A new study links partisan activity on the Internet to widespread online toxicity, revealing that politically-engaged users exhibit uncivil behavior even in non-political discussions. The findings are based on an analysis of hundreds of millions of comments from over 6.3 million Reddit users.

Politically-engaged Redditors tend to be more toxic – even in non-political subreddits::A new study links partisan activity on the Internet to widespread online toxicity, revealing that politically-engaged users exhibit uncivil behavior even in non-political discussions. The findings are based on an analysis of hundreds of millions of comments from over 6.3 million Reddit users.

  • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    The Linux thing, I doubt you’ll get toxic comments. You’ll probably get comments asking why to try to help, though that can always come off as demeaning. If you say Linux is bad, that’s different. You’ll likely get a lot of comments explaining why that isn’t true and that it’s a pretty ignorant take.

    For the other comments, “piracy is theft” is, again, an objective statement, not a value judgement. Saying that is to say people who disagree are wrong. Same with the YouTube one. Change “good” to “useful” would probably be better way to say it.

    There’s a difference between comments that judge other people (which will likely get a strong response) and comments that judge the subject. It’s something people frequently fail with. Even if it’s worded well, people will often take judging something they agree with as an attack on their character, which is also not useful. Humans aren’t logical beings.

    • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
      34·
      11 months ago

      Saying that is to say people who disagree are wrong.

      They are wrong. People putting their own values (“I’m not a thief!”) into an objective statement are the people who are incorrect. You can justify piracy, but it is literally always a form of stealing. People here are very pro-piracy and, cool, so am I, but it’s stealing.

      Point conceded on the YouTube thing tho, it’s inexcusable to be loose with my language in a post I’m using as an example.

      Humans aren’t logical beings.

      To my great dismay. I’d have avoided a lot of issues if I were more logical lol

        • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
          34·
          11 months ago

          Yes I’ve gone around this little carousel many times with people trying to justify it for themselves. You don’t need to justify anything to me. I’m not your dad.

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
          13·
          11 months ago

          Like not paying for a haircut if the stylist didn’t have any customer at that time anyway. It’s a victimless crime!

          (Btw I have a large Plex server. So yeah, I’m a hypocrite.)

          • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
            3·
            11 months ago

            That took labor. Copying bits doesn’t take labor. We don’t have people working in a bit mine.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        I don’t totally disagree, but I don’t agree either. Saying there isn’t a semantic argument to be had is terribly ignorant. If you own a car and I take it, sure that’s theft. If you own a car and I take a picture of it, that isn’t theft. I created something new that didn’t effect the thing you own.

        In the same way, creating a copy of bits of data does not effect the original item someone owns. It does not remove anything from them. If you’re not taking anything from them, how can it be theft? Theft requires something to be taken.

        • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
          12·
          11 months ago

          I have near-zero interest in this conversation, but one can absolutely steal a service. You’re taking from them because to consume the product you were expected to pay, and their entire infrastructure revolves around that.

          How you feel about it is your business, but it is very cut and dry.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
            11·
            11 months ago

            Sure, but it’s a product not a service.

            It’s not as cut and dry as you seem to think. If it is cut and dry, I’d say it’s to the opposite of your opinion, but I don’t think it is.