Negative Lemmings

Since the API debacle around Reddit in 2023, I've rarely found myself going to the site. There's an underlying moral disgust I've had since then that's managed to keep me away from it somehow. It makes me feel as though by just visiting I have to implicitly say that it's fine for them to try defaming someone for their IPO as long as they continue to deliver fake internet points.

The pull towards that link aggregator model is still there for me though. As a result I've spent a lot of time that I'd previously use Reddit on Lemmy instead.

The thing I find strange about that is that I don't even particularly enjoy it oftentimes. One of my friends has described it as "turbo-reddit", which I have found to be the most apt description for its issues. Ideological. Elitist. Angry. You might notice I don't link my profile there from this site, and this is why. I don't like the association, even if I (or at least hope I) don't act that way.

In particular there's a pattern I have noticed take place on Lemmy: You can almost always find communities whose sole purpose is to complain about something, and communities about alternatives never gain traction. !fuckcars@lemmy.world is one of the most popular, and I honestly cannot find an active sub about public transit. !fuck_ai@lemmy.world is similar. In communities that are theoretically emotionally neutral ("No Stupid Questions", "Shower Thoughts", etc.), there's still a flow of negatively motivated postsi I would include links to prove my point, but I feel sharing that around is bad for a variety of reasons, particularly around brigading and publicity. I know this blog isn't nearly popular enough for those to be issues but I'd rather not start., so you can't really filter it from your feed. It's engrained into the culture.

After some thought, I think negativity and politics aren't really the core problems, and only an element of a larger issue with the platform. The actual issue is that these things don't add anything to society or the world. After the doomscroll, I don't ever go and do something with what I just read, and I suspect few others do either; the most I've seen is people switching to linux.

Compare this to a YouTube channel like Benn Jordan. It's politically very similar to what you'd find on (at least the non-tankie? If you're not chronically online, "Tankie" is a pejorative to describe authoritarians, particularly Soviet/Russia/China aligned ones side of) Lemmy. His focus also intersects with a lot of negativity; mass surveillance, sound pollution, etc. But when I watch these videos there's a sense that he deep down does care about these things and that he's trying to make the world a better place. A recent video involved him going out to do research and interviews. One of his videos got me to try out MeshCore. I have never come away from a Lemmy post with anything like this.