Sounds like they wanted to angrily vent, but not also take accountability for what may be their own mistake. People are extremely poor at confrontation, and so often resort to these cheapshot hit-and-run tactics. They MUST have the last word, so they get their little dig in, then block very quickly. I just roll my eyes.

Yeah I have a similar mindset. I honestly have a lot of people tagged on here from some pretty rough debates at times. But weeks, months, years later I still up vote some of their stuff.

Very well said, and I think that’s a reasonable take. A balance between protecting yourself but also not necessarily promoting a self-validating echo-chamber. Temporary blocks are genius.

It’s funny you mention the AI thing. I’m no pro or anything but I am a software engineer and was recently blocked by someone for just noting that AI has its uses in the fight against extremist hate and online discourse and that we shouldn’t necessarily limit our tool box in the fight against fascism — especially when it’s being used against us. That’s actually what spurred my thinking about these knee-jerk blocks.

Honestly, turning inwardly to my family has been great. Especially given the political climate and my general disappointment. Finding “your people” is quite pleasant. Tribalism is sort of ingrained into us at a primate level, I suppose.

Still, I guess I try to strike a balance when all possible because I know the traps of building one’s own silo and the consequences that can have.

There’s such a massive disconnect there, though, isn’t there? I agree the slow deliberative process is key; but there is clearly a missing piece of the puzzle to bridge that gap between experts and laypeople that unfilled leads to well… All this.

Follow-up to this question after seeing many responses (and thank you): What is your default mode for self-doubt when engaging in discussions?

That is, no matter how confident you may be in something, do you maintain an open door, or are your beliefs you block over completely set in stone?

For me, little terrifies me more than becoming the thing I hate; to be clouded by my own cognitive bias; to inadvertently throw myself into an echo-chamber of self-validation. As such I try my best to always maintain at least the slightest bit of doubt in even my strongest beliefs, and to that end to at least let dialogue challenging that come through.

Only way around this is editing your previous comment, though I’ve been told that can sometimes lead to a ban? Never happened to me though.

What really annoys me about that is that it prevents you from replying to anyone ELSE who replies to you in that thread, which is completely absurd.

People are trying to ‘win the argument’ for personal satisfaction. They’re not trying to self-correct or seek the truth.

How do we promote more people to cooperate instead of compete in the mutual pursuit of truth while maintaining humility and introspection that their own views could be incorrect?

I think there are many people out there who could.

To me, the problem isn’t being a benevolent dictator; it’s getting a benevolent person there in a benevolent way.

Economy is going to contract especially come spring. These snowbirds most of the time were more kind than locals. People have no idea how much money they pump into local economies.

Hopefully this is advantageous to midterms but who knows.

What should’ve undeniably and without a shadow of doubt happened to Trump following Jan 6th.

Frankly his gross negligence in handling the covid pandemic itself should’ve warranted criminal charges.

Thank you! I believe it was Meshtastic but will compare the two.

Doesn’t seem that difficult of a test to pass.

Denouncing genocide is pretty easy to do.

Put another way: if he did denounce it, would he still be leading the Israeli orchestra? Doubtful.

I watched the video. There’s no surviving that. Not only did it hit his carotid, it looked like it hit his spine.

It’s been my goal to make an effort to reconnect with people through the months of September and November. We’ll see how it goes.

I tried to reconnect with an old good friend of mine but he has kind of gone off the deep end, deep into drugs and conspiracy theories. We used to see eye-to-eye on things. Used to be compassionate, informed. Kind of a burnout now.

He asked me recently what I thought about “the shot” knowing my partner and I both worked in hospitals during that time. He got immediately cold when I was blunt about my pro-vaccine stance after he prodded. After he got cold, I reciprocated and that’s that. Oh well. Hope he finds stability. I can’t put out everyone’s fire.

My sister is another story that I started to write about, but I think I’ll save that for another time. That one naturally hurts the most.

My friend, do what makes you happy – especially so when not at the expense of someone else. Your family’s input is somewhat irrelevant in this case. It only matters whether you think you’ll feel more free thereafter.

Divorce is perfectly fine no matter what age you are. Rid yourself of these archaic religious tropes and you’ll feel so liberated.

Oh wow, yeah, truly small. It depends on your own outlook and how willing you are to assimilate, or if you’re okay with being kind of an outcast who sticks to themselves. If for instance you’re a young progressive atheist moving to a rural Tennessee town of deeply religious conservatives, yeah that’s not going to be fun. Small Vermont ski town? You’ll fit right in. Alaskan town? They’ll be conservative, sure, but given the weather and isolation, people have a tendency to rely upon each other and that brings the community closer together.

I grew up rural just outside a town of about 30,000 that was just transitioning to a formally-designated small city. You could go to the grocery store and not see people you knew 2 out of 3 times, I’d say. It’s not always bad. We’re social creatures and the internet has gotten us away from that, somewhat detrimentally.

How small we talking?

Odds are high this is being brigaded by tankies or far-right astroturfers. They truly do Bibi proud by enabling his favorite pick in the White House while trying to sow defeatism and apathy while giving no constructive pragmatic alternative solution.

Edit: Case-in-point. This person is programmed to wedge-drive Democrats while ignoring the elephant in the room, the bigger fish — the PRIMARY choice of Netanyahu. Objective bystanders take note the obvious fact that genocide is no simply boolean but a gradient, and MORE people not LESS will die under Trump. Instead, they were wasting time promoting mUh BoTh SiDeS False Equivalence logical fallacies, lapping up the Russian and AIPAC kool-aid and playing right into their hands. Bibi and Trump thank you for your service.

lol none of this changes what I already wrote whatsoever. I can rest my case here if nothing substantive to add. Blood on your hands as you dream of this magical fairy-tale land of a 3rd viable option.