It reminds me a little of the old internet. I like how relatively small it feels, and that people post content for the sake of the content, not to promote themselves. I haven’t found my usual corners yet, the ones I used to hang out in on older platforms, but I figure that’s just a matter of time. I’m not super nostalgic for the old internet or anything, but it’s nice to find at least a hint of something human-centered somewhere.
I hope it doesn’t fall apart and that it keeps growing.
I was skeptical when I switched to Linux, but then I ditched Windows on my dual boot for good. It was a hugely positive experience, and it really felt like freedom. I’m hoping this will be the same.
And don’t be mad at me if I act totally clueless here sometimes 'cause all that is new to me.
I am not pretending their aren’t leftist idiots here, I am pointing out the unhealthy weird obsession some people have in this place with hating on them… especially given the flood of violent rightwing ideologies happening globally right now it feels especially disengenous.
It is a little weird. I’m a leftist and I don’t agree with tankies, but they aren’t something I think about very often. Actually, I only think about them when a thread like this one pops up. For something which is supposedly a huge problem on Lemmy, I’ve found them very easy to avoid. So easy, that I don’t even remember what I did. Probably blocked a couple of instances early on?
So have i after over a year where I actually tried to engage - until i realized they handle discussions the same way as Sartre described how the antisemites discuss, where they amuse themselves while they play with words and meanings. (But with a bunch more old books as basis, while none of these books actually give Russia the right to attack a foreign country)
Lemmy is a lot nicer with the Tankie Triad blocked.
With the difference that I haven’t seen many rightwing chuds around here (thank god), while we have a fairly active community of leftwing chuds with a boner for Putin around here, which need the same amount of resistance - as all authoritarians do.
I mean sure, fuck Putin, russia is just an authoritarian dictatorship but also my president literally acts like a damn russian asset so I just find it tiring to listen to all of this alarm over leftwing people being pro-russia when it just kind of misses the point of who has the power, who is hurting people right now, and who we need to be focused on as a group of people that may launch unprovoked, violent acts.
Across the board, all over the world, the political parties that are most aligned with russia/Putin are rightwing, in Europe, in the US, everywhere… so yeah there are leftwing idiots here who support russia but also gestures at the globe again it kinda feels like a distorting narrative to focus on.
Here is the thing, there are lots of rightwing chuds with extremely toxic beliefs that use fediverse software, some of them have even tried to integrate with the larger fediverse… but invariably these rightwing communities end up being so toxic that nobody wants to connect with them.
Trump’s bullshit Truth Social is literally just stolen Mastodon code that doesn’t really need to have any federation capability because again nobody wants to connect with them…
https://www.pcmag.com/news/trumps-social-media-site-quietly-admits-its-based-on-mastodon
My point is that maybe the reason you see more leftwing idiots here than relative to your experience in other mediums/spaces is that while there are dangerous idiots of every type leftism does not largely endorse ideologies of violence and exclusion no matter how much conservative snowflakes accuse leftism of being this way it is just projection… so the instances you are on may not feel the need to censor leftist communities the way they do the equally “extreme” rightwing communities because the leftists don’t start attacking the humanity of trans people and harassing them in public, they don’t engage in rampant antisemitism or islamophobia, leftism doesn’t idolize the capacity for violence or obsess over there being specific ways you have to perform your gender socially, even if you hate leftists there just is way less reason to completely hard cut them off then there are for extremist rightwing communities…
Make no mistake though, there are tons of rightwing extremely toxic communities out there using fediverse software (or stolen fediverse software as is the case with Truth Social being stolen Mastodon code without attribution) and the reason you don’t see them is they already caused too much of an issue for everybody in the community you joined that they burned the bridges that would naturally lead you to listen to them.
TL;DR You are more likely to run into a Hasan Piker type here gasp!!! than a Tucker Carlson type because the Tucker Carlson types tend to say some really scary shit in the process of doing things like criticizing Israel, like genuine antisemitism or other things and they were already blocked by most normal communities that widely federate on the fediverse whereas the Hasan Piker types are just maybe from your perspective focused on the wrong politics but are not advocating directly for violence and exclusionary ideologies. The mainstream media and the billionaires who own corporate social media refuse to hold Tucker Carlson types accountable even when they say really twisted, evil things, the fediverse does not.
Agreed in the main, but there is a pro-gun left and some aggro anarchists (and lots of overlap), and some of them have as much bloodlust as any right-winger I’ve ran into. That is, assuming they’re a real person and not a bot or the persona of a Russian troll. Also, I seriously doubt any of them would bust a grape in a food fight, whereas I have solid evidence that right-wingers can and will get violent if given the opportunity.
This person disagrees and captures the energy well I think lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Tiwtwr_dg
If your point is that angry leftists are far less likely to shift into advocating for or directly doing violence without the leftist context around them immediately shutting them down for going off the deep end, sure but also… don’t mistake people using guns for a stand in for their identity as the whole of gun ownership, they are just the most immature and loud ones…
More importantly, don’t conflate the aesthetic attraction to violence and physical violent (nonconsentual) dominance over others as the same thing as the capacity for violence or self defense.
The largest subset of gun owners who actually identify deeply with their guns are hunters… which cannot easily be described as simply “conservative” exhibit A being how many hunter based environmental groups have consistently advocated for habitat and wetland protections in a way conservatism is hostile to.
The main problem are authoritarians, regardless of flavor. I do not know what you are all about here. Just because we are in the pretty unique position of having a more active left-wing auth population, doesn’t mean we have to accept their bullshit. It doesn’t matter that they are on the left wing if they play it loose with human rights.
Maybe, but whatever the main problem is, that’s up for debate. Somebody who is anti-authoritarian but is a bigot is still somebody I’m going to have a problem with.
Sure, but an anti-authoritarian bigot would at lease not try to decide for all of us that the laws of the land are now bigoted. That’s a lot less threatening than people who by definition want to impose their will on you.
I am pointing to the reality outside of this little bubble that globally we are experiencing a rise of authoritarian rightwing, openly racist and exclusionary political movements.
Yep, but replacing rightauts with leftauths doesn’t accomplish anything - in the end you are under the heel of the boot.
Is an “auth” anyone that supports having a state? Is it not better for the working class to have a state than the capitalist class? These kinds of zingers are common, but they don’t actually say much.
Wouldn’t they become the new dictators, elites, dictating what others should do? The cycle would just go on changing from one master to another with same bullshit. You underestimate how power changes people when they reach it.
Why would it be a problem for the working class to control society? The working class is the mass of the people that creates new value, democratically deciding how to run society and planning production for our own needs is a good thing. I don’t see how “working class controls society” as the same as “elites.”