Ask Lemmy

There's other social media?

I guess there's also IRC, matrix, and individual forums here and there but it seems like fedi is an easier habit to get into.

Decentralisation.

If I'm gonna be mad at people's half-baked, ignorant takes, I'd rather it were e-strangers instead of people I know?

Also, the other alternative for online discussion is Reddit and that's a Western imperialist propaganda mouthpiece/controlled environment that was literally managed by the Epstein folk, so you can imagine how I and anyone with a modicum of sanity and morality had to leave as it became unbearable.

Basically, the good parts of free speech arguments.

I do think there are things that can just be banned from existence, and be made illegal, but it's significantly more tolerant than the current vibe.

Reality doesn't give a shit about our systems of morals. There is a certain "mainstream, harmony and political correctness" creep that sometimes happens. And what's bad about that, is that bubbles brain wash themselves into believing that the way they think the world works is really how the world works. And what they hold isn't just a perspective and an opinion, but a fundamental truth about the world and deviation needs to be purged. And that eventually collides with reality. This is both true for racists and for people who think racism can be "cured" or "educated away" or "people can just consider the facts and change their mind".

The fediverse allows a more gradual interaction than centralized social media sites. Because centralized social media must decide how to deal with... depiction of politics, religious subjects, NSFW topics, which btw, covers everything from violence over nudity to medical conditions.

If there was a medical community sharing discussions about medical topics, I can block that and be unburdened by it, but there is no central fediverse authority that needs to decide if that medical picture is not allowed because there is a boob in it.

In short, banning a social group on social media, like racists, doesn't convince anyone or remove that group of people from factually existing and factually organizing.

Open Source Software works the same way, you can't be sure that math library isn't being used to control a remove controlled ballistic missile, but pretending that you can "ban math" depending on the purpose is stupid, so there is no point in worrying about it.

Actual discussion is still possible in the Fediverse, at least for now.

Somewhat recently I was talking to a close friend about their brother and how he has been acting, particularly how he approaches discussions with those around him. My friend was telling me about a discussion they were having, and the only response his brother could give him was "you are uneducated and misinformed", but couldn't actually formulate an argument to back up his side. I physically laughed when he told me this and jokingly responded that he "sounds like a standard Reddit user", my friend paused for a second, chuckled, then replied "he basically lives on that site".

I'm yet to have this kind of online interaction on the Fediverse, and that is nice ☺️

Other social media is all crowded with an endless amount of humans, and most of them are trash. Here there's only a handful of people so even though we're mostly trash too it's not nearly as built up into stank mountains.

Also the frequent pauses in loading pages here reminds me to do other things.

No ads, better control over the feed, conversations with real people, being part of an exciting socual experiment