this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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What I've learned over time is that it brings out the worst in us, because unlike a live meeting, where there is a danger that you may be ostracized or beaten up, online people have a much less controlled environment for speech. Even the effort of showing up or printing/broadcasting an opinion was reduced to 0.
And since the user isn't forced to pass a driving exam for how to behave and different communities have different rules, values and objectives, it is easy to feel a contrast without traveling very far, which triggers polarization/victimization rather than an instinct to adapt and grow.
e.g. normies wouldn't just stumble into an anarchist meeting in real life and start throwing up a fuss, but online it can happen all the time without ~~censorship~~ moderation.
And all of this before even considering hostile actors that generate, propagate, amplify and target misinformation and disinformation (now with AI inside^TM^)
...it is also easier to be misinterpreted, because every time someone speaks, it is one-to-many and you have no idea who is going to be reading and to misinterpret/coopt/discredit(in a hostile way) your message in ways that you had not antecipated. It is completely different from a live gathering (you don't each yell at the crowd at a time)