I saw a post that talked about racism towards people and when I talked about it the response I got was very heated and a person even called lemmy.world a community of ‘hitlerites’

I have been around for a week or so and this is my first time seeing such explicit vulgar reaction towards another community, is this a one-off or should I block hexbear?

    • weeeeum@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      66
      arrow-down
      17
      ·
      7 months ago

      I love this image. Something that always confused me is that they are communist, but support russia? An extremely far right government?

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        7 months ago

        There’s no support for the Russian Federation. Support for the USSR? Absolutely, but not the RF. There’s critical support, as in the RF currently takes an antagonistic stance towards the United States, which many Leftists see as the greater global evil, but no leftist genuinely thinks the RF is doing that out of “good intentions” or has any model that Leftists should replicate.

        That sums it up.

        • Glasgow@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          I’ve spoken to plenty who were way too sympathetic to Putins ‘Ukrainians are Nazis’ chat with complete disregard of the nuances.

      • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        Authoritarians like authoritarian regimes. They’ll perform extreme mental gymnastics to reconcile their preconceived notions with reality, like the tankies that declare China to be socialist. Also, most of them see the US as the Great Satan that is responsible for any and all evil in the world. Therefore anybody who opposes the Great Satan must be good.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        Technically, the X-axis doesn’t represent anything either, as the far-right plot point curves upward, rather than continuing.

        • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          7 months ago

          Mental gymnastics is the term given to people who read books by the mental couch and potato chip crowd.

      • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        It looks like another way of drawing the political compass left/right (collective vs individual rights) on the x axis and authoritarian/libertarian (obedience to centralized authority hierarchy vs distributed political pluralism) on the y axis. Tankies and far right would be in auth q1 and q2, far left q3, and not representing q4 labeling the quadrants from top left clockwise.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      Why would supposed right-wingers be holding Leftist theory reading groups, hosting mutual aid comms, donating to Palestinian gofundmes, and supporting trans rights to some of the highest degrees on the fediverse? Irony? Seems like a silly hypothesis.

      • Sinthesis@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        7 months ago

        hosting mutual aid comms

        I’ve seen those posts (I have no filter)… “I need money for rent” 🦗 🦗 🦗

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          7 months ago

          I don’t see how that discounts anything, why would right wingers create a relatively isolated community to read Marxist and Anarchist theory, protect and advocate for trans rights, and frequently pin donation threads for Palestinians? Seems like way too much effort to be ironic, and defederating from other instances would hurt their supposed goal of “trolling.”

          • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            7 months ago

            You’re forgetting that Hexbear and lemmy.ml tend to support Russia and the CCP, both authoritarian dictatorships with Russia being openly Fascist. This is because of the general “America bad” viewpoint on these instances.

            While the US has its… problems, that doesn’t mean their geopolitical rivals are then magically all-benevolent. Multiple sides in conflict can be shitty, and ignoring the genocides that Russia and China have been committing over the past few years is unacceptable.

  • DosDude@retrolemmy.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    62
    arrow-down
    22
    ·
    7 months ago

    I would block hexbear. I’ve done it server-wide. They are mostly very loud trolls pretending to be communists. Some could be actual communists, but I don’t buy anyone actually wanting to be in such a toxic environment and believe what they claim to believe.

      • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        User blocking also doesn’t block votes so they’ll also still influence your feed.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      7 months ago

      They’re “communist” if you believe that supporting the CCP is “communist” and that the usa is “capitalist”. It’s all just political tribalism to them, that’s why they are also anti-Liberal and at times very anti-Democracy. The actual definitions of any of these political identities is completely lost on them, all of these words only mean west or east to them.

    • Maiq@lemy.lol
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      28
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      Welcome to lemmy! For the most part lemmy is nice place to be. You will still see the occasional crazy though. Defiantly not something you see all the time. If you find a user, community or instance popping off a bunch of crazy the best thing to do is block them. You won’t be missing anything without them.

    • Libb@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      7 months ago

      Welcome and there is zero need to apologize. Some people (and group of them) can be a real pain. Once you have learned how to filter them out, it’s a nice place with nice people. There is no shame in blocking them, a bit like I would not let someone enter my home so they shout their nonsense into my ears, or make their mess on the carpet.

      Once again, welcome ;)

    • Sciaphobia@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      7 months ago

      I nearly left lemmy because of Hexbear. Learning they could be blocked salvaged the platform for me. It’s not just you - they are pretty widely reviled.

    • itsnicodegallo@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      16
      ·
      7 months ago

      Howdy! Can confirm that most people and places I’ve seen on the Fediverse are lovely… Except Hexbear. They’re one wall of cognitive dissonance away from being right wingers and constantly complaining that liberals are all lying to themselves about their liberalism. That THEY are the TRUE left wingers.

