It’s a common phenomenon. Look at how stunned so many people were when Trump won, for example. How could he have won? Everyone they knew voted against him! Everyone they talked to agreed that he was terrible! Except of course they were only talking to like-minded people, so they had no idea what “everyone” actually thought. Same thing applies to Trump supporters when he lost in 2020, they couldn’t believe it.
Places like the Fediverse are practically designed to become echo chambers. Look at the upvote/downvote mechanism, how’s the balance look in here for comments critical of AI versus comments that aren’t critical of it? I know karma is meaningless, even moreso here than on places like Reddit, but it’s still a psychological and social pressure declaring “you’re not one of us, your opinion is bad and you should feel bad.” Naturally the people who would post such unpopular opinions will tend to stop posting over time.
Heck, I’ve got my own personal stalker following me around lately posting about how much of a “troll” I am because I don’t toe the “AI bad” line. Disagreement with the local consensus is bad and wrong and I’m supposed to just shut up and go away I suppose. Doesn’t bother me, but people are social beings so I’m not surprised it bothers others.
It’s a common phenomenon. Look at how stunned so many people were when Trump won, for example. How could he have won? Everyone they knew voted against him! Everyone they talked to agreed that he was terrible! Except of course they were only talking to like-minded people, so they had no idea what “everyone” actually thought. Same thing applies to Trump supporters when he lost in 2020, they couldn’t believe it.
Places like the Fediverse are practically designed to become echo chambers. Look at the upvote/downvote mechanism, how’s the balance look in here for comments critical of AI versus comments that aren’t critical of it? I know karma is meaningless, even moreso here than on places like Reddit, but it’s still a psychological and social pressure declaring “you’re not one of us, your opinion is bad and you should feel bad.” Naturally the people who would post such unpopular opinions will tend to stop posting over time.
Heck, I’ve got my own personal stalker following me around lately posting about how much of a “troll” I am because I don’t toe the “AI bad” line. Disagreement with the local consensus is bad and wrong and I’m supposed to just shut up and go away I suppose. Doesn’t bother me, but people are social beings so I’m not surprised it bothers others.