Its easy to forget they live in a fundamentally different reality shaped by a buble of media. We all do, but conservative media kinda feels like an alternative universe.
When confronted with the world we live in they reject it as unrealistic because it differs too much from the facts they've accepted about the world.
My grandpa is a trump voter and I do my best to still talk to him. At an individual scale he's a kind, sincere man who has always been welcoming of my queerness and tries to understand me. It's very painful trying to discuss things with him even though it stays a kind interaction when I lead with kindness. It requires a lot of cognitive dissonance, but he lives in a fundamentally different reality than I do and I honestly don't know what I can do about it :(
That's the dangerous thing about fascism. Decent people buy into it. Become complicit or enable it. It wouldn't be a real threat if they didn't. But it engineers a reality for people to believe in, and lo and behold, they do. And cruelty ensues :(
Clearly I left it too ambiguous whether I meant Nazis specifically when I said you should try to approach people you disagree with with curiosity. That sounds super sarcastic but I don't mean it that way, I just don't have the energy to reword it
This problem probably could have been anticipated and avoided, it's just hard to always do so perfectly on the internet when speaking to a lot of people you don't know who will interpret what you say in any manner of different ways
Kindness is a tool for conservatives to maintain power
Uh... Complimenting peoples art and having sincere discussions about what you think and why with folks on Lemmy grants conservatives power?
I get that lots of folks are frustrated with the constant liberal compromising but a) that's not "kindness" and b) that's not what I'm saying you do. This post isn't about telling people they should approve of Nazis. Its about building a healthy culture, here, in this online space, that facilitates positive interactions worth having.
I wish you and the others who commented along those lines could appreciate how exhausting this is as a person literally just saying we should be kind to the people we share this space with.
Look around. Basically every person here is left of center. I'm left of center. You don't have to be combative with me just because we don't exactly agree on everything.
Kindness is not a malicious conservative plot, nor is that what this post was about. And on that note, I clearly need to step away because in the same way that a lot of people's emotions are high, mine are too now and I'm loosing my ability to engage with people in the way that I want to.
Anger and fear are blinding if you let them be, especially if they're intensely justified.
Unfortunately we live in times where they're very justified. I don't begrudge people for reacting in anger or fear, I'm doing my best not to do exactly the same :(
I could be wrong but to me it feels odd to think lemmy is big enough to be worth organizing psyops for.
Not to say it couldn't be an issue in the future, but it feels much more likely that people expressing pro Russia sentiment are just people who bought into that particular brand of propaganda.
Which like, to some extent all of our individual world views are shaped by the environment of propaganda we're exposed to. We're all products of our social conditioning, and ultimately that's exactly what propaganda is. Media designed to socially condition people to a certain set of beliefs. All we as individuals can do is be aware of it and be willing to look at our own beliefs critically.
But at the end of the day I think the folks praising Russia on lemmy are just people. People I personally think are misguided, but I don't think theyre generally acting in bad faith any more than the general population here.
That is a very specific interpretation of what I meant by this post.
To be perfectly honest, I really wasn't making the point you should approve of nazis. Just that maybe it's worth putting effort into being kind to one another...
For example, I constantly see leftists online biting eachother's heads off (including on lemmy) for having slightly different left-wing ideology. Its not like "approach people you disagree with with curiosity" means specifically actual neonazis, and approaching someone with curiosity doesn't mean telling people "your idea is correct and you're right for thinking it"
It means trying to understand it. You can dislike someone and still gain from better understanding their worldview. Even if you think it's harmful. Even if you think it's illogical. Even if you think they're wrong. Curiousity isn't tacit approval.
If you want to think about it cynically you can consider it creating allies and knowing your enemy.
All of that ignoring the fact that if you look around, this platform is almost exclusively left wing 😅 even if it includes folks left of center I don't agree with, like tankies and neoliberals (who yes, I know, are only left with respect of the US overton window. Thats where I'm from 🤷♂️)
I understand we disagree on certain things, that's okay, these are just my thoughts on the subject, and it's a profoundly important one, so I can appreciate why people would have different strongly held beliefs on it. Hope you have a good one :)
I'm not sure I follow-
Are you saying you think I want to set people's stuff on fire and guillotine people, or that you think responders in this thread do?
As I've alluded to, there's a lot of justifiable anger about the state of the world, and you can see that hurt reflected in people's immediate response. The feelings driving that "conclusion jumping" valid and understandable, even if I don't think it's productive
There is no easy way to cope with fascism on your doorstep, or taking over your home and threatening to throw you out of it :(
Originally I listed all the extra examples/suggestions I put in my comment in the actual post itself, but I have a bad habit of making things way too long so I moved all the smaller more specific things to the comment. I think maybe it would have been more clear I'm not saying you should approve of Nazis had they still been in the post.
Yeah, I think that was a big issue with the culture of platforms like Voat.
The fediverse doesn't have it as bad but it's still definitely a risk. And being decentralized makes it easier to dodge bans and whatnot.
You're right, and like I said elsewhere in this thread, big corporate platforms definitely have issues but that doesn't mean there aren't any unique challenges the fediverse will have to contend with.
I definitely agree about the importance of breaking the silence, and engaging with folks who go out of their way to post.
As a culture we want that to be rewarding, it's something we all appreciate when folks do, so I think it's worth making sure posters can feel that it's appreciated. Make it known :)
Its easy to forget they live in a fundamentally different reality shaped by a buble of media. We all do, but conservative media kinda feels like an alternative universe.
When confronted with the world we live in they reject it as unrealistic because it differs too much from the facts they've accepted about the world.
My grandpa is a trump voter and I do my best to still talk to him. At an individual scale he's a kind, sincere man who has always been welcoming of my queerness and tries to understand me. It's very painful trying to discuss things with him even though it stays a kind interaction when I lead with kindness. It requires a lot of cognitive dissonance, but he lives in a fundamentally different reality than I do and I honestly don't know what I can do about it :(
That's the dangerous thing about fascism. Decent people buy into it. Become complicit or enable it. It wouldn't be a real threat if they didn't. But it engineers a reality for people to believe in, and lo and behold, they do. And cruelty ensues :(