Obviously, the internet has always been a toxic place, (the phrase “flame war” has been around for decades,) but it seems to have gotten so much worse over the last few years. I used to think decentralization of the internet would fix the worst of it, but Lemmy seems to have gotten worse alongside the rest of internet culture, proving me wrong. How do we fix/improve this culture of toxicity?
I can really only compare to Reddit and find the fediverse generally better
But those outliers are a doozy. I don’t recall even wanting to block anyone on Reddit but have blocked at least half a dozen here. Just earlier today I had to because we were enjoying a nice discussion, then someone stumbled in saying they’ve debated politics with me, starts attacking, trying to start an argument over something completely unrelated …… Reddit had plenty of trolls but I never encountered anyone there who followed me around to be an asshole.
So on the one hand the capability of blocking anyone is a great way to stop seeing the most toxic part of the fediverse, but on the other hand there’s got to be a more permanent solution