I’m done, I’ve been banned for expressing a different opinion (without insulting or personally attacking anyone), I’ve been accused of evading a ban with multiple accounts (this is my only account I’ve ever had on any lemmy instance), I’ve had people selectively ignore my comments and accuse me of things which I never said, and I’ve had people ignore valid criticisms and keep attacking me.
Reddit has many issues with trolls, one-sided discussion, and just general bullshit, but many Lemmy instances are way worse. The newfound freedom of Lemmy has attracted many extremists, from both sides, and many of them are moderators, who are more than happy to remove any contrarian opinions. This results in discussions being echo chambers
Here are some small pieces of advice for you, and anyone else who is interested:
Block Lemmygrad.ml, because fascists.
Block Lemmy.ml, because admins are fascists.
Block Hexbear.net, because fascists and trolls.
Block any user from Lemmygrad.ml, Hexbear.net, and the usual suspects from Lemmy.ml.
That’s it. 90% of toxicity is no more.
You have a strange definition of fascism. I’ve poked around in those instances to see what the fuss is about. They’re super far left and very much ideologically opposed to fascism. They’re something weird, but they’re definitely not fascists.
They idolize left authoritarians. And their talking points are summed up by if “the west” says it, the opposite is true. And they will argue with you.
So fascism is a term that is thrown around incorrectly a lot, blocking these people does help improve your Lemmy experience.
Based on my observations, some of them support present and past left-authoritarians, but most don’t. They’re definitely critical of the west, but I think there’s room for that criticism here.
It’s kind of funny when they post about Ukraine. They’re anti-NATO and anti-Putin, so they sometimes seem confused which side they’re on.
That is your confusion, my friend. You think you have to pick one of two sides, and they know differently.
2 party conflicts generally have 2 sides to choose from. I’d like to support Poland in the war between Ukraine and Russia but the mechanics of the act aren’t readily apparent.
Right. It’s not a 2-party conflict. There are two countries, but within each country are many groups of people with wildly different priorities.
For example… Does a military general worry much if one farm house is destroyed? Of course not. But the farmer sure does. We can argue about whose fault it is, Russia or Ukraine, but that doesn’t bring back the property.
Sure, but subdividing isn’t particularly useful in this case. Russia quashes dissent with jail time, effectively creating a cohesive group through violence. Ukraine is a united front because it has to be. If someone were to begin talking about dissidents, that’d be an entirely different, and valuable, conversation. Speaking about the farmer whose barn was torched and grain stolen is still, to most, just talking about Ukraine.
An army general has vastly different goals than a farmer, or a grandmother, or an elementary school student, or even a private first class. This is not really debatable, is it?
They support Russia and the CCP, both of which have the warning signs of Fascism. Even if you want to call it something else, doesn’t change that it’s terrible.
They deleted a comment in which I quoted the first line of the Wikipedia article on social democracy. The reason given was “misinformation”.
Fascism is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, forcible suppression of opposition.
I can very much see how that would apply.
They aren’t left in any meaningful way. Let alone far left. What they are is wildly hypocritical and authoritarian. While they are technically not fascists. Realistically they’re nearly identical. They are both both authoritarian ideologies. With no room for any meaningful right or left. And should you dissent you will find yourself silenced or killed just the same as any other authoritarian/fascist government structure.
No, that’s not really correct. They’re pro-democracy since true communism requires democracy. They believe western governments have been captured by capitalists and therefore need to be opposed. That’s why they tend to cheer for authoritarian regimes because they’re fighting what they consider to be the good fight. They believe that once western capitalism has been defeated, communism can finally flourish, since the only reason communist governments are authoritarian is to protect themselves from the west.
They sure like to glorify countries that will arrest or kill you for being gay. So there’s that.
Yeah it’s actually refreshing to see their pov on things, don’t always agree but they bring up good points
hexbear in particular is very supportive of marginalized groups and positive in general. I’m glad lemm.ee didn’t defederate with the ml boogeymen
I put up with hexbear for awhile, but I ended up blocking them eventually.
Sure, they don’t mind explaining their points if you’re careful about asking. But god forbid you express disagreement. If you aren’t with them completely, you’re a fascist.