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105

How a small but vocal minority of social media users distort reality and sow division (www.pbs.org)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Researchers at New York University have concluded that social media is not an accurate reflection of society, but more like a funhouse mirror distorted by a small but vocal minority of extreme outliers. It's a finding that has special resonance this election season. John Yang speaks with psychology professor Jay Van Bavel, one of the authors of the paper that reported the research, to learn more.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I've been experiencing this on lemmy 100% They follow a playbook of sorts too. A couple of things I notice they all do:

Ignore any comparison to Republicans/Trump. Because doing so would point out how absolutely lop-sided the choice is.
Claim Genocide is the reason. Ignore all other reasons.
Call you Racist, Conservative, etc.
Claim that you insulted them in an attempt to become the victim.
Claim that during every presidential vote "America has been at stake if you don't vote for [X] candidate" - ignoring the very real attempts at overthrowing our government.

The community "leftymemes" also seems to have been made explicitly for spreading this kind of thing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Are you me? Literally the same experience. I think it's bots programmed in a way that follows what you described.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

I just went for the heavy use of blocking those types, and my experience on here has gotten way better. Otherwise, my user experience was just a fire hose of outrage and performative pearl clutching.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I just blocked the whole of lemmyml and lemmy.blahaj or whatever it is, and my experience has been 100% better.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Honestly .ml lives rent free in the head of so many people that I actually got a better experience by blocking every random who mentions how much they hate .ml in a conversation that has nothing to do with it.

I've gotten to the point that I think the US government has paid shills spamming Lemmy with those comments just to make sure socialism doesn't get discussed at all.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

My experience with ML Socialists has been nothing but hostile. Anytime I've had questions or tried to have a discussion with a socialist about socialism, the response has been nothing but pure acid from them. Change is slow, and we're slowly becoming more liberal as a people. They view socialized democracy as cowtowing to imperialism, and they seem to advocate for violent revolution to enact they're goals. I literally can't support that.

I would love for the US to become more socialized, for the workers to be more empowered, for people to live with better healthcare, less stress, and better safety nets...but as a social democrat, I'm the fucking enemy to them. As they described me, I'm imperialist scum.

I considered myself pretty far left.....but those people? They fucking scare me...

... But if it's more convenient for you to believe that I'm a paid government shill, then so be it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

But who is "they"? Who are these "socialists"? That's my point. How is blanket characterizing a whole group based on your experiences with a few people any different from what "the other guys" do?

To me it's irony at its finest. But I'm sure "they", are worse than you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Marxist Leninist Socialists primarily, if you read my comment. I'm a Social Democrat, and I've received enough disrespect from ML Socialists, that I'm done trying to interact with them entirely. I get that your trying to minimize my argument, by acting like I'm attacking socialism entirely and act like I'm some sort of government plant....hence, again, why I'm stating quite plainly that I'm a Social Democrat.

The otherside of the coin is that I want to reform our system by trying to fix the problems of capitalism, and they want a revolution to completely dismantle it. I believe that the reality of implementing a socialist economy is completely unrealistic in a country as big as ours within the next 25-50 years, and that a revolution (which they are essentially advocating for) would introduce chaos and uncertainty into our country, and inherently the world. There's no reality in which the movement gains widespread popular support in the short time frame that ML Socialists want. I firmly believe that the transition to a social democracy is a safer, more logical transition, and that as we adopt socialized programs, provide a better landscape for unions, and start reigning in inequality, we will naturally have more widespread support for a transition to a more socialist economy.

Metaphorically speaking, I want to slowly fix the problems that have cropped up around my house and upgrade things over time....they want to burn it down and build something that they believe is better. And they don't like me because of that, that I'm essentially impeding their progress.

Still "irony" at it's finest?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yep. Lol. it only gets better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

I engaged with you in good faith, and you were merely a troll. Got it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Also claim that any history that doesn't fit their narrative is biased western history.