Politically engaged Redditors tend to be more toxic, even in non-political subreddits
Politically engaged Redditors tend to be more toxic, even in non-political subreddits
A new study links partisan activity on the Internet to widespread online toxicity, revealing that politically-engaged users exhibit uncivil behavior even in non-political discussions. The findings are based on an analysis of hundreds of millions of comments from over 6.3 million Reddit users.
A bit of nuance the headline misses:
a striking correlation between users’ engagement in partisan subreddits and the overall toxicity in their comments
You can be politically engaged without treating politics as a knock-about blood-sport.
It's also important to look at those positions.
Like, abortion.
To some people, aborting a 3 week old fetus is murder. Because their religion goes even further and says a guy jacking off is mass murder because that "seed" should only be used for heterosexual sex that would result in a child. Which makes them incredibly hypocritical, but they're used to that
To others it's just a clump of cells with zero brain activity growing in a women's body and she decides if she wants to let it grow.
Both sides see the other as evil and obviously wrong.
Which is why it's been a "wedge issue" for decades. Both parties can cater to corporations and the wealthy, and disagree on stuff like this that makes it so a large segment of the population never agrees with the other on who to vote for, and both parties can agree on stuff like how little taxes the wealthy have to pay while still presenting themselves as opposites.
It is, however, very important to note that when one side starts treating politics like it IS blood sport (I.e. populism), it’s genuinely difficult to push things in a positive direction by taking the “high road”.
More specifically, the paradox of tolerance is very much a factor here. Regressive and reactionary groups absolutely abuse the system as it exists today with the intent of fully corrupting and controlling it in the future.
Understand what bad-faith arguments look like, and the ways that they are often presented as “reasonable discourse”. When you see someone engaging in such disingenuous tactics online, consider dropping some bait to see whether or not they show more of their bad-faith hand; if they do, go (rhetorical) weapons free.
There's a game series I play that just had a new version come out. It's a silly puzzle game that you can just waste time with while doing something else.
The author does a little 'story mode' and this time they went through how they're getting older and are starting to think of end of life stuff. I'm in a similar headspace myself really, though they're a decade or so ahead of me. It ends with something about maybe that person with different political opinions was just born in a different place than you and you should take the time to listen to them.
I'm like, bruh... yeah, sure, that was okay back in the 90s. Have you looked at our current political space? Seriously, read the room
I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they're just privileged and the things going on these days don't effect them personally so they just have no idea what the hell they're talking about.
Game is still good and the best one they've made so far, but damn was the end of that piece tone deaf af.
Yep, I completely believe it.
I'm fairly political myself, and it takes pretty hefty amounts of effort to remind myself to let things go and try to just keep a respectable level of discourse. And I still fuck it up all the time.
A lot of it is mechanical. I have far fewer tools here than I do with irl political activism, I can't use facial expression or tone or anything. So it almost feels like negative sarcasm replaces all that or something, I don't really know, I'll have to think about it awhile.
It's also fucked. Like, what are we supposed to do? This is the only form of protest that some of us have. I don't have the ability to get out and protest. I don't have the ability to be an activist, I have a family that I need to take care of.
I know that change comes from political discourse, and we've VERY CLEARLY seen that has worked towards the Republicans benefit (reg. redpilling, QAnon, etc.). It's the only way I know that I can fight back against that insanity.
Cultural change is slow, but it ultimately wins the war, and the best thing that I can do is be on the right slide of it. I understand that you win over more people by being nice, but my comments arent to "win" over the person I'm talking to....they are the "example", and my argument is primarily for the hundreds of people that will ultimately read the post.
the religulous have a pretty sweet deal for themselves at this point. They don't have to pay attention to anything except their favorite liars because anything else makes them uncomfortable, and if you try to talk to them legitimately, they go all special snowflake the second you let slip a profane word representing how strongly you feel and just totally stop listening. It's worse than talking to children, at least children are trying to understand you some of the time. These people start from a place of dishonesty and never leave it.
Good thing lemmy's not like that huh guys
That sounds like the kind of thing a Republican would say!
Makes more sense if you reverse it: Toxic Redditors tend to be politically engaged. It's not the politics that makes them toxic it's because they are toxic that they engage with politics so much. Most people who are informed with politics don't necessarily engage. Of course there are people who do who aren't toxic but the loudest voices usually are abrasive people.
Exactly. It's like a sport to them, though they take it even more seriously than sportsfan, replying to everything with a sense of urgency, like it's just one step away from total anarchy.
I've been surprised by the political discussions here. Far more civil and not as vitriolic as Reddit's political subs. Even with disagreements.
friend, sometimes shit needs abrading. you ever get anything done without changing anything?
You make a good point. I guess abrasive is different from toxic
Politically-engaged anyone anywhere tends to be toxic.
I avoid people with strong political convictions like the plague.
I'm fine with folks with strong political convictions. The thing that gets me is the viewing of literally everything through the lens of reductive party politics combined with the belief that anyone who disagrees is an idiot or a monster.
The problem with people who have strong convictions is that they often have a simplistic, polarized view of everything that allow neither subtlety, nuance nor meaningful discussion.
Usually it's pointless and frustrating to talk to such people because you know they're not trying to share ideas, nor are they open to questioning their own beliefs, but rather they're just telling you how things are and never listen to you.
Exactly like religious people in fact - which I avoid like the plague also, for the same reason.
The more you know about this shitty world, the angrier you get and the bubblegum people just find that intolerable. Reddit and social media are basically just Barbie fantasyland at this point. Reality is not actually discussed, it's all just people's feels, like that fucking matters.
I first read "politically enraged". Apparently I wasn't too far off.
Another reason why Reddit sucks: research like this is possible due to the Pushshift dataset. Now that Reddit is hostile towards data collection, it will be that much harder to study online discourse.
And it's the same here! Yay!
And it’s the same here! Yay!
Your typical Lemming partisan will be ruder than your typical Lemming, but still considerably more polite than your typical Redditor.
Noooooooo! I have never, ever, even once seen someone that thinks politics is the most important thing shoehorn it into everything and anything, then get pissy about being told you go the fuck away if they can't stay on topic
I usually complain about the usage of the word "toxic" but at least here it's well-defined by the article. Still unnecessary though.
Their finding is interesting though - that "online political discourse tends to be uncivil because the people who opt into such discourse are generally uncivil".
And that begs the question why. My hypothesis is that it has to do with stupidity: political discussion offers a safe space for the stupid*, and uncivil interactions usually have at least one side being stupid. Doubly true in Reddit because stupidity there is seen like a badge of honour.
*NOTE: when I say "the stupid" I am not talking about a well-defined group of people. I'm talking about a set of behaviours (assumptiveness, context illiteracy, a tendency to oversimplify things, wishful thinking, lack of logical "parsing" etc.). Everyone is "the stupid" once in a while, but some way more often than others.
Except PCM
PCM is the worst. It's actually full of Nazi apologia
From what I remember it's people arguing for incredibly evil shit, but being careful to do it "politely" as a troll move.
Like:
All I said was LGTB people shouldn't be allowed to exist, I have no idea why you're so upset good sir
It's just a slightly more advanced form of small children saying words that sound like curse words and then claiming they don't understand why they're in trouble.
The disappointing but is lots of people from that sub are grown adults and still think that shits funny.
Hmm. Yes. The floor here is made out of floor.
Toxic enough to buy toxic things, commit toxic acts, etc. Toxicity makes my wallet deeper.
I enjoy trolling reddit political groups, Which in most part is just saying the opposite view. I get down voted into nothingness but the laughs I get making people big mad are worth it