Why does the Internet turn people into extremist faggots?

[GHTD]

From Stalinists to eco-fascist weirdos, it's a trend I've noticed where too much time on the Internet seems to radicalize a person into believing in some sort of mentally insane political extreme.

What has caused us from believing DPRK, Cuba and such are bad countries, to people having wet dreams about them?

 

[Dante Alighieri]

The internet lets people bypass the filter of the mainstream media. No longer do we have to rely on what the media says, we can see it ourself by the untouched recordings and streams taken by other people.

 

[byuu]

Because the internet is designed to keep us angry and divided, which ultimately leads to bubbles of extremist thought with a warped world view.

 

[Leonard Helplessness]

Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug. You can be a flat-earther and find flat-earth dogma on the internet and talk to flat-earthers all day, becoming an ever flatter earther because you’ll instinctually ignore anything that doesn’t reinforce your pre-existing flat-earthiness. Same for any other belief system.

 

[Toma]

You are not immune to Propaganda

 

[Snuckening]

Online, everyone turns into eternal adolescents- not just edgy politics; buttloads of people are way more likely to tell everyone about their most degenerate sexual fetishes, that they'd never discuss in the real world, and same for 'niche' hobbies and interests like anime, fur-faggery, obsessing about medieval weapons, or whatever.

Also, the internet's anonymity puffs up everyone's chest, because you have way less accountability/repercussions than if you rant about some retarded, extremist politics IRL. Offline, the realities of the world (usually) force people to be more pragmatic, but online, you can just say any dumb shit.

Also, people like simple, black-or-white, easy answers. Nuance is hard, but just saying "Everything bad in the world is because of capitalism!!", or "Everything bad is because of the small-hats!!" is nice and simple.

 

[L50LasPak]

The internet just shows us who people really are underneath the facade everyone puts on in order to survive in society.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Experimental internet gas.

 

[Jason Wynn]

The internet never did, they were always annoying faggots who just found a new outlet to unleash their faggotry on the masses.

 

[WhatIsThePunchline]

First theory

Step 1: 'Our site is full of people that disagree with each other. Let's call one side <insert label here> and get the mods to ban them.
Step 2: The targeted people are either a) pushed off the site or b) pushes back, doesn't get banned, and the attacking side leaves.
Step 3: Whoever left the site creates or goes to a site that caters to them.

Result in either case: Two sites full of people who only agree with each other.

Second theory

Step 1: Hey if we call our opponents <insert label x, y, z>, harass them, then take any push back as confirmation of our views, we never have to engage with them. We can just silence them and then we win forever!
Step 2: Oh shit, people suddenly hate us a lot more than I remember. Oh shit. There's only one natural conclusion to draw from this. WE WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG. THERE WERE JUST A LOT MORE <insert label x, y, z> than I remember.
Step 3: Because people grow to loathe us over time, we loose influence. The only solution is to escalate our suppression of dissent.

Result: Negative feedback loop of -> suppressing dissent allowing dumb ideas to grow, causing more dissent, causing more suppression, causing even dumber ideas, repeat ad nauseum

Third theory

There are a intrinsic traits of online communication (mostly text based, large scale, not in real time, takes time and effort to do) that inevitable leads to people being more hostile and arguing with each other. Over time this naturally leads to people only using services and places where everyone have a high degree of consensus and they only encounter information that validates their beliefs.

 

[Cope or Rope]

because the internet allows for the truth to be told.

 

[Never Scored]

It doesn't turn people into extremist faggots. It gives extremist faggots a megaphone.

 

[lurk_moar]

Because echo chambers make an echo sound when you scream really loudly.

 

[LolRaccoon]

Something about gazing into the abyss, I suppose