I’ve never blocked a single person and I am old.
I don’t get the need. I just ignore them, and remove the “blocking” extra step. If some random Trumpy is super mad and messaging me often, it pleases me. I’ve got some guy on FB that has been messaging me for years, he’s like my best friend now.
I’m a devoted user of blocking. Happy to converse with people who take issue with my comments, but if they shift into angry insult mode, or all they’re doing is arguing against their own weird extrapolations of something, that’s when they get blocked. There are plenty of people in the world who are able to act civil when they don’t agree with somebody. There’s really no need to bother with the ones who can’t.
Same. I’ve blocked ~75 users so far. I’ve had more than enough of bad-faith arguments and concern trolls in my life, shaving away the worst offenders doesn’t magically turn my experience into an echo chamber.
but someone told me blocking people is against free speech?
This is likewise how you cater your feed to be super comfortable so you see the same shit over and over and never grow or develop, and develop a rather strong intolerance of opinions other than your own.
Month of blocking people daily and even Lemmy starts to look like an ok place.
the problem is the problematic people are so insanely prolific.
i was browsing lemmy logged out this morning and vs logging in it’s like night and day. mostly because of a dozen or so power users who just spam every community incessantly with their rage-bait agendas. and a few of which go into the comments are try to silence any dissenter, skepticism, or disagreement by labeling such comments as an -ism.
Hence:
X officially changes block function
Here’s a fun new one, no longer able to block accounts on pages. Thanks, Meta
https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1ps4r5d/heres_a_fun_new_one_no_longer_able_to_block/
Under the new system it actually lets the blocked person know they are blocked, which is horrible design because they now know that they need to use an alt to send you mean messages. Under the old system they don’t actually know if their messages are getting through, so it is better in that regard.
https://www.reddit.com/r/self/comments/1st24au/reddits_new_block_feature_is_bizarrely_antisocial/
Blocking someone reduces ragebait engagement, and they can’t have that, I guess…
You can always “block” (i.e. not use) forums and platforms that don’t work the way you like.
Sure, until they change their block function as well. Changing the rules to something that is objectively less safe is a bad thing, even if people are free to leave.
“for the love of god get off twitter” - Sonic The Hedgehog
yeah, and actually all those platforms have been shown on different opportunities to have a bot problem and it’s still unaddressed because it’s basically a conflict of interests to them (numbers go up : stakeholders go happy.) That’s basically how I’ve been drown to Lemmy (and before, other ‘niche’ forums, irc channels, etc.)
Takes a lot to block all the idiots on Lemmy. After a few months it starts to become a usable platform.
What is really funny is that the person who commented on this is blocked by me.
sitting at 468 users on my list right now.
I don’t know what the upper limit is, but by god I’ll find out.
that’s just the entirety of the visible internet nowadays. and it’s a dumb take. being exposed to what makes you uncomfortable hardens you.
people act like seeing a contrary opinion is like being abused as a child. it isn’t.
i’d love to live in the shoes of all the oversensitive, privileged nerds who post on these sites.
the only one drawing that comparison to child abuse is you. I have to disagree… complete different things. PS: Blocked /s (not really)
Careful. Thats how echo chambres happen. Disagreeing can be uncomfortable and people might not like that feeling especially around facing and understanding bigotry. even more so if they havent learned to disagree amicably. Which youre not going to learn in flowers and meadows.
A healthy life is a reflected life. a healthy mind is an examined mind. playing only to a comfort level isnt exactly seeking growth.
i know a tonne of white ppl who you cant even fathom discussion around racism let alone politics without them going ‘youre bumming me out. why cant we only speak about flowers and meadows’
which is privilege pushed by spoilt racist people who call themselves ‘blessed’ for being white and never having to experience such things and love waving that comfort bubble in everyone’s less privileged face.
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Are they arguing in good faith?
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Are they willing to give and take?
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Is this a simple difference of perspective, or a moral line in the sand?
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Are you ready to change your mind on the outcome of the conversation?
It’s better to block than to scream into the void
This assumes everyone works with the same healthy boundaries to know when they are reasonable.
