this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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It's hard to tell anymore if the internet truly offers nothing of value to me or if I'm just dead inside. (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] fool@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Hahaha, I'm overjoyed that you're joyful! Net positive.

You aren't alone on the absolutivity thing, autism or not. Absolute blanket statements have always made me uncomfortable. With stuff like

Leftists are all self-righteous.

American Republicans are all backwards.

Christians are cultists.

and the obvious accompanying internet convoy of

Clicks -> discussion -> algorithm promotion -> pipeline -> opinions upgrade from "bad cases of" to "lots of them" to "all of them"

not only sacrifice nuance and make it easy to Just Stay Agreeable, but discourage any questioning of the status quo.

Of course, one can argue that this is an online thing, an archetype of Reddit and Tumblr and Twitter spaces, but now I don't even question these things aloud in real life. I don't want to be seen as

The "see-from-all-sides" guy is obviously a closeted bigot lmao.

in a place where reputation actually matters, but it'd be easy to lump me in like that. Nuancelessness is simple, kneejerk, catchy...

Now, my point. I don't think I'm making this up, and maybe I'll get downvoted for this diatribe but I feel like disagreeing in real life has become much riskier. Am I sounding cynical again? As a solution (solutions aren't cynical right?), optimally I'd want a way to discuss across views in an educated, "I'll hear you out" way, but the real-life risk outweighs reward, and online spaces bubble-up really easily. Counterpoint: r/changemyview has put up promising resistance.

The other day I saw this business school complaint discussion. It's on a kind of out-of-touch subreddit, but what do you think of its survivalistic smile-and-wave message?

Sorry for being so negative =.=