I became so exhausted from the toxicity on Lemmy that I began searching for alternatives, and I stopped trying to argue in the comments. This leads me to wonder: am I the only one who is feeling this way?

  • @kava
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    10 months ago

    The internet is toxic. You have to grow a thick skin if you want to post in message boards online, especially if you talk about specific topics.

    You could write a comment that you carefully think out, rewrite a couple times, and genuinely share your opinion. And you can get downvoted to -20 with a bunch of people calling you an idiot or a bot or just a laughing emoji

    There’s an idiom, “You’re over the target when you’re taking flak”. It’s supposed to be a military term but the main idea is when you are hitting close to home, people get angry. For this reason, I think my best comments are the ones that get a lot of upvotes AND a lot of downvotes. It means I’m striking a chord in a lot of people.

    Of course, there’s a fine line between being the “intellectual gadfly” as Socrates would say and you just being an angry person who has no self awareness.

    I’m not going to bother to look through your comments to see which of those you are - but you probably know.