YouTube Rekage

I have spent most of the day watching a range of YouTube videos and am rather disturbed by what I have seen. No, it was not gore, heavy violence or anything of that nature. I did not stumble across documentaries discussing mass human suffering or serial killers or anything like that. What I did see, however, is many people expressing irrational, delusional and highly illogical views in a public context and then resorting to harassment and aggression when these views were challenged.

Ok, yes YouTube has an extremely diverse range of videos and you are bound to find just about anything. You will find videos you agree with, others you disagree with and even more you are indifferent to. It is also true that many videos have an agenda and will present experiences out of context and try to push a narrative the author wants you to follow, even when their arguments are supported with facts or sound reasoning.

Nevertheless, there is a serious problem. It's not easy to explain clearly what the problem is, but it's a kind of a disconnection you feel when viewing other people behave in such ways. It's like a deep loss of hope for the future of humanity. You have thoughts like "there are actually people who think like that, behave like that openly and publicly, and are not in some type of institution?" (Remember, the key problem here is with the manner in which these views are expressed, not the actual opinions/views themselves.)

How can we ever overcome the problems we face when we cannot even remain civil while discussing with others views that challenge our own?

a reply to: Dark Ghost

A review of ATS will show you the same problem here. The front page of ATS is too often full of threads full of political baiting and hatred for any opposing view.

a reply to: Leonidas

I see where you are coming from.

However: what happens on the internet ought to stay on the internet. We should not confuse internet activity with real life interaction with others.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

I agree, and I wish it would. Unfortunately it is clearly "leaking" into the real world.

You have thoughts like "there are actually people who think like that, behave like that openly and publicly,

A majority of these people do it just for the sole purpose of the anonymity of the internet. But..... it makes you wonder what people really have going on their heads...
If they need to remain anonymous to express their thoughts and feelings, we're on a STEEP downhill slide...