The Pointlessness of Debating Unreality: Let's Dismantle the Echo Chamber

a reply to: briantaylor

I agree with everything you wrote.

Unfortunately, I have a strong belief that this is all by design, with "social media" being the catalyst. I'm "Gen X" so I grew up without the internet. Back then you had Prodigy and Compuserve, along with BBS's. And they were all about sharing information. AOL came along and then MySpace. I don't recall any level of divide among people. I would even argue that it didn't exist on Facebook in the beginning.

The true downfall I believe started with Twitter, YouTube and Twitch. I could go on and on about "why" but it would take too long. So I'll try and break it down.

Social media has created the anonymous keyboard warrior. These are people who will go after people without a care in the world.

It has also created the "influencers", though in my day we called them attention seekers. The ability to monetize content has deceived a lot of people. And we now have a generation of kids who no longer seek to become doctors, lawyers or teachers. Instead they want to become "internet famous". Just look at the toll it has taken on women. Every girl these days wants to have an OnlyFans page, or a Twitch stream. Twitch used to be video game broadcasts until the e-thots came around. And they've moved to TikTok as well.

You want to see the toll it has taken? Just Google "TikTok NPCs". But don't blame me when you put your fist thru your screen.

I know I'm rambling and I'm sorry. It's only 430am here. I think the BEST thing that could happen to society would be the complete shutdown of social media or the internet as a whole. I know it will never happen. But maybe it should.

a reply to: TheLieWeLive

Hi!

This is my first interaction here on ATS.
I find it interesting how many people here think.
I want to understand why do you guys see the world as a "Big Brother" reality.

For example, what is making you think that MSM are "supressing truths"?

Do you have any access to "true information" that isn't being provided by them?
If yes, how? On the internet?
Which kind of informations do you think are not true?

Thanks for reading

a reply to: briantaylor

Debating in 2023 has become an exercise in hitting your head repeatedly at the wall. What irks me is the typical "DEBUNKED!" or "RACISIT!" shut down tactics. It's just a way to claim a fake high ground and shut down discourse. It's what mental midgets result to when they're unable to stand on their own.

I remember when I had democrat friends. We absolutely did not agree on each others political view points, but we were STILL able to remain friends. And sometimes our discussions could get heated, we at least attempted to understand where the other person was coming from.

Unfortunately, I've had to let a couple of those friends go because they'd accuse me of being bigoted, racist, xenophobic etc. because I was a conservative. That was the only reason as to why I was a bigoted, xenophobic racist... Because I was a conservative who believed in conservative values and ideals.

It appears in order to debate, you have to 1.) Be on the same side of the fence and 2.) Agree with everything. And that's not a debate.

But I digress, in short I don't think it will get any better any time soon.

originally posted by: briantaylor
a reply to: DBCowboy

not much truth gettin' out of facts eh?
prefer to make real your desires, huh?
i guess expertise is wasted, sometimes, in that you didnt write this post then,..

the above essay is not a matter of opinion, it is in fact, about how exactly it can't be a matter of opinion.
thus the relevance to the comprehension level of the post being specifically targeted, yet you fail anyway

here's another true, factual post about truth and facts for you to deny,
enjoy exacerbating your dangerous continuation of nonsense!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Oh jeez, 13 Crystal Skulls brought up in a thread about serious and respectful discourse.

Here on the ATS board/bored we are family we are gonna fight sometimes. Here's another saying familiarity breeds contempt, that's partially going on here as well.

I'm sure people have heard enough of my chit on the HBT and most times the feeling is mutual, but STILL though you can get on a less controversial thread and we are all buddies. I like that about ATS, besides FWIW I say my piece/peace here on ATS so I can smile and tolerate the real world when these subjects come up.

Sure we can be better and more civilized, but ATS is just a microcosm of the real world, in other words, if you can't handle the abuse here, no way can you handle the abuse in TRW.

Yes, we need to be more respectful and listen to others' points of view, quietly and calmly, unfortunately, that approach doesn't always resonate with the tired dirty, and huddled masses outside of our home here on ATS.

In order for more civilized discussions to take place, we'll have to tweak the language we use so that there is less ego centric adjectives and buzzwords involved.

Both sides do this, I'm just using examples I see most often:

In terms of politics, a right leaning user may post a topic about "the insane (there's that ego centric adjective) left". Whether the poster realizes it or not, their use of words reinforces a superiority complex.

Good luck finding middle ground with that mentality because it comes from a place that wants to be reaffirmed. The post is phrased in a way that it becomes an echo chamber.

Another example of poor communication is using a buzzword or popular phrase in order to dismiss a subject or persons.

When people on the left used to say check your privilege, or when people on the right used to say someone is suffering from TDS, that's just lazy talk. We need to list reasons, we need to provide historical context. The more details the better the conversation.

Simple answers that tidy everything up are calling cards of the alphabet agencies, just think about the phrase swamp gas.

The world is way too complex for any one mind or any one mindset to comprehend.