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2016 was a volatile and riveting time for internet users, no matter what side you were on in regards to the US election or happenings across the globe. In all honesty, it was the best internet time of my life since Everquest came out. I've come to a point where it's actually difficult to talk to some immediate family members even about basic topics, and I've been going around 3 weeks between talking to my parents vs the former couple times per week, mostly due to how polarized our political differences are and "news" sources we both read. Both sides are kind of fucked.

This last election has caused hostile elements in our family and it's caused one of my brothers to literally stop talking to me and my other brother for several months. That was "resolved", but an accidental text to the wrong group from my other brother re-ignited it several months ago. It's so fucked up because we used to be so close, but over the course of about one year, we just are no longer talking, our family is no longer close as a group.. Everything is dramatized for views/clicks/impressions, and it's literally ripping my family apart, no matter who is actually right or wrong.

I've been fairly inactive on Phuks and Voat over the last few months largely because of this, because I want to just get out of the constant spew of hate that everyone is throwing at each other. Phuks is great to have because it's very not-polarized (so far) and generally just has good, but slow, content. I disagree with a lot of things posted and up-phuked, but I like to see that it's not an echo chamber.

Thank you for making a little escape for us, @polsaker, @pembo210 and @anubis
2016 was a volatile and riveting time for internet users, no matter what side you were on in regards to the US election or happenings across the globe. In all honesty, it was the best internet time of my life since Everquest came out. I've come to a point where it's actually difficult to talk to some immediate family members even about basic topics, and I've been going around 3 weeks between talking to my parents vs the former couple times per week, mostly due to how polarized our political differences are and "news" sources we both read. Both sides are kind of fucked. This last election has caused hostile elements in our family and it's caused one of my brothers to literally stop talking to me and my other brother for several months. That was "resolved", but an accidental text to the wrong group from my other brother re-ignited it several months ago. It's so fucked up because we used to be so close, but over the course of about one year, we just are no longer talking, our family is no longer close as a group.. Everything is dramatized for views/clicks/impressions, and it's literally ripping my family apart, no matter who is actually right or wrong. I've been fairly inactive on Phuks and Voat over the last few months largely because of this, because I want to just get out of the constant spew of hate that everyone is throwing at each other. Phuks is great to have because it's very not-polarized (so far) and generally just has good, but slow, content. I disagree with a lot of things posted and up-phuked, but I like to see that it's not an echo chamber. Thank you for making a little escape for us, @polsaker, @pembo210 and @anubis

20 comments

[–] SilverBanana 9 points (+9|-0)

I hate when the politics devolve into us vs. them. I often hold opinions that could be distributed in the political spectrum.

A lot of people shut down thinking, have set of right and wrong even about problems they know nothing about, they just follow 'their team.'

Insulting your opponents is seen as better than actual in-depth discussion. I just hope this will not end up like 1930's Spain.
[–] jobes [OP] 7 points (+7|-0)

I just hope this will not end up like 1930's Spain.

I could look that up, but in a queue for a game.

Insults should dig a grave for politicians when the insults are a result of sole partisan reasoning.
[–] Mattvision 3 points (+3|-0)

1930s Spain was the Spanish civil war.

All I really know about it is Antifa psychos took over Catalonia for a while. Too lazy to do more research than that.
[–] pembo210 6 points (+6|-0) Edited

Been rough here too.. any comment involving trump/politics is met with every buzzword I've already seen dozens of times online and heard on every news station. "Open conversations" and "let's be neutral dinners" have brought conversations about stuff that I can google in 4 mins but destroy the whole evening. It's not even about one side or the other, it's just the lack of research talk. Nobody wants to read anything anymore.

I've been spending minimal time engaging the people I hold dear because of off handed comments that turn into an hour long getting yelled at periods.

I'm in the middle on most cases and don't like to pick sides, but i'm ready to move to the woods, install some solar panels, plant a garden, and call it a day.

edit: <3
[–] jobes [OP] 7 points (+7|-0)

i'm ready to move to the woods, install some solar panels, plant a garden, and call it a day.

I've actually fantasized about that way more times than I want to admit. Going off the grid and getting away from this BS seems like the best idea, assuming I can just play some games and avoid cancer news and cancer boards.

Nobody wants to read anything anymore.

