I disagree.
this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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Some Reddit users just love to disagree, new AI-powered troll-spotting algorithm finds
(theconversation.com)
those are the people who no one irl talks to anymore because they impulsively take the opposing stance, regardless of how stupid that stance may be, any time anyone says anything
Yup and guess what they are way more vocal online since they can still have an audience there and this is one of the reasons social media sites are so skewed from representing generalizable opinions. It's a contrarian incubator.
I play devil's advocate in most friend-space conversations, it's just who I am, I don't do it disrespectfully (I hope) but it's just the first thing my brain goes to.
sometimes it's good to examine things from all angles; i'm mostly talking about people who will start arguing if you say "nice weather today"-- shit gets old quick
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Disagreeing isnt trolling. On reddit you see so much stuff that is so plain and agreeable its not worth adding agreeable comment #2000. So it only becomes worth commenting if you see a post where you actually have a disagreement with the majority.
Oh, disagreeing with the post, huh? Looks like we found the AI troll, get 'em everyone!
Read the article. It's not about normal run of the mill disagreement. It's about:
...an entire class of Reddit users whose primary purpose seems to be to disagree with others. These users specifically seek out opportunities to post contradictory comments, especially in response to disagreement, and then move on without waiting for replies.
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Absolutely. Someone will always disagree and that‘s a good thing, actually. Bubbles are just as if not more problematic than the disagreeing „troll“. Sometimes there are reasons to play devil‘s advocate and sometimes you just bring up concerns that you‘d like to be eliminated.
I remember when I was part of a tiny minority bringing up concerns over Elon Musk and let me tell you the pushback and ridicule I received IRL was even worse than discourse online at the time. It took a long time until someone came up to me and actually admitted that I was right about Musk the entire time. I just failed to bring my point across earlier because they were better at debating but I like to think I sped up their process of becoming disillusioned about tech billionaires a little bit.
There‘s also a case where I got temporarily banned from a community I was very active in and labelled as a „right wing troll“ when almost every comment I made on Lemmy pointed to the opposite. A moderator probably had a bad day, read a comment they disagreed with and let the hammer fall down before even doing as little as to check my post history. Not much harm done I guess but man we should learn to embrace other opinions a little more.
If you actually think about things and form your own opinions you'll usually be treated as "the other side" by everyone who signs and follows any pre-made set of opinions.
If you hate AI but thinks there is some specific situation in which it doesn't 100% suck, you'll be treated as a troll in anti-AI communities. If you're MAGA but disagrees with anything Trump says, you'll be called a leftist in conservative circles. If you're a fierce active defender of LGBTQ+ rights but thinks it's OK for a white American to dress up as a Mexican character for Halloween, you'll be ostracized in many left wing groups.
Disagreeing is often treated as trolling by those you disagree with, depending on the subject. Mostly because those disagreements are often bad faith talking points from some groups of people.
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But this isn't about people seeking worthwhile debates
These users specifically seek out opportunities to post contradictory comments, especially in response to disagreement, and then move on without waiting for replies.
Ah okay but you won't respond to this.
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It's called being contrarian, and it's not just Reddit users. I have several family members like this.
I'd also argue it's not necessarily a bad thing. If you're talking shit be sure you're able to back it up. I am naturally contrarian but in many cases it's less about what I feel and more about taking the side of the voice that is missing.
Wow this guy really loves to disagree
No he doesn’t!
HAVE YOU EVEN READ OP?
There's something quite funny about making a few replies to people on a topic, doing something else with your life for several hours, then logging back in to a shitstorm. I've done it unintentionally a few times.
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Survivor bias aside, I'm not sure the UI doesn't make this drive-by trolling worse. The reddit UI (hi Lemmy) is threaded but disjoint, and the excellent response to one tree of responses isn't useful to or seen in another tree -- and those trees will develop in parallel in almost every discussion.
I worry that quips and cheap takes stand out because they're fast and block actual discussion more, so have that mock 'finalising' effect. Ending a discussion thread is not concluding it .
.. and we all have that cousin whom no one invites anywhere because he'll argue the shit out of something like a jackal worrying a carcass, until people just give up and let him wander smugly off to his little corner in contrarian triumph.
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In breaking news; The sky is blue.
More at 4.
I came here for a good argument!
"This is Abuse."
That skit has only gotten more and more relevant with the rise (and fall) of the internet.
I have a reddit coworker, he just disagrees and follows up with "fucking retard" while being blatantly wrong...i hope they fire the guy soon.
Unmanageable human being, impossible to learn anything to keep him from killing himself (my job is technically life threatening, if you're too stupid to listen)
He also mamaged to call in sick for 2 weeks in his first 4 weeks of employment, i was surprised when they kept him on after that.
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theres also Bots/ai arguing against other bots to sow dissent.
How to get rid of the last few human reddit users ... and freedom of speech.
Trolling and disagreeing are not the same thing.
I am someone who “loves to disagree”, as in most of my engagement on lemmy is disagreeing. But that’s because I speak up when I feel like speaking up is needed, and when I feel like it’s needed is when what I believe is not being said.
Thanks AI... Using tremendous amounts of energy and technology to tell us something that anyone paying attention would have already known
This is one of those stupid articles that are like "water is wet says a new study" and far more people than it should be say "holy fuck it's wet when I wash things. It must mean I wash things with water. Omgomgomgomg!!"
No shit users are trolls on reddit.
Yeah i enjoy arguing online
no you don't 😜
Disagreeing is not trolling. I hate post where everyone just comments the same thing. It's has no value, it's boring.
When people have different opinions and exchange ideas it gets interesting.
read the article.
Perhaps our most striking result was finding an entire class of Reddit users whose primary purpose seems to be to disagree with others. These users specifically seek out opportunities to post contradictory comments, especially in response to disagreement, and then move on without waiting for replies.
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I mean if you’re on r/star wars or a political subreddit, then yeah lol.
It might be quicker to list the subreddits where this doesn't happen
(Lookin at you, r/stardewvalley)
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