Interesting Links for 27-10-2017

[andrewducker]

Disney Channel makes history with first gay storyline (tags: Disney lgbt ) Support for Weed Legalization Has Reached a New High in the USA (tags: marijuana legalisation usa ) 56% of NI 18-44 year olds support a United Ireland (tags: NorthernIreland ireland ) Women in Scotland allowed abortion pill at home (tags: abortion Scotland GoodNews )

Comments

[mlknchz]

Way to go Disney! You've finally entered the mid-1990's!

Trolls

[woodpijn]

I really dislike the use of "trolls" to mean "people you disagree with" (generic you). Trolls are people who say things they don't necessarily mean, for fun, to cause a reaction: shock, offence, or wasting people's time trying to argue with them. People who earnestly hold the positions they argue for, even if those positions are reprehensible, are not trolls. If the racists keep to their own subreddit and post racist memes to each other, they're not trolling.

This isn't just linguistic prescriptivism, like complaining about "decimate" or "fulsome". Cultural fragmentation and self-reinforcing filter bubbles are major social problems, and they are exacerbated by dismissing opposing opinions as "trolling". Conflating "opinions I disagree with" and "opinions no one seriously holds except as a mean joke" is how you get half the country being incredulous about Brexit or Trump.

Re: Trolls

[andrewducker]

You're right, of course. Some of those people _do_ go out trolling - but a lot of them just have reprehensible personal held beliefs.