I just wish the cure was The Absence of Hate

that’s the goal, but a humble social media website is not gonna undo centuries of oppression and bigotry

the best you can do is give marginalized people the tools to block that hate and, ideally, for them to never have to see it in the first place

(which is a goal that, to be clear, with their racist and transmisogynist moderation, tumblr is dogshit at doing)

I think the problem isn't echo chambers as a concept, but as a constant. Having a space where you feel welcomed is so important, and the magic of the Internet has always been that if you can't find that space IRL, you can probably still find it online. But corporations have realized that a feedback loop of things people want to hear is the best way to keep people on and looking at ads, so that's what they push. It's gotten to a point where the sites that most people spend the vast majority of their time on will automatically, algorithmically create those echo chambers with no option to turn them off. Many of them will refuse to serve any content at all if you try to log out or view things through a VPN. And it's that enforcement of echo chambers that is really so dangerous.

Ok So this is why I hate catch all phrases like ‘echo chamber’ as it deliberately blurs the line of where the problem actually lies because it doesn’t even confront the real actual problem here we are trying to target with the term.

As what you didn’t add to the loose ‘warp’ description is far more sinister than what someone simply agreeing with another person is and where the problem actually lies with that. So calling the problem an echo chamber is beside the problem and isn’t actually addressing the problem.

If it’s to uphold a toxic idea and to bring harm on other people such as an ‘echo chamber’ in your words could be a racist stormfront type of chamber. You see this in Reddit on subs like wild rose country where everyone chants about the 51st state. Or maga subs. At least that is what I’m picturing when you describe this. And this is a far more clear version of where the problem might actually manifest into a real problem.

However in a case where a safe space for people who are internally struggling with something such as a young person trying to build up confidence to take charge in their life goals or even gain guidance and if we can ‘agree’ upon(seems risky that ‘agree’ is triggering an echo chamber- see? This is the problem with catch alls) that perhaps helping the get a raise, or confront an abusive friend or even seek therapy, I just think this is where we’re getting overly tone policing where it’s burying a person in dismissive syntax with negligent descriptive terms and does stir some controversy over something that isn’t and shouldn’t even be considered in the same category.

The point of the problem is the topic of the subs where yes, a circle jerk on racism would be a problem. Where in the racism is the problem. Not the ‘circle jerking’.

categorizing ‘everything is an echo chamber’ is diminishing the real issue here which are the topics which should be challenged and the lack of critical thought and effort to pay attention . Not the fact that people simply agree with it. You’ll get no where if you complain about the person on a forum who have relinquished all self awareness. You’d get further by pinpointing and helping them where it should have been critically questioned because they won’t be able to do it themselves regardless of how much you scream ‘echo chamber’ into their face.

Maybe help deconstruct the argument a few times so they know if something is too good to be true it probably is. There are entire YouTube channels dedicated to doing this rather than just lazily yelling how everything is an echo chamber and dusting off their hands and calling it a day.