  • Owl@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    58
    arrow-down
    25
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Hexbear, lemmygrad and (in great part) lemmy.ml are tankie instances.

    They basically deny any crimes of Stalin, Mao etc…

    • tht@social.pwned.page
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      27
      ·
      7 months ago

      I mean Mao greatly regretted his plans and was very sad they didnt work, he went onto become a vegan and grow his own food as to not get the food meant for the workers

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    44
    arrow-down
    16
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Hexbear.net is a Left-Unity instance populated mainly by Marxists and Anarchists. They generally don’t get along with Lemmy.world, whose admins defederated from the major Marxist-aligned instances.

    Whether you block Hexbear is up to you, I enjoy my time there a lot but it’s also because I’m a Marxist. The ones saying they are “pretending” to be Leftist never seem to be able to explain why a large group of people would all ironically have theory reading groups and ironically support trans rights for years, even before federating with anyone else. What would they have to gain?

    If I were you, I’d ask on an instance actually federated with them. You’ll get different perspectives than you will here, which is always the case when it comes to controversial topics like Marxism, where opinion varies greatly from instance to instance.

    • Lumelore (She/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      7 months ago

      I really don’t think they are a left-unity instance considering that they get very upset and unpleasant to talk to if you don’t support authoritarianism or their alternative “facts.”

      Like I’m cool with all sorts of different leftist viewpoints and I think it’s necessary that we support each other, but I draw the line at authoritarianism and rewriting history.

      • Sootius@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        7 months ago

        Anarchists are explicitly welcome, so authoritarianism is definitely not a requirement. And what “alternative facts”?

        • Lumelore (She/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          7 months ago

          Things like the denial of the tiananmen square massacre or claiming that North Korea is a free and prosperous nation, both of which I have seen with my own two eyes on hexbear.

          While I am not an anarchist, generally I am cool with them. Who I am not cool with are Marxist-Leninists, which are authoritarian.

          From the wikipedia article on Marxist-Leninists:

          In the words of historians Silvio Pons and Robert Service, elections are “generally not competitive, with voters having no choice or only a strictly limited choice”. Generally, when alternative candidates have been allowed to stand for election, they have not been allowed to promote very different political views.

          • The people of the soviet union, at least as far as Pat Sloan experienced in ~1937, had the most limited choice: any person

              I have, while working in the Soviet Union, participated in an election. I, too, had a right to vote, as I was a working member of the community, and nationality and citizenship is no bar to electoral rights. The procedure was extremely simple. A general meeting of all the workers in our organization was called by the trade union committee, candidates were discussed, and a vote was taken by show of hands. Anybody present had the right to propose a candidate, and the one who was elected was not personally a member of the Party. In considering the claims of the candidates their past activities were discussed, they themselves had to answer questions as to their qualifications, anybody could express an opinion, for or against them, and the basis of all the discussion was: What justification had the candidates to represent their comrades on the local Soviet?
              As far as the elections in the villages were concerned, these took place at open village meetings, all peasants of voting age, other than those who employed labour, having the right to vote and to stand for election. As in the towns, any organization or individual could put forward candidates, anyone could ask the candidate questions, and anybody could support or oppose the candidature. It is usual for the Communist Party to put forward a candidate, trade unions and other organizations can also do so, and there is nothing to prevent the Party’s candidate from not being elected, if he has not sufficient prestige among the voters.

            Pat Sloan, Soviet Democracy: Chapter XIII

            • Lumelore (She/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              Several things in there I dislike:

              Raising hands does not seem like an accurate way vote. Peasants who employed labor couldn’t vote. People could vote even if they weren’t citizens. No mention of being able to vote for non-communists. There are trade-unions and other candidates but it doesn’t mention their political alignment

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        7 months ago

        I don’t really understand what you’re getting at here, you’re being very vague. I’m a Marxist, I enjoy my time there, I don’t really think I can say I share your same views on it.

        • Lumelore (She/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          7 months ago

          When the instance I’m on was still federated with hexbear I did go and check them out to see what they had to say and with my own two eyes I saw people there denying the tiananmen square massacre and claiming that North Korea is a free and prosperous nation. Not to mention that when visiting other instances, such as the one I’m on, many would be extremely rude, which is why they got defederated.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            edit-2
            7 months ago

            Hexbear’s stance, and most Marxists in general, on Tian’anmen is that hundreds of protestors and PLA officers were killed in Beijing that day as the PLA advanced towards the square, but that the square itself was evacuated peacefully, which matches leaked US cables and the CPC’s official stance on what it calls the “June 4th incident”. This is a rejection of the commonly reported story of 10,000 people being killed on the square itself, which originated from a British diplomat’s cable. Said diplomat was later confirmed to have evacuated well before.

