Lemmy as a whole is an echo chamber too. Look at how things blew up in this post. This is an extreme scenario, not every conservative cares about project 2025. I have conservative family and coworkers who are conservative because they hate change and want to live in the “good old days”, not because they worship trump or are nazis… And yet everyone here thinks “all conservatives are evil”.
This is Canada though, so no Trump. You say their motivation won’t matter, but while for the end result you are right, keep in mind that a lot of people don’t care about politics. There are many things to care about in life and we can’t care about everything with the limited time we have. They were however told to never waste a vote. So they vote, with their somewhat limited knowledge, and this is what happens.
What “good old days” exactly are you describing? I expect it wasn’t as good as they think, and was especially bad for many who weren’t white, hetero, and male.
Well yes, the people I’m describing were white cis christian males. Of course it wasn’t as good as they remember, but the human brain tends to exagerate memories over time. A lot of conservatives are getting old and most of their life is behind them. Can you blame them for looking back rather than looking forward? Most people don’t care about politics and will vote for the side they slightly lean towards without a second thought.
I can blame them, yes. Because they want their comfort and well being at the expense of, and without regard for others. If they get their way they’ll drive our country back to a dark age for a short bit of expected (and likely not received) comfort, then die, leaving all of us still around to suffer the consequences.
I won’t hate them because the reality is they are just fools being taken advantage of by those in power. But that doesn’t remove their culpability. The old are meant to plant trees, not burn them down.
See this is what I’m talking about. They aren’t fools for having a different opinion. MAGA followers that do it because of trickle down economics might be fools, but most conservatives in most non-US countries aren’t this extreme.
They just happen to have different priorities. Believe that a strong army is more important than education. Place themselves and their families and friends before others.
I swear the amount of people that think their side is 100% right and the other is just idiots is too damm high.
Getting banned for different views (assuming they were presented in a civilized manner) creates echo chambers. Surpressing other opinions will uniform thinking and perception. That enforces echo chambers.
Sure, Lemmy leans a lot more to the left due to it’s user base. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an echo chamber as a whole. You can easily evade snowballing effects here by sorting your posts differently, e.g., scaled. There is no algorithm which tries to keep you on the platform by serving you stuff you like and hiding stuff you don’t like. Thereby again, defying what’s typical for echo chambers.
You can voice your views and opinions and sometimes surely get downvoted to hell for that. But as long as it doesn’t break any “be nice” rules it’s usually going to be still visible and seen by others. People might disagree, but you are not surpressed. Thereby again, not an echo chamber.
It becomes problematic though if specific instances or communities ban you for having a different (harmless and civilised expressed) opinion. That will indeed create echo chambers as only that is allowed which is similar to the common tone.
And admittedly, having a user base which is dominated by politically left leaning users, seems not to be helpful in terms of diverse political discussions (although I don’t see how conservatives have ever been objectively or ethically right about something :p ), but from my experience this hasn’t become a problem here, since even left folks love to shoot each other in the feet and have diverse and deep (often fruitful) discussions.
It isn’t as big as some other places, yes, but to say it isn’t one doesn’t really sound true either.
an echo chamber is an environment or ecosystem
in which participants encounter beliefs that amplify or reinforce their preexisting beliefs
In the months I’ve been on lemmy, not once have I encountered a right-wing post, yet I see left-wing posts multiple times a day. By definition, how is it not an echo chamber? I suppose lemmy as a whole might not be, but the resulting lemmy I browse sure is.
That may depend on the instance you’re on and the communities others from your instance susbscribed to as well those you subscribed to.
Also, sorting matters a lot. If you go by popular post, i.e. hot or top, it’s not surprising to see many rather left-leaning posts as it’s the result of a majority of like-minded people. In that case you’re absolutely right and make a good point. If you then change to scaled for example you may encounter more diverse posts. I saw a bunch of pro-NRA posts just yesterday by changing the sorting.
But that are the posts. In the comments that picture may become different. It’s not as rare to me to encounter opposing views and sometimes clearly stuff which I wouldn’t categorise as politically left.
