• daltotron@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    5 months ago

    Why would people choose to expose themselves to environments which promote something their brain interprets as actual, physical harm?

    People commonly have a framework where they think of the slap as having kind of, occurred beforehand, right, and then they see themselves as slapping back whenever they respond, which is another part of why political discourse is so polarized and bad faith basically at all times.

    • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      That’s a fair point too; if you go in anticipating a conversational slap, you’re in a defensive posture from the start.

      This reinforces my feeling that setting out to specifically create that no-slapping environment from the start is critical, but it also adds in another twist and problem: There’s increasing evidence that political “language” between various groups is diverging. In other words, ~20 years ago people used the same words to mean the same things, even when they disagreed. Now people on different sides of an issue use identical words to mean totally different things - including some that can be perceived as a verbal slap.