I think people are seeing Reddit as their only solution right now due to the lack of awareness of this place. It's been a bit sad to see all the news articles written about the event but very few plugs for alternate options to visit.
Funny you mention that, I found out about Lemmy specifically from a dude who was being downvoted to hell for even mentioning it as an alternative. So glad I decided to look into it I love this place and the whole idea of the fediverse in general.
I understand that the fediverse isn't the most intuitive thing to understand, and that many people won't immediately understand it, but I've seen so many comments saying that it's too confusing (even in response to direct links to instances with the simplest explanations). There has to be an astroturfing campaign of some kind going on
there has been quite a bit of this - in many venues. I have been involved in so many firefights involving bullshit "what-a-bout"-isms and strawman ideological stupidity that I have wondered how much astroturfing and sock-puppetry was going on. now I suspect there was quite a bit.
Lazy people fearing change is more like it. I’m waiting to see if capitulation occurs. If things don’t get fixed by month end I’ll zero my main account and walk away.
I've been telling people, the only way this works is if communities migrate somewhere else. Every single blacked out subreddit needs to post their new location on a site other than Reddit. Otherwise people will just stay on Reddit and wait or visit/make new subreddits.