Not saying the OP was banned fairly, but to do the devil's advocate, there's people with PHD in biology or medicine who still don't believe in Evolution. You can always find idiots with PHDs, even in their chosen fields.
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
14 points (100.0% liked)
Greentext
3947 readers
861 users here now
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
Something like 1/5 of pharmacists believe homeopathy works. How the fuck can you go through that training and still believe in a hyperdilution that's magic if you shake it the right way and never ever touch it with your fingers because that takes the magic away?
(For those who are unfamiliar I'm not even being facetious, this is what homeopaths actually believe)
Placebo effect is powerful. They probably have lots of people saying X really helped with their cold/pain/cough/whatever.
Like, I didn't believe in magic before I learned a lot of technology.
Now I do.
The same happened to me on Lemmy. I brought evidence, they brought anecdotes, and I was the "loser" of the discussion according to the hive
Democracy in a nutshell
This is democracy... manifest.
Technically, gang rape is entirely democratic.
No, it's not. Unless you use the definition of democracy that only fascists use to attack the concept.
Democracy isn't a total dictatorship of the majority. The term implies protection of basic human rights, even if 50+% vote in favor of something that would violate them.
No, you’re confusing the concept with the implementation. Nothing about the concept of democracy says that human rights MUST be protected, it’s just something that enough widespread agreement exists on that we assume it to be universal.
In the US, those fundamental assumptions are protected by the constitution, but that can technically be amended with a large enough majority.
As a more practical example, consider children, who do not have the right to vote and therefore must accept whatever the majority of adults decides. Their human rights only extend as far as the right to free housing, food, healthcare, and education, but they do not get the right to self-determination. As long as their parents feed, clothe, and house them, they can practically and legally keep them as indentured servants until they reach the age of majority. Perfectly democratic.
I disagree completely. Protection of human rights is a fundamental part of the concept of democracy.
A political system that decides everything purely based on majority vote, with no protections whatsoever for minority rights, is NOT a democracy.
You may call it one, but then you're simply redefining the word.
What you're thinking of is commonly called a constitutional democracy.
A pure democracy would literally just decide everything by majority vote.
According to the United Nations, democracy "provides an environment that respects human rights and fundamental freedoms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy
What you're calling "pure democracy" is called Ochlocracy or mob rule.
Pro tip: it helps to actually read an article before posting it.
Mob rule or ochlocracy is a pejorative term describing an oppressive majoritarian form of government controlled by the common people through the intimidation of more legitimate authorities. Ochlocracy is distinguished from democracy or similarly legitimate and representative governments by the absence or impairment of a procedurally civil process reflective of the entire polity. (Emphases mine)
What this is really saying is that there’s merely a fine line of constitutional red tape and governmental procedure that distinguishes democracy from mob rule.
What you call a fine line of constitutional red tape and governmental procedure is the defining difference between democracy and mob rule, and it's not a fine line. It's embedded into every aspect of a truly democratic political system.
And while Wikipedia calls Ochlocracy a pejorative term in the first sentence (which you seem to have read), it was coined by Greek political thinkers who defined 3 "good" forms of government (monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy) and their corresponding "bad" counterparts (tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy).
The difference between "good" and "bad" is whether the system serves the populace or simply those in power. (That's also in the article I linked)
I can't help but notice that each of the latter three is just the dark side of the former three.
The dark side of monarchy is tyranny, the dark side of aristocracy is oligarchy, and the dark side of democracy is ochlocracy.
Interesting.
That's what the author intended.
So we agree then that there is always a danger that if left unchecked, democracy may devolve into mob rule.
That's a danger in all forms of government if a large enough majority wants that.
In which case the form of government would stop being a democracy.
Some nations try to protect against that with additional measures, like Germany where the parts of the constitution guaranteeing human rights can't be changed by any majority, and it includes a right to resistance for any citizen should all legal avenues fail. But ultimately, if everyone in a country wants to abolish the protection of minorities, no piece of writing or procedure can prevent that.
Court of public opinion in a nutshell
Let's not pretend we're in any better of a situation. Same exact thing could happen on any Lemmy server, especially since each server is a small fiefdom run by randos.
No kidding. I got downvoted a dozen times because I mentioned that diet and practices help with sun burns and sunscreen isn't the win all against the sun. I didn't post sources right away, but when I did the hive has made up it's mind.
WTF are you talking about?
Settle down. I'm talking about people getting upset on a comment without acknowledging authenticity. The downvote and how a comment is buried or promoted is probably the worst thing reddit has manufactured. It's what the post is about. And what the comment I replied to is that it's happening here at lemmy
just sounds to me like youre a kid and you give too much worth to a karma system.
Link the comment, maybe you didn't deserve it but to me you just sound like a wiseguy.
Diet doesn't replace sunscreen.
I could care less about any of these systems, other than say it's not flowing towards equitable information. You thinking I'm saying diet replaces sunscreen shows you're not processing it.
We're not discussing sun screen, and I'm old. Take what you want.
So you do care, got it.
It's already happening. People with no clue what they're talking about starting fights
Like when people start commenting on the near-east conflict. Hardly anyone knows what the fuck is going on there yet we find many experts on the topic in the comments.
Self-propelled multipurpose couch "EXPERT"
- Crew: 1-6 strategists
(or 8 if not too fat)
- TOP SECRET!
Fuel tank
24*0.5l, 2500 comments on full tank. Possible installation of additional tank.
Air bag[safety pillow]
Optical caterpillars
Provide speed up to 100Mbps
Teflon seat for couch driver
Protects pillow from combusting
Containers of dynamic protection against enemy cat
Missle silo cover
Three couch-internet missles
Can hit/penetrate to the soul any opponent
I don't think this is wrong. I've learned so much talking shit. I even use talking shit as a mechanism to learn.
I talk shit -> someone corrects me -> I learned something new. The person feels great because they corrected someone.
It's like a free lesson and everyone wins.
Even people who didn't know shit, like me, get to read someone beating my ass with arguments, and they also learn.
That is a nice, refreshing and honest view. If I'm being honest with myself, this happened to me very often as well.
Reddit is great for watching communities being radicalized. Wehther they do it themselves or they get a psyops push is up to everyone's guess but I've watched it several times.
SRS: Started out as a community pointing out misoginy and racism, ended up as a very weird hate group. I didn't watch it that closely, only saw the result.
some tumbler centered sub i followed, I forgot the name: same story, started quite light hearted, making fun of stupid shit said by kids on tumbler, turned into a right wing hategroup. This one I witnessed. They ran out of material quick, started posting lame shit but now they gave it their own, made up context in the comments. After a while, people who pointed out obvious satire got downvoted.
/r/TumblrInAction turned into fascist propaganda really fucking quick
Yepp
Meh, it’s always how you present the arguments. Regardless of being right or wrong, if OP comes off as dickish, it’s gonna get downvoted.
Go to a random political sub and bring a well researched fact they don't happen to agree with. Be as polite as you can be. See what happens.
As an expert on everything I find the Internet constantly frustrating.
As an expert on nothing I find the internet constantly frustrating.
As a pornography enjoyer, I really like the Internet
This is why Quora is so sanitized unlike Reddit: you actually get to see the (alleged) qualification of the OP. I'm not saying this would get to be an appeal to authority, but blatantly contradicting the expert while you're none of it wouldn't be so easy to get away with in the other forums
Bro Quora is the most blatantly wrong and idiotic site on the internet