Remember that old Latin dictum: “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto?” In my case, there's one thing I do consider alien, and that's being afraid of the unknown, and especially of unknown, different people.
I'm reading a thread where someone is expressing their fear of a massive migration to Fedi from Twitter. It all feels xenophobic and egotistic. “I liked it when my world was just my own little bubble, but, with every expansion, it became less and less my own, and I hate that.”
Well, I don't. I like meeting new people, visting new places, listening to new languages and exposing myself to different points of view. And, yes, I still use the mute button more times than I'd care to count, because I'm also aware that 95% of everything is shit, but you have to expose yourself to it if you want to discover that 5% that's really worth it.
I despise people who are not open that way. You don't have to like everything (I certainly don't), but why would you preemptively close yourself to it? It feels narcissistic: “I have never left my tiny village, but it's obvious to me that there can be nothing better beyond its border walls.” Smol brain, if you ask me.
@lebronjames75 I wholeheartedly agree, sir, with extra emphasis on my name being funny.
@josemanuel I think the recent concern might be that the latest mass migration might be filled with the kind of people that they don't want to see around.
So for them, instead of 95% of shit, it might be 99,99% of shit.
@trinsec That's the thing. Nobody forces anybody to see anybody around. Some people fear new people like the block and mute buttons didn't exist.
To my mind, using those when necessary is better than keeping others away by being passive-aggressive and then, when they leave disgusted or bored, nudging themselves and say: “See? We were right about them.”
@josemanuel Oh I'm using my block and mute very liberally the last weeks. ;) But I guess there are people who want a gated community. In a way I can understand that, sometimes you just want a cozy blanket, heh.
But then... If you want that and if they're convinced others want that, you can always have your own instance where you only federate with certain instances. That's actually the power of a federation, it doesn't need to be -one- federation.
@trinsec
> sometimes you just want a cozy blanket, heh.
I can understand it, too, but it feels childish. And not because of the metaphor.
> you can always have your own instance where you only federate with certain instances
That's why I found the original thread to be xenophobic. Because, of course, you can do what you suggest (and they have!), but they'd still find some other argument against welcoming new people. In this case, The Culture: “They're coming to change The Culture!” Smol brain indeed.
@FailForward I may be wrong, but Parler was probably an FBI honeypot. That said, nobody is forced to interact with them or give them refuge if they break their instances' rules. As long as admins do their work properly, what's there to fear?
Furthermore, haven't we talked since forever about how the Fediverse is so resistant to censorship due to its decentralised nature?
To be honest, I think you make a very valid point, but what prompted me to write the first post was the reasoning behind their fear. They weren't worried about being censored or cancelled by association, but about the loss of their ‘culture,’ which is what made me realise they were being xenophobic. “They come to change our values, our traditions, our sense of humour, our memes.”
@josemanuel doesn't sound like xenophobia to me... "I'm not like them at all and I despise them" does though.
@namark No, in my case it just means I'm a bad person, but I don't hate people just because they come from somewhere else or don't belong to my group. They do.
@josemanuel I look up, I get "Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange". I guess you meant it in a more primitive sense of some sort of location (even though virtual?). Still, the quote doesn't sound like it.
@namark I didn't quote anything. Whatever I said, it was all an interpretation on my part. Let me get you a link to the thread. Here it is:
https://shitposter.club/objects/56abfaf2-33bc-401c-bf05-a8742fed1394
To me it sounds exactly the same as when European xenophobes talk about “the Christian roots of Europe” to justify their rejection of muslim inmigration, but YMMV.
@josemanuel You misunderstand, I'm qoto's resident points-out-your-logical-mistakes reply guy, so what you wrote is the only thing that matters to me, really...
@josemanuel To clarify, what you described seems more like a "fear" of crowds. In any public space the more people there are the less that space is yours. That is obvious. Egotistical perhaps to hate that, but not xenophobic. The OP in the link does not seem to identify any specific "foreign" people either. It's seem just "more people = bad" as you described.
@josemanuel anxiety of the unknown is normal and natural. To dismiss those fears as xenophobia is unproductive. People are naturally tribal and like the culture they identify with.
@Demosthenes Everything evolves and progresses by being open to change. As natural as it may be to be tribal and identify with one's own culture, being afraid new tribes, cultures, languages or developments is a sign of backwards thinking, IMO. That's why bravery is a virtue and cowardice is not.
@josemanuel you're thinking that one mode of thinking is backwards and one is forwards, but that's simplistic IMO. Our tendency to become tribal is an evolutionary advantage from when we were a tribal society. Tribes who worked together grew, and those who didn't didn't make it.
Right and wrong is only an extension of our current cultural norms, but those can change, particularly when stressed or when we experience a large change.
your funny name aside, i agree, with extra emphasis on
"95% of everything is shit, but you have to expose yourself to it if you want to discover that 5% that's really worth it."