They probably thought lemmy was to reddit what truth/gab was to twitter (pre-elon twitter that is), or if you're memory is long enough, voat to reddit.
Like nah dude. Not all social media spinoffs are righties being mad they couldn't drop n-bombs.
I too tried Voat way back in the day, part of a small Reddit exodus when they were removing Snowden articles in worldnews without explanation (back when the user base of Reddit still cared about moderator transparency), and I learnt quickly that if a platform advertises itself as "censorship free" or something along those lines, what they really mean is "we thrive on hate speech here."
And after a few more years of checking out Reddit alternatives, I started to realise that basically all of them were "censorship free" and tailor made for trolls and bigots from banned Reddit communities like fatpeoplehate and jailbait.
By the time I heard about Lemmy, even though I didn't get the impression that it was just another Voat, I was also kinda disillusioned about ever finding a good Reddit alternative at that point. So I didn't bother trying.
And it has been a very pleasant surprise to find out how left wing it is here. That reputation is actually what made me try Bluesky before coming here and if I had known, I would've come here sooner. Finally an alternative that isn't just r/conservative - the website. And not just that, a platform that isn't full of 'centrists' that spend more time worrying about making sure the left wingers don't swear too much, then worrying about the right wingers taking people's rights away.
Hopefully the fediverse can serve as a deradicalizing force for these reactionary newcomers. However it is interesting that they would want to use federated social media over corporate social media, given their worldview idolizing the market and meritocracy.
That's true until you hit advanced IT like Networking, Cyber Security and Systems careers. I'm progressive but most of the older dudes I work with are Def far right Trump supporters. We get paid significantly more as well so you know how money and conservatism goes.
iirc there used to be a far right instance on Lemmy displaying Nazi imagery and shit, but they got defederated by almost everyone else and they're either banned in Germany now or the instance is dead
Unpopular opinion, but I don't really mind them, for now. They are not that imposing and I like to see the other viewpoint occasionaly, as I don't use other social networks. Makes me feel like I'm in less of a bubble here.
Homie I have been all over the internet and Lemmy has gotta be the worst lefty bubble/echo chamber I have ever seen.
Even in their own sub conservatives get downvoted into oblivion. If that's not indictive of a heavy bias left I don't know what is.
Im a left leaning moderate and I get downvoted constantly because I refuse to parrot the hivemind nonsense 24/7.
When I first got here I sorted everything by most commented and there was a thread someone made where they were asking if it was a good thing that the site was a massive lefty echo chamber. He got downvoted and anyone in the comments that had even a remotely moderate take was also downvoted.
I'm glad people like you still exist. I fear that the majority of the left just plugs their ears and starts screaming "LALALALA" the moment anyone challenges their view points even slightly. It's extremely concerning behavior.
The keyword is viewpoint. The inherent problem with conservatism across the globe, but obviously in the US, is the "viewpoint" is anti-science, anti-common-sense, and at worst disconnected from their policies.
I think there's a place on social media for people who believe tariffs could, over time and at great expense, bring manufacturing home and that some viewpoints want that. That's a viewpoint to debate. I do not think there's a place for people to deny climate change, there is no debate to be had there.
I think there's a place for people who want to discuss immigration policies and how best to balance the need for immigrants, the want for immigrants, the assimilation of immigrants, and the quantity/quality of immigrants. There's system design to be had there. I do not think there's a place for hate speech and dehumanization of immigrants as if they're bad people (or when they're used as political weapons like "caravans" in the US or "Sharia law").
It doesn't matter if conservatives agree with fixing healthcare or being against the rich, their politicians are only interested in using those as talking points because their allegiance is to their biggest donors which is big healthcare and the rich.
Conservatives across the globe, from everything I've seen in my admittedly short lifetime, are either anti-science/progress, pro-hate and emotionbaiting, or obvious liars.
In the US there is no Republican AOC or Bernie Sanders at the national level - who obviously and vocally are fighting for the workers. In Germany (where I am now) it's the conservative AFD party that is a neo-nazi party and it's the conservative CDU party that flirts with giving them partial power just to maintain their own power. Side tangent, it's the libertarian (read conservative-lite) FD party that sabotaged the left leaning coalition just last year.
