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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: April 19th, 2024

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  • I think the thing it ‘adds’ is some kind of indication of social consensus. I agree it’s harmful to thoughtfulness and to people’s development of individual understanding rather than just parroting (see all of twitter). I do think the semi-anonymous forum style prevents a bit of the soap boxing compared to social media with your name on it, but it’s still clearly present here.

    In terms of solutions I don’t have a lot of concrete ideas. I think this phenomenon stems from a broader social shift towards moral absolutism and outsourcing knowledge to experts (where who is trusted as an expert varies dramatically) rather than striving to understand things yourself.

    Opinions that go against the grain require patience and suspension of disbelief with your conversation partner—something usually lacking in online discussion. A presumption of good faith (even where no good faith was intended) would go a long way.

    Anecdotally in a formal learning setting when you take a student’s ideas seriously (even if they’re not very mature ideas) they learn to think through things better and consider them more deeply than when you just correct them with the most up to date spiel on the matter.