            I reiterate, Hexbear’s stance isn’t that the massacre didn’t happen, but that Western nations intentionally sensationalize the quantity of deaths and the character of the events. This is also why Western Nations don’t frequently report on the South Korean Gwang-Ju massacre that occured around the same era, where the South Korean millitary murdered thousands of High School and College students protesting against Chun Do-Hwan’s dictatorship. All of what I said is backed up by the Wikipedia page for Tian’anmen Square Protests and Massacre, such as Alan Donald revising his estimate from 10,000 to the low thousands yet BBC continuing to report the 10,000 figure:

            In a disputed cable sent in the aftermath of the events at Tiananmen, British Ambassador Alan Donald initially claimed, based on information from a “good friend” in the State Council of China, that a minimum of 10,000 civilians died,[237] claims which were repeated in a speech by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke,[238] but which is an estimated number much higher than other sources provided.[239][240] After the declassification, former student protest leader Feng Congde pointed out that Donald later revised his estimate to 2,700–3,400 deaths, a number closer to, but still much higher than, other estimates.[241]

            As for the DPRK, I’d have to see what you mean as an example. The common consensus is that the DPRK has a well-documented “defector storytelling industry” where defectors are paid for outlandish stories, and due to their unverifiability gets passed on as truth. A good documentary on this subject is Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul. Therefore, really, very little can be trusted on the subject. Brutal executions being reported such as one official being eaten to death by 120 dogs end up being reported uncritically, despite said official turning up alive later and the story originating from a Chinese satirical column, akin to the Onion.

            This is where the joke of “Juche Necromancy” comes from, because supposedly executed officials regularly turn up alive.

    • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      The reason they got defederated from so many major instances is less to do with the politics and more to do with the spam, brigading, and bad faith interactions that had no intention of civility.

      • Sootius@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        This is objectively untrue, Lemmy.world refused to ever federate, as, in their own words, a “pre-emptive last resort”.

        In their statement, the reasoning they explicitly highlighted was Hexbear’s stances like being against western propaganda and disliking the mass overseas wars driven by the US. Don’t believe me? You can read it here - https://lemmy.world/post/2498330

        So no, Hexbear was very explicitly defederated because of politics.

      • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        You can tell someone is terminally reddit brained when they’re still accusing people from federated instances of “brigading”.

    • BootyBuccaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      Left-Unity instance

      I doubt it or I’d be over there. Instead, I got attacked and mocked by a circlejerking mob of angsty teens from Hexbear operating in bad faith for remotely questioning something about communism and then got permabanned from Lemmy.ml. I didn’t even attack it! 😂

  • Allero@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Note: being on Lemmy for about a year, I didn’t live through the early days of this place. Here’s what I can recollect, as neutrally given as possible.

    TL;DR The recent conflicts between two politically different groups on Lemmy have radicalized many people, and many Hexbear residents in particular. Unless you are to discuss the far-left ideas and are very radical about disadvantaged groups, you are safe to block it.

    Hexbear is a far-left (as in actually communist) anti-discrimination community, initially more of a safe haven to promote equality and foster a healthy and welcoming place for leftists to come together.

    With core developers of Lemmy also being far-left, Hexbear naturally fitted the landscape along with the official Lemmy.ml, heavy far-left Lemmygrad.ml and others.

    As time went on, however, all sorts of left-leaning and apolitical folks, not just far-left, came to the platform, filling other instances like Lemmy.world (now the most populated of them all), sh.itjust.works and many others.

    As a result, Lemmy has two groups of people with radically different political views: one is a group of more or less organized far-left, and the other is everyone else, most commonly liberals. This distinction has caused a lot of conflicts and heated discussions based on political adherence.

    Most notable case is latest US elections. The far left side generally called not to vote Democrat as Biden has failed to deliver on many of his promises and empowered Israel to commit war crimes in Palestine, while the liberal audience called to vote Democrat to not let Republicans take the lead, which may arguably lead to an even worse outcome than unaccountable Dems can make.

    This divide has raised a lot of mutual hostility, brigading, and uncivil behavior, which has radicalized many on both sides of the conflict, the consequences of which you have got to experience.

    What to do with that is up to you to decide. Hexbear is very politically uniform and very political overall, so if you’re not here to discuss communism, you won’t lose much and will gain additional peace of mind.

    • danciestlobster@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      7 months ago

      This is by far the best and most informative answer. The only thing it’s missing as another couple commenters pointed out is hexbear is all about their oversized memes and emojis, making anytime you happen upon one of their posts extremely conspicuous (even if politics aren’t being discussed).

