this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
1098 points (96.4% liked)

Greentext

4616 readers
1846 users here now

This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 52 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Gotta cite your facts when it's about such controversial facts.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (5 children)

In Reddit it doesn't really matter. You can cite the best sources ever, use a pristine logic, and the local irrationals will still find some excuse to believe in whatever.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Just like literally everywhere else

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You do see plenty of that in most places, but I feel like it's way worse in Reddit. As if there was something there reinforcing it. (Perhaps the local culture? I have no idea.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's the voting system. Truth is not democratic.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I don't disagree that the voting system (specially karma) plays a role, but I think that Reddit embraces oversimplifications a bit too much, and that's part of the problem - because then you get both sides discussing if 2+2 is 3 or 5, and if you say "it's 4" nobody will bat an eye (except to screech at you).

In special, three types of false dichotomy:

  • no gradation: 50 is either 0 or 100.
  • no third category: since apples and bananas are different from each other, then grapes must be either a type of apple or a type of banana.
  • no superset or subset: if all bananas are fruits, then all fruits are bananas.

You do see those things in Lemmy too, but nowhere as much as in Reddit; and it has consequences everywhere, including political discussion. Or in 4chan - as much as their userbases hate each other, they fall for the same logical traps.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

reddit attracts a certain special kind of moron, it's like a honey pot for them

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago
[–] M137 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Nah, it's just as bad everywhere else online, IMO. Youtube and Facebook (including instagram, etc.) comments are unusually bad, though. The general feeling on any social media is that seemingly everyone is falling over themselves and others in a race to be so incredibly stupid and ignorant that it's gone several levels lower than should be possible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I would classify the people on YouTube and Faceboom as a completely different class of special morons. They are all unique in their stupidity.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The other key factor is to not be an insufferable dickhead when you’re posting. You can post the truest facts known to man but if you come across as a smug asshole then people will naturally be inclined to think your wrong.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I feel like your tone plays next to no part on that. If they agree and you're rude, your rudeness becomes "justified"; if they don't agree and you're rude, they'll play the victim, assume (yet another sign of stupidity) that you're angry, or even "u rude than ur rong lol lmao".

Same deal with explanation length; make it succinct and to-the-point and they'll assume words on your mouth, make it verbose and well-explained and they'll distort it.

In my old community (here, in Lemmy - showing that the problem is not exclusive to Reddit) I scolded people like this, even when I happened to agree with them. I could've banned them, but I have no idea on how to approach this in large scale.

[Sorry for the rambling.]

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

I've seen threads just like that on Lemmy, too. People will act like people.

[–] kautau 2 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

All that matters is whether you're speaking for or against the prevailing assumptions of the site/the subreddit. Most people on the internet are not experts on the topic but somehow already have their minds made up.

[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble 10 points 11 months ago

Bold of you to assume that they can read.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

I've cited nonexistent sources before. It seems convincing and nobody actually checks, so the other guy got downvoted because I got sources. I can imagine they weren't happy about it, seemed like they actually knew their shit.