The Russian commander of the “Vostok” Battalion fighting in southern Ukraine said on Thursday that Ukraine will not be defeated and suggested that Russia freeze the war along current frontlines.

"Freezing the war along the current frontlines" is victory for Russia?? They already control all the territory they claim. I guess at this point Ukraine is starting to define winning as mere survival.

Putting words in my mouth is not intelligent discourse

Maybe you should have extended me the same courtesy.

I have been polite, but that doesn't mean I'm going to back down when you lob baseless accusations at me. Do better yourself.

Is criticism of the use of that word against 196's rules? Here are articles from the Chicago Tribune and the Anchorage Press, and a definition from the Cambridge English Dictionary which say:

Taking the R-word and adding "lib" to it doesn't make it any less offensive. And what bothers me is that those who combine "liberal" with that word are not insulting their intended targets — they're insulting an entire group of people who have done nothing wrong, all while perpetuating a term that simply needs to go away.

Combining the R-word with liberal makes it no less offensive.

an offensive word used by some people on the extreme right of politics to refer to someone who holds left-wing political beliefs

While I understand that you're using it ironically, I believe that being critical of the ironic use of offensive language is valid and contributes to discussion. I find it concerning that Nakoichi's post was removed without any explanation other than calling him, "braindead."

I was under the impression that we were only supposed to stay out of threads that had a disclaimer like this:

This is an admin post, intended for blahaj lemmy users. Top level posts from members of other instances will be removed.

I'm not aware of any request not to make or comment on a post like this.

My impression is that Blahaj accepted the 196 lifeboat without necessarily knowing much about it. Many of us on Hexbear had experiences with it on Reddit because on the surface it seems cool, but it's always had some strong Vaushite tendencies that we really dislike.

Here's a couple sources about it:

Chicago Tribune- Here's an offensive word we should retire right now (2016)

Taking the R-word and adding "lib" to it doesn't make it any less offensive. And what bothers me is that those who combine "liberal" with that word are not insulting their intended targets — they're insulting an entire group of people who have done nothing wrong, all while perpetuating a term that simply needs to go away.

Anchorage Press - Why [word] is Lazy and Offensive (2020)

Combining the R-word with liberal makes it no less offensive.

Cambridge English Dictionary

"An offensive word used by some people on the extreme right of politics to refer to someone who holds left-wing political beliefs"

It's not just us Hexbears who find it offensive. Even if it's used ironically, I think we can all agree that the ironic use of offensive language still has potential to cause harm and should at the very least not be above crticism.

E: I'm pro-federation and I want to soothe things over, and I think the admins of both Blahaj and Hexbear are committed to that, but it seems like this mod is intentionally trying to burn bridges. This all happened underneath a post where they publicly posted a private conversation with one of our mods for the purpose of mockery. I've been trying to get people to tone it down on our side, but none of our people are going to listen to calls for civility in the face of ableism. We support our neurodivergent comrades.

Oh, I think there is actually an open room at the hotel but it's all the way in the back. Just keep rolling, you'll find it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all this

My thoughts were asked for so I provided them.

Yes, there is currently some disagreement among our users on how much we should change our, let's say, idiosyncratic site culture now that we're federated. Not everyone wanted to federate in the first place, and most of us didn't really know what to expect. For the past three years, we haven't had to play by anyone else's rules, and not everyone is enthused about the prospect. Also, as an explicitly political space, while we have discussions about other things, we don't have any spaces where veering into politics is unexpected or unwelcome.

Personally, I think federation is the most excitement we've had in ages, so I'm in favor of adapting and playing by the rules, because otherwise I think it's inevitable that we'll get cut off eventually. But it's a pretty big change in a pretty short time-frame, so tbh idk what will happen.

Currently lemmy.ml and lemm.ee are federated with both I think so that's an option if you wanna see both from one account.

It's all good. I just don't want one user messing things up. We also had a user trolling over there spamming "Fuck democracy" and links to atrocities in their meta discussion post. But yeah it was a real shit take and it sucks that it brought up that trauma.

I talked with the lemm.ee admin and he did not mind if hexbear users engaged in that post in a way that was not low-effort.

I interpreted that to mean that our admin asked and was specifically told we could do it.

AFAIK they do have downbears.

Actually I'm not sure about that. I don't have an account but if you go to https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/ I only see an upvote button.

It's been removed by the mods now fyi.

I agree. Picking up the ocassional solid comrade is worth any number of libs. And this is the most excitement we've had in a long time.

It's really frustrating how some people seem to be intent on defederating and unwilling to adapt or cooperate. And also like, the difficulty we're having integrating is part of why we should integrate. We've become too insular and we need to remember how to talk to people on the outside again. It's healthy for us.

Honestly might consider switching instances if y'all ruin this.

Let's not hijack their meta post with off-topic discussion.