Online wiseacres

A few reasons:

• Internet courage - they don't have to face anyone when they mouth off.
  
• A belief that the people they are mouthing off to aren't real and/or don't count.
  
• Dunning-Kruger. Oh God, Dunning-Kruger.
  
• Mansplaining.
  
• And the internet is a marketplace of ideas. This means jerks are a part of it - and unfortunately their reach can end up being amplified. The more you engage with jerks, the more reach they get. This is why ignoring and blocking are good strategies.

And it's disheartening.

Yes, but shouldn't nazi be capitalized?

Maybe the problem is that you are too sensitive. If you are posting an opinion on a public forum, you should expect to get people's opinions.

Sometimes their opinions might teach you something new...

... or give you a new way of looking at something.
... or it might just be a chuckle.
... or it might be something stupid that you can ignore.

People today live in ideological bubbles, they are too closed minded and unwilling to consider any point of view other than their own. And, far too often any idea that doesn't fit into their world view is taken as offense.

If you don't like the openness of the internet. Go somewhere else. If you want to get different viewpoints, and are open to talking to people outside your narrow bubble, then you need to grow a bit more of a thick skin.

People go out of their way to avoid any ideas that don't fit into their pre-existing beliefs, and anyone who expresses these ideas is a "jerk" or a "troll". I don't think that this is helpful.

And have a bit of humility.... no matter who you are, there are plenty of people on the internet who think you are a jerk.

If you disagree with someone on the internet... you are a troll.
If you disagree with a conservative... you are libtard.
If you disagree with a conservative about your feelings... you are a snowflake.
If you disagree with a feminist... you are a misogynist.
If you disagree with a feminist with a logical argument... you are mansplaining.
If you disagree with a liberal about rights... you are Nazi.

America is carefully segregated. We arrange our personal lives so that we spend most of our time with people who think the same as we are. We work with people who are like us. We go to church with people who look like us and think like us. If you support Trump... most of your friends also support Trump. If you hate Trump, likely all of your friends do to.

So here we are in a public space on the internet. It is the only place that we can interact with people who are different than we are. Yet most of the time this happens, we retreat into our little bubbles and throw mud at any one outside.

I think it is a shame.

I think it is human nature.

Not anymore, At least not since the nazis lost the war.

I am a snowflake, a misogynist, a libtard, and a manslainer....

There aren't very many who challenge people on both sides. Yes, I am proud of that.

mansplainer.

Someone, I think it was EhBeth, coined the term "maxsplaining".

I have never been so proud.

What's the difference between that and being someone that everybody thinks is a prick? (Not, I hasten to add, that I am suggesting you are that.)

Isn't your bar a little low?

Almost everyone here fits nicely into an ideological bubble. The nastiest behavior will be accepted and even defended by people in your bubble. You will always be accepted by people in your bubble no matter how you behave toward others.

Izzy, Setanta, and even you, have said some awfully nasty things, even cruel things. You all are part of the most popular bubble here and no one challenges you. As long as you have the right opinions, it doesn't matter how you act.

I respect people who don't live inside of an ideological bubble. They often don't care what everybody thinks... maybe that's what makes one a prick.

I wish people would be judged for their behavior, and how they act toward people who don't share their point of view. Here, people are mostly judged for having the "correct" opinions.

Worth repeating.

Does anyone else find it ironic that some of responses are exactly what this poster is venting about.

If you read what is written by the poster these are obviously answers that are inane. They are not a different point of view and engaging in debate. They are simply dumb answers to cause an argument - blue vs azure basically he is referring to those people who feel the need to answer a question to show they are so much more intelligent than anyone else.

The words of the poster:



Basically you have proven your point by some of the responses here.

No Linkat. You are blaming other people for arguments into which you have willingly jumped. No one can "cause an argument" with you unless you want an argument.

The difference between them and you is that you can't read their mind... you don't actually know whether they intend to have an argument or whether they are just expressing an opinion or making a joke. The only person whose intent is clear when it comes to wanting an argument is your own.

The goal of ideological bubbles is a conformity of opinion. People want to stifle any opinions that don't support their own world view.

It isn't right to blame other people for "causing arguments" when the real problem is that they are expressing the wrong opinion. You can choose to argue with them or not, but that is on you.

There is a group think here that resists any diversity of opinion or viewpoint. The problem is the group think, not the "arguments" against it.

Bingo.

Coldjoint, just to make it perfectly clear, it is not just the liberal bubble I am talking about.

I have been called a "libtard" more than once by the conservative bubble here. The liberal bubble is larger, but the conservative bubble here is just as nasty and ideologically closed minded.

I appreciate the clarity.

You're trying to make me feel bad. Din't work, did it?