this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
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Unpopular Opinion

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Many people who loudly pride themselves for tolerance, kindness, and openness toward difference drop those principles the moment someone expresses a preference or view they dislike. Disagreement itself is fine. What is not fine is the usual responses that follows: comments whose main purpose is to insult, shame, and make the other person feel small, delivered in front of an audience that can be counted on to approve.

It's status performance. The goal is not to show why the opinion is wrong or change minds; it is to hurt the speaker and fish for applause. Feeling morally justified does not change the nature of the act; when the sole intention is to hurt they're being evil and a bully.

The people who upvote or otherwise reward those insults are part of the same behavior. Standing by and cheering while someone is targeted is participation. It supplies the social payoff that makes the cruelty worthwhile.

This is one of the reasons large parts of the internet feel needlessly hostile. When perceived moral superiority is used as cover for meanness, and when an audience reliably encourages it, the result is environments where many people simply stop speaking. The claimed values of kindness and tolerance are revealed, in those moments, as conditional.

And no, this isn't about being tolerant towards people with extreme views. The idea for this post was sparked by my previous post about AI music and the vicious personal attacks I received for admitting to enjoying some of it.

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[–] PepperoniNipple@lazysoci.al 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

I am not here for the curious or silent readers. I have already been shown that no matter what I say or do, over 30,000+ Mexicans, my people, will keep dying every year thanks to the USA arming the Mexican Cartels with guns. The number keeps increasing as well, since 2012. Let alone the number of Arabs and Muslims, also my people, my grandpa escaped Lebanon 100 years ago because of Israel and the USA attacking it.

To try and censor people's insults is evil. I have spoken to people from the Middle East whose parents and loved ones were killed with American bombs and bullets. Talked to Mexicans who suffer the worst consequences of the Cartels. They all insult the USA so heavily, I'd come across as a Disney character to you if you heard them. But of course, you want to silence them, right? You don't want people to see the anger they create? You want to protect the evil people who, with their taxes and votes, got those people killed, by not letting them see bad words and insults aimed to them? Why?

Same with someone who supports AI. I keep reading the headlines of how suicides are increasing, many artists and workers who can't find the joy they deserve anymore because AI replaced them, without creating more jobs.

And even then, my insults to OP were not even that bad. They were tame, for the type of person they really are.

[–] Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

what do you think my argument is? for one thing, people shouting insults at someone else just to feel better is very scary to anyone considering joining the cause. the voice of what you wish to inspire dies within these artificial walls you make.

Talked to Mexicans who suffer the worst consequences of the Cartels. They all insult the USA so heavily, I'd come across as a Disney character to you if you heard them.

Surely you, in the much more fortunate position you have now, can afford to redirect that anger into tangible effects you can actually effect with your fortune, and save that energy for somewhere not actively hurtful—compared to those abject.

[–] PepperoniNipple@lazysoci.al 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

That is your role. Not mine. I prefer making people like MAGAs or Zionists lose their shit, so it becomes easier for you to reach them out, or the people they insulted around them after showing their true disgusting colors.

I spent years trying to be nice; no insults, no yelling. I used to be so, so different. But it did not work. Shit got worse. They started with the "snowflake" insult back in 2015. I was just a teenager, like 16 years old, very pro-USA. I thought the USA was Humanity's "best and closest attempt at achieving a multi-cultural utopia" for so long. I was very resilient too, I endured over a decade of constant disappointments, racism and evil shit. It wasn't until Trump won again that I gave up completely on the majority of the world and America. I kinda appreciate that, though. It completely removed the mask.

I keep seeing a lot of Mexicans who have fell for American propaganda, spouting MAGA talking points, degrading themselves while praising people like Trump. Constant misogynistic comments about our female president, with no argument or opinion worth reading, just plain bigotry. Shit is expanding because they own social medias, including TikTok. They gutted education and can pretty much do whatever they want to children now. All they gotta do is tweak their algorithms I guess.

It's too late. I am 28, and I won't have the future I wanted or thought I'd have. There is no "cause" or "movement" here. Everyone is way too conformist and compliant. Both of my parents and grandparents still think "billionaires are ok, they earned it" after everything they have done to us.

People need to keep losing more; they need more pain so they finally reach the point of having nothing to lose and finally do something about their government. Otherwise, you will keep seeing them work for the same unfulfilling minimum wage we have had for decades, like little modern slaves.

I can't be nice to these people anymore. Trust me, I do try, but it's so hard once you can see the amount of destruction their ideas will lead to. Even if it's genuine innocent ignorance, I can't help but feel the need to stomp it asap. I am aware a goal of the top 1% is to keep eroding the patience and tolerance of everyone who is empathetic, by using botnets to spam heinous shit online, shit that makes people angry and depressed. They want them to get sick and die. They only want the loyal ones alive. I can't just be nice to people who are supporting something like that anymore, blindly or not.