this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    • 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    • 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    • 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
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Yet.

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[–] rob64@startrek.website 320 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There's also the fact that there isn't an algorithm trying to keep you doomscrolling by promoting commercial content.

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 75 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think this is a huge part of it. Occasionally I'll surf Facebook after checking out the marketplace. Last night I saw tons of posts about that "Try that in a small town" song with tons of people claiming to support it. Just post after post of people saying they don't see anything racist about it at all, and not a single one pointing out how showing videos of the BLM protests while singing "we take care of our own, try that in a small town" miiiiiiiight just be a little bit racist. Fortunately I usually only click on cat videos and the rare left leaning recommended posts, so I got to see one post with a picture of John Cougar Mellencamp saying something like "I sang about my small town without mentioning violence." The post had hundreds of comments....all deleted by admins.

Even when you try to avoid the controversy and hateful comments, the system is still designed to keep you doomscrolling. Positivity doesn't help that...

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[–] Candelestine@lemmy.ca 44 points 1 year ago

This is underrated. I actually close Lemmy a lot easier and more quickly than I did reddit, it's not hooking me with dopamine hits nearly as strongly.

As a result, since I know I'll probably just scroll for a few minutes at a time, I'm more willing to check in more often and toss a few upvotes and maybe a comment or two around.

[–] figment@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 1 year ago

Yep this is huge. I still scroll on RiF sometimes without being logged in, and I had only ever looked at the subs I was subscribed to until now. I'm shocked by how much infuriating nonsense is being pushed by the site.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 268 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Lemmy is so far left leaning because a large part of its existence is due to people being mad at capitalism

[–] Silviecat44@aussie.zone 52 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

And its so tiring to hear about all the time

Edit: and I don’t disagree

[–] EddoWagt@feddit.nl 28 points 1 year ago

I agree with it, but I also agree with you

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

"I disagree with the bad thing, but I wish the people affected by the bad thing wouldn't complain about it so much!"

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[–] jesterraiin@lemmy.world 99 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Not really. I mean that "because..." part.

Leftism is inherenty tied to technology, especially new. It's part of its lifestyle. EVERY new, massive social "site" (or online service) is expected to be left-leaning by default. It may later change its political viewpoint, but in its relative infancy it's left.

Rightism is more about actions taking place in real-world. As such, the technology isn't perceived as more than a tool, used for specific purpose only, rather than part of, or the foundation of a lifestyle.

...and of course there's a plethora of alternative political views, options and convictions that are a mix of either extremes of the spectrum - if you meet a person online, it shouldn't be surprisied to learn about "pro-life", but also "anti-Trump" and similarly puzzling approaches to various aspects of life.

tl;dr: it's not about bots. It's because Lemmy/Mastodon isn't popular enough to serve as a tool for right-wing politics.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago (17 children)

Leftism is inherenty tied to technology, especially new.

I don't know, there has always been a huge libertarian contingent of the tech industry as well. I'm not sure which is bigger. I hope the leftism.

[–] MBM@lemmings.world 29 points 1 year ago

Yeah crypto bros aren't exactly leftist, neither is the hypercapitalist Silicon Valley crowd, and I've encountered plenty of other tech enthusiasts with worrying opinions.

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[–] pfannkuchen@lemmy.world 94 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thinking like this is why people get surprised when right leaning parties get voted for in elections

[–] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Lol right? "Right wing politics only seem popular because of bots". No, left wing politics only seem popular on social media because old people dont use it, despite making up the majority of many populations, and often times are the only people who actually vote in elections.

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[–] frathiemann@feddit.de 73 points 1 year ago (13 children)

I dont think that is the case. Left leaning people are just much less accepting of authority, so there are more likely to move of of reddit. right leaning people also tend to be more conservative, so they are more likely to stay on there old platforms.

[–] IDe@sopuli.xyz 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There have been many right-wing exodus from reddit over the years. All of them have centered around a perceived "free speech" issue, and they have always flocked to the most promising alternatives (e.g. Voat). Obviously Lemmy with its origins was never seen as particularly appealing for that crowd. This time the issue just happened to touch the left-leaning part more.

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[–] Zomg@lemmy.world 73 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Grandpa also doesn't understand federation

Grandpa actually votes tho

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[–] gunnm@monero.town 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lemmy is a decentralized protocol not a centralized americanized political leaning social media.

[–] glue_snorter@lemmy.sdfeu.org 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Do you think that's relevant? I don't see anything about either reddit or lemmy that makes it harder for right-wingers to join. I can tell you that America does not have a monopoly on the alt-right (AfD, Brexit, etc)

I'm keen to learn more if you've seen evidence in this topic. I wouldn't know how to investigate, tbh.

