Opinion: online discussion will soon be crushed by censorship. The future is local communities

submitted by roastpotatothief from self.politics

The signal/noise ratio is too low. You can't have a proper discussion online, nevermind organise a political movement.

Reddit failed to give us a free discussion utopia and I think saidit and other efforts will disappoint too. We will have to refocus and rebuild our communities around people we know personally. Around pubs and schools and libraries. Moderated by human social skills, if we can remember how to use them.

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[–]forgottenpasswordguy 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

This might end up disappointing, but I'd take that over tightly regulated speech. Just post good stuff when you can and know that you did your part! I do agree that community is severely lacking these days, I wish I had a better idea of what to do about it

[–]roastpotatothief[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't know the answer.

I'm sure it's much harder for a small minority of arseholes (or paid shills or whatever) to dominate a real-life discussion than an internet one.

Maybe there is a role for saidit.net private groups, small enough that the member can know each other personally. You can comment as a guest but guests can also be ostracised.

I think this already exists?

[–]SeasideLimbs 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That likely won't work as long as most people still use the internet. What good does it do to have a bunch of local groups if the majority of people are hooked to a handful of data-streams all propagating the same worldview?

[–]jet199 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Because any time there's a big change it's always a minority pushing it and the majority just sit back and let it happen to them.

Just look at events over the past year.

While people are hooked to the internet arguing about events on the other side of the world real local political changes are being made without most people noticing. The internet is actually making that kind of activity easier.

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

Sounds like a very safe position to take.