Hi all, as with most of you, I’m an immigrant from Reddit. I never used to go on to the NZ or regional subreddits because frankly, I felt very unwelcome and those places were extremely negative.
How then do we build a new community that is based on being positive and accepting, even of those with different points of view, political leanings, religious beliefs or lifestyles? Everyone deserves a voice, no one deserves to be shouted down or made to feel unwelcome or belittled because they have differing thoughts.
Even festering cunts like Brian Tamaki and his ilk, deserve a seat at the table. We live in a free country and that means everyone should get a voice. Everyone gets to speak their piece, even if you don’t like it.
How do we stop this community devolving into yet another online echo chamber?
This is way too idealist though. It would be nice if it happened that way, but in reality (and to continue the metaphor) the Nazi will just bring all their Nazi mates to the normal bar, drive minorities away, smash some shit, and turn the normal bar into another Nazi bar that recruits more Nazis.
The people who come to online communities with far-right (in this case) extremist ideals aren’t doing so with the possibility of changing their mind. They want more eyeballs on their horrible ideas so that they spread - and turn from online hate to real-life hate.
It’s exactly how we end up with stuff like the riots at parliament, and LGBT youth centres getting burned down. It starts online.
Yeah it’s also the thing that has ruined most of the other Reddit alternatives that have popped up over the years - it turns out that most people don’t really want to be exposed to in depth discussions about why certain groups of people should all be killed.