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[–] PatFussy@lemm.ee 56 points 1 year ago (36 children)

For all we know the people that are on the right have gone to other platforms. That doesnt stop you jerks from saying im on the right even though im not. For some reason both sides have adopted a "with us or against us" mentality and everyone is a nazi.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That’s exactly what a Nazi would say!

/s

[–] damnYouSun@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (17 children)

People throw around the word too much, there are actual Nazis around and we need to reserve the term just for their special brand of evil. Otherwise the phrase gets so watered down as to essentially become meaningless.

Otherwise they are just rightwing dipshits.

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[–] Zezzoz@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (11 children)

The political discourse seems toned down here, I am already happy with that.

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[–] willeypete23@reddthat.com 47 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I would say less "left leaning" and more anti-capitalist / anti fascist. More socialism less Nazis.

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[–] Drewfro66@lemmygrad.ml 39 points 1 year ago (25 children)

I agree with the other commenters who say that the issue is primarily that the Lemmyverse is too small for the grifters to bother influencing, but I also think federation (and the non-profit nature) plays into this.

A site like Reddit generally does not ban members just for being Conservative and expressing relatively mainstream right-wing beliefs. They have to present at least a veneer of "free speech" except in the case of hate speech and violence. In addition, they don't want to drive away Conservative users, because that's where their money comes from.

To a small Lemmy instance, these motives don't come into play. More users actually costs the admins more money. And while they generally don't ban users willy-nilly, they feel they have a right to ban people just for being right-wing dicks.

Ultimately right-wing ideology cannot survive in a space like this except in explicitly right-leaning instances; which will be subject to the "Nazi Bar" effect until those instances are defederated from the rest of the Lemmyverse.

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[–] Strangle@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago (23 children)

Most smart right wing people (not me obviously), long ago gave up trying to discuss anything important with the left.

It’s not productive, and everyone that I know has just gone to more private chats and channels and don’t even have social media accounts.

You get banned enough times for saying something reasonable, or constantly get called a nazi or something ridiculous and you just stop using those places to talk.

The separation and division has already happened. For anyone hoping to have a discussion with anyone who has different opinions than you do, that train has left the station.

There are bots, lots of them (I’m sure from the left and the right) and that’s it’s own problem. But I doubt we will ever see a place where people can just disagree anymore.

No one seems to have the balls to let these conversations happen on either side.

[–] disposabletentacle@kbin.social 47 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's just very hard to find a compromise or "agree to disagree" when the topic of debate is something like should LGBT people be allowed to exist. The days are long past where the right/left divide was all about economic policy -- the divide lies along basic human values at this point. You're going to be hard pressed to find people who can engage with you calmly when you're defending a party whose primary concerns right now are stripping away civil rights from their least favorite human beings before all else.

[–] Strangle@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (15 children)

This is something people on the right just find absolutely ridiculous. No one. NO ONE, think LGBT people shouldn’t be allowed to exist.

This is a big part of the problem, another response to my comment said people who think like I do support genocide.

Like this just sounds so hyperbolic and absolutely laughably ridiculous that no one has the patience to put up with it. It’s not a discussion.

You think I want an entire group of people to not exist. You have been taught this from somewhere and it’s not true. But you’ll never realize that.

So what’s the point?

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[–] Balssh@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

Yup, pretty much. And most of the times I've seen right wing people just come comment the most batshit crazy thing imaginable. This doesn't mean left wing lunatics don't exist too.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

for saying something reasonable

"Something reasonable" tends to be sexist, racist, bigoted, homophobic, transphobic, etc. in my observation.

[–] OctopusKurwa@lemm.ee 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Funny how they offered no examples of these "reasonable" arguments.

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[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 year ago

Not by bots but by rage farming algorithms. Rage farming the right is easy and profitable. Facebook has gotten that down to science. The fake absolutist free speech espoused by Twitter's management as well as the apparent moderation inaction by Facebook are all about that. Letting right wing nuts rage freely generates engagement, generates ad revenue. The only thing the platforms actively manage is making sure that big name ads don't show up on Nazi posts.

[–] Dasnap@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

Lemmy also isn't profit driven, so you don't get libertarian tech bros.

[–] style99@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Among people in general who actually read comments, the left does have a distinct advantage.

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[–] healer_56@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

i think its not just the bots but also that the right want their posts to be seen and want to "present" themself and their "opinions". And i think for that, lemmy is just not visible enough, yet.

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