Counterpoint: new users who donât know the ins and outs of the fediverse might join an instance at random and see significantly less content.
Fair, but a lot of new users might also get discouraged if the first thing they see is content from exploding-heads or hexbear, and the instances that strive to be safe, inclusive spaces and thus do a significant amount of defederating are usually quite forthright about this when you sign up. For example, I knew just what to expect when I joined beehaw.
The instance Iâm posting from now tries to keep things inclusive more via moderation vs. defederation. There are pros and cons to each approach. I can see both perspective.
I just donât think either approach harms the fediverse. I think thatâs a bit melodramatic.
Funny enough, Hexbear actually defederated from my main instance first, due to it not being inclusive enough for their standards. My own experiences with Hexbear as an autistic enby are that Hexbear is actually the most inclusive Lemmy instance out there, by no small margin. The issue with Hexbear is that its users like to âpunch upâ at non-leftists, pointing out how people propagate or benefit from exploitative systems, and justify these systems to themselves.
Being âdunked onâ may annoy and wound the pride of non-leftists, but this is also very much not the same as the actually evil Nazi shit posted to EH, which âpunches downâ. I have for many years understood the difference between being annoyed and having my pride wounded for having a bad opinion, and being actively terrorized and marginalized for being a member of a marginalized group. The world would be better off if more people understood that difference.
By no means am I saying itâs just as bad or remotely the same as a Nazi instance. I mean, I consider myself anarcho-communist, so itâs not like theyâre too leftist for me or whatever, but itâs hard to call it an inclusive space while communicating in such a toxic, off-putting way. It leads me to question whether theyâre even genuine communists when they donât seem to be motivated by any sense of community.
Maybe Iâm a bit quick to judge them, but they remind me of dirtbag leftists from CTH, who were so toxic that Iâd actually encounter them freely using slurs in the threads. Not exactly punching up, eh?
So no, Iâd take a million hexbears over one exploding-heads, but to be honest l donât have any reason to associate with any of them. Maybe itâs my age, but it all seems so very childish and off-putting to me.
Counter counterpoint: the other option is to give your unique identifiable butthole print to zuck
