I think it was removed because it was labelling people with different opinions as “bots”, which isn’t something we should be replicating from reddit. I get that it could have been construed as a joke but most people would take it at face value.
The use of bots is not to generate new opinions, it is to make fringe opinions seem more popular than they are. Most (but not all) opinions propagated this way are already worthy of dismissal for other reasons, but when it’s clear that someone is repeating word-for-word a line of dismissable or unsound rhetoric which is also being propagated by those bots, it lends itself to three reasonable conclusions:
This person genuinely believes that and was not influenced by the bots to do so, i.e. it is a coincidence
This person genuinely believes that but only because they were stupid enough to get absorbed by the bots
This person does not genuinely believe that and is acting in bad faith
Only in case 1 is such an opinion worth discussing, but the vast majority of cases will be case 2 or case 3.
That is why it is reasonable to dismiss such opinions despite the possibility that they are genuine, in good faith, and not the product of propaganda. Because the odds that they’re not are vastly greater. Nobody can be certain of anyone’s intentions on the Internet, so rational actors can only play a game of “What is the most likely scenario?”.
If any of the collective you actually believed this we wouldn’t have half the arguments we do with ledditors like you because you’d have examined your own biases borne of Western propaganda by now. This… Idle sophistry, to be as polite about it as I physically can about it, doesn’t pass the smell test.
Lemmy seems to have this zero tolerance policy for calling other users bots, which is…problematic given that we KNOW there are plenty of bots out there.
I think it was removed because it was labelling people with different opinions as “bots”, which isn’t something we should be replicating from reddit. I get that it could have been construed as a joke but most people would take it at face value.
Won’t you agree that the reason for removal should be more specific?
Sure, we can try to do that in the future.
I saw that post & completely disagree. The only thing uncivil about that post was removing it.
Labelling people as bots is not wrong if those people are actually bots
It is a pretty handy tool to dismiss opinions, I agree.
This is just simplistic and un-nuanced thinking.
The use of bots is not to generate new opinions, it is to make fringe opinions seem more popular than they are. Most (but not all) opinions propagated this way are already worthy of dismissal for other reasons, but when it’s clear that someone is repeating word-for-word a line of dismissable or unsound rhetoric which is also being propagated by those bots, it lends itself to three reasonable conclusions:
Only in case 1 is such an opinion worth discussing, but the vast majority of cases will be case 2 or case 3.
That is why it is reasonable to dismiss such opinions despite the possibility that they are genuine, in good faith, and not the product of propaganda. Because the odds that they’re not are vastly greater. Nobody can be certain of anyone’s intentions on the Internet, so rational actors can only play a game of “What is the most likely scenario?”.
If any of the collective you actually believed this we wouldn’t have half the arguments we do with ledditors like you because you’d have examined your own biases borne of Western propaganda by now. This… Idle sophistry, to be as polite about it as I physically can about it, doesn’t pass the smell test.
They were literally a bot tho
Lemmy seems to have this zero tolerance policy for calling other users bots, which is…problematic given that we KNOW there are plenty of bots out there.
99% of the time “you’re a bot” is backed by zero evidence besides someone disagreeing with you; it’s redditor derailment bullshit
The 1% of the time there’s any evidence at all, it’s never removed
Lemmy in particular sees lots of unfounded bot accusations, there isn’t much point in botting Lemmy yet.