For the sake of change in society and a future with healthy media sites, we have to do everything we can to save what remains of the level of discourse online.

submitted by HibikiBlackCaudillo from (self.conspiracy)

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]StillLessons 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Actually, there are many sites which still have relatively civil intellectual discourse.

The problem is very few people go to those sites. Usually they're limited to a couple of dozen members.

We're up against human nature here. Humans seek out excitement and friction. I have no idea what the evolutionary advantage to emotional argument is, but humans (based on where they gravitate to for "news" and "entertainment") flock to emotional, low-level argument greatly in preference to calm, rational debate.

Mob behavior is deeply coded in us. I agree with you that it is important to maintain as many spaces as we can where calmer minds can gather, but I don't hold out much hope that these spaces will become the nucleus of society. It's not where crowds go. That's kind of by definition.