I'm reminded of a scene from a show I'm watching, The Orville. I just watched this episode last night so it was fresh in my mind.
It's not all that far from the truth. Calling out asshole behavior on certain communities has to be done with so much civility its as if you're just "agreeing to disagree". The courting of the fanatics on both ends of the spectrum is just allowing propaganda to flourish.
EDIT: To be clear, when I say assholes I mean the trolls who are knowingly and intentionally dismissing in your face evidence and trying to push some kind of narrative they feel is justified, no matter how heinous.
"Calling out the asshole," is a self-righteous way of saying, "flipping the bozo bit."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozo_bit#Dismissing_a_person_as_not_worth_listening_to
It does not add anything to be uncivil when calling out someone who might be a problem. That person is not the only audience. It still reflects poorly on one to act poorly, even if one convinces oneself that they have a "really good reason" to be an asshole to an asshole. And it assumes one's own infallibility.
Some people might like to see it and upvote it, but that isn't helping the interlocutor's implied intention of improving discourse. It's just creating a dunk culture.
When you see someone acting poorly, it's not at all clear calling them an asshole is a better strategy (even for one's own wellness, let alone that of the community) than assuming, hey, this person is in a shitty mood, and probably having a bad day; a compassionate person would offer them some help or at least attempt to be understanding.
It's hard, I know.
An asshole isn't someone who disagrees with you in this case. Maybe I should have pointed out that I'm talking about the trolls that exist here who are just assholes. It's someone who is intentionally and knowingly spreading out misinformation or cherry picked quotes and events to further an agenda. Someone who dismisses what they don't like to hear so they can stand some "authoritative moral high-ground" that they've made up. I'll edit my comment to better reflect what I was trying to say.
Disagree on the spritzing - perma bans from individual communities cause significant inconvenience to users.
Agree on the civility. Fuck civility politics.
Yes. The ending part was the only part I disagreed with.
I think changing the dynamic, so that it's explicitly understood all around that being on the network is a privilege, would do a lot to improve this. Right now it's a little incongruous, because having an account is an entitlement, but then you're trying to claw it back after the fact and tell people there are rules they have to follow, and so of course they're going to dispute with that idea. And then, trying to tell everyone they have to be "civil" to all the other users, toxic and nontoxic, only makes it worse, because it makes it harder to self-correct the toxic users within normal interactions inside the community.
It’s one of the reasons I’m glad I left Reddit behind about a year and a half ago.
I mean I get what is being said, but the way they phrased their thesis sentence is sooooo far from reality, the point is totally undermined. Civility is clearly at an all time low.
Well, that's not very civil of you.
I have enjoyed physical relations with the woman who gave birth to you on a number of occasions.
Much better, thank you.
You're welcome.
ha ha?
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