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?
You’re so right with all that you say. Except your admirable self deprecating US exceptionalism. US peeps shouldn’t beat themselves up about the crimes or horrible acts their countrymen are/have done. Where and when any other country is in the same position individuals of those places act in the same ways. Cue every powerful and not so powerful civilisation in history. The rest of us it seems have to clean up their messes as best we can. It seems its a natural animal response that we as a species haven’t been able to adequately address socially or civilisationally.
I don’t really know enough about the subject and how it relates. But these awful group dynamics aren’t confined to humans alone, i feel like this article, Chimpanzees in Uganda’s Kibale National Park wage lethal ‘civil war’, relates in an important way to the point you make in your comment.