I've had a problem with this board for a while. Does anyone

File: 1497893180226.jpg (182KB, 962x948px) Image search: [Google]

182KB, 962x948px

Hello,
I’ve been posting on /lit/ for a few years now, and while I have enjoyed a lot of the interactions and discussions I’ve had, there’s something about the sub that is really starting to bug me. Maybe some of you feel the same.
I was reading a post yesterday, where the OP (16 years old) was asking for recommendations about more ‘mature’ books. He enjoyed reading YA and stuff, but wondered what else was out there. When someone asked him why he would want to do this, OP said something along the lines of he felt ‘ashamed’ to still be reading these kinds of books.
Someone inuslted him for it. Similarly, looking down the thread I could see that many people who had offered recommendations about mature books had been down voted. I then started thinking about threads that I have commented on. There has been so many times where I have tried to contribute thoughtfully to a discussion – just like the 16 year old OP - but because others didn’t agree, I’ve been ignored.
I can’t be the only person to have noticed this trend, and it’s a bummer. /lit/ is a place where we discuss and share opinions about the thing we love most of all – books. It should be a place where we can get inspiration and, hopefully, learn about writers that ordinarily would have passed us by. But instead, I feel like there are a lot of people here that treat the place as a zero-sum game, where they are ‘right’ and you are ‘wrong’ – and insult accordingly. You don’t like my favourite book? - insult. You explain why in a thoughtful, polite manner that encourages further discussion? - Fuck you. Insult. The more this trend continues, the more the sub declines until all that’s left are people jealously guarding their opinions, unable to hear those of others over the roar of their internal rage.
I mean, I try and my bit to combat this. I don’t insult other people’s opinions, even if they are very different from my own, and I do this because that’s not what the function is for.
Which isn’t to say I’m perfect – I’ve got into some heated arguments on here and said some stuff I’ve regretted, but in those instances I’ve tried to apologise because after I’d calmed down, I realised that while we all have different personal tastes – they are just that: personal tastes. They are not objective. In the same way, /lit/ frustrates me sometimes in how it’s focused on the same books (Hitchhikers, TLoTR, Pratchett, Gaiman etc.), but I don’t derail these threads or the people commenting on them, because this is a place where people should be allowed to discuss their passions without getting blue-waffled.
The world is full of people screaming at each other with their fingers in their ears. /lit/ doesn’t have to become another such place.
I have a feeling I’m opening myself up to a world of hurt with this post, but fuck it – I care about the sub, and want to see it thrive.