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Honestly, I am not the least surprised. I don't know if anyone is really. Because never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opin

Honestly, I am not the least surprised. I don't know if anyone is really. Because never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opinions. People actively share "if you like x you can remove me as your friend" shit on facebook, companies fire people for expressing their political views and media companies "choose a side" more then ever. And don't tell me Google isn't. Just look at Youtube with their new anti-free speech rules that they enforce in restricted mode and the new demonitazation for content. Look at their search engine. If you swap to DuckDuckGo you will instantly see the bubble you were in and the many results that are not shown. This is not really unique to USA or a single company like Google, it's happening within EU and other companies as well. This is coming from me, who probably would in the US be called a communist by conservatives :)

bgun 9y ago
"Never before" is a very shortsighted statement. I know we in tech like to think that mass/social media is pushing the limits of the human psyche to think and do things our ancestors' primitive brains would never comprehend. But there is no way to objectively say that we're especially worse off these days - just that we're as human as ever.
- staticelf 9y ago
  What I mean is that it's very easy to sent hate to other people and group up due to internet and social media.
ainiriand 9y ago
If the information channels are polarized, so are the opinions.
AndrewDucker 9y ago
If someone is "simply holding different opinions" that people should have lesser rights, or be treated differently because of how they were born, then we shouldn't really be surprised that people are upset by that. I'm not seeing hatred towards people for arguing over correct levels of import taxes. I'm seeing it because they're backing politicians who are actively causing harm to real human beings.
- jimbokun 9y ago
  And here is a sterling example of the level of political discourse to which we have sunk. The post you reply to doesn't even list any specific political opinions, yet you already insinuate this person is a racist bigot. Well done.
  - MBCook 9y ago
    GP is not insinuating that person is a racist, they're pointing out that some 'political' views are really hard to be civil about. For exactly that reason they stir up very strong feelings. I've seen strong feeling (but relatively civil discussion) about topics like handling North Korea or immigration. Things like taxes tend to be far more civil as GP pointed out. There was absolutely no need to call GP a bigot.
    - Cuuugi 9y ago
      Well obviously there's far too many instances to go into great detail, but the Democratic strategy for the past few decades is to call most conservatives strategies racist. That's certainly rarely the case, and next to never the intention. All i say, and ask is that you think to yourself, is this really racist? or do i just want to vote democrat now?
    - peoplewindow 9y ago
      They really don't tend to be more civil. The only reason it may seem like that in America is that the USA has never really attempted to cut its deficit. Go look at political conversation in the UK and you'll find large numbers of left wingers / liberals foaming at the mouth about how the government trying to balance its budget is the same thing as hating people, killing them, that austerity is unthinkable evil, that any solution which isn't vast taxes on the rich is evidence of a defective moral compass, etc.
      - te_chris 9y ago
        "Go look at political conversation in the UK and you'll find large numbers of left wingers / liberals foaming at the mouth about how the government trying to balance its budget is the same thing as hating people, killing them" I see you've listened closely to them and engaged with their arguments.
jnet 9y ago
When I see posts in my facebook feed that say unfriend me if you believe x, I always unfriend them even if I don't believe x. If you are not tolerant of different points of view I really don't want to be your friend.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- akilism 9y ago
  There are some viewpoints that should not be tolerated though.
  - thescribe 9y ago
    I'm glad you agree with my super conservative grandmother.
  - cuckcuckspruce 9y ago
    Can you give me an enumerated list so I can be sure to not commit wrongthink?
  - synicalx 9y ago
    Answers like this truly surprise me. Do you not see a problem with normalising the idea of telling people how and what to think?
- mfringel 9y ago
  Who has that left you with?
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Probably the people who don't post extremely idiotic stuff on Facebook.
4c2383f5c88e911 9y ago
Being called a communist by US conservatives isn't really something worthy of notice, as anything that goes against them is called as such. That said, with the polarization of political debate, people rabidly defend viewpoints they don't even understand or never thought about rationally. It means you cannot have interesting arguments because you don't share any axioms with the other party, and you have different opinions on basic stuff such as "do poor people deserve to die" or "should gay people be reeducated" or "do we put immigrants in concentration camps", at which point you can only give up and break contact with resignation. Sure, I can interact with people like that on trivial stuff if I have to, but don’t ask me to be overly nice to someone who would rather see me or people I like dead.
- staticelf 9y ago
  Sure but how many people really share those extreme views? Most of the hate goes to pretty vanilla opinions like "we should lower the amount of immigrants", "education should be free and payed by taxdollars" or similar stuff.
cristoperb 9y ago
> never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opinions It's been worse in the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
- antisthenes 9y ago
  One could say these are nothing more but echoes of Cold War. After all, these are boomers' children.
yahna 9y ago
Well when one side decides trump is a good idea...
justin66 9y ago
> I don't know if anyone is really. Because never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opinions. This is a very, very poorly thought out thing to say. Nothing we're experiencing right now in the US compares in terms of vitriol and danger to McCarthyism, the first red scare, the civil rights era, or abolitionism. We're not even close. Cheer up! Things can get a whole lot worse.