Pnt 4 there: disagreements and differences happen and should be allowed to happen.
A person who is in a toxic state knows how to distort those points in order to vilify anything and anyone as if it’s ‘toxic’. This is exactly how the right vilify anyone who doesn’t look like them. All justified for ‘feeling safe’ in order to escape discomfort.
This assumes everyone works with the same healthy boundaries to know when they are reasonable.
No, it holds everyone to that same standard and if they don’t meet that standard, they get blocked.
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Debating with people in general is something I’ve found to be stupid and pointless as I’ve gotten older, even if they’re not trolls. I don’t even like watching videos of others debating. People come out the other end more entrenched than they were before. As for trolls, I don’t engage at all. My echo chamber is devoid of righties and nothing of value was lost.
People never engage in honest discussions, man. They just vomit word salad and claim you’re stupid if you can’t find the argument in the haystack.
They used to. Back in ye olden days.
It does happen here on occasion. I’ve witnessed it.
Of course… the mods usually ban people for having honest discussions because it makes other users uncomfortable. The word-salad users don’t like honest discussion because it is scary to them and hurts them. So it must be banned.
Reddit was horrible for that. I think there’s less trolling here, but still the occasional mental issue.
Some people are just passionate. Some people will write a manifesto in response to one line of text and dictate what you meant by it.
🎵 Gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em 🎶
People do that? Weird, then I musta been talking to aliens then.
You’re completely wrong about your opinion.
debating people is great when they want to actually debate.
they don’t thought, anymore. especially online. and on campuses, student activists try to shut down debates rather than attended them and learn something.
people don’t believe in the principle of charity anymore either. you can’t have debate or education without the principle of charity… otherwise it’s just a trying to beat down the opposite side.
not to mention most popular ‘debate’ is not real debate, it’s people being ignorant assholes and doubling-down on it and people viewing that as ‘confidence’
Thank you! Discussing ideas is amazing, even with people who disagree with you.
It can help both sides learn so much and acquire perspective.
What people think debates are is shaped a lot by how youtube and politicians portray them (and of course, in that format, it’s a fallacy free-for-all).
Thank you! Discussing ideas is amazing, even with people who disagree with you.
Yes, but for a lot of the users here, it makes you EVIL.
Like, I rented out a bedroom in my condo for a few years, according to the average lemmy poster this makes me as morally repugnant as a death camp administrator… when personally I wouldn’t even consider myself a ‘landlord’.
Anybody can be a dipshit. It’s important to know that anybody includes us too.
i’ve been told i’m a evil terrible dipshit since i was in kindergarten. Got sent to the principles office many times for asking too many questions even as a small child. my own parents would scream at me to stop asking questions and shut up and just repeat what the teacher told me and stop making them ‘uncomfortable’ by challenging their ignorance.
Most folks just want you to shut up and agree with them and tell them how genius they are, and how The Office is the BEST TELEVISION SHOW EVER MADE. The second you say you don’t really like the Office you’re a Terrible Person.
What a shame.
I’m sorry you had to go through that.
it’s not a shame. it’s what got me into Harvard when everyone told me I would never be admitted and I should go dipshit state u like the rest of my peers. most of whom failed out of dipshit state u anyway.
I think debates about things in the science and similar subjects can be interesting. It has to be a scenario where everyone means well and is passionate about the subject matter. But if it’s some echo chamber right-wing “debate” where it’s a guy in a suit with a bunch of puppets nodding along, there’s no value to be had. I’ve had friends send me those Jubilee videos and I don’t want to watch those ever, regardless of their political leanings. Propaganda in the US has broken people though and they think everything should have some opportunity to one-up the perceived competition. That kind of thing is antithetical to progress and education, and is self-serving nonsense.
cool, that’s how I see pretty much all ‘left-wing’ debate too. Propaganda and insanity, with no basis in the complexities of the real world.
