this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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[–] WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com 82 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I'm reasonably certain that it would be much more accurate to say that people who are prone to depression, paranoia, suicidal thoughts, self-injury and digital self-harm are more likely to use the dark web.

Broadly, this isn't the first time that it's struck me that pedantic moralizing often relies on reversing cause and effect...

[–] iloveDigit@piefed.social 15 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I would say it's more like, yeah of course when a "silent majority" forces a tiny percentage of people to rely on obscure tools to fight constant attacks on their right to free speech, then yeah that world might have that tiny percentage struggling more than the group attacking for fun

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca -1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

You mean buy drugs and tickets to Epstein Island? Because that's what the Dark Web is used for.

[–] iloveDigit@piefed.social 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

When you're targeted enough, you use it for regular email and stuff. Not sure if you get that. There are probably people who use piefed through tor

[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 2 points 7 months ago

I use Lemmy through tor. And everything else

[–] Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's also used for anonymous communication where there's significant privacy concerns. There's several news organizations that have a dark web presence for sources to share sensitive information/stuff they could be persecuted for.

But yeah, there's a lot of that other stuff going on as well.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

We had the "AI chatbot" mental illness link the other day, what's next, people using apps to bet on sports are poorer?

[–] U@piefed.social 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You eloquently expressed my thoughts. But I find the second part of your comment particularly insightful. It strikes a deeper chord worth what might motivate that reversal.

[–] WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 months ago

It's a thing I hadn't really thought about before, but as I was writing that, I was thinking how many times I'd written similar things in the past - about heavy metal music, comic books, dungeons and dragons, violent video games...

And it struck me that that was too consistent to be coincidental - that there had to be some basic failure at work there.

And thinking sbout it more - it's at least broadly the same dynamic as the endless loop of class- and race-based bigotry. Systems are established by which members of a particular class or race (or ethnic group or gender or sexual persuasion or...) are disadvantaged - poorer nutrition, less stable housing, poorer education, fewer opportunities, etc. - then point to the ignorance, frustration and antisocial tendencies that triggers as nominal evidence of their inherent inferiority, by which they're rightly denied equal treatment.

I'm willing to bet that there's a significant body of work out there on this topic