Unlike previous attempts at trying reddit alternatives (like Voat), kbin and much of the lemmyverse doesn’t seem to be plagued with extreme far right buffoonery.
It’s one thing to have differing views, but I’ve seen enough attempted reddit migrations to be relieved that the popular communities in the fediverse so far haven’t been about crazy racist stuff or other extreme right bullshit.
I am also glad that I’m getting away from reddit’s general political shitposting, which was more left leaning. You couldn’t have any proper discourse on there, and even I with my generally more left leaning views recognized that.
Through constant vigilance, anyways. Every time you see some little fuck dogwhistling about FREE SPEECH or CENSORSHIP, you gotta make sure they aren't welcome in these parts.
"The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper described it as the seemingly self-contradictory idea that in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must retain the right to be intolerant of intolerance." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
I for one welcome our intolerant of intolerance server admins across the fediverse.
But we have out fair share of Mao and Stalin lovers and Xi loveboys. It's very simmilar. But I guess they are mostly contained to one or two instances.
this partisan nonsense is the biggest threat to the fediverse rn. when will people understand that the real fight is down vs. up, the little guy vs the elite mafia. left/right as an endless blamegame they use to keep us fighting each other, while they steal from everyone. the old divide & conquer, still works like charm. every other platform is already infected with it. if it gets to the fediverse, we're just gonna end up with a bunch of oppressive echo chambers much like reddit. if that happens I'll be gone
Voat was created as an alternative for all the nazis that got banned on Reddit so it was always designed to be full of shit. This sphere of the fediverse managed to keep clear of these people. They are able to create their own sphere that is not federated with this one but that is not a problem for us here.
Oh believe me, there are definitely people from either extremes on here as well. What's different on Lemmy/kbin is that server admins can just straight up block and defederate these servers, which means for the most part you won't be seeing these posts unless you specifically look for them.
Someone posted a huge list of “reddit alternatives” and I went through them one by one, Kbin/lemmy links were right down the bottom but I’m so glad I persisted- there were SO many far right “anti woke” style websites on that list all trying to become social media, it really opened my eyes. im positive this is not a coincidence, & would not be surprised if there are some pretty bad folks/nation states are behind setting these things up to try & propagandise people.
Anyway, this place seems pretty cool, will hang here for a bit i think.
When Voat, and then Ruqqus, were formed, people leaving Reddit were
a minority of informed people, smelling the bullshit from a distance, and genuinely concerned about freedom of speech; and
a majority of clowns, who don't really give a damn about free speech - they were pissed that their specific discourse was being banned.
That is not what is happening now. The ones leaving are not doing so due to "I can't say slurs any more! ;_;" like that majority, or "I'm concerned about deeply abstract matters" like the minority. The ones leaving are the most contributive people, who know that the boat is sinking, are seeing it sinking, and want to get away ASAP.
The difference now is that Gab exists and those people have been going over there for a few years now. As long as the fediverse doesn’t become an echo chamber like Reddit I’ll stay happy.
It's easy to just block the things you don't want to see. As long as the communities you use don't allow that stuff, they will be banned if they bring it there. The same thing would have happened if more people joined those other reddit alternatives, but no one was willing to do it.
The way to avoid the fediverse suffering the same fate is not to combat extremism with an equivalent amount of antagonistic political dialogue, but to form meaningful communities around non-political topics.
Instead of bickering in circles about politics, join communities dedicated to your hobbies, career, etc.
My primary concern is for the fediverse to generate content that is search engine friendly. Generally, I don't think that political squabbles serve that end.
I'm doing my best to practice what I preach. Check my profile.
This exact thread down to the comments could've been on reddit and no one would've noticed. It's the same rehashed arguments and discussion ad nauseum. If you don't like some instance/magazine/whatever just block it yourself and be done with it.
The beauty of Lemmy/Kbin is that instances will naturally form multiple alliances with each other. Racist instances will form alliances with each other, and respectful instances like Lemmy.world will form alliances with respectful instances. Think of instances as countries.
As long as it doesn't descend into extreme far left buffoonery, I think I'm happy. Then again, I've come to realize that regardless of personal political beliefs, it's the buffoonery that's the big issue. People who can do nothing to make real change take things entirely too far in arguments with others who are similarly powerless. The problem is that we've been so manipulated and driven so far apart that what seems like common sense and basic human decency to one side of the aisle is radical buffoonery to the other. I don't see a fast solution to that. Rebuilding connection across the country will take elections that everyone trusts, electing officials who work towards bipartisan solutions and the service of the public good rather than an agenda. Too bad I don't see the major parties being interested in that.
Then again, I'm of the opinion that we should go back to at least one element of our original system - the president shouldn't have a slate in place for election, so that whoever takes #2 in the popular vote becomes VP.
I will fully admit that I went to some of those alternatives, and left because I'm just not interested in seeing extreme hate for people I don't actually hate.
I think the difference right now is that the people being driven off of Twitter aren't just the lunatic fringe, it's a lot of normal people.
Tmi, but when I was young my parents got a divorce, and so I end up in a situation where I was walking on eggshells because if I said the wrong thing to either one of them it would cause a civil war and I would have to deal with consequences of that. I ended up constantly watching every single word that I said, and it was really bad for me. It wasn't until much later on in life that I realized that I could open up to people and I wouldn't get in trouble when they saw who I was. For that reason, I'm extremely sensitive to free speech issues. Not because I want to go off and hate on anyone, but because I'm here to explore ideas, and sometimes when you're exploring ideas you have to step away from the orthodoxy. I don't want to go back to those days where I was carefully calculating every word to make sure I didn't piss somebody off and start a civil war.
On the other hand, a lot of the people who left don't have my story, and they left because they weren't able to talk shit about Jews anymore. And because of that, not only did freedom of speech get a bad name but those websites weren't really very nice to be on. If you're being totally honest, you ended up with the exact same problem because instead of watching out if you are starting to criticize a minority, you have to start watching out if you are about to praise a minority. The world is a complicated place you might have to do both you, you know?
So I think it's a good thing that finally the spaces are starting to get filled up by people who yearn for freedom, not so they can be a jerk but because they just want to be free to be themselves and to do so using the tools that they desire.
Far right people can stay at their own instance and we can just block them from our instance. If a community is not federated you cannot do this. Stay federating people