    • sudoer777@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      7 months ago

      Also Hexbear and Lemmygrad were populated by r/chapotraphouse and r/GenZedong users respectively when those subreddits got banned, which happened before the main Reddit exodus that populated instances like .world

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    7 months ago

    I just took a look at your participation in the hexbear thread you are referencing, and I’m confused about the issue. Seems like you got mostly thoughtful and positive replies. There was some .world bashing at the end including the bit you quoted. It seems strange to me that rather than ask questions about hexbear to the actual users there, you came over here to ask on an instance that has daily threads complaining about leftist instances.

  • atro_city@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    7 months ago

    Wow, I was wondering why I hadn’t blocked a single hexbear or lemmy.ml user here: my instance did it for me! I’ve had multiple accounts on multiple servers and consistently had to block hexbear users until finally blocking hexbear outright. It’s been a much better experience then.

  • archonet@lemy.lol
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    arrow-down
    30
    ·
    7 months ago

    block hexbear, lemmygrad, and lemmy.ml. And any user named “UniversalMonk” on any instance. You’ll thank me later.

    • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      7 months ago

      I’d probably be more selective about blocking users from lemmy.ml, but I’m a bit biased in the question given the server I chose when I joined Lemmy

      • archonet@lemy.lol
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        12
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        fun fact: you can want everyone’s needs to be met while also being allowed to criticize China, Russia, and while not acting like an insufferable twat. Wild, I know.

        • Sootius@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          7 months ago

          It’s true. And all those things happen on Hexbear all the time. So I don’t know what you’re talking about.

          • archonet@lemy.lol
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            7 months ago

            “not acting like an insufferable twat”

            hexbear

            yeah no. Funny, good try, but no.

    • Wugmeister@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Who is UnversalMonk? Never seen him. Probably because div0 (my instance admin) blocked him for some petty bullshit like calling him an egocentric power tripping keyboard warrior

      • archonet@lemy.lol
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        This post goes into detail about some of his shenanigans. Short version is he’s a ban-evading right-wing troll who pretended to be a big third party supporter up until the election, and now just regurgitates right wing trash all day.

  • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    20
    ·
    7 months ago

    Oh another one of these

    Short answer:

    “What if 4chan was communist instead of neonazi”

    Similar level of assholety and low post quality. Better politics. Overall don’t bother, not worth it.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      “What if 4chan was communist instead of neonazi”

      Not quite, that would be /leftypol/

      wiki page / KnowYourMeme


      Better politics.

      This reminds me of one of their site banners:

      screenshot of a chan imageboard post with the text "What the fuck? Why does /pol/ have one or two reading lists and /leftypol/ has tons?"

      • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        21
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        Hexbear has its origins on Reddit’s ChapoTrapHouse which I’m pretty sure has a connection to leftypol in its history.

        But sure

        My point is:

        Hexbear = Jerkoffs, except class conscious

        Would be nice if they weren’t jerkoffs but hey, at least they have class consciousness.

        • Sootius@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          This analysis isn’t quite accurate. On the whole, Hexbear is actually one of the kindest and coolest and community-minded places I’ve ever been on the internet. But I’d agree there’s an issue of a portion of users who happily get overly aggro if you annoy them (and being allowed to get away with it).

    • funnyguy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      31
      ·
      7 months ago

      lmao the blatant transphobia “disengage with the largest trans safe space on lemmy”

      you’re so obvious

      even if one assumes your trollish comment was in good faith, it only takes a single glance at hexbears front page to see it’s filled with kindness and reason. just people having fun online while still making space for serious discussion. and again, making sure marginalized people are safe and welcome. I wonder what your real issue with the site is?

      seriously, what other site allows trans people to safely and comfortably be ourselves like this? https://hexbear.net/post/4271750

      • blackn1ght@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        7 months ago

        There is literally nothing transphohic about their comment, what the hell are you on about? People don’t like Hexbear because it’s trans-friendly, people dislike it because of their tankie politics and users that act like edgy 14 year olds.

        • funnyguy@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          arrow-down
          13
          ·
          7 months ago

          when i used blahaj i was harassed by transphobic chasers. it is NOT a safe space.

  • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    7 months ago

    Hexbear is a different instance where its users are basically a group of hard communism supporters. If you disliked their behavior, feel free to block their instance.

    • Foni@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      7 months ago

      They are not only hard communists, they have 0 interest in propagating their ideas, they only insult and despise everyone who is not 100% in agreement with them. In the best case, and I don’t think it is, it is an endogamous community only for themselves, the opposite of what a federated social network is

      • tht@social.pwned.page
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        7 months ago

        “tankie” here, dont really support them, they are the reason the left cant unify and are constantly infighting

      • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        7 months ago

        Their entire stated purpose of federating is to “dunk” on people and “dismantle Western propaganda”. They’re not interested in participating in good faith and never have been. They don’t see anyone who disagrees with them as a person, just something to yell at and harass.