66

Getting heated is bad for the heart, after all. But I've always had the belief that the worst thing you can be in this world is consciously uninformed, so I wanna stay in the loop.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Believe it or not, about 20 years ago or so people with opposite ideologies used to be able to converse with each other without it becoming a fight. Nowadays, the vast majority of people seem disinterested in listening to anything that contradicts their own opinion. Rather than researching their own ideologies, they will research points to tear down other's ideologies instead.

My recommendations would be:

  • Don't engage in comment sections. Reading through them may provide some context, but typically anything past top level comments or parent comments usually devolves into arguing.

  • Try to look for two media outlets with opposite ideologies and read both. Pay particular attention to the one you don't agree with, but be careful to not try to look for ways to "disprove" it. Sometimes, one might point something out the other doesn't. This can give you a clearer picture of what is going on.

  • Never trust a claim without a source. While many statements are made without a source are correct, its always a good idea to look up more information and do your own research to confirm the facts before you spread information that is potentially wrong.

  • Not all sources are trustworthy. Just because someone lists a source doesn't mean its trustworthy. This has been an increasingly more common practice online. Checking sources can be time consuming, but it is worth doing.

  • Always check your sources for bias. Confirmation Bias, Recency Bias, Political Bias, etc. These are all highly infectious and are far more prolific than they used to be. Finding sources without any bias is not possible, but recognizing it can help temper your view on the source.

  • Be ready and fast to admit when you're wrong or have changed your mind. There is nothing wrong with a person who changes their mind. What you believe today, you might think a bit differently tomorrow. There is no reason that you should feel obligated to cling to an ideology that you do not feel is right, even if you thought it was right yesterday.

  • Do not engage in debate. This one is hard for people today, since they feel the need to clip and retweet everything everyone says. It used to be that debates were for serious conversation, but as I mentioned initially, this is no longer the case. People who engage in debate usually don't want to change their mind or even hear what the other side is saying. So simply don't engage.

And lastly:

  • Do not try to be informed on everything. There is too much information now for any person to be totally caught up on all things. If someone talks about something you don't know about that interests you, ask for more information. Make a mental note and do your research on it later. Any person that looks down on someone else for "not being informed" is simply saying they have a superiority complex. Pay it no mind. You're not inferior for not being informed on all aspects of all matters.
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
66 points (97.1% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35806 readers
1472 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS