You didn't say "influenced." You said "controlled" and used it in the context of accusing humanity of widespread codependency as a mechanism for society. For the record, I said "coerced" as a counterpoint to "controlled" - "influence" and "coerce" are two sides of the same coin. Further, you argued that: You now state that: So before, you were saying that there was nothing inherently evil about Reddit. Now you are saying that "inherently good" people are "habitually engrained into actions that are screwed from their individual, fundamental self." In short, Reddit makes good people do bad things. That was my argument. You're very easy to ignore. I can prevent you from commenting on my posts. I can ignore any tag you use. SRS dropped by about a year ago; through a judicious application of the "ignore" button their conversations became invisible to me in the space of 10 minutes and I never had to see them again. When people show up and start talking about things the rest of us don't care about, we can do the same - until they're shouting at each other in an empty room. They could continue in their insipid inanity for years if they chose... but none of them did. They're all pretty much gone now. Our interaction is entirely voluntary on both our parts. That, alone, provides a great deal of scalability.Now, reddit in and of itself is none other than a medium for social commentary, it is not evil or mean by nature.
but am saying this in line with the same people who have been influenced, in this case, by the environment of reddit,
I made generalizations that led to a lengthy discourse. I am now posing the question, what if many more people start coming to Hubski?
Ok, now I definitely get it. I didn't understand the feature of ignoring someone. So what I perceive is going on is your mastery of social discourse is fundamentally exposing mine. Even with that said, I still do not believe Reddit is evil, just as I do not believe guns are evil. The fundamental evil I still believe is based within the own confines of our mind, or the individual. Yes I know it is ideological, but until you prove to me that reddit has it's own conscience that is not dependent on others to be sustained, reddit is nothing more than another external medium that is exposing the evil nature of external attachment that influences, coerces, and controls our behavior. The gray line is in my recognition that it (EDIT: it, being reddit) has now developed as much of a collective conscience as anything, that we are allowing ourselves to be co-dependent on. I'm going to download AT now. I did honestly put a few hours into some of those replies, but I am particularly open minded to the point of insanity. When I give you my thanks for doing what you have, I really do mean it.
Most of us appreciate the long, well-written comments. I'm not sure where kleinbl00's criticism is coming from in that regard considering he posts some of the longest comments of any user I see on this site. The slug line is "Hubski: a thoughtful web". It literally says so on the sticker. So, for future reference, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking it's better to post 1300 thoughtful words than 5 inane ones.
Well, I am honest enough to a knowledge the initial thoughtlessness to what I said and deserved kleinbl00's reaction, especially with my further understanding of his experience with reddit. I do believe that, looking back at it, I could have been more clear with what I wanted to say, but do I regret how or what I shared or anything that followed? Not at all. What I want to clearly get across is that I am not one to troll or stoke the fires that lead to the disharmony of places like reddit, but I am not going to sacrifice my inner values in the process, not when they are fundamentally associated with the wellbeing of others. I have learned a lot on Hubski these past three days, I am basically only known by what I say (for now). That is what I will be judged by, and I have to take it upon myself to become better at accurately conveying what I want to say, especially when I believe there is value to sharing the perspective I give to the discussion. I know I cannot control how people think, but it doesn't sit right with me when I feel I am being criticized on something that has been clearly pointed out as something I have the ability to alter, like someone going off on me for my misuse of a word in describing something. Thank you for the kind words, and now I am going to continue to integrate to this environment. There are a lot of intelligent people here I feel, and the challenge now for me is to get better at saying what I want, accurately, with less words.
A gun is a mechanism. It is controlled through physical manipulation. Reddit is a social construct. It is coerced through demagoguery. There is no comparison. You're the one who keeps insisting this is an ideological discussion; it's not. It's sociological. Ideologically, whether or not you agree with me matters not a whit. I don't care, you don't care. Sociologically, me refuting your arguments is the entire point of the discussion. Allowing misinformation to propagate decreases the utility of any system.
I'm sharing my ideas and opinions as I see their relevance pertaining to this sociological discussion. Ruling that this discussion is sociological is all fine and well, but I'm making an attempt to share the interconnection of ideology and sociology. Is a gun not also used as a weapon? Couldn't reddit also be used as a weapon? Of course they are different by definition, but they still can be used to achieve similar results. They can both be mechanisms that perpetrate evil actions. (EDIT: Ok so I may just have an issue with my ability to share my ideologies, but I will get better. The question is whether or not better is defined by your bias or not. I'm trying to get you to share your ideologies.) I really have nothing else to say if you're actually convinced that I don't feel a sense of caring in what I'm saying or reading right now. But, I will continue to listen. As Jimi Hendrix says, "Knowledge Speaks, but Wisdom Listens."