[overgard]

I think it's different on the internet though. Like, if we state an opinion in person, there's a few key differences:

- People are likely to respond in a much more civil manner, they're not just going to yell at you

- A lot of complex intonation and nuance gets across a lot easier

- Any misunderstandings can be quickly corrected

On the other hand with the internet, you lose all those things, so IMO it's more up to the receiver to give the speaker the benefit of the doubt, unless it's clear the speaker's intent is to insult.

[kingsuper20]

>- People are likely to respond in a much more civil manner, they're not just going to yell at you

While I think that's true to a certain extent, I'd also say that the internet selects for the loudest, rudest voices.

Example. I was reading this this morning. (this this? English is an odd language).

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/meet-the-censored-bret-weinste...

Fine. I get it. Look for the first response (and others) from some guy named Thom Prentice. That's what the internet is all about. 10 second of research shows you that he's That Guy who goes to all the city council meetings to yell, continuously runs for office, has restraining orders. Every town has them.

That Guy has come to their full potential on social media.

[overgard]

I love taiibi's substack! As to that comment, WOW. There's this weird internet hate for guy's like weinstein or jordan peterson when, even if you happen to disagree with them they're incredibly tame about what they say.

[exporectomy]

I read some blog about why this happens. There's no tribal value in showing you hate someone who's obviously bad because everyone hates them no matter what side they're on. You have to show you hate someone who's good enough for reasonable people to like them. Then your expression of hate reinforces your position as being deep within your side and far from the middle ground which is dangerously close to the enemy.

[kingsuper20]

Maybe there's just an endorphin rush from being outrageous.

[XorNot]

> - People are likely to respond in a much more civil manner, they're not just going to yell at you

People are going to ignore you and leave as well, because they (a) want to go about their day and have no interest in what you have to say, or (b) actively fear physical violence because you're within arm's reach of them, or (c) [my favorite] I'm actually in the office (or worse, with family) and still need to work with this person (or deal with them for the rest of their natural life), and would like to avoid an adversarial campaign of passive-aggressive retribution or (maybe worse?) an ongoing daily update on the dangers of chemtrails or whatever.

Basically, people who think dialogue happens better in person I don't think are necessarily being very cognizant of the fact that in person I'm equal parts trying to mind my physical safety and mind the overall environment I have to work in.

So am I self-censoring? Aggressively. Continuously.