Yes. This is the best description I have seen of some of the creepy dynamics I kept running into on Usenet. (And they just keep going, and going...)
When you're the only goddamn one going to bat for the people being trashed time and time again, and nobody else says anything, you can get to think that maybe you are completely wrong-- and this can happen in any kind of environment.
*nods* It isn't just online communities, either. That describes too many social settings I've been in, from elementary school on.
No wonder I learned just to withdraw, after enough realtime nastiness that just kept feeding into itself, no matter what I said. This also left me with the idea that maybe some of my language abilities were not as good as they probably were--not just the stress and pressure fouling things up, but the "am I even talking?" factor. What I was saying was frequently not as out of line as I was led to believe at the time. It sounds like you may have run into some of these other factors too.
Because the kind of social dynamics we saw as far as attacking and defending people, and people changing their opinions based on who was dominating the community at any given time, are also prevalent in communities where far more serious things than fandom are at stake.
Oh my, yes. I wish I had more sensible to add at the moment.
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Date: 2010-05-16 08:51 pm (UTC)When you're the only goddamn one going to bat for the people being trashed time and time again, and nobody else says anything, you can get to think that maybe you are completely wrong-- and this can happen in any kind of environment.
*nods* It isn't just online communities, either. That describes too many social settings I've been in, from elementary school on.
No wonder I learned just to withdraw, after enough realtime nastiness that just kept feeding into itself, no matter what I said. This also left me with the idea that maybe some of my language abilities were not as good as they probably were--not just the stress and pressure fouling things up, but the "am I even talking?" factor. What I was saying was frequently not as out of line as I was led to believe at the time. It sounds like you may have run into some of these other factors too.
Because the kind of social dynamics we saw as far as attacking and defending people, and people changing their opinions based on who was dominating the community at any given time, are also prevalent in communities where far more serious things than fandom are at stake.
Oh my, yes. I wish I had more sensible to add at the moment.