this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
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Why are redditors like this? (beehaw.org)
submitted 11 months ago by bermuda@beehaw.org to c/chat@beehaw.org
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I made a post on r/civ (Civilization games subreddit) showing a really funky shaped randomly generated river I saw and most comments were fine but one guy was convinced that I went through the comparatively monumental effort of opening the map editor and changing the river for karma, as opposed to just starting the game and taking a screenshot.

And just to top it off another guy saw the fact that my scout unit was in the far north of the map and went on an obscenely condescending diatribe about how "ackshually" I should be placing my units in the far south of the map because that way I can explore better and whatever the hell. Dude did not stop for one second to consider that maybe the scout that was in the far north was exploring the cool river and that I didn't waste any production points on him because I got him for free from a tribal village...

God every time I go on that website (because let's be honest not a whole lot of good communities here for what I'm interested in) I get excited to share something super innocent and then some total loser has to come and ruin it all.

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[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I've posted some mean answers in the past, so I may share some insights:

  • Someone had a bad day. Maybe a client berated them, maybe they had a falling out with a family member, maybe they stepped into a dog poop on a rainy day and their umbrella got blown out before a passerby burned their hand with a lit cigarette (too specific? yeah, well...)
  • Someone decided to self-medicate (booze and weed seem to be popular choices)
  • Someone forgot to take their meds (high blood pressure can do it, the flu will do it, insomnia or psych meds will do it more)
  • Someone got a series of the aforementioned.

Generally: people post mean answers when their sense of empathy is either inexistent, or beaten into oblivion.

Once there are enough people in a place, the chance of encountering at least one person in one of those situations, quickly grows to 100%. If the place doesn't actively discourage that kind of behavior because "engagement"... then you get the likes of Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and similar.

[–] jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 11 months ago

Hey, thanks for your very reflective answer! That all seems somehow valid. Guess I am just a very harmony-seeking person. Can't even choose the mean options in Video Games sooo...

[–] Nerd02@lemmy.basedcount.com 2 points 11 months ago

Love to read some nuance on the topic. As much as we all repeat to ourselves to "remember the human", it still doesn't happen as often as it should.

Always good to remember that very few people are naturally and constantly toxic, most people are just normal folks and everyone has bad days.