Comment on Are you using Lemmy / others to create noise in your life and to replace talking to people irl?
testfactor@lemmy.world 1 day agoIt does sound like you’ve let doom scrolling negatively impact your life.
I won’t argue things are bad, but the reality is that most people are generally decent.
Sure, there’s a lot of dicks out there, but they’re very much the minority. They are just overrepresented in the Lemmy echo chamber (and other online platforms too of course).
Obviously it’s hard to say if you’re being “too picky” as it were without knowing exactly what lines you’re drawing, but it sounds like you might be projecting your negative expectations onto people as opposed to people actually not living up to those expectations.
chosensilence@pawb.social 12 hours ago
i know it seems that way but it’s only because you are not accurately viewing the world, in my opinion. it isn’t that there are dicks, it’s that there are uneducated, ignorant, self-serving people who are just trying to get by. they don’t usually act maliciously but their unintentional ignorance and poor judgment causes worldwide death and suffering.
i cannot stand the average person any longer. truly, i have struggled my entire life. but the PTA mom who votes Dem without giving much thought? she is just as responsible for fascism as her Republican counterparts. it doesn’t matter if she isn’t doing it intentionally or maliciously—the end result is the same. if you are effectively contributing to the destruction of humanity i want nothing to do with you on a personal level.
testfactor@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I do think there’s an element of privilege here. Just because you have the luxury of time and space to be involved in politics and spend a lot of emotional energy in that area doesn’t mean that everyone else has that luxury. For the single mother of three, working two jobs to provide for her kids, she probably doesn’t have the bandwidth to be super “educated” politically.
But what would you have that PTA soccer mom do? The bar is always arbitrary. I could choose to set it higher or lower than you. Why is your spot for the bar what it is? I could claim anyone who isn’t vegan, or uses toilet paper, or doesn’t drive an EV, or isn’t growing their own food, or isn’t chaining themselves to government buildings in protest isn’t doing their part and is actively “contributing to the destruction of humanity.” You have defined your threshold of acceptable somewhere short of actively murdering fascists (I assume), so why is that? And what makes your choice of threshold the correct one?
I think we have a tendency to say, “what I’m doing is the correct standard,” in order to make us feel justified in our outlook and superior to the people around us. Is it that others are actually “contributing to the destruction of humanity” more than you, or is that something that you tell yourself to help maintain an emotional wall of protection?
And, literally all that aside, I think your assumption that there aren’t plenty of people around you who feel similarly to you is unfounded. You could make friends by getting involved in a political campaign. I did that a number of years ago, and met a lot of great people. Helped a lady get elected into the House of Representatives. Had a great time and met a lot of cool people along the way. And surely those people would meet your thresholds of “good enough,” no?
chosensilence@pawb.social 6 hours ago
i’d argue it isn’t a luxury it is a responsibility and i do not have the time or space, actually. i do it at the sacrifice of my mental health as i’ve made clear.
frankly, i’m not interested in this conversation because you are not the first, second, third, or 100th person to say the same thing and my response is never agreed with and it just becomes a back and forth until we either agree to disagree or tell each other off.
also no, i have not stopped short of actively killing fascists. murder it would not be, it is self-defense. ultimately, i am morally superior and am confident in that fact. it’s not something i expect people to understand. i am lucky that my partner feels the same as me and we can share in this worldview. what makes me more correct than others? the fact that i am and they aren’t. i have the outlook that results in the least amount of human death and suffering.
testfactor@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
How many fascists have you killed? Genuine question. Cause if the answer is zero, you have stopped short of killing fascists. Saying you would is no different than the person who says they would care about politics but doesn’t.
I don’t mean that as an attack. I simply am pointing out that everyone draws the line differently. A Ted Kaczynski would say a person who really cares about these issues would already be sending mail bombs.
I disagree with that (as do you I imagine, as I don’t think you’ve started mail bombing people, as that would’ve been in the news), but he was just as sure of his line as you are. Why do you not go that far?
To be very clear. Don’t mail bomb people. Don’t take this as a challenge. I’m just genuinely curious how that falls against the line you are drawing.
Also, back to the original topic, you said earlier that you can’t go to events solo due to your social anxiety, which is understandably difficult, but could you not bring your partner along? Why can’t you have that security blanket as you go out to meet new people? Having a partner makes making new friends a thousand times easier!