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Comment by TomNomNom | Hacker News Reader

As someone who was a bit of a weird kid, I definitely think it's easier to be a weirdo today. The main reason being: I can find my fellow weirdos.

When I was at school and my peers made fun of me for my even slightly esoteric interests I felt alone. I didn't know anyone else who liked the same things that I did; or at least not to the same, occasionally obsessive, degree. It was hard.

Now that the internet exists and is popular: I can find my people. There's probably a forum or subreddit for pretty much any niche I could care to infatuate myself with, and there's creators on YouTube making fantastically long and detailed videos on the minutiae of every subject under the sun.

I don't feel alone any more :)

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I feel like I need to respond to this and say the Internet isn’t enough for all children. It wasn’t for me.

I grew up having the Internet since I was around 8-9. (I was born in 1990) I was able to find communities online for things I was interested in. But it didn’t make me any less “weird” in person. While it’s nice to find people online, it’s really not enough. Especially as a kid since you can’t really interact with everyone since many times they’re much older than you.

If you’re still going to school and get bullied for being weird, have no friends because weird, and so forth... then the Internet is nice but it’s not really a replacement for real life acceptance. Most kids need friends and acceptance in real life. You can’t get by on the Internet alone.

a lot of people who haven't done fully remote work are extroverts who are currently cheering the move to fully distributed work throughout the developed world are gonna start begging to go back to an office in about 3-12 months when the crushing loneliness kicks in. (tho I'd love to be proven wrong and see alternatives like affordable coworking spaces pop up - but an office is like a free coworking space).

Yes, it's much easier to be weird but not feel bad about it when there is a community of like minded people. Weird is just different from the norm. I've always known that the norm is mediocre anyway

Are you still weird if you find a community where you are normal?

No you're not. But you all know you're weird to the outside world and not care much about it, because you belong - a necessary human need is fulfilled

To the world at large, I guess so. Within the community, I guess not.

Weirdness depends on context.

Sadly while this is true for weirdos, it's also true for fascists, racists, conspiracy theorists etc.

Yes, but I also think there's a lot of social pressure being put on these groups to get with the program. Reddit does eventually kick out extremists. Twitter spends a lot of time pointing them out, etc.

I've seen people advocating for banning "hate speech", but I think that's a slippery slope (who defines hate speech? would anything broadly defined as anti-feminist be banned?). Such laws are bound to be abused to silence people some groups politically disagree with. Personally, I think it's better that hateful ideologies are somewhere on the clearnet where we can see them, and sometimes talk some sense into them, rather than hidden in the dark web. Some of these people will grow out of it and come around.

It's not actually a slippery slope, but more so that it will inevitably lead to false positives. It's a bit annoying when people misconstrue what hate speech is: inciting extreme hate or encouraging violence. Criticism is definitely allowed. I also agree it's somewhat better to have public discourse, but being fundamentally supporting free speech even when it leads to hate crimes, is a bit myopic.

I'd respond that dismissing free speech is also dangerous, as it has preceded multiple genocides. IMO, right now we live in a society where we neither have free speech nor the ability to have healthy, open debates needed to defuse dangerous ideas. In the guise of protecting the weak, we're advancing increasingly authoritarian measures. Coming from both the left and the right. See airport security, state surveillance, anti child trafficking laws used to shut down legit websites... And possibly soon anti hate speech laws which will most definitely, inevitably be abused. This isn't a just left wing vs right wing issue. Your rights are being eroded before your eyes.

I live in Canada, where we have hate speech laws, and I don't live in the States. My perspective has been that these hate speech laws do not infringe on my rights. I think you might be right in that the potential for abuse is high in the US, I just don't see any evidence of that being the case here (yet).

I genuinely hope you're right and that such laws won't get in the way of useful dialogue. Though I will point out that Canada doesn't have as much ability as the US to censor internet communications. That limits their ability to abuse such laws.

Oh for sure. I was made fun for liking hiphop in the 80s (white town in the middle of nowhere). And that wasn't even that weird but in that place it was.

If you don't fit in in school, you still have to go. Adults get to decide for themselves and can find their niche even before the internet.

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