A huge chunk of ‘progressives’ are anti-progress and seem to believe resources are infinite and their theories are flawless and perfect… almost as if they are just as stupid and propagandized as the people they hate on the right…
I wanted to be an educator myself, professionally, but I left because I saw how delusional leftist it was becoming and how it was shooting itself in the foot, always focusing on feelings and praising ignorance as ideology rather than seeking knowledge and leaving the ideology outside of the classroom.
You can’t have education and debate and knowledge if your priority is pushing ideology, the ideology is supposed to be subservient to those things, not the other way around. But that’s not how people in educational spaces think anymore, many are just ideologues who want to push out anyone who isn’t as extremist as they are. Whether it be on the right or the left.
No one is immune from propaganda, but I separate out progressive and leftist movements. Liberalism enables anti-progressive ideas, while identifying as the greater good. While leftist movements advocate for things like equal rights and breaking free from the chains of Zionist enablement. The problem I have with a lot of leftist echo chamber content is that it’s a lot of punching down at liberals that are often open to leftist ideas and movements, which is counterproductive to educating and welcoming them. Fred Hampton saw this and that’s why he was never hateful or inflammatory towards fellow working class people. He correctly identified that all working class are in the same boat, even if they’ve been divided up by differing propagandist camps.
your entire comment here is nothing but propaganda to me. I see a bunch of bullshit terms and name drops and nothing of substance other than rhetorical flourishes. word salad that sounds good but is information junk food.
That’s your take and that’s fine. But there’s educational takeaways from the actions of others. Hence the mention of Fred Hampton—a single name drop coupled with reasoning. If you think working towards a unified working class is “bullshit”, I don’t really have anything else to contribute. Take it or leave it, I don’t really care. I’d say I sound less propagandist than some folks do that swallow communism/socialism and its figures wholesale without having an original interpretation or nuance.
where is this ‘unified working class’ my friend?
would you care to define it with specific numbers?
because where i live multi-millionaires from generations of inherited wealth think they are ‘working class’
meanwhile the righties have also built their echo chamber devoid of uncomfortable discussions also. and the polarization continues to get deeper, dehumanization of ‘the others’ and wars become a common idea.
Those groups are filled with anti-trans, pro-corporate nonsense. I don’t even know what the point is, other than to make themselves feel bigger when the reality is that they’re just scared. It’s an echo chamber permeated with billionaire-funded viewpoints. No original thought, while also needing someone to punch down at every time.
They’re victims of a cult. Sadly. Sadly, no one is immune to propaganda and as genocidal as the “righties” get, so do “lefties”. I favour “people who think”, however I do draw the line at hate rhetoric, regardless of how hypothetical it gets.
What I hate: when the software leaves a placeholder for blocked users’ content.
What I love: when they completely disappear. I might miss people’s replies to the blocked user though.
Long story short, I don’t block all users I find deliberately ignorant or hateful, only those that somehow manage to get through my defenses and trigger me to the point of obsession, for no good reason.
I feel like it’s useful to have choices here. Like a “<-- you said this guy sucks” label separate from “hide” (placeholders), “ignore” (no placeholder when 0 replies) and “block” (no placeholder at all).
On piefed I use emojis to tag dumbasses to remind myself not to engage with their stupidity instead of blocking most of the time. That way I can skim their bullshit and still get to see the rest of the comment chain.
Also a few of the worst posters start quality posts and are just morons in the comments, so that way I still get to see their posts.
For example, this is my reminder that this user is a dumbshit:
I do have quite a few people on the block list too, which is for when their behavior approaches the level of harassment or they are so completely terrible that they aren’t even worth laughing at.
Divide and conquer
Over the years I’ve realized the futility of engaging with idiocy online. It’s either trolls, bots, or morons, and I’m not convinced any interaction is worth it to me, all it does is piss me off, and I’m just enabling their stupid bullshit.
So yeah, there’s a one strike and you’re out policy now. Does that increase my echo chamber, sure, but I’d rather interact with like minded people than piss away my own happiness by feeding bots, idiots, and trolls.
