Summary
Churches across the U.S. are grappling with dwindling attendance and financial instability, forcing many to close or sell properties.
The Diocese of Buffalo has shut down 100 parishes since the 2000s and plans to close 70 more. Nationwide, church membership has dropped from 80% in the 1940s to 45% today.
Some churches repurpose their land to survive, like Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, which is building affordable housing.
Others, like Calcium Church in New York, make cutbacks to stay open. Leaders warn of the long-term risks of declining community and support for churches.
See, this kind of nastiness proves my point. I’m not human to you, I’m a random encounter in the posting RPG.
You just want to hurt me so you can win. That’s not community.
You’re obviously human. Not someone i would talk to in person, but still human.
What the fuck did I do to you to deserve you talking to me this way? Really feeling the community here.
Do you treat strangers like this in real life? I doubt it. That’s the key difference between internet and reality.
You are making an ass of yourself and being surprised when folks start getting snippy?
Id ask what ya expected to happen but expecting something implies you’ve thought about it, clearly you haven’t.
All I said was that the internet isn’t a communal space and that I could be a bot. We need real, in-person communal spaces.
The way you are treating me proves it. You wouldn’t talk like this to someone to their face.
Do you think the way you are talking to me right now is how you build community?
You are claiming that you cant build a community online, something most folks disagree with. Then you double, triple, and quadruple down and get surprised when folks get a bit pissy with you. You have had every opportunity to accept that people disagree with you on a baseline and could agree to disagree and bow out, rather than do that you claim folks are being mean to ya and play the fucken victim. Itd be funny if it wasnt pathetic.
Also yes I would talk to folks like this IRL, hell I may actually be worse since I wouldnt be trying to articulate over text. Ive outright told folks to kill themselves with a smile a mile wide. Believe it or not but I am being polite, I just aint a backbiting Southerner about it and will give my honest words on a matter.
You read these and tell me they’re the kinds of comments that build community.
You want to know why I don’t think internet communities work? Because people talk to each other like this, completely unprovoked. This is mean as shit. What the fuck??
And you think this is okay, because this is just how people are on the internet.
This doesn’t feel like community to me. This feels like bullying.
I don’t know why I comment on the internet. I just get my feelings hurt.
No it was very much prompted, this is basically the internet comments section version of talk shit get hit. You spouted off a highly polarizing opinion that people almost universally disagree with on a fundamental level and then got surprised when folks bit back.
It also wasnt unprovoked you pissed folks off by spouting crap not allowing a lick of nuance. Fuck people probably wouldnt have gotten so pissy if ya just left it at lemmy, but you included all forms of internet communities.
You made absolutists statements about highly complex sociological topics and then when people gave up on civility and bit back in the tiniest of ways you act as if you just had your arm blown off. You are a child if not literally then in mentality.
You reap what ya sowed, and you sowed anger. Dont expect folks to try to build a community with someone who claims to not believe in it. Go cry wolf elsewhere.
Thus proving my point. This is not a place to build community. It’s a place to get hit.
What part of “you’re obviously human” required you to lash out and swear?
You’re the only one here that’s arguing you cannot build a community, and also showing everyone exactly how not to act in a community.
The part where you said “Not someone i would talk to in person.” Is this how you think you build community? Telling people that they’re stupid, you don’t want to talk to them, and they’re an ass?
Why did you do that to me?
Playing the victim because you’re being disagreed with is not how to build a community.
Oof
Commenting on lemmy is self harm sometimes.
Maybe for you.
Yes, this discussion thread has been really stressful and hurtful.
You should probably reflect on why, and strive to be better.
It’s because the Internet is a mean place where people feel entitled to get nasty with each other for no reason. “Talk shit, get hit.” This only proves my point.