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    • It feels like politics in America is a game of team sports. Red vs Blue. No compromising, you either win or lose.

  • The concept of the echo chamber was invented by social media companies to gaslight people about how social media algorithms force antagonizing interactions between people who would avoid each other in real life because arguments mean participation means more ad revenue.

    In real life constantly trying to hunt down people you disagree with to "expose yourself to the whole debate" isn't seen as virtuous, it's seen as grounds for a restraining order, and depending on how intense you were about it, an involuntary psych hold.

    It's not an echo chamber, it's the fact that how humans naturally build their own social environment outside of social media runs directly opposed to how social media companies maximize their revenue off you.

  • I’ll tell you why I’m pretty liberal with my block button and cool with my echo chamber. There are people out there who want me dead for liking my same sex. My trans friends are being legislated against / threatened with violence not because of science or health, but because of feelings and religion. I have family that emigrated legally being exposed to horrific racism and the threat of violence.

    Do you support human rights? Or do you support death to the “other” ? Makes my choices easy. Not to mention I prefer actual truth to my information sources, not tabloid fluff designed to keep me enraged.

  • I'd love to see literally any data that this "echo chamber" thing is real. A lot of people on lemmy in particular love to talk about it but in a vacuum, without any reference to what they mean by it.

    A while ago on lemmy I stated a political position and someone told me "If you ever talk to anybody outside of your echo chamber you're in for a dangerous time", and I was like, okay, I'm talking to you, right now. Hit me with this dangerous knowledge. No reply. The whole time they talked to me the only thing they had to say was about echo chambers and no actual, substantial reply to anything I was saying.

    So if anyone wants to explain what they actually mean by this concept with details and evidence I would love to hear it.

    I'm doing it. I'm stepping out of my echo chamber and ready to hear the unvarnished truth from you brave iconoclasts. Oh god this is scary.

  • People prefer less social strife in general. They may think they like "owning" some opponent, but what they really want is a bunch of people that agree with them so they can feel safe and calm. That's what it comes down to, that feeling of safety.

    Engaging in conflict is only fun when the base you're standing on, and returning to, is solid and supportive.

    That is completely faction agnostic, it applies outside of politics as well.

    Since the world as it is often is controlled by people leveraging fear and doubt to wield control, it pushes people into feeling besieged which makes them seek "safety" in numbers by connecting with those they think of as allies more than they might if not exposed to the manipulation used by political (or other) blocs and the people that control those blocs.

  • One whole “echo chamber” was built on stigmatizing the mainstream news which by definition means they’re pushing alternative news.

    The only news I’m interested in are the facts. I avoid opinion articles or “framing” as much as I can.

    If we’re calling factual reporting an echo chamber then fine. I guess the answer to your question for me is I like my echo chamber because the truth matters.

    The “echo chamber” narrative only serves to legitimize and “both sides” bullshit.

  • not american.

    but echo chambers are cool in a way that goes beyond politics. it provides perceptible feelings of unity, belongingness, and validity to those that seek them. apes together strong kind of deal.

    and since politics is about social issues, I don't see why not.

    • Going to build on this to highlight something:

      • Given the hyper-stigmatized, hyper-partisan approach to... well, a lot of things these days, not just US politics, engaging with those you politically disagree with is likely to not just produce calm disagreements but sharp, even vicious statements that your entire worldview/lifestyle/culture/ethnicity/whatever is literally the stuff of pure evil, and you are an absolutely terrible person for adhering to it. No nuance, no consideration, no empathy.
      • On a different tack, consider that strong rejection/disagreement is shown to activate the same centers in your brain which are associated with sharp physical pain. To your brain, being slapped in the face conversationally and slapped in the face physically produce extremely similar results.

      With these two points in mind, consider: Why would people choose to expose themselves to environments which promote something their brain interprets as actual, physical harm?

      Unfortunately, the current palette of social media options don't really offer spaces for nuanced, thoughtful discussion which doesn't begin with people screaming their hostility to what they disagree with. It's a big of a chicken-and-egg question whether that's a cause or an effect, but the net result is creation of an environment which our pain-avoiding brains guide our choices away from people we disagree with.

  • Human nature; people do not want to admit when they're wrong, so they seek media that does not challenge their beliefs.

    • While there's truth in that, I also feel like the way OP phrased it is needlessly, simplistically cynical. For one thing, just because you're in general agreement with a group doesn't necessarily make it an "echo chamber." There can also be groups that do a pretty good job collectively shining critical analysis on the news of the day in order to sort it out properly. That's a real thing, and we can see it happening all around us.

      Not just that, but never before has there been this level of disinformation injected in to Western society, primarily by Russia & China. They've become master internet bullshitters, and we're now on the brink of democracy failing because of how many people buy in to their complete nonsense. Now to me-- that's an echo chamber.

      Not so much the ones who take the time to have real discussions about what the news of the day means. That part is much harder work IMO, it involves lots more uncertainty and even soul-searching, and overall I think Lemmy and the other place do commendable work, there. Bottom line, it feels pretty insulting to hand-wave away large groups like that as mere "echo chambers," as if they came anywhere close to what's happening in other places.

      • Not just that, but never before has there been this level of disinformation injected in to Western society, primarily by Russia & China. They’ve become master internet bullshitters, and we’re now on the brink of democracy failing because of how many people buy in to their complete nonsense. Now to me-- that’s an echo chamber.

        While it's good to see someone else actually acknowledging this as being something that's actually happening, I wouldn't call that an echo chamber as so much as it's a propaganda agenda attack.

        So much conflict online right now may not be truly between different members in the same society, but instead conflict that's whipped up by agitators from outside of the society.

        We should all pay more attention to that meta, and act accordingly.

  • I'm talking about both Republicans and Dems.

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