The people that flirt with destruction and societal regression are the conservatives, so it's important that if they are allowed on any platform that their viewpoints are moderated. At least until they can stop flirting with fascism and lethal policies like remigration.
Old conservatism was people advocating for individual choice and less government intervention.
Misguided, sure, but a healthy check on expanding government into places it didn't need to be and advocating for the "ideal" capitalism that drives competition and innovation.
For as long as it has existed conservatism has been poisoned by religion of and in the last 50 years it as a party line has descended into incoherence, but it's interesting to see the best-faith arguments it has as a little contrast to my left wing bubble.
The whole "advocating for individual choice and less government intervention" thing was always a lie that they told to dupe rubes into thinking their ideology wasn't elitist and abhorrent.
Actual conservatism is healthy and useful. I want part of my government to look at what laws and policies are being pushed and say, "should we be doing this?", "Should it cost that much?", "Do we have something that does this already?".
Unfortunately, the label has been co-opted, and it no longer strives to create the smallest effective government, but the largest totalitarian government instead.
Im wary of echo chambers and it's so incredibly easy to find yourself in them nowadays. It's always good to be around dissenting opinions and have discussions with the other side. Obviously there's a limit with hostility and all that but assuming civility it is pretty much always better to not be completely surrounded with people that think just like you.
The constantly repeated echo chamber argument is honestly kinda just nonsense. To conservatives, anything outside of their echo chamber is one big echo chamber because it disagrees with them.
Obviously, if all you ever do is go online and talk to Marxist groups or something, that's one thing. But really, all you need to do is be exposed to people from different backgrounds as you to break up any echo chamber effect. That's why so many kids become more progressive in college - it's often the first time they get out of the echo chamber of their hometown and are exposed to kids who don't look like them and grew up under different circumstances. If you're on Lemmy, odds are pretty good that you're exposed to minorities and other people with different backgrounds than yours. Places like Lemmy are full of people from all over the world and from all walks of life with all kinds of different views. You don't need to go out of your way to expose yourself to conservatives like you're building up a tolerance for poison or something. You can get that just by checking the news or Twitter.
Well, yes, in that it's an inherent part of the fediverse. Instances can curate what they host, but even if .world and .ee removed their communities, they'd just move onto the next instance until they find one that will tolerate them.
They're absolutely free to spin up their own Lemmy instances. However, that doesn't mean other instances have to host their comms or federate with their misinformation spreading instances
They can go to Reddit or x or one of the many other services the conservatives own. They should have a miserable time existing outside their walled safe spaces until they decide to stop being evil filth.
These are people ostracized from less extreme groups. The only places they find acceptance is with people like them, leading to an echo chamber where the most insane ideas can fester and grow. I think the solution to the issue of having extremists among us is to do the hardest imaginable thing and accept them into our communities and keep it positive and short when correcting things. "I hope that kind of thing doesn't hurt a lot of people." Or whatever. We're silly animals who will do anything to be accepted by our chosen group including learning to think differently.
Yes, but boundaries are extremely important if you're going to do it. 100% agree that people become extremists in the first place because an extremist group welcomed them with open arms when no one else would. But you run the risk of falling into the tolerance paradox...under no circumstances should anyone's intolerance be tolerated.
Yeah if you welcome them in you run into them radicalizing normies. The alt right playbook is an extremely useful primer on modern right wing rhetoric even today
Great point but I don't know if we should keep that hard and fast rule. Please discuss with me but I think intolerance might have to only be chided and not outright rejected in order for change to occur. You don't invite a Nazi into your house and pretend genocide is okay but if you're trying to change them you can't kick them out when they express insane views or we're back to square one because they will say unacceptable shit. Don't tolerate it but don't exorcise them from your space unless you're doing it for yourself right?
That's quite the modest proposal there. The real question, and this determines whether I think you are truly a good person, or the wretched scum who believe what I don't, is are you pre or a post-birther?
A little oxidation of the meat is what give the perfect texture to the meat, I think. Anyone who says otherwise is just saying they're refined, while drinking iced tea with their pinky finger extended.
I never said anything about the other perspective being valid. However, without the exposure to other perspectives you may not be able to realize if one is wrong or right.