[davidmurdoch]

I'm only referring to those who build these complete echo chambers on social media. For relatively mentally stable adults it's good to know about and consider dissenting opinions, especially so if you publish your own opinions, like the author. I completely agree that a bit of head-in-the-sand can be quite good for mental health and happiness.

[zimpenfish]

> it's good to know about and consider dissenting opinions

There's dissenting opinions like "I like team A" vs "I like team B" and then there's dissenting opinions like "I think LGBTQ+ people should have rights" vs "I think LGBTQ+ people should be rounded up / banned from public / have no rights".

[davidmurdoch]

Not exactly fair in the extremism on both sides.

If you don't know about or consider alternate viewpoints could you really have productive discourse with a person that aligns with those viewpoints?

Most people that you'd meet or talk to that may disagree on LGBTQ aren't extremist, they are more along the lines of "a children's cartoon about dinosaurs shouldn't have multiple lesbian make out scenes" or "Disney is indoctrinating children", or "just because I wouldn't date someone of the opposite sex doesn't make me homophobic".

[zimpenfish]

> could you really have productive discourse with a person that aligns with those viewpoints?

There is no discourse you can have with a person who believes that LGBTQ+ people have fewer rights than others.

> "a children's cartoon about dinosaurs shouldn't have multiple lesbian make out scenes"

Now that I would like to see. Which one was it?

> "Disney is indoctrinating children"

There's no discourse you can have with someone claiming such a bizarre viewpoint. It's like flat earthers.

[davidmurdoch]

> Which one was it?

Towards the end of the last season of Camp Crustaceous. To be fair, there are intense (for a cartoon aimed at kids) romantic scenes between a straight couple as well.

> There's no discourse you can have with someone claiming such a bizarre viewpoint.

Eh, not that bizarre. It's not hard to image people could make the leap from "Disney has a gay agenda" (some Disney producer did an interview stating that leadership welcomes her gay agenda and that she tries to put queerness wherever she can) to "Disney wants to indoctrinate children".

The extremist are loud and annoying, but they aren't the majority.

[zimpenfish]

> Towards the end of the last season of Camp Crustaceous.

Best I can find, there's one brief lesbian kiss right at the end of the last season - which also featured a straight relationship with kissing - in a TV-PG rated show that seems to have made everyone lose their damned minds.

[davidmurdoch]

Yeah, in a show about friends surviving dinosaurs it really didn't make sense for the last 5 or so episodes to be about 20% dedicated to a romantic relationship (LGBTQ or not). There's a fan version of the show out there that omits the romantic parts of the final season (the straight romance, too) and the final episodes are all like 5 minutes shorter.

It's a really fun show overall, even for adults. Highly recommend, though I now let parents I recommend it to know, that in addition to people getting eaten alive and nightmarish mutant dinosaurs chasing kids, there's some kissing and an out-of-the-blue forced teen lesbian relationship. I have a feeling that won't land well on HN, but in person every parent I explain that to is understanding and thankful for the heads up.

[davidmurdoch]

I'm curious which parts of the above is deserving of downvotes?

[Kye]

Your faulty assumption is that social media is someone's only input. Why can't I have a nice little oasis to chill at between battles for my right to live?

[davidmurdoch]

Social media is probably the broadest input most people can get.

[Kye]

Shallow exposure to other experiences never told me much. People hold back out of fear of harassment in a place as public and algorithmically tuned toward creating negative experiences as Twitter. Mastodon and the fediverse improve on that slightly by not having the algorithm, but there's still harassment.

I certainly don't reveal my whole self on social media. I open up a bit more in places with good moderation like this, or places where I control the comments like my blog.