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Downvotes = “I disagree” or “this is bad and you should feel bad”? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by maegul@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I think I’ve settled on the latter. Disagreement is maybe best communicated by the absence of an upvote? And downvotes work best when they signal something that is just off base, and while not reportable, is not appreciated at a broad cultural level.

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[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t disagree.

But

and that makes it a bad comment.

Goes too far. That a social media comment is the limit of what is possible as far as persuasion and learning goes, especially on difficult or controversial topics, is plainly wrong. Mind shifts can be hard work. And so there’s plenty of space in which a comment can be making a worthwhile point, politely and clearly, without it ever being able to be persuasive, just by the nature of the audience and topic.

[–] milicent_bystandr@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

There's also low-effort/value comments that agree with your worldview but are bad contribution to the debate. Especially on controversial topics.

I'm sure there will always be lots of updates for things that shit on the opposition, especially when the majority thinks the opposition is morally and intellectually corrupt, but I'd rather those posts/comments be demoted (or e.g. relegated to a shitposting community) so healthy discussion can happen. And the truth can be seen more fairly.

As a side note: some of Reddit's majority opinions which I broadly agree with, I found myself shifting away from, because most of its supporting posts are stupid arguments. And some of the opponents I've gained sympathy for, because whenever I check the source for hate against them, it's ill-founded. I tried not to take much opinion from Reddit anyway, but I love it when good debate frames the truth more clearly.