infuriating post? The guy ended up deleting it)
I have learned a lot from lemmy, and I have had wonderful conversations with some of you but I feel like the days where we all were collectively trying to build a good, happy and accepting community are gone, I won’t be surprised if any redditor looked us and thought we are a group of really closed minded people who wont accept anything that is not the common sentiment here
I was a little kid when reddit was gaining traction, so I have no Idea what sort of thing happened, maybe it was similar to this? I would really like if some early reddit adopters who also came here add their comments
One of my favorite moments I remember here is when there was some sort of meme about Ramadan, I clicked hesitantly thinking it’s gonna be a war zone, but I was surprised to see people having fun discussing how people deal with fasting where the sun never sets for months, that feeling was beautiful, I guarantee it will be a different situation now
I like to think that this post should be independent of that one, but it has become one so I will continue it that way
If you actually look in those discussions, you will see that I am replying to the same arguments again and again, which might make you believe that I am not willing to accept evidence, go down further my history and you will see that I have also taken back a lot of my statements after I see my mistake, I am not saying I am some sort of perfect being, I make mistakes
Lets assume that my opinion is wrong, is name calling the way to correct it? I see those people who disagree with me the same way they see me, but you will not find me spouting insults or calling names at anyone unless they start it first (even then I don’t resort to words used above, at most I will say lol or call out their hypocrisy), I was replying the same thing over and over again to different people, and I was perfectly willing to move the discussion forward, I might have learnt something, I didn’t left a single argument unreplied in my knowledge nor did I said any derogatory terms to anyone, but it somehow is justified when they do the same? If you wanna bring a change in someone, do you think you can do it by calling them stupid/dumb or saying they don’t deserve respect? I definitely hold some controversial opinions but never have I ever forced them on someone or called anyone who doesn’t agree with me dumb, I felt like the only way to move forward as a society was to respect everyones choices and opinions as long as they are not forced, but I am starting to doubt most people see it that way