Lemmy was released as an open-source fediverse alternative to Reddit.
Just over a year after launch, r/ChapoTrapHouse, moved across after being banned from Reddit. This is likely what you're referring to. It had well over 100,000 active users on Reddit, so represented a sudden sizable influx of users.
I'd wager the biggest influx of people by far, though, occurred when Spez upset a majority of mods and many users by banning third party apps.
People looked for an alternative, and Lemmy was it.
But why are so many people who lean left politically? Because the Venn Diagram for "people who like the idea of a decentralised platform that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires", and "people who would like society that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires" is nearly a circle.
That's what I thought as well. No ads. No one tracking you. No one profiting off your data. Sounds like leftist ideals to me. Freedom from corporate bullshit.
There's also the people who got pushed out by right wing admins/mods. I personally switched after I got banned for saying riot police should quit their jobs en masse following RvW. I still stand by that statement.
Is a communist the same as a progressive? A democratic socialist the same as an anarchist? Call me what you want but like I said, it’s reductive and meaningless.
Lemmy definitely has a super majority of people who are politically left. Lemmy also has a very large amount of extremely politically left people. I am not sure why this is the case.
However, not every Lemmy user is politically left.
Because Lemmy was created by leftists having their communities banned from reddit. It is and always will be a leftist platform, same as whatever garbage Trump made will be a right wing platform.
Being decentralized means that anybody could create a right-wing instance, and it may be able to federate with enough other instances that it becomes big. If it gets enough users, it could make Lemmy more right-leaning overall.
It's not inevitable that Lemmy stays left-wing. But a centralized platform like Twitter or "whatever garbage Trump made" can be curated to be right-wing only. Just as lemmy.ml and perhaps some other instances may be curated to be left-wing only.
Yes and no? The humans, probably. The accounts created to keep tabs on the leftist humans? Maybe not…?
Just kidding, NO conservative or government groups have EVER silently infiltrated ANY leftist groups, and me suggesting any account here is a propaganda bot or whatever is TOTALLY outrageous!
Post anything you want here, it’ll NEVER get screenshotted & linked back to you or your job in some giant hack in 5 years 🥳🤩😎