Comment

Comment on Hexbear federation megathread

I’ve mostly seen anti war takes from them

They’re highly critical of Ukraine and keep blaming them for the bloodshed. They’ll say Ukraine needs to surrender to stop needless deaths, but either they’re completely naïve and think Russia would instantly stop fighting forever, or they’re quite happy for Ukraine and it’s culture to cease to exist. They’ll never directly come out and say they support Russia, but their criticisms against either countries are one sided against Ukraine, and it’s extremely rare they’ll say anything about Russia.

IMO is much better than all the pro war news and views in the lib instances

I’ve not seen any “pro war news”. I see news on the war, but I doubt there’s many people who want the war. People just want Russia to leave Ukraine more than anything.

Most leftists are anti Russia since its a capitilaist, imerialist, oligarchal shit hole, but they also are anti US and NATO for similar reasons.

As I mentioned above, it’s not balanced at all. You don’t see the same (if any at all) anger towards Russia as you do the US, Ukraine etc.

50% of their mod team is trans and they are one of the few instances with pronouns built in to it. They have a good argument that of the biggest instances they are the most trans friendly. Can’t speak for smaller instances or individual communities though. It’s great that trans users have a space they feel at home and safe with. But it’s sad that they have to do that in the first place. Ideally they should be welcome on any instance and treated fairly just as anyone else but sadly that’s not reality. As much as Hexbear is brought up about defederating, toxic anti-trans, or any toxic discriminatory users should be put on a public ban list so people can choose to ban them.

I’m not really for them to be defederated though, but I think it’s important to at least discuss it like OP has here, as it brings up behaviours that get brought to attention to their mods and highlights that many people feel that their behaviour can be seen as damaging to the wider Lemmy community.

source

Sort:hotnew top

MolotovHalfEmpty@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Both sides in a war are responsible for bloodshed, but if there is a dominant view on Hexbear it’s that the biggest responsibility for the conflict lies with the US who created the modern Russian state, strung it along, then encircled it and escalated against all advice, backed the 2014 coup and the far right militias that carried out an 8 year civil war, continue fuelling the war for profit, and have sabotaged any attempt at peace talks. There are plenty of posts and even an official statement making this clear.

source
- blackn1ght@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Well yeah, unfortunately when you’re in a war then bloodshed is unavoidable. But it’s not like they invited Russia to invade.
  
  dominant view on Hexbear it’s that the biggest responsibility for the conflict lies with the US who created the modern Russian state, strung it along, then encircled it and escalated against all advice
  
  I think their ideology is blinding them into creating such a narrative. Not saying the US doesn’t meddle in other countries but this is really far fetched and just assumes that Russia is blameless and just happens to doing exactly as what the US wants. I don’t think it’s that unrealistic that this is purely Putin on an imperialist conquest attempting to cement himself in history as a great Russian leader. Not everything is about the US. Sometimes other countries have their own agendas.
  
  then encircled it
  
  Not 100% sure what this means but I’m guessing it’s in regards to NATO? I don’t think the ex-soviet states needed any US meddling to convince them to join.
  
  source
  - MolotovHalfEmpty@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    But it’s not like they invited Russia to invade.
    
    That’s not the the case in any war and I’ve given a (admittedly very simple, broad strokes) overview of some of the material conditions that led to the war, even just in Ukraine - particularly the predominantly Russian speaking separatist regions wanting security guarantees after 8 years of being shelled by the Ukrainian coup government and terror attacks by neo-nazi militias that they state either couldn’t or wouldn’t reign in.
    
    I think their ideology is blinding them into creating such a narrative. Not saying the US doesn’t meddle in other countries but this is really far fetched and just assumes that Russia is blameless
    
    Hexbear doesn’t have a single ideology. It’s a left unity instance that had a broad range of anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist ideologies.
    
    Nothing I’ve stated is far fetched, but all documented fact that a cursory reading of post-soviet history would support but if you like and are interested I can provide you some sources and reading?
    
    No one on Hexbear thinks Russia is blameless. Views on Hexbear range from ‘this war is a travesty’ to ‘this war is a tragedy that could have been avoided by taking dozens of different decisions over the last two decades’. Again, I can give you some further examples and reading if you’re interested. But you claimed Hexbear users blamed Ukraine for the war and I said that “if there is a dominant view on Hexbear it’s that the biggest responsibility for the conflict lies with the US” for contributing most to the material conditions that eventually made a conflict like this sadly inevitable. But that doesn’t get Russia off the hook for also being a capitalist state also waging war and no one has stated that other countries don’t have their own agendas.
    
    Not 100% sure what this means but I’m guessing it’s in regards to NATO.
    
    Yes, NATO encirclement is part of it and was warned about by everyone from hawks like Henry Kissinger to former heads of NATO to Joe Biden himself before they went and did it anyway, but there’s also other aspects like the stationing of nuclear weapons, construction of new military bases, as well as coups, proxy wars, and funding destabilising groups on Russia’s borders.
    
    source
spiderplant@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The narrative is never as black and white as either US or Russian sources would have you believe.

The Ukraine is publicly against any peace talks and the US arms industry is making bank off the war so the US puts very little pressure on the Ukraine to sue for peace.

Russia claims that the US blocked early peace talks. Not sure if Russia would have gone to them in too faith but I guess we’ll never know.

Any articles dehumanising Russians such as calling them orcs(this was everywhere) helps justify the continuation of the war. Any articles not calling for an immediate end to the war on humanitarian grounds should be considered propaganda for either side.

I’d argue MSM is not balanced either in the opposite direction. Countering the current narrative on anti war grounds or being anti US/NATO can be easily misunderstood as being pro Russia.

Obviously I’m not saying pro Russia accounts don’t exist on hexbear but I don’t think its as big a thing as you think.

On the trans thing, yeah it would be nice if they could exist everywhere without issues but I’ve seen plenty of transphobia coming from different instances including our own. Having a mod team that understands their struggle and protects them is worth a lot.

source
s0ykaf@hexbear.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

As I mentioned above, it’s not balanced at all. You don’t see the same (if any at all) anger towards Russia as you do the US, Ukraine etc.

of course you don’t see it

in my country alone america has 1) supported a military coup in the 60s, 2) fucked us over their loans in the 70s, causing hyperinflation that lasted into the 90s, 3) fucked us over through the IMF from the 90s to early 00s and 4) supported (as we now know) a soft coup in 2016 that ended up resulting in lula’s arrest and bolsonaro winning the election

meanwhile russia has… existed in eurasia and helped us create BRICS??

why would i hate russia more than america and its satellite states? even if putin is an asshole, an anticommunist piece of shit who was part of the group that destroyed the USSR, he just hasn’t done to us what american presidents have.

and hexbear users in general, since they really are leftists (as in, anticapitalists of various flavors) are very much aware of what america and their puppets do with us in the 3rd world, while russia doesn’t really screw us over much at all and in fact tends to play an opposite geopolitical role. so why is it so surprising that the animosity towards the US is way more noticeable?

source