• skolor
    +6

    I've put altogether far too much thought in how to combat this phenomenon, and I have yet to come up with a good solution. It seems like the internet leads to extremism, when you would think from the initial concept it would be the opposite. Now I can talk to anyone, instantly, at absolutely no cost. I would expect that to lead to more rational communication, where you get large numbers of people who disagree with each other conversing together. Instead, you end up with billions of tiny communities that are completely insular.

    The best I can come up with is to encourage people to make a conscious effort to talk with people who disagree with them, and not just to prove them wrong. Try to include people you think are "wrong" about a topic you care about in the conversation, as long as they can keep from being shrill and yelling about it. The worst case scenario is you end up changing your mind about the topic. The issue is this doesn't scale. I can do it personally (and I try to, as painful as it is sometimes), but how do I get more people to do this?

    • ObiWanShinobi (edited 8 years ago)
      +4

      Your second paragraph is, I think, the only way we can combat debate extremism on the internet. Changing your mind is not necessarily back-sliding or folding, but can be the synthesis of this view-challenging information into a new, stronger and hopefully more informed and worldly opinion.

    • GroundType
      +2

      ...as long as they can keep from being shrill and yelling about it.

      Isn't this what's usually referred to as "tone-policing?" Is that a valid complaint? I have no problem with it, as I don't think you can have a reasonable discussion if someone is being shrill and antagonistic. But, I have been accused of tone-policing in private discussions and then all conversation just stops.

      ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • skolor
        +1

        It's complicated. On the one hand, telling someone they're being shrill is very much an ad hominem argument. On the other hand, at some point it stops getting a discussion and just becomes people yelling at each other.

        I really don't have a perfect answer. All I know is a see more and more people yelling at each other to score points with their side rather than trying to convince anyone about the topic at hand, which is making public discussion go downhill.