[spencerflem]

You're probably right. (Though fwiw when I left the comment I was the only response and it was not downvoted)

But it just makes me so sad. I think I ought to delete my account. Every time anything US politics-y comes up, especially the supreme court, the comments are filled with such horrible takes. It makes me feel like, if this is the sort of world the people here want and its so different from what I hope for, what common ground do we have.

Why should I care about, idk retrocomputers or WASM OSes etc. if its just to be part of a group that's like this.

Idk, same sort of angst about doing anything on a computer these days. I get embarrassed telling people what I do. People in general seem to hate programmers and the more I go on the more I think they're right.

Idk blehjj, just in a bad mood sorry for ranting. Thanks for the comment, honestly

[jonplackett]

Stick around - democracy is making sure there are more of you than there are of them. There will always be assholes. Don’t let them get you down.

[JumpCrisscross]

> it just makes me so sad

Take it as an opportunity to engage in calm debate. I've learned a lot from reading the comments around these stories.

If it starts incensing you, hide the story. (They tend to get flagged off the front page fairly regularly. Something I used to condone until Silicon Valley started showing its authoritarian tendencies.)

[elktown]

> Take it as an opportunity to engage in calm debate

At some point people need to understand that this is just completely ahistorical and incredibly naive. It feels more like a cop-out to never take a stand for anything. I respect the exasperated outburst of the GP, at least it shows that there is some kind of backbone that will hurt when reading all this bullshit gaslighting.

There's not even a hint in the last 20 years - on both this site and the internet in general - that "calm debate" has done anything to stop fascists from gaslighting every step of the way. Despite their claims to the contrary, they aren't even looking for a debate.

Instead they just get the platform they so actively always wanted and are defended by the tone police to spread their bs, and the more influence they get the looser some people's already frail backbone get. They won't stop. Don't expect it. Don't wait for it.

[JumpCrisscross]

> people need to understand that this is just completely ahistorical and incredibly naive

We may be talking past each other. I'm not arguing for a general vibe. Just a productive approach to online discussion about politics. It's very unlikely you're going to change someone's mind about partisan politics on this forum. What's more likely is you're going to get some combination of enraged and developed in your thinking about what's going on. So I'm saying to focus, online, on that latter part. Learning. Discussing. All of it calmly, so you can strategise.

That way, when you manifest that anger in the real world, you can do so strategically. Effectively.

[elktown]

> So I'm saying to focus, online, on that latter part. Learning. Discussing. All of it calmly, so you can strategise.

But there's absolutely zero success so far - in fact the opposite? You're only stroking your own ego.

[JumpCrisscross]

> there's absolutely zero success so far - in fact the opposite?

You’ve read through all of the comments on this article and found absolutely nothing your can learn from?

[elktown]

I've been online for 20 years. I've learned enough to know what going on now.

10 years ago I'd be laughed out of the room suggesting what reactionary bullshit is going on today, turn back to today, tech at large has just enthusiastically adjusted to the reactionary shift, so it was predictably just hot air all along. Basically, unless your particular wallet has a boot-mark on it, or a suggestion of an upcoming one, people just don't care enough at this place.