This isn’t your college or work place break room. If people are saying something you disagree with you can just say it and you won’t be fired or ostracized for it. Yeah, people will probably get angry and say mean things to you but those are just words which can be ignored. Offence is taken, not given.
This is mostly for the lurkers who upvote unpopular opinions but don’t comment. You can speak up - you’re not alone.
won’t be fired or ostracized for it.
Wanna bet?
Of course you can. You’re not free from consequences of what you said though. The internet remembers EVERYTHING. Especially on federated platforms like lemmy. Some of my first messages on newsgroups in the 1990’s are still floating around the internet.
Never say anything you aren’t willing to stand behind. Because it won’t go away. And with authoritarian regimes coming to power… you gotta be cognizant of the potential consequences
But generally, I agree with you. The further we get away from groupthink the better we are for it. When we self-censor out of fear of disapproval we are perpetuating the cycle and making it more likely the next person doesn’t speak their mind.
Just because everyone believes something is right, does not mean it is. The majority has been wrong in the past and it will be wrong in the future.
For the past 10 years or so I’ve pretty much assumed that at some point a superintelligent AI or similar will be able to find everyone’s online profiles and link them to the actual person behind them. Then we’ll all be held accountable for the things we’ve said in the past. That’s why I never lie or say something I don’t actually believe in. I’m not proud of every comment I’ve posted but those are my actual beliefs and what ever people will be able to dig up I can stand behind and explain reasoning.
You can be fired for what you say if it is linked back to you. That actually happens pretty regularly
Well, sure if you’re posting with your own name but not when you’re posting as MrPoopbutt.
Lol sounda like it bro’s first time online
I’d rather be new and decent than experienced and dismissive - thank you for the perspective.
Ironic to find someone saying this on Lemmy. It’s a miserable echo chamber here.
That’s why I’m saying it. I often feel like I’m in the minority of people willing to speak up and get dogpiled for it. I posted this for the handful of people who upvote those comments.
I can’t see down votes so I have nothing to lose!
On the other hand, no one is obligated to listen to you, and freedom of speech does not equal freedom from the consequences of said speech. If you voice an unpopular opinion, be prepared to not be popular.
Absolutely. In-fact I’d say most people aren’t blocking enough. If someone thinks of free speech as freedom to be an asshole then they should be blocked by everyone and left to shout into the void. However, I don’t think the unpopularity follows you outside the thread you were saying unpopular things at. The vast majority of people wont remember you.
Pineapple is allowed on pizza
So are anchovies
That’s the spirit!
Yeah, people will probably get angry and say mean things to you but those are just words which can be ignored. Offence is taken, not given.
This is naïve. The no one likes being insulted and downvoted for expressing their views. Sure, it doesn’t bother some people as much as others, but it’s not a conscious choice to “just ignore it,” as though that will prevent any negative feelings. The reality is that people with unpopular views stay silent to avoid these consequences, and that’s an entirely rational choice. You would do better to spend your time chastising people who attack those with unpopular views than to try to convince those with unpopular views to willingly expose themselves to online abuse.
I agree. I didn’t quite mean it as “you can just ignore it” but rather that “understand it’s just words and you can learn to not take it personally”
I say plenty of unpopular things here myself and though I have downvotes disabled I can still feel the pain when being dogpiled on despite having years of experience with it. No one is immune to it - we just have different levels of tolerance.
I’ve often been banned, blocked, or mass downvoted for saying something unpopular.
Join an instance with downvotes disabled :p
Downvotes can also be disabled in the settings.
My instance doesn’t even keep them. They get dropped before they hit our database.
Good to know!
Just like you’re free to say it, others are free to not listen. If an user blocks you then so be it - I’m sure you’ve blocked people as well. Downvotes on the other hand are equivalent to mean comments; it can just be ignored. Getting banned is a real risk though, I’ll give you that, but then again, you can just make a new account.
I heard op of this post is the actual shooter in the murder of the Brian Thompson case. Sources say he went mad after his claim to be turned into a cat e girl was denied by united
Source-trust me bro
It’s just words on a screen. Easy enough to scroll on by without commenting. On my screen, upvote usually means ‘thanks for sharing’ rather then agreement.
If people are saying something you disagree with you can just say it and you won’t be fired or ostracized for it. Yeah, people will probably get angry and say mean things to you but those are just words which can be ignored.
What is the purpose, then? If I can’t ignore others, others can ignore you. This only lead to useless, unsatisfactory, unproductive and dumb arguments with random people on internet.
Freedom to speak doesn’t imply freedom to be heard. People are free to ignore you even when you’re saying popular things. If you don’t want to speak unless everyone is listening, then don’t.
Fair point, totally agree.
Not on Lemmy though.
Also, Pro Tip:
Sometimes you can occasionally make a comment you know will be taken negatively so that you can update your block list of people who choose to leave mean replies. It helps to phrase it in a way that will create an emotional response. This is helpful for removing these people from your feed, because usually they leave negative comments like that on every reply they make. Very rarely do I find a person that is nice in most of their comments leaving a mean one, like ever. But also it is very rare I find these kind of people in the first place anymore.
My favorite thing is getting downvotes with no reply. It’s like “you’re wrong! but I can’t say why!”
