POV: You accidentally join the wrong lemmy.ml communities

I'll admit that having an account on the .ml instance was a little jarring at first. I had another account on a youtubers instance he graciously opened, but I was getting connectivity issues constantly so chose .ml because of it's size and before knowing all the controversy.

My first negative experience was like !Perfide@reddthat.com, I commented in a post making a winnie/xi joke which was removed and it was the first and only mod action against me (that I know of) so I was a little miffed. For like a day I contemplated deleting this account to move to another instance, then I actually read my comment and looked at the post and realized I was the one being childish.

Since then, I've had actual conversations with people regardless if they align with my political views or not. I now focus on making sure my comments have substantive meaning (when it's about domestic/foreign politics) that actually engages the conversation or adds to the discussion. Regardless of it's content, it's been quite nice for all the hateful and joke comments to be less. A lot of cringelords on here don't want that though, it's like Reddit all over again in that aspect. If any of them actually had a substantive critique or could openly debate then they would quickly realize what comments are inappropriate and a mod might second guess banning someone who looks like they're breaking instance rules.

I live in the U.S. South so it's extremely relevant for me at this time. I'm surrounded by the right wing, bathed into it everytime I go outside or flip on the radio. It's such a weird disconnect that people can recognize the GOP as a cult, indoctrination at birth, supported by a horrible education system and a defunct family dynamic that excludes anyone stepping out of line. Yet, there's non-stop calls for violence against them in general and a constant tightening of the RED VS BLUE in the form of quips and rhetoric making it harder to have any actual conversations with the individuals. Regardless, I'm just grateful for the conversations I see with actual information on policies and discussions of the merits without the need to name call or belittle each other.