The major problem is that sources I used to be able to trust have just become extreme in partisan views. My dad is the most well read person I know, but he tends to believe everything he reads now, even though he is an extremely well educated and smart guy (a medical doctor and former math teacher). He's retired and just buys into what is presented in the papers now, but he's the only person I can actually have a reasonable discussion with where either him or I do change our views for the better. If I'm not there to talk to him, he succumbs to the narrative, which hurts.

One of my brothers is a college professor, and he won't talk to me about anything beyond family matters because everything else is obviously racist/homophobic/etc.
[–] [Deleted] 5 points (+5|-0)

most of my family and friends have a strong feeling that everything is fucked so fuck everything kind of mentality. anytime politics are brought up, i or others are careful to bring up the hypocrisy of both whatever side is being advocated and its inverse to "red pill" others into the idea that nothing in politics has changed, its all as bullshit as ever but its our consumption of it that has changed. anyone who takes politics too closely to heart is not worth knowing.

no politician or ideology has any individual's interests at heart. nothing matters and we're all going to die. enjoy life and every day because eventually politics will get in the way of it but not today.
[–] jobes [OP] 4 points (+4|-0) Edited

anyone who takes politics too closely to heart is not worth knowing.

Tell that to an extremely gay brother who teaches sex classes as Ivy League university, who I am extremely proud of and love. One of my best friends who has mostly disowned me over the last year, who I do not want to lose (cause family and shit).
[–] pembo210 6 points (+6|-0) Edited

it completely floors me that he was the first ever presidential candidates to hold a gay pride flag on stage during the election cycle and is a republican (!) and is still considered one of the worst outcomes when he made it (vs a candidate that never fully supported gay rights during their career)
[–] jobes [OP] 6 points (+6|-0)

Hillary spoke out against gay marriage publicly for over 25 years. Literally from 1992 to 2015. Very public speeches. Hillary voted for a border fence back in 2006, Hillary spoke out in staunch form to deport criminal aliens, just like Bill did back in the mid 90's (Trump mimic'd that speech 100% in his candidate speech on immigration). Hillary took a 720 once Trump was the main candidate, and reversed all of her major opinions and then demonized Trump for supporting what she supported for decades.

Trump made a speech that asked for Americans to help protect LGBT people from people who hate them, and it got a standing ovation, and he proceeded to say how happy he was to see the republicans to be so welcoming to that idea.

Yeah...Trump must be a monster, right?
[–] [Deleted] 3 points (+3|-0)

i do have an extremely gay cousin i love and hope will one day return to the fold and some very right wing friends who think sympathizing with the less fortunate is equivalent to supporting hillary. hopefully i get to speak to them as equals again but if not, que sera, sera.
[–] E-werd 3 points (+3|-0)

I'm with you, bud. Shits fucked right now. Everybody is so divided, it's destroying long-cherished relationships and turning everybody against each other. This shouldn't be, and it's only amplified by the immediacy and convenience of the internet.

I miss the world before the internet hit critical mass. The same sort of stuff happened, but on a much smaller and slower scale.
[–] jobes [OP] 0 points (+0|-0)

At least we have Mount to escape our daily suffering
[–] E-werd 1 points (+1|-0)

If you were ever on at a reasonable time, you send me invites at like 4am.
[–] [Deleted] 1 points (+1|-0)

I really thought Voat would be less of an echo chamber than it is because of their disdain for censorship. For a while it was actually. Every kind of person was on there just speaking their mind. It was awesome. But I've concluded that every internet group eventually dissolves to the hive mind. Voting platforms like Reddit/Voat/Phuks seem to just accelerate this process.

It's a real shame. Personally I love debating things with people who disagree with me. At least on Voat an Phuks I won't get banned for doing so I guess. And the userbase here aren't lunatics yet.
[–] jobes [OP] 0 points (+0|-0)

Voat was amazing for the first 6 months or so I was on it, then it went to shit for several months, then got decent again, then went to shit again, then got even shittier. It feels like there's a critical mass for when a site will just naturally degrade, but Voat did recover somewhat a few times in the 2+ years I'd been there. It's absolute cancer now, as it has been for a while.

I wonder if things like Phuks will just be a repeating cycle of "rinse and repeat" for clearing out the old cruft and getting something new going again to maintain actual good discussion groups.

The people on the Alt newsgroups are probably still going strong since they don't get normies going into their area.
[–] Polsaker 1 points (+1|-0)

tbh i'm a bit burned out too. Plus uni has been keeping me busy
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