And I’m genuinely hurt by this.
Someone in a tiktok comment section was talking about anarchists hiding cultural-conservatives but because tiktok comments are limited I didn’t really understand what they were talking about so I asked if there was a book or article I could read to learn more about this particular event. They then stated “do anarchist sock puppets read books now?” And I feel like shit. I don’t know what I said to provoke this hostility.
I know I’m overly sensitive but I actually am tearing up because of this. I hate the thought of being perceived as an enemy. I don’t know what to say to let them know I’m not a sock puppet…
Their comments mentioned something about the Chinese communists and the IWW.
These big tech platforms are designed to be outrage machines, quite literally. They have been built and tuned to keep people engaged, and that engagement is often in the form of making people angry at one another. What you experienced is an intended result, whether the designers really understand it or not, of the way these systems are built.
That’s one of the reasons big tech is awful. They do not care how their technology is affecting people or the broader system, only that it generates ad revenue. You are a victim, but so is the misguided asshole who got so wound up about nothing that they started flinging shit at strangers to feel better about themselves.
The platform wants you to stay on it and fling shit back, on and on forever. Better to keep trying to engage in good faith where good faith exists, and remember that the structure of social media itself is leading people to be hostile to one another. Only way around it is to not play that game.