Thread by @AlexandraErin

Here is a thing about human psychology:

That which is different and unexpected stands out. The voice one doesn't expect to hear in a room seems loudest. The people one doesn't expect to speak seem to dominate the conversation out of proportion with their actual words spoken.

Separate but related: the things that one does not wish to see but which one cannot escape from seeing seem powerful and numerous.

On Tumblr, which a lot of people migrated to after having a very different experience on Livejournal, I watched as these factors created a number of myths in different groups: "SJWs run Tumblr" or "trans people run Tumblr".

I have even seen people claim "sex workers run Tumblr."

People whose previous online experience was message boards or blogging sites that could be subdivided into communities, gated and curated and purpose-specific, were now adrift in a sea where anyone and anything might cross their timeline through anyone they shared interests with.

The unexpected voices stood out and seemed loudest. The people they were used to silence from seemed to dominate. The people they didn't want to see seemed like they were running the place, especially if the viewer was used to being able to silence them or run them off.

Some of this happens on Twitter, too. The dynamics of it are a bit different but in ways that are both nebulous and complicated and beside the point I'm working towards here, but it's similar. Twitter is by design a porous social medium with no hard community lines.

The thing that is horrifyingly fascinating to me is that all of this means that when there is a conflict, it is possible for people on all sides of it to feel like they are beset from all sides by powerful foes, foes who are better supported, more numerous, etc.

In community conflict after community conflict, I am struck by how often there are people on multiple sides who sincerely believe that their viewpoint is a minority and that the other viewpoint(s) benefit from strong public support and big names and troll armies and so on.

And part of that is that there are troll armies waiting to attack all sides in the names of the other ones, that's a thing that happens.

But that's only part of it.

Part of it is what we might call a reverse echo chamber, where being on the defense amplifies voices around you that seem like an attack until they're what you notice most.

There are few causes with a single effect and few effects with a single cause, of course, so there's often other things in play.

Insecurity and anxiety and other things can lend greater weight to voices that seem to be saying you're wrong.

I don't have a solution to any of this, not anything that goes beyond the personal level.

Personally, I try to remember that Twitter I See is not Twitter but a slightly random and very arbitrary subset of it.

I try to reflect more than I react.

I don't always succeed on those scores but I try.

And one person cannot self-improve themselves into better community discourse.

I think it's worth considering that people who might seem like bad actors are reacting in good faith. "They're more scared of you than you are of them." is bad advice for dealing with bears or Nazis...

...but "anyone here might be just as hurt and scared and convinced they're outgunned and outnumbered as you feel right now" could be a good thing to keep in mind, when you are hurt and scared and convinced you're outgunned and outnumbered.