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?
“Don’t feed the trolls” can be good advice; I recently (one or two comments back!) made such a suggestion myself.
But it seems like there are times when we have to engage. Trollish behavior is behind phenomenons like fake news, incel culture, etc. - clearly those need addressed wherever they come up. The correct response seems to be situational.
I agree with this, I usually talk past the trolls, so to speak. I start with “this is not a response to you, but to anyone who might be reading” or something like that. Bonus points if I can ignore/mute the person I’m replying to, I’ll mention that as well in the response so that they also know that I wont be hearing whatever they want to scream at me.