bgun 9y ago

"Never before" is a very shortsighted statement. I know we in tech like to think that mass/social media is pushing the limits of the human psyche to think and do things our ancestors' primitive brains would never comprehend. But there is no way to objectively say that we're especially worse off these days - just that we're as human as ever.

staticelf 9y ago
What I mean is that it's very easy to sent hate to other people and group up due to internet and social media.

ainiriand 9y ago

If the information channels are polarized, so are the opinions.

AndrewDucker 9y ago

If someone is "simply holding different opinions" that people should have lesser rights, or be treated differently because of how they were born, then we shouldn't really be surprised that people are upset by that. I'm not seeing hatred towards people for arguing over correct levels of import taxes. I'm seeing it because they're backing politicians who are actively causing harm to real human beings.

jimbokun 9y ago
And here is a sterling example of the level of political discourse to which we have sunk. The post you reply to doesn't even list any specific political opinions, yet you already insinuate this person is a racist bigot. Well done.
- MBCook 9y ago
  GP is not insinuating that person is a racist, they're pointing out that some 'political' views are really hard to be civil about. For exactly that reason they stir up very strong feelings. I've seen strong feeling (but relatively civil discussion) about topics like handling North Korea or immigration. Things like taxes tend to be far more civil as GP pointed out. There was absolutely no need to call GP a bigot.
  - Cuuugi 9y ago
    Well obviously there's far too many instances to go into great detail, but the Democratic strategy for the past few decades is to call most conservatives strategies racist. That's certainly rarely the case, and next to never the intention. All i say, and ask is that you think to yourself, is this really racist? or do i just want to vote democrat now?
  - peoplewindow 9y ago
    They really don't tend to be more civil. The only reason it may seem like that in America is that the USA has never really attempted to cut its deficit. Go look at political conversation in the UK and you'll find large numbers of left wingers / liberals foaming at the mouth about how the government trying to balance its budget is the same thing as hating people, killing them, that austerity is unthinkable evil, that any solution which isn't vast taxes on the rich is evidence of a defective moral compass, etc.
    - te_chris 9y ago
      "Go look at political conversation in the UK and you'll find large numbers of left wingers / liberals foaming at the mouth about how the government trying to balance its budget is the same thing as hating people, killing them" I see you've listened closely to them and engaged with their arguments.

jnet 9y ago

When I see posts in my facebook feed that say unfriend me if you believe x, I always unfriend them even if I don't believe x. If you are not tolerant of different points of view I really don't want to be your friend.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
akilism 9y ago
There are some viewpoints that should not be tolerated though.
- thescribe 9y ago
  I'm glad you agree with my super conservative grandmother.
- cuckcuckspruce 9y ago
  Can you give me an enumerated list so I can be sure to not commit wrongthink?
- synicalx 9y ago
  Answers like this truly surprise me. Do you not see a problem with normalising the idea of telling people how and what to think?
mfringel 9y ago
Who has that left you with?
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Probably the people who don't post extremely idiotic stuff on Facebook.

4c2383f5c88e911 9y ago

Being called a communist by US conservatives isn't really something worthy of notice, as anything that goes against them is called as such. That said, with the polarization of political debate, people rabidly defend viewpoints they don't even understand or never thought about rationally. It means you cannot have interesting arguments because you don't share any axioms with the other party, and you have different opinions on basic stuff such as "do poor people deserve to die" or "should gay people be reeducated" or "do we put immigrants in concentration camps", at which point you can only give up and break contact with resignation. Sure, I can interact with people like that on trivial stuff if I have to, but don’t ask me to be overly nice to someone who would rather see me or people I like dead.

staticelf 9y ago
Sure but how many people really share those extreme views? Most of the hate goes to pretty vanilla opinions like "we should lower the amount of immigrants", "education should be free and payed by taxdollars" or similar stuff.

cristoperb 9y ago

> never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opinions It's been worse in the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

antisthenes 9y ago
One could say these are nothing more but echoes of Cold War. After all, these are boomers' children.

yahna 9y ago

Well when one side decides trump is a good idea...

justin66 9y ago

> I don't know if anyone is really. Because never before has there been so much hate towards simply holding different opinions. This is a very, very poorly thought out thing to say. Nothing we're experiencing right now in the US compares in terms of vitriol and danger to McCarthyism, the first red scare, the civil rights era, or abolitionism. We're not even close. Cheer up! Things can get a whole lot worse.