Let me preface by saying, I would love to hear counter points and am fully open to the fact that I could be wrong and totally out of touch. I just want to have some dialogue around something that’s been bothering me in the fediverse.
More and more often I keep hearing people refer to “normies”. I think by referring to other people as “normies”, whether you intend to or not, you inadvertently gatekeep and create an exclusive environment rather than an inclusive one in the fediverse.
If I was not that familiar with the fediverse and decided to check it out and the first thing I read was a comment about “normies”, I would quite honestly be very put off. It totally has a negative connotation and doesn’t even encapsulate any one group. I just read a comment about someone grouping a racist uncle and funny friend into the same category of normie because they aren’t up to date on the fediverse or super tech savvy or whatever.
I don’t want to see any Meta bs in the fediverse. I barely want to see half of the stuff from Reddit in the fediverse. I don’t want to see the same echo chamber I do everywhere else.
I do want to see more users and more perspectives and a larger user base though. I want to see kindness and compassion. I want to talk to people about topics they are interested in. I want to have relevant discussions without it dissolving into some commentary on some unrelated hot topic thing.
I think calling people normies creates a more toxic, exclusive place which I personally came here to avoid.
Just my two cents! I know for most people using the term it isn’t meant to be malicious, but I think it comes off that way.
Love to hear all of your thoughts.
normie = person who comes into discussion without much understanding of the topic but lacks self awareness to understand their limited perspective.
classic example would be:
commenter: Big tech and government collude to spy on us
normie; I got nothing to hide!
And normie would be the more generous term in this case. Others would call them sheep.
If anyone reads this whole thread, the problem and lack of self awareness of the danger of this word becomes apparent. There are folks who say it means something entirely different than what you just said. It's clear this is a loaded word and you're making it clear that it is indeed an insult. Communities grow and your perspective isn't necessarily always the best. Growth is difficult and differing opinions aren't always bad. The issue is when people bring hate into it. Tolerance is important, but one can never tolerate intolerance.
Being called out for asine opinions not grounded in reality is part of the growing process.
Under your logic, bad faith or stupid actors deserve a discussion beyond providing facts. This is the internet, not baby sitting service.
Community establishes a consensus and if you come with counter point, you better bring facts.
If the community can't facethe facts, it will turn into echo chamber.
Reddit got a ton of those. Trying to step up discourse here though.
Facing the facts has very little to do with the choice of using the word "normie", though: a term which is defined so differently in your original post than everyone else's that it seems like it would only muddy the waters.
That literally isn't my logic at all. You just made up your own claim and argued against it. I never said they deserve anything beyond admission. You are free to ignore people. You do truly understand that right? You can ignore stupid. You don't need to discuss with everyone. But not letting them in the room because of some preconceived prejudice is absolutely an asinine opinion and not grounded in reality. I never said you have to discuss things with people. You're the one who seems to think people are owed some sort of discussion. I'm not even sure where you got such a ridiculous notion. And you even missed the whole point where half this thread literally disagreed with you in regards to what the word means. You're a prime example of acting elitist and holier than thou for some unknown reason. And then you serve as a prime example of the kind of person you want to keep out. You use ridiculously bad logic and horrible arguments and opinions. Honestly, you're either a brilliant troll or an atrocious idiot. The line is so thin, it's hard to tell.
Wtf
Sorry. But this is yet another example of you not communicating well. What part confused you? I admit I may not be clear, but I can't fix it with useless criticism. If you are confused by something, let me know. Otherwise, I guess we're done. If you want to make a poor rebuttal to an argument I made, I don't see how it's confusing that I would try to defend it. But please, at least try to communicate effectively.