Everyone will piss you off once eventually
There’s 8 billion people, if you count bots there are probably 16 billion. I already have good people in my actual life, I can spare a few online souls lol
“It’s either trolls, bots, or morons”…which one are you? 😁
he needs to make an exception for comedians
I’m the alpha and omega of online toxicity, bow before my sludge
See this type of thing cost the left the election in 2024. It’s time to have better arguments to sway people’s minds, they still will vote afterall
Ah yes I forgot about the global election that’s happening in 2024
I really don’t come to social media to change the world or people’s minds. I don’t know where this mentality of “you must change people’s minds” comes from. When was the last time some rando changed yours?
For me it’s more about sharing the many information, including the best insults to spread around about the ruling class, and networking, than changing peoples’ minds.
If someone is being rude and I don’t think they are in good faith, or a serious person, I just ignore them. I don’t block or hit the ignore button, I just stop replying, usually don’t even read them.
Before you get too invested, check this bloke’s comment history. They’re a troll, and a poor one at that.
Expressing my opinions means I’m a troll.
I’m not talking about you. I’m talking TO you about the person you’re responding to.
Then why are you blessing us with your word-text? If it is not for the benefit of changing minds, is it so we can be informed about what Cousin Mose thinks? It’s very important to know this. Thank you!
I get enlightened on Lemmy almost everyday as long as people have discussion with me. But that’s the thing people resort to band whenever you question their opinion. If you look at United States, Trump built a coalition of former Democrats to be on his cabinet. That’s one example of people changing their minds, why can’t we on the left do that? How the hell did he get RFK Jr on his cabinet?😂😂
We should be welcoming defectors from the right but the oligarchy has everything so influence operatized that we are led to loudly reject them so we remain unable to win.
ie MTG. That said, everyone that’s been against the bad guys from the start should get at least one I told you so on a turncoat. But they should be welcomed and encouraged to defect even if you don’t trust their motives as being anything beyond self interest.
I can accept that MTG is no longer a trumper, I can’t accept most of her anything else. She is racist and destructive and trying to set up her next bid for election. I’m guessing the next VP?
- https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/12/mtg-lashes-out-at-gop-colleague-who-tried-to-water-down-her-anti-trans-bill-wtf/
- https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/trump-ally-s-hateful-race-based-attack-a-bridge-too-far-for-even-far-right-mtg/ar-AA2bdwDs
“This hateful, racists [sic], and demeaning rhetoric should not be tolerated. Ever. But they allow it and keep her in the inner circle,” Greene wrote Sunday in a social media post on X.
Note: I included her anti-racism because it seems like she’s not used to it.
Idk what she has been up to lately, but here changes in stances, repudiating Israel, calling gaza a genocide, supporting universal healthcare, what else, opposing the Iran war, and what else, opposing geo engineering, (yes her base is opposed to it primarily because chemtrails but they are also against spraying sulphur dioxide in the upper atmosphere to blot out the sun.
What else, there were others too. She’s further left than almost the entire democratic party at this point.
I don’t think there is a single white democrat further left of her just given those positions. Bernie doesn’t count at this point. Name one, Ron Wyden? Supports sending weapons, incluing assault rifles to Israeli settlers in the west bank, just last summer.
Idk, seems to me like Israel and their super fans are manipulating us, again.
Dude, being anti-LGBTQ is a non-starter. Good luck trying to white wash her stances.
I’ll grant you that the links to content are informative but usually the comments are full of people missing the point, taking your comment out of context, etc. like this person that’s trying to act like I’m racist because I said it’s difficult to find vegan food in Mexico.
I’d say 90% of comments are just a waste of time. I would never come here expecting positive engagement with others.
This is sad to hear, I remember the Golden age of Reddit was so open and you could have a discussion with everybody. I was hoping that Lemmy was stuck in that era, but it seems that down vaults aren’t enough for this website. They must resort to banning people with different opinions
Reddit hid downvoted comments, so if you said something truly contrary, you’d end up just getting buried.
You can indeed have discussions here, but as soon as they start going off the rails, the chances of getting blocked are pretty high.
