But do we really believe the posters think what they’re posting is a popular opinion? Maybe they really think it’s unpopular, because of their IRL experiences, or what they see online.

I think it’s because people know what’s unpopular, but the heavy stuff, they don’t want to be associated with. So they choose milquetoast unpopular opinions, which aren’t really unpopular as much as maybe a minority. Like, a majority of voters voted for Trump, but thinking Kamala would have been better isn’t unpopular, it was just the minority opinion among people who got their fat assess out and voted.

Now, saying “only white, biologically born males should be allowed to vote” would be a truly unpopular opinion, but although there are absolutely more than zero people on Lemmy who believe this, no way in hell they’re going to post that.

So people stay with “safe” unpopular opinions, like… “NYC is the ugliest city I’ve ever seen.” Sure, you’ll learn some new insults from the responses, but nobody’s going to troll through your post history and throw it in your face in every argument, or follow you around and downvote everything you post because of it. Ok, maybe some New Yorkers will do the latter, but you know what I mean.

Consequently, because they’re just minority and not truly unpopular, all of the people who agree come out of the woodwork, incensed that this entirely reasonable opinion would be posted a being “unpopular.”

Thank you for coming to my Ted-L talk.