But there seems a vast difference in the types of speech from when I joined reddit after the Digg fiasco, to today. Early reddit, people had a say, but it was fairly sensible, thoughtful discussion. At the end it seemed full of racist, sexist, hate speech, and if people were downvoted due to the hate speech not contributing at all to a discussion, you got people raging about being censored. And most of the sites I visit seem to have turned into this. One person says something crazy and hateful, they're called out for being racist, then they scream about being censored, like freedom of speech means they don't have to deal with the social consequences of holding hateful views. And I see this everywhere, not just reddit. I backed away from Voat quickly because this was all I was reading there. Yesterday my cousin posted a rant that we weren't allowed to judge her for being against gay marriage because it's just an opinion, and you should be able to freely (ie without any consequences) express opinions.
When did this become a thing? Why did this become a thing?
It's just a case of a larger crowd holding more diverse opinions. The nature of reddit allowed for small (or large) clubs of people with similar interests, is it so strange that it eventually drew people with interests that are distasteful?
At the same time, hate speech and distasteful opinions are different beasts, and people were getting censored, their little, private clubs stamped out, with no proper outlet to vent their frustration or complain. It was just done without even an announcement till people started speaking up.
Yesterday my cousin posted a rant that we weren't allowed to judge her for being against gay marriage because it's just an opinion, and you should be able to freely (ie without any consequences) express opinions.
She's right. Well, I mean, half right. You can judge your cousin all you want for being against gay marriage, but she has the right to that opinion, just as you have the right to your opinions on that opinion.
She also might be mistaking the freedom to express an opinion with the privilege of not being called on a shitty opinion, which are also two very different things. If she wanted to express these opinions without criticism, maybe she could go to a subreddit for that... Oh wait, no they banned some of those.
As far as I'm concerned, Reddit has outlined itself as a non Free Speech supporting platform. If people want to hate fat people, but do it privately in their own subreddit, without actually trying to attack or threaten anyone, where is the harm in that? If there was doxing, that was wrong, and the people behind it should have been banned, not the whole subreddit.
She also might be mistaking the freedom to express an opinion with the privilege of not being called on a shitty opinion, which are also two very different things.
When me and my siblings were kids, Mom always said to us "You said what you wanted and heard what you didn't" after calling us on our bullshit. But seems people today developed an aversion to this. Disagreement is frowned and even attacked, no one seems interested in debate, discussion or exchange of ideas. It's either blind agreement or open conflict, usually resorting to claims of emotional injury.
I'm 41, I always tried to keep my mind fresh and young, follow the changes in the world like I was 15, but I think age is finally catching up with me, because I can't stop asking "What the hell is happening with world ?"
But there seems a vast difference in the types of speech from when I joined reddit after the Digg fiasco, to today. Early reddit, people had a say, but it was fairly sensible, thoughtful discussion. At the end it seemed full of racist, sexist, hate speech, and if people were downvoted due to the hate speech not contributing at all to a discussion, you got people raging about being censored. And most of the sites I visit seem to have turned into this. One person says something crazy and hateful, they're called out for being racist, then they scream about being censored, like freedom of speech means they don't have to deal with the social consequences of holding hateful views. And I see this everywhere, not just reddit. I backed away from Voat quickly because this was all I was reading there. Yesterday my cousin posted a rant that we weren't allowed to judge her for being against gay marriage because it's just an opinion, and you should be able to freely (ie without any consequences) express opinions.
When did this become a thing? Why did this become a thing?
It's just a case of a larger crowd holding more diverse opinions. The nature of reddit allowed for small (or large) clubs of people with similar interests, is it so strange that it eventually drew people with interests that are distasteful?
At the same time, hate speech and distasteful opinions are different beasts, and people were getting censored, their little, private clubs stamped out, with no proper outlet to vent their frustration or complain. It was just done without even an announcement till people started speaking up.
She's right. Well, I mean, half right. You can judge your cousin all you want for being against gay marriage, but she has the right to that opinion, just as you have the right to your opinions on that opinion.
She also might be mistaking the freedom to express an opinion with the privilege of not being called on a shitty opinion, which are also two very different things. If she wanted to express these opinions without criticism, maybe she could go to a subreddit for that... Oh wait, no they banned some of those.
As far as I'm concerned, Reddit has outlined itself as a non Free Speech supporting platform. If people want to hate fat people, but do it privately in their own subreddit, without actually trying to attack or threaten anyone, where is the harm in that? If there was doxing, that was wrong, and the people behind it should have been banned, not the whole subreddit.
When me and my siblings were kids, Mom always said to us "You said what you wanted and heard what you didn't" after calling us on our bullshit. But seems people today developed an aversion to this. Disagreement is frowned and even attacked, no one seems interested in debate, discussion or exchange of ideas. It's either blind agreement or open conflict, usually resorting to claims of emotional injury.
I'm 41, I always tried to keep my mind fresh and young, follow the changes in the world like I was 15, but I think age is finally catching up with me, because I can't stop asking "What the hell is happening with world ?"