I’m not saying that I got downvotes consistently. Just that it has happened for really innocuous reasons, and in general the threat of downvotes keeps me from engaging much at all.

I can understand how you might think that not knowing who I am, but I assure you I really do try to be genuinely nice and don’t court controversy (I haven’t the energy for it). It’s fine if you don’t believe that though, I’m just a random person on the internet.

Band-Aid solution, yes. But while the societal changes aren’t in place yet, something needs to actually be done to make the TTC safer here and now.

I’m not a fan of the either or paradigm. You can make changes to fix the root problem, and also do something to make things more bearable in the meantime.

Exactly! I once posted about a particular TV show, and how it really helped me view my personal trauma in a different way and empowered me. A really long and emotional and sincere post. After around an hour I got scared and deleted it because I had 0 comments and like 15 downvotes. I just felt embarrassed for not sharing a meme or something and instead being earnest about it.

Absolutely. Your only choices for not getting downvotes was to say something everyone will agree with, or cloak yourself in 1000 layers of sarcasm and jokes so no one can shut you down anyways.

And as I mentioned I am extremely sincere and don’t care for defensive irony. Not for me.

Always just stuck to the smaller, interest/specific topic focused subreddits as a result.

Agreed! I tried it and found it so boring.

There’s one opinion that I’ve been afraid to say out loud forever because people are so passionate about it… Disco Elysium. I love rpgs and I love choice-based, narrative-driven games. But there were two main things which drove me crazy:

1. I really didn’t like the writing. Honestly it felt like some fresh English lit major suddenly discovered big words and angst and went crazy with it. It was really cringy to me.
2. I didn’t like the false paradigm of choices in terms of world views and beliefs, when the game very clearly sets them all up to suck. With a strong preference for communism. Like when you try to be measured and moderate the game actively negs you for being weak. Why give me the choice when you’re just going to punish me for it? And what if I have some anti-capitalist beliefs but don’t want to kill the landlords? It was just so extreme and off-putting.

Thank you for this super measured response. I’ve plenty of reservations about reddit and am here for a reason, but end of the day I zoom out and think this is a pretty niche issue in a niche corner of the internet that’s not as morally evil/extreme as a lot of people make it out to be.

I think it’s totally appropriate for other people to have their own opinions, or even not care at all.

For example one of my most frequented subreddits, depressionregimens is still active. And I’m so glad they are. They are a really important resource when I (and lots of others) are feeling hopeless or even suicidal. I wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t know/care all this is happening, to go into that subreddit for help/info/support and then find it gone dark.

Idk if I’m just dumb or something but I have tried to play terraria on 5+ separate occasions and the controls and UI just DON’T make sense to me. Like how to craft?! How to equip? How to do stuff? It was just so confusing. I tried on mobile and steam deck. I even looked up the controls online and mapped it out. It just never clicked for me. I felt like an 80 year old using a smartphone for the first time.

You articulated my issue with it perfectly. In theory it was this amazing open world with tons of player freedom, but the minute you engage with the actual story at all you have no choice in anything. There was one quest where I HAD to rescue Micah and kill a butt load of people which really annoyed me given I was going for a white hat run.

Currently playing BOTW, Stardew Valley, Cassette Beasts, and Shadow Tactics Blade of the Shogun (I have trouble focusing on one game at once.)

Super excited for BG3 too, although I’m waiting for controller support with the full release first.