It's amazing. It's something I've noticed time and time again in online communities. The more you restrict people's speech, and the more you force people to be civil and kind to each other, the nastier and more immature people get. It's almost as if, if you treat people like children who can't control themselves without jannie intervention, they will take on that role and act on it, whereas if you treat people like adults who are responsible for their own actions and for their own reputations, they'll act like adults instead.
We don't all agree when it comes to policies and worldviews, yet this whole place is incredibly welcoming, regardless of how much more left-leaning we (and especially half-KIA) are compared to our neighbours.
This sort of neighbourly and genuinely positive (and not just "cashier smile" kind of positive) interaction between people, especially people who don't necessarily fully agree, is what is going to lead to the healing and rebuilding of western society after all these calamitous events. It takes all kinds of people to keep a society running, after all.
I'm absolutely on the left wing of the spectrum (though decently close to the center) and I can absolutely acknowledge that. The left is fucking insufferable. I disagree with a decent amount of what the right has to say policy-wise, but I'd rather interact with them regardless, they're far less deranged.
This, flipped, was me with SSC. One of the few places you could hold a decently-rational discourse. Did I fit in? Hell no. Did I get called out on things? Hell yes. But it was people actually picking out faults in my arguments, or narrowing down to differences in underlying values. Not namecalling and social shaming.
RIP SSC :-(
Still on reddit, with two subs. Who knows how long they'll last though, the second one especially.
The subs - even if I still could put up with Reddit - were never nearly as good as SSC itself, although I could never articulate particularly coherently why it was better.
I tried googling but really couldn't find anything I'm sure about. What's SSC and what happened to it? I found a sub called Slate Star Codex but I have no idea what that is.
From my limited understanding:
SSC is SlateStarCodex. Run by a center-left dude who posted overly long treatises about random topics, frequently intersecting with politics. He often acknowledged certain realities about how the left vehemently attacks differences of opinion.
I remember one blog post he made where he outlined and acknowledged the truth of "if an organization is not explicitly right-wing, it will eventually be taken over and become left-wing".
Slate Star Codex is/was a blog, though that description doesn't do it justice.
If you follow the link you'll find a much better description of what happened to it than I could provide.
/r/slatestarcodex (and r/TheMotte) are both subs centered around the SSC community.
There is no real policy dispute between the parties. The democrats want the deregulations that make them wealthy, and the republicans want the protections that keep that annoying market from toppling the monopolies. It's commie-cop-capitalist-cop.
Second red pill, the people rioting in the streets are a normal part of the routine:
Hand out money to people who have nothing. You own them now. Without you, they don't eat.
When they notice they are trapped, tell them that someone else is trying to keep them down.
Point at your political enemies, or the general populace if there isn't one convenient, and wait for them to beg for it to stop.
Save the day by placating the mob with the policy that you printed on the signs for them. Something you already wanted. Preferably something that will make the mob easier to unleash next time.
Repeat
I'm not entirely sure what that has to do with what I commented, but regardless, you're not wrong. Maybe a little exaggerated but it does seem mostly correct.
Of course there's a policy dispute. With all due respect are you high? Why do you think the two hate each other so much? Democrats want INCREASED regulations and shit to kill competition and let their big companies keep getting bigger. Republicans want less government intervention so competition can fuel the markets. Democrat policies, (most) of the time, are what create huge monopolies. Monopolies should only be broken up if they obtain enough of a stranglehold on the market that the company itself can be considered as its own government.
Can I just say, as a center lefty who's been redpilled to this since about 2015 when I first learned about Gamergate: most of my friends are much more lefty than me and most of them are genuinely good, kind, people who want to do the right thing. I just think many of them don't realize what's really going on.
Doesn't mean I'm any less terrified of telling them about my true political opinions, though, because I'm scared of what would happen if they found out...
Also there's absolutely a ton of disgusting hateful self-projecting narcisists on the left too. But most of them I think are well meaning followers who don't see what's really happening.
we've all been struggling on the era of mass censorship, we have all lived through having our communities and liberties being taken from us, and we're all coming together to take our liberties back, of course it'll feel like that man :) idk when was the last time I felt this level of unrestrained freedom without any drawbacks, like looming ban or 4chan's constant shilling.
I know, right? This place feels like the old internet, when there wasn't a boot stepping on our face. That same feeling I got when I found a new cool site to visit, when everything wasn't centralised and homogenised.
There is a lot of passion flying around too so sometimes we may haul off on each other but at the end of the day we are in this shit storm together. Welcome.
We're mostly normal people who post like normal people, they're diagnosed mentally ill people who have no stake in anything and no attachment to anything which causes them to lash out constantly.
Having a mental illness is definitely a status symbol and expected characteristic of a shockingly large number of zoomers and people who spend too much time on the internet.
Hey, I'm a diagnosed mentally ill person too, lmao. Technically.
I see what you mean, though.
Gonna be honest here, as someone who has spent a ton of time in both places, I wouldn't be surprised if the median poster here is just as right leaning if not more than the median poster on TD. Completely agree about the neighborly and positive attitude though. As long as you aren't a twat we should be able to get along.
I like TD but it's honestly pretty boomer tier, glad this and consumeproduct made it over
? CA (though that may be a bit spicy for most) or average_redditor next
That's exactly what I said too, it's like the earlier internet when it was actually good and not centralised. I guess technically we're dependent on The Donald, but honestly, I doubt they'd exert their influence on the .win network, they're very libertarian, I think.
Anything could happen in 10 years though. Aaron Swartz was huge about free speech when he created Reddit, but then he sold it and look what happened. Not that I fault him for selling it, of course, but it shows anything can change unexpectedly and we should always be prepared.
But right now and for the near future? I trust the admins at The Donald.
As I said in the very beginning: I do hope KiA2 is a welcoming place for everyone who opposes SJWs, from Stalinists to right-wingers or anyone really. I'm honestly impressed with how welcoming T_D was and is as well. For all the smears directed at it, I've seen a lot of posts like "I don't even support Trump, but I don't like X" upvoted.
Meanwhile, when I told Hillary supporters that I supported Hillary, but that assaulting people for supporting Trump was bad, I was called a nutsi...
I fully expected for this site to at least be similar to KIA, glad it isn't. I will admit, while I don't support someone's opinions here and there sometimes, I'm glad there can be a agree to disagree or some type of understanding that people in general should have.
Also, those things going on in the UK and even seeing the WHO/UN for who they really are considering past events of being hypocritical has changed my views for the better, to opinions that I thought I wouldn't have.
The Pygmalion Effect. It's quite effective.
We can be open about our rivalries (KiA Cucks) so you don't have to assume everyone is secretly a Nazi. that's why free speech is great. We can all know exactly where each other stands and engage at will.
The Left doesn't trust anyone and is paranoid because they force all bad behavior out of sight. Which then exacerbates the problem.
What do you mean? All I've seen are nazis and white supremacists and evil evil evil people. That's what the Guardian told me to believe so it must be true!
Its true