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Truth is not an echo chamber, accepting other people who aren't hurting anyone just by existing isn't an echo chamber, kindness isn't an echo chamber.
I don't need to consider "alternate beliefs" that are just lies. There's this idea that if I'm not constantly reading stuff by straight up Nazis, that I won't understand that they are Nazis. Not having to read nonsense as possible facts is one of the really cool things about having critical thinking skills.
The idea that Mastodon is an echo chamber is crazy anyway. I am more informed here than I ever was on Twitter. People rarely just state opinions, they back them up, and as a frequent poster, I promise you that if you do post something without a link to back it up, someone will ask for one.
@RickiTarr do you have a link to a source that explain and support this ?
@RickiTarr @Vive_Levant I hate headlines like that because of people who think that the takeaway is in the headline.
Echo chamber aren’t a myth. They are very real and there are even a few on mastodon.
The myth is that they matter. The people who limit themselves to echo chambers wouldn’t change their views even with exposure to a wide range of opinions.
Echo chambers exist because of close minded people; people don’t close their minds because of the echo chambers.
@RickiTarr @Vive_Levant from which I quote “3. The percent of people who actually live in an echo chamber is probably in the single digits”.
As I said, the article doesn’t say that echo chambers are a myth. The myth, according to the article, is that echo chambers create the closed minds; the reality being that the closed minds create the echo chambers.
This seems kinda reply guy, guy.
@RickiTarr
Ahem. [citation needed] 
Sorry, I was of course merely being facetious and was prodding at the "someone will ask for a [reference]" thing 
@RickiTarr without very dedicated algo echo chambers are hard to persist.
Also common sense is not echo chamber, it is common sense based on fundamentals.
@RickiTarr OMFG, I had my best friend trying to convince me that! He'd been to a presentation by researchers who'd been studying this place and I countered with, "Well, I'm pretty sure nobody I interact with has seen or heard of that research, so they're pretty shit at their jobs if they can't reach the huge shitposting accounts, the scientists, the computer people, the news sites or ya, know, beige party."
"But it's an echo chamber."
"BEIGE!"
The Blind Fraggle @RickiTarr Or provide it for you.
@RickiTarr its an echo chamber if you don't have to listen to the worst, most ignorant takes constantly
@vegetablegremlin @RickiTarr Pineapple belongs on pizza, and so do anchovies.
@tankdigital @RickiTarr there are no rules
@tankdigital @vegetablegremlin @RickiTarr On the same pizza, though?
@irina @vegetablegremlin @RickiTarr The prompt was "the worst, most ignorant take". So unfortunately, yes
@irina @tankdigital @RickiTarr there. are. no. rules.
@RickiTarr Even if it is an echo chamber (if you set it up that way) it’s not an involuntary algorithmic one.
So true!
And in addition:
I find that my mastodon feed is simply a place where I can avoid having or seeing the same silly discussions and gotchas I’ve already had many times over the last twenty years online.
Otherwise, I’d be doing the equivalent of reading the same thread about what constitutes “real Emo” time and time again.
Only, I’d be reading it about whether or not people have human rights and that empathy is actually good - over and over and over again.
We should trap these troll fuckers in a thread about metal micro genres forever.
But look at the alternative!
@cy @RickiTarr the problems have similar forms but are to fractured by instance lines to dominate
A bit besides the point, but if you'll indulge me:
There are people who refer to echo chamber as a short for wanting a worse signal-to-noise.
At the same time it should be said that echo chamber isn't purely about data vs. lies, but also about points-of-view on the data. If the data is handled in an "echo chamber", the output may well be "true", but not appliable to the spectrum of reality.
½
2/3
For example, in the history of Finnish politics (an example I'll use due to passing knowledge), there have been times when one party/ideology has raisen hegemonic. This has led to a situation where the people appointed from the party OR the ideas put forth by the same weren't fire-tested (so to say).
