Comment on Hexbear federation megathread
steltek@lemm.ee 1 year ago
First off, thank you @sunaurus ! Being an admin is tough. Being an admin that tries to build bridges, is even harder.
I vehemently dislike the “if you don’t like them, you can block them” advice that is frequently given out. As a thought exercise, what is the equilibrium state of that method? New users to a community, coming in without a mature block list, would see 3 sets of users: a far-left echo chamber, an everyone-else echo chamber, and a verbal brawl of trolls in the middle. This is not a welcoming scene and will drive new users away.
With Lemmy, I ask myself what is the intent of moderation. “To enforce the rules!” is shallow reasoning. Why do we have rules? I put forward that the rules are there to maintain and build a community (dictionary definition). They are not there to enforce a particular worldview or economic system. While I staunchly oppose hexbear and grad viewpoints, I would not defederate them over their political views. That said, it is extremely hard to stay engaged on Lemmy when there is background of constant, shallow hate and derision thrown at me and my views. The atmosphere created by these comments go beyond simple political views.
Hexbear is confounding. On the rare occasion when the topic is kept nonpolitical, I find the comments helpful or informative. However, it’s a sad fact of humanity that you can make anything political if you try and if you’ve built a strong personal identity around political views, this happens almost automatically. And that is where things go very wrong. Taken as a whole, that brigading effect is hard to ignore. You ask yourself if you’re really welcome here, do you belong? “GO BACK TO REDDIT IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT!”
I am an American and another person’s observation really resonated with me: it felt like arguing alone against a crowd Fox News viewers. There was an entirely alternate set of facts and you were instantly labeled, stereotyped, and insulted for holding a different opinion. Do I really want to spend a lot of time in Fox News land? And if this analogy holds, is it the intent of Lemmy’s various admins to allow for one instance to mandate the tone for the entire Fediverse?
I do not share your optimisim that things will improve based on an updated code of conduct. Hexbear admins have good intentions to balance their ideals with good fediverse citizenship. I think we will continue to see friction between worlds without much stronger rules of engagement.
That said, it is extremely hard to stay engaged on Lemmy when there is background of constant, shallow hate and derision thrown at me and my views.
With all due respect, this is how communists feel whenever we try to present our own interpretation of events. Even presenting objectively true statements that aren’t 100% in line with a Western perspective gets a flood of “wumao 5 cent army Russian bot” comments.
steltek@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I vote for defederation
Hexbear will not contribute to a healthy ecosystem. I do not believe they can uphold their promises to rein in their worst instincts, no matter how much they earnestly try.
It’s evident that the mainstream Hexbear ideology is one of extremism and a fig leaf of barely concealed militancy. Fascination and celebration with violence or death against their political enemies is encouraged. Enemies condemned simply by belonging to a system or class. “We don’t actually support violence but hey, just asking questions, why do we have capital punishment for murderers but not landlords?” These ideas are not the product of a healthy, balanced mind nor can we call these them mere innocent political beliefs.
In this very thread, where they are under a microscope, there is a substantial amount of inexcusable behavior. It’s impossible to believe that Hexbear is capable of the restraint required to behave outside of their own instance. They identify so heavily with their political beliefs that they leap to defend them against the most minor transgression and argue 10 layers deep into the comments. The topic could be whether the newest Pixel phone is any good or not but you’ll find a long tirade about “imperialist” trade policies that you’ve seen a million times before and has absolutely nothing to do with anything. That is not how healthy communities grow and develop.
I tried to keep an open mind. I have seen insightful comments from Hexbears and yes, it is healthy to challenge my own worldviews. But the weight of the unapologetic and unhealthy behavior overrides that. Hexbear must be defederated. If I want to debate the finer points of communism (and I really don’t), I know where to find them.