Only USA exist 101
You can’t really “change someone’s mind” unless they’re receptive to it. Quite often you’ll just end up in a situation where both parties are already hard set into their position; then they both enthusiastically repeat their best arguments and logic, while completely ignoring what the other person is saying. The hope is that there’s a magic combination of words that will trigger the incantation that changes the opposition’s mind. There usually isn’t.
As a thought experiment, if you wouldn’t be willing to “change teams” no matter what the other person says, they probably feel the same way towards you.
I have a family member who is an avid Pauline Hanson / Trump supporter; despite my reminders that those people hate me for who I am at a fundamental level and would see me suppressed, deported, begging on the streets, or worse. I’m “one of the good ones” you see, an exemption to patch over the cognitive dissonance. I would never support them, because it would be literal suicide to do so. I’m sure they have similarly strong opinions about my favourite progressive political parties.
I just read up on Hansen and she is concerning. My argument is look at Trump: he hasn’t done anything to trans people yet. The law still protects trans rights. Maybe that’s why your family is not worried
My argument is look at Trump: he hasn’t done anything to trans people yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_14183
Executive Order 14183, titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness”, is an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on January 27, 2025, banning transgender people from military service.
Sure, he has been side tracked into other heinous shit since then but kicking them out of the military was one of the first things he did in office.
If anything he is protecting trans if you think about it. What trans person wants to serve under Trump anyway? I wish I was exempt from the upcoming draft That’s coming
“the” election - as if there was only a single one? Lemmy.World where your account is housed is not located in the USA (while I do not know about programming.dev).
Your argument would carry much more weight if you displayed the slightest sensitivity towards acknowledging that places outside of the USA so much as exist, and occasionally have elections.
You can’t logic people out of opinions they didn’t logic themselves into.
You have to scare them.
Then let’s scare them
Exactly :-D
The thing that cost the the election was that overwhelmingly popular left policy was entirely unrepresented; the left screamed “Genocide, funding ICE, and doing fuckall to help people will decrease votes”, liberals said “What the fuck are you gonna do, not vote? We need to appeal to Moderate Republicans™ by talking about stopping migrant caravans, including republicans in your cabinet, banning trans people from sports, and The Most Lethal Military Ever!!”.
And once again, basically no republicans voted democrat, while massively unpopular republican policies decreased turnout.
It would be trivial to sway people with “Do you want free healthcare? Do you want to NOT resume a genocide? Do you want to keep federally legal pot? Do you want Trump to stay in prison?”
I tried for years man, but there’s so much bad faith, and I’m just one guy who just wants some peace now. I’ve been so fuckin angry my whole life, I just can’t anymore, the futility is draining
You can’t “not play” politics. You may not want to fuck with politics, but politics will still be fucking you at the end of the day.
Agreed; I removed the picture because the person above me changed their text making me look like a moron.
What did the comment say originally?
Blocking things based solely on not liking them is a terrible reason.
I’m also blocking ads because I don’t like them. This has worked out great for me so far.
What if it was where you come to unwind and giggle?
Maybe, but i dont care anymore.
The internet got so ass overall. There is so much noise. There are just a few tolerable places left. I wont waste my precious time with shit i dont like or even worse which makes me angry. The internet supposed to be my distraction from how shitty my job is and my frustrations with all the idiots i have to encounter on a daily basis. Without block/allow lists this just isnt possible for me anymore for years.
And yeah sometimes its nothing big or important. I dont like the anime community in the internet at large. No special reason. I just dont like them. So i blocked everything i could so that stuff just never appears on my feed. Even though i enjoy a little anime in my live. As in japanese animated cartoons. Theres good stuff. But tbh it isnt even just anime. I pretty much stopped interacting with any specific fandom. And if i’m starting to see too many rick and morty, star wars, trek[…] whatever memes i’m going to block them as well. Its my feed.
IMHO thats way more valid than having some shitty engagement algo dictate what i see. I preselected my content already by beeing on the fediverse and then i’ve chosen my subs for communities. Thats already a big/tiny(?) ass echo chamber. Why not block shit i just dont like?
I prefer a more direct approach…
