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I avoid it as much as I can. I’m not a fan of the outrage addiction, and I’m highly suspicious of gaining any reliable information about events from an echo-chamber, even if it’s on “my side” of the political spectrum.
That and even if I agree with a lot of the posts you’ll notice that they’re posted by the same people at a very alarming rate. I’ve ran through and blocked anyone who posts the same topic every 6 minutes. Since then my feed has been less monotonous and slightly more authentic.
I blocked one heavy news poster and am probably about to block another. How do people reasonably find time to do this, precluding unfathomable resources and hired help to do everything but eat, sleep and excrete? Even then, why would you want to? I am a month into classes (they are depressing when you realize how business - centric and human adverse they are, but necessary for reasons), and not doing daily short walks and I already miss them. Even if reading and parsing that much news and politics is humanly possible, why would one want to do that?
why
Kremlin or CCP paychecks.
This is not news conducive to either. Please get offline for a while, for your own sake, if not your loved ones.
Ignorance is bliss. Regardless, no need to be rude.
I wasn’t intending rudeness, and did perceive rudeness in the form of bigotry, in yours. I can see how my comment could be perceived that way, and when I feel some weird way about others, I go outside, if only for a few moments (heavy schedule for a few months). Connecting with sunshine, fresh air, green space, watching squirrels, birds, hugging my favorite tree does wonders to preserve my sanity. I hope you’ll give it a try. I’m sorry I came off as rude, I was just taking a quick break between assignments, and I tend to be naturally terse, anyway, with exceptions. Like now.
Fair enough, I appreciate the explanation. I wasn’t being rude either, I’m warning people about how the Kremlin and CCP use shills on social media.
They’re authoritarian governments that regularly oppress, kill, lie, suppress information, and worse. They’re using the age old tactic of divide and conquer on social media because they can’t compete militarily. They’re here on Lemmy, especially on Hexbear, lemmygrad.ml, and Lemmy.ml.
In my eyes, there is no avoiding politics. Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is power, and choosing ignorance means choosing to ignore something that directly affects you. I feel I need to know what’s happening in politics, so I can know when and how I can be most effective with direct action. Part of understanding what I see in the news also requires an in-depth understanding of history and other seemingly innocuous news stories, so I have the appropriate historical knowledge to understand how and why it affects politics. Staying informed also protects me from being manipulated by politicians and the specific news I consume.
choosing ignorance means choosing to ignore something that directly affects you.
what does lemmy have to do with any of this
To expand on what you said, I think many people like that bliss. It’s easier to be ignorant and happy.
For me the problem is that virtually all political content and discussion online is very low information. Generally no one is conveying anything I haven’t already heard many times, it’s mostly remixing slogans and truisms and finding different ways of expressing the same simplified opinion. Questioning that stuff or asking for nuance to be addressed gets met with aggression. The more I’m exposed to it the more I feel like my brain is rotting, definitely does not feel like I’m learning things.
Generally no one is conveying anything I haven’t already heard many times, it’s mostly remixing slogans and truisms and finding different ways of expressing the same simplified opinion.
The problem with never fixing the problems we all face is that the solutions dont change. You’re not going to hear any new answers if you keep asking the same questions.
How many different ways should we rearrange the chairs on this sinking boat before we abandon ship?
You are missing the point that very often politics requires nuanced discussion, and it is not often you can get it here - people like simple and binary answers. And, if you point to the fact like on Wikipedia which goes against the echo chamber state, you will be reported by some for spreading “dubious information”. Do you really need that?
I don’t know, but what does that even mean? Does it mean anything beyond a call for engagement, a vague imperative statement reworded as a rhetorical question? I am so sick of being asked for my attention when there’s really very little to be paying attention to, or when my input is not needed or wanted.
Maybe the question was avoiding discussing politics? It is not like Lemmy being good source of unbiased news…
Possibly, but it not impossible they meant no politics. I just ended a long term relationship with someone that viewed any political engagement at all as not worth their time. Including a picket line that I had helped organize.
