Oh, of course it wasn’t all roses. I was being humorous. But there’s a before and an after “algorithmic driven platforms maximised for engagement”. The nastiness that was always there that you speak of climbed that ladder. And derangement was encouraged as a feature towards success.
I remember as soon as 2008, media experts and a lot of other people saying “keep the platforms but kill that algorithm”. Only when Gamergate happened that a lot more people finally got it. Sadly, it wasn’t listened to either and now here we are.
About Lemmy… yeah it is very much a bubble, I agree on that but not on misinformation. At least not on the instances that I hang out on. I don’t follow any communities of lemmy.ml for a reason. Lemmy is a bubble, but it is a bubble full of middle aged dudes with no patience for nonsense. Myself included. The science communities will lose no time in crushing any form of nonsense.
As to the news… a LOT of The Guardian (click bait yeah, misinformation no), AP, Reuters, Al Jazeera and mocking the NY Times for sanewashing. But these are all some of the most reputable international news sources around. When people post the misinformation is a lot of the times to expose it and say “can you believe this shit that these idiots are putting out now?” And sometimes I see the downvotes of people who don’t get that or didn’t even got in the post to read it and see that it was shared as raising awareness of misinformation being spread not disseminating it as true.
Lemmy has a lot of Anarchists and very true Left leaning people in general, which means knowing how to doubt everything corporate media puts out into the world. As it is status quo maintenance and reinforcement of its resiliency to benefit the ones that are already being benefited. Having said that, facts are verifiable, it’s the way that they’re being presented or the opinions they sneak along with them that should be analysed regardless of publication. But doubting all forms of media and seeking verifiable information is healthy and should be encouraged. It should just be basic literacy.
But I’m on piefed since the shutdown of lemm.ee and it’s even more of a tiny bubble with even less patience for nonsense. It has very aggressive moderation and circlejerking and trolling doesn’t even arise at all.
Anyway, no place is perfect but this is still a lot better than reddit. Most of the problems we see here is people migrating from there and bringing their usual toxic habits in the process. The ones that don’t adjust and think “lemmy is too quiet” end up going back to it, and I’m glad to let them go back to rage typing against bot farming and trolling. Aren’t you?
As an European I can always feel the waves of Americans that come here enraged as a boycott during mass migrations. And this year has been non stop. Hmm, I wonder why?..
Sure. Lemmy like any platform will have some echo chambers with idiots that say something like “I don’t care about facts just as long as it takes my side or it matches my ideology”. Block those users and move on. That is triage right there and sanitation too.
But I gotta say I’ve never encountered a statement like that. Not even on reddit which was way worse. But again, it’s about where you go too.
To me even circlejerking can be fun but I’ve reported people in circlejerk communities when they’re clearly not jerking around and are just taking vitriol as a given permission.
But I don’t really register posts that link to daily beast or rawsthorne either. Among other outlets. On the European and world news communities on lemmy that doesn’t show up much or at all to my recollection, only here on this community that is American centered only (if I’m not mistaken?) Where they also show up with stuff like “meidas touch” which is very tabloid too. I won’t go as far as to call them misinformation like Fox News but they’re click bait and sensationalist shrivel, that’s for sure.
But I do also find problematic that you shared a post from “political memes” as a representation of your argument. That is slop and nobody that I know takes memes as a news source. There is a place for that though and a community called “political memes” sounds about right for it. I don’t follow that stuff and never shows up as shared in what I follow. We’re in a platform that doesn’t have an algorithm and dumb suggestions or ads. Which is phenomenal and the correct approach. But the hygiene you seek is your responsibility here. Even in this community that would never be allowed as a post. You have to distinguish where serious discussions are to be had, but yes, moderators and even general commenters should also have a responsability as well.
So, you can acuse me of bringing a humorous take into a more serious discussion based community. But I was indeed commenting and not posting. But you know what? I’ll be more mindful and conscientious of that in the future when commenting too. So thanks. I guess I needed to be reminded to be more aware of the community I’m commenting on as well.