Lemmy as a whole is an echo chamber too. Look at how things blew up in this post. This is an extreme scenario, not every conservative cares about project 2025. I have conservative family and coworkers who are conservative because they hate change and want to live in the “good old days”, not because they worship trump or are nazis… And yet everyone here thinks “all conservatives are evil”.
They don’t care about it, but they’ll happily vote for the people trying to implement it.
Exactly. And they’ll feel its effects and while they suffer they’ll only say “Well, at least it’s hurting my enemies worse!”
deleted by creator
This is Canada though, so no Trump. You say their motivation won’t matter, but while for the end result you are right, keep in mind that a lot of people don’t care about politics. There are many things to care about in life and we can’t care about everything with the limited time we have. They were however told to never waste a vote. So they vote, with their somewhat limited knowledge, and this is what happens.
What “good old days” exactly are you describing? I expect it wasn’t as good as they think, and was especially bad for many who weren’t white, hetero, and male.
You know, the good old days when you could own people and cutting edge medicine involved literally blowing smoke up someone’s ass.
Well yes, the people I’m describing were white cis christian males. Of course it wasn’t as good as they remember, but the human brain tends to exagerate memories over time. A lot of conservatives are getting old and most of their life is behind them. Can you blame them for looking back rather than looking forward? Most people don’t care about politics and will vote for the side they slightly lean towards without a second thought.
I can blame them, yes. Because they want their comfort and well being at the expense of, and without regard for others. If they get their way they’ll drive our country back to a dark age for a short bit of expected (and likely not received) comfort, then die, leaving all of us still around to suffer the consequences.
I won’t hate them because the reality is they are just fools being taken advantage of by those in power. But that doesn’t remove their culpability. The old are meant to plant trees, not burn them down.
See this is what I’m talking about. They aren’t fools for having a different opinion. MAGA followers that do it because of trickle down economics might be fools, but most conservatives in most non-US countries aren’t this extreme.
They just happen to have different priorities. Believe that a strong army is more important than education. Place themselves and their families and friends before others.
I swear the amount of people that think their side is 100% right and the other is just idiots is too damm high.
Getting banned for different views (assuming they were presented in a civilized manner) creates echo chambers. Surpressing other opinions will uniform thinking and perception. That enforces echo chambers.
Sure, Lemmy leans a lot more to the left due to it’s user base. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an echo chamber as a whole. You can easily evade snowballing effects here by sorting your posts differently, e.g., scaled. There is no algorithm which tries to keep you on the platform by serving you stuff you like and hiding stuff you don’t like. Thereby again, defying what’s typical for echo chambers.
You can voice your views and opinions and sometimes surely get downvoted to hell for that. But as long as it doesn’t break any “be nice” rules it’s usually going to be still visible and seen by others. People might disagree, but you are not surpressed. Thereby again, not an echo chamber.
It becomes problematic though if specific instances or communities ban you for having a different (harmless and civilised expressed) opinion. That will indeed create echo chambers as only that is allowed which is similar to the common tone.
And admittedly, having a user base which is dominated by politically left leaning users, seems not to be helpful in terms of diverse political discussions (although I don’t see how conservatives have ever been objectively or ethically right about something :p ), but from my experience this hasn’t become a problem here, since even left folks love to shoot each other in the feet and have diverse and deep (often fruitful) discussions.
It isn’t as big as some other places, yes, but to say it isn’t one doesn’t really sound true either.
In the months I’ve been on lemmy, not once have I encountered a right-wing post, yet I see left-wing posts multiple times a day. By definition, how is it not an echo chamber? I suppose lemmy as a whole might not be, but the resulting lemmy I browse sure is.
That may depend on the instance you’re on and the communities others from your instance susbscribed to as well those you subscribed to.
Also, sorting matters a lot. If you go by popular post, i.e. hot or top, it’s not surprising to see many rather left-leaning posts as it’s the result of a majority of like-minded people. In that case you’re absolutely right and make a good point. If you then change to scaled for example you may encounter more diverse posts. I saw a bunch of pro-NRA posts just yesterday by changing the sorting.
But that are the posts. In the comments that picture may become different. It’s not as rare to me to encounter opposing views and sometimes clearly stuff which I wouldn’t categorise as politically left.