I’ve been seeing a worrying number of these people on Lemmy lately, sharing enlightened takes including but not limited to “voting for Biden is tantamount to fascism” and “the concept of an assigned gender, or even an assigned name, at birth is transphobic” and none of them seem to be interested in reading more than the first sentence of any of my comments before writing a reply.
More often than not they reply with a concern I addressed in the comment they’re replying to, without any explanation of why my argument was invalid. Some of them cannot even state their own position, instead simply repeatedly calling mine oppressive in some way.
It occurred to me just now that these interactions reminded me of nothing so much as an evangelical Christian I got into an argument with on Matrix a while ago, in which I met him 95% of the way, conceded that God might well be real and that being trans was sinful and tried to convince him not to tell that to every trans person he passed, and failed. I am 100% convinced he was trolling – in retrospect I’m pretty sure I could’ve built a municipal transport system by letting people ride on top of his goalposts (that’s what I get for picking a fight with a Christian at 2AM) – and the only reason I’m not convinced these leftists on Lemmy are trolls is the sheer fucking number of them.
I made this post and what felt like half the responses fell into this category. Am I going insane?
Are people asking you to dedicate that much scrutiny to your every action?
I respect what you’re trying to say, but I can tell you that from what I am reading it seems like there’s a lot of preoccupation with how other people make you feel about your decisions, but I’m just not sure why you are so concerned with what other people think or if you’re being persecuted over this or something. I’m just curious what environment you’re in where you are under such heavy scrutiny all the time that this is such a concern.
I watched a great video by innuendo Studios that is several years old about vegans. He talks about how vegans get this bad reputation, but often it’s just a reflection on how we feel they perceive us without evidence. That by their very nature of saying they are vegan, they are somehow attacking us and judging us for our actions. The reality is most vegans really do not care what you are doing, they are doing what they want to do for themselves then people get angry when they don’t eat food that doesn’t align with their values as if they threw it in their face and screamed at them with fiery moral indignation.
There is this caricature of the vegan who walks around announcing it through a megaphone and demanding everything conform to what they want. But the reality is most vegans quietly make it work in a world that generally is fine with eating meat and dairy in every setting.
All of this is to say I’m just feeling like that video is really relevant to what I am reading in your comments. I could be wrong though.
I understand what you are saying, and I can see how certain people would feel that way. An inadvertent slight by insinuation of sorts. In this case that is not what I’m referring to.
To answer your question truthfully, it is generally one long time friend of mine that I have determined it is better to simply not bring anything up rather than be instantly met with a negative reaction because of something. Literally, walking on egg shells attempting to avoid a subject matter that might be frowned upon.
I do see a similar sentiment on Lemmy, hence participating in this thread. Based on a book I was reading a while back I think much of it stems from social media outrage culture. By being reactionary and vocal about it, you are often met with positive reinforcement (up votes, likes etc), which can lead to this behavior carrying over to reality, where it simply doesn’t translate in the same manner.