They specifically said “on here” though.
oh 100% i avoid it completely. i advocate for things in my own space and my own community. I’m not wasting my time talking about this shit online with any of you. i already know what im doing in november and i know what i gotta do in my local community and i dont give a flying fuck what anyone on here has to say about any of it. aint trying to change a bunch of random stranger’s minds (especially when i know we already pretty much agree on all the shit im already going to be doing)
and instead of policing my communities to attempt to help create a politically tasteful environment for myself, id rather just … fucking avoid completely any political environment. problem solved, life easy
PS if you block ads, you should block most news
Like the fucking plague.
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99% of it is American and I’m not. So what the fuck could I even do about it if I wanted to?
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There’s nothing I can do to change someone’s mind on ANY subject on here.
I’m just here to find interesting stuff, make a funny comment or 2 or find answers to some questions I may have. That’s about it.
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I try to (except from here I guess). I feel like a lot of political discussions here lack any nuance, and are often very US-centric. I’m moderately left wing myself, but I still often feel like I have little in common with the sometimes extremely left viewpoints here. They are usually also seem to be defended in a very black and white way. If you don’t agree you’re quickly deemed a fascist or nazi.
Honestly, I feel like online discussions often don’t really achieve anything. Differing opinions are downvoted and often met with name-calling or accusations. I’d rather discuss in-person with friends and colleagues across the political spectrum, that tends to actually lead to a friendly sharing of thoughts rather than the unsatisfactory hate spewing you get online.
Specifically on lemmy, I tend to keep it to a minimum. Lemmy seems to have an issue with one-sided discussion and lack of nuance, even ourside of the blatant propaganda.
Outside of Lemmy, I follow it, but try to keep it to a low rumble seeing as I can’t really have any effect on it in my country.
I try and inject nuance into what tends to be mono-culture leftist discussions and/or propaganda more often than not. However, it rarely results in anything but my own frustration.
I’m not even remotely a conservative, I’m just a liberal (because that term gets thrown around way too much: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism).
I’m moving in your direction … but sometimes it’s really hard to say nothing.
Same here
I avoid politics everywhere. I’m happier now than I was when I didn’t avoid politics.
That’s good, glad to hear it!
I only avoid discussions with the hardcore leftist anarchist/communist groups because there is a big overlap between those communities and absolutely brain dead moderation policies.
Comments that have been removed/gotten me temp banned from Lemmygrad and .Ml include:
“millions of people died under Stalins rule”(banned, “misinfo”)
Someone commented “nuke Texas” I said something to the effect of “yes blow up the 49% of Democratic voters” -comment removed, comment calling to nuke Texas left up
Having comments edited by bots and mods so you don’t hurt anyone’s fee fees
There are other examples if I go through the mod log. Lemmy.Ml in particular takes an absolutely wild amount of mod/admin actions compared to any instance.
Tl;Dr: yes but not because of politics, because Lemmy leftists are the fucking worst
No. Being politically active is of the upmost importance to me right now. I’m exhausted, but this election year is a matter of survival for queer people.
what does that have to do with Lemmy though?
Social media is always used to spread propaganda, China and Russia have groups of people dedicated exclusively to this
so you believe you are going to contribute to positive change for LGBTQ+ community by responding to propaganda on social media?
Look if somebody is spewing propaganda and nobody is there to report the person to the mods and/or provide an opposing comment then the propaganda is going to run wild
I think you overstate how significantly social media impacts your local community and livelihood. like, it does, but not nearly as much as what you could do out in the world
Uh, no I live in one of those areas that would take a miracle to improve
I sway back and forth. I’ll get into a heavy debate about something. It just burns me right up. I need to chill afterwards for a week or so.
I do. I hate politics.
You can try to avoid politics all you want, it won’t avoid you.
Me.
Try to, comments tend to ruin it
I try
