Re:Did the early internet activists blow it?
by CoolGuySteve on Saturday February 15, 2020 @08:29PM
(#22339255)
In some psychology class long ago, I learned that one of the most self destructive things someone can do is perceive emotions as information. As in "That made me mad so what they did was clearly wrong". A lot of therapy is geared to shifting people away from that cognitive error.
But that concept is thrown out the window when it comes to Twitter/Facebook/etc.
I can't count how many times I've read "I'm literally shaking now" used as an indictment against someone else's perceived transgression. I think out of all the twitter cliches, that one makes me roll my eyes the most.
Re:Did the early internet activists blow it?
by dboreham on Saturday February 15, 2020 @09:33PM
(#22339473)
Unfortunately this is kind of how the human brain works. It presumably evolved from a simpler design that only had "emotions", adding a higher level processing function that began as something very simple, evolving over a long time into the complex neocortex we have now. The primitive emotional brain is still present, with an imperfect "interface" to the newer brain.
Re:Did the early internet activists blow it?
by Mirioron on Saturday February 15, 2020 @08:17PM
(#22339214)
I would like to echo your statement. I've always found it bizarre how people conflate insults with threats. In the vast majority of cases we can draw a very distinct line between the two. On top of that, it's not like this has any less ambiguity in meatspace.
“I hate x and wish they had never been born”
Is not
“I am coming to your house tomorrow with a weapon”
Yet people treat them similarly.
From there it just becomes “anything that scares me is a threat.”
Then, it becomes obvious that people are in general scared of cultures and attitudes very different from their own.
And so there’s no tolerant chaos anymore.
It’s a Motte and Bailey argument.
Very few people support doxxing and/or incitements to violence.
But it is amazing how much censorship happens in the pursuit of curbing such threats.