End-result was that you got sycophants and/or idiots who knew how to treat the party line, but didn't understand that the party line wasn't reality, but a simplified model.
3/4
Currently (and again, I'm speaking of Finland) the hegemonic idea is the effectiveness of markets against state-intervention or -services. This has led to legistlation that doesn't create effective markets, as the model used is too simplistic, leading instead to oligopolies and thus raising costs and falling services.
In this definition, does Mastodon have an echo chamber?
4/4
I can't speak for the fediverse as a whole, but presently we have council elections in Finland.
A list of candidates with Mastodon-accounts (some of them inactive) were made by @teemuki, with results:
Socialist Party 32 profiles (public support less than 10%; disclaimer: my party)
Greens 14 (10%)
Communist Party 2 (>1%)
Social Democrats 1 (20%)
Keskusta 1 (15%)
Eläinoikeuspuolue 1 (>1%).
In certain defintion of the term, this bubble of Fedi is clearly an echo chamber.
Otoh then we can raise the question, what social interaction system isn't echo chamber? 
Even the entiretity of WWW is missing representation of some people and their ideas, and that's just a passive collection of documents.
That's true. We can however generally assume that WWW would include majority worldviews, and in general somewhat in the same ratio as they would appear in "the real world". Not perfectly, of course, but let's say that in the same magnitude.
When Finnish Socialist Party has 32 out of 59 "views" (or slightly under 55%), we might assume in a more perfect world that this would be that the party is very popular in the age group represented by Fedi.
@iju
@MartyFouts @RickiTarr @Vive_Levant
In order to actually warp and close minds, an echo chamber has to be BIG and powerful enough to limit what ideas a person is ever exposed to.
When somebody is RAISED in an echo chamber through childhood, that can really do it. But it has to happen in a controlled physical community, not just one online network. A cultish household and/or isolated town, an education system...
The cultural hegemony of a whole nation saturated with propaganda, especially one walled by a language barrier, now THAT is an echo chamber that stunts minds en masse.
@RickiTarr Exactly. Mastodon is not designed to be an echo chamber. It might function like one if someone doesn't take part in actively curating their own feed. Follow two people they know from Muskville, and that's it...
I'd say echo chambers tend to have algorithms.
@xinit @RickiTarr I don’t accept the idea of echo chamber really. I used to have parties at my house as a young person. It’s not an echo chamber to invite people I like and enjoy talking to, and NOT to invite people I don’t like and don’t like talking to. I’m allowed to pick my friends and companions. I don’t owe the world to have asshole representation in my feeds!
The idea that Mastodon is an echo chamber is crazy anyway. I am more informed here than I ever was on Twitter. People rarely just state opinions, they back them up, and as a frequent poster, I promise you that if you do post something without a link to back it up, someone will ask for one.
Hugz & xXx
See what I did there ... Giggles
@MelissaBearTrix @RickiTarr
It's cool cause they're bouncing around in my head slightly out of phase making the echo all trippy sounding.
Oh, here's the link: https://ledgernote.com/columns/mixing-mastering/phase-cancellation/
@jlpiraux There actually is one in the comments lol
@RickiTarr I think... we are an echo chamber of verifiable information, then. Anything we put out here circulates, reinforcing the principles we hold high, but ultimately stays in our bubble (because it's not received from outside the bubble). So, technically, that is an echo chamber, too, unless our definitions of echo chamber differ.
@anathem In my mind, it means only hearing ideas you agree with, and I'm certainly not, but maybe some are. I think it involves some degree of propaganda, like how Fox News twists every story to praise their glorious leader to the point that a good amount of it is straight up lies. On Mastodon, I don't feel like I only hear ideas that are the same as mine, I've had plenty of debates here, but on the basics like Civil Rights, people need to agree or yeah, really easy block. Some things just shouldn't be up for debate. Mastodon has a larger population for whom basic civil liberties is just where we start, those are values we share, and an expectation for everyone. I don't need to have a debate on who deserves rights and respect, because someone who does, doesn't deserve my respect, let alone a platform that I follow.
