In the past week I’ve been absolutely roasted for criticising two different countries. Normally I’d be okay with that, I can handle a mild toasting and after all debate is a good thing.
On both occasions though I was flamed for mentioning human rights issues that are established facts and have been known for many, many years. I was critical of the actions/laws of their governments and not the people, their race, religion, general political ideology or nationality.
On both occasions I was bombarded by long posts that parroted propaganda, and in the case of one country I was told (on multiple occasions) that I was ignorant, racist and even fascist for mentioning the issues I did. I’m not complaining about how I was treated, but as a reminder, I was discussing internationally-recognised human rights concerns that can be verified and based in fact.
I could just be paranoid but I’m fairly convinced the responses weren’t from patriotic citizens. I think they were paid trolls or bots, and I think their purpose was to quiet negative talking points about the countries that were mentioned.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
The Fediverse should let that propagandist crap live forever, as long as he user still has the right to block/refuse. This avoids censorship and leaves the power in the people’s hands. Peace and hope for the future to all!
Mods block can arguments against what the propagandists post though. I’d be fine with this approach if it weren’t for that, since it’s pretty easy to make propagandists look like idiots. But mods step in to remove opposition to the propaganda.
There is a problem with stochastic terrorism and people being motivated to commit hate crimes because of things they read online. Sure those people will be proven wrong by history, but what about the people getting hurt or killed today?
I agree with you but the sentence “what about the people getting hurt or killed today” can be applied to any point in time throughout history.
So? When you see the bad things that happened in history do you never wonder why nobody did anything to stop it from happening?
Nobody respects anyone for rationalizing their apathy.