@RickiTarr So, in your definition, "echo chamber" necessarily includes "evil propaganda"; while my definition is the dry technical view of the ideas' flow and the social dynamics that are involved?
They already perverted the Truth. If they subscribe to your definition of echo chamber, and I assume they do: by insinuating that we're an echo chamber they're effectively reinforcing the scientific method (among other topics, I just picked an example) as "evil propaganda" now.
@anathem Propaganda is always evil, it is in it's nature misleading. An echo chamber assumes you only hear views you agree with, or already know, I don't, I hear more ideas than I ever have here.
@RickiTarr And yet, we are here because we want to hear that multitude of ideas, backed by verifiable sources. Which is in itself contrary to the authoritarian mindset, so they call it leftist-libertarian propaganda.
Which means, assuming your associations with echo chambers are shared by most people, those who call us an echo chamber are reinforcing the notion of us as propagandists.
Which validates your original post in my opinion: We have all reason to be agitated about us being called an echo chamber.
@RickiTarr Since there's no algorithm driving particular points of view on Mastodon, it's up to the individual to govern what they see. What I look for are credible sources, posters who consistently back up what they report, like @Laffy or @heidilifeldman. They may post news that I don't like, but I'm reasonably confident that it reflects genuine reality. I don't think that's an echo chamber.
@RickiTarr I totally agree. You see more information that is accurate and as you say backed up by others than you ever did on Twitter.
@RickiTarr mastodon is what X and blue sky would like to be when they grow up.
@RickiTarr Please do not assign lies to a class of beliefs... lies are not beliefs, they ARE lies. If you need to read a pile of materials on Fasicsm & Nazism & what comes from them... I have published a pile. You may go here and read until you can't stand it anymore: https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/03/26/nato-would-defend-poland-with-full-force-if-russia-attacks-says-secretary-general-in-warsaw/
@ManyRoads Hence the "..."
@RickiTarr don't read much into mu ... those appear because I'm old and pause a lot
@RickiTarr@beige.party this. a hundred times. A thousand times.. every time I see “ideology that driving the current admin” “silicon valley’s enlightenment” … etc., I want to reach through the screen. It doesn’t take a bloody genius to see what’s happening. Stop pretending.
@tecoholic @RickiTarr "It's the mark of an educated mind to entertain an idea without accepting it." Needs the corollary that education also lets you know when it's the same 'idea' again and again.
Hell, it's basic pattern recognition.
I have been reading history and politics for years. When I was young, the first photos of the Holocaust came out. I have never lost that one point: mass murder is always wrong and no people ever, anywhere, should be mass murdered.Extensive reading has allowed me to recognize nascent Nazis and Fascism. We are in a world of hurt but I hope you all have your own moral compass to get you through. It helps with the disinformation a lot too. Remember: Evil is the opposite of Live!
When I read research papers about how other platforms will spread toxic waste before your very eyes within seconds of making your first post, I have no regrets about choosing to spend my time here.
Here I am educated, entertained and have constructive conversation.
If those things don’t appeal to folks, they are welcome to go back to the Hellscape that is X and Meta, whose owners have kissed the ring of #Trump.
@JugglingWithEggs @RickiTarr It's spelled $Trump
@JugglingWithEggs @RickiTarr For me, this post was one of the funniest (and truest) takes on Mastodon I've seen: https://aus.social/@Teal/110681495592447792
@RickiTarr Echo chamber, n.: colloquial term used by Nazis to describe online spaces where they are unwelcome.
@maxleibman @RickiTarr OMG LIBERAL BIAS
That the words "Liberal bias" are equivalent to "Truth" is admittedly difficult to understand. There are also crazy liberals. Driven mad by having to explain to the conservatives OVER and OVER and OVER