I can’t really think of a reason for that as Reddit is hated somewhat equally by “both” sides of the spectrum. It’s just something I find interesting.

34 points

I’ll quote Drew Curtis of fark.com fame:

“Reality has a liberal bias.”

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2 points

Isn’t Drew a conservative?

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0 points

Eh… ¯\_ (ツ) _

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-4 points

In the grand scheme of things, both major US partys still primary subscribe to some version of liberalism at their core, although that’s changing on both fronts.

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9 points

People need to realize that in a world wide perspective, liberals are considered right wing for being capitalist. They’re only left wing in the fucked up US political landscape that is so far skewed right.

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2 points

That’s disappointing if true. I loved Fark back in the day!

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4 points

Looks like I’m behind the times. I checked his wikipedia page because I remembered he ran for Governor of Kentucky, but the page didn’t list his political affiliation in that race. But in 2019, he ran for State Auditor as a Democrat. So perhaps he isn’t!

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2 points

Forget lemmy. Let’s all go hang out at Fark again.

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4 points

Didn’t Stephen Colbert coin that phrase? I thought he said it at the White House Correspondence Dinner or something.

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2 points

Could be. Drew has also said it, that’s where I first heard it so that’s where I’ve attributed it.

I say this as a fan of Colbert.

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-19 points
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Doesn’t that make it an eChO cHaMbEr or something(?) Like, I don’t mind people I disagree with being within the same community I frequent, I just disagree within good boy guidelines. :)

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49 points

When discussing the whole space of possible political views, there is no “both sides”. There are seven zillion different axes on seven zillion different issues, some of them concrete (“should we forbid chemical companies from manufacturing neonicotinoid pesticides?”) and some abstract (“what is the best relationship between individual creativity, the marketplace, and the state?”).

“Both sides” (polarized duality) is partly an artifact of specific electoral systems. It can lead to people shooting at each other over tiny differences in doctrine — or, even more often, over which leader to follow this year.

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18 points

Also: for example both US parties would be considered as a (far) right party here in Germany

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24 points
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Nah, one center-right (formerly centrist) and one far-right (formerly center-right). See discussion here and here.


In gist:

The Democrats have become the party of international free-trade capitalism with appropriate regulation, and with international policies that represent loyalty to the nation’s traditional alliances.

The Republicans have become the local representative of the international far-right: the Putin-Trump-Erdogan-Orban-Netanyahu-etc. axis, focused on granting strongman leaders the ability to loot their states, purge opposition even among the elite (see DeSantis-Disney), betray the nation’s traditional alliances (e.g. NATO) in favor of the far-right axis itself, and excite their “base” through hate & oppression of various minorities (e.g. immigrants, LGBTQ+).

The Democrats are the party of “keep the system working, but when you get a chance, try to make it work better for everyone.”

The Republicans are the party of “tear the system down, and replace it with loyalty to our authority figures; keep the masses stupid and busy trampling on queers & foreigners.”


Folks on the left may think that “the system” is shit, or that it can’t be made to work better for everyone. But “keep the system running, it can be made okay” is pretty different from “tear the system down, all you need is loyalty to a strongman” which is what the far-right has to offer.

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5 points
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Deleted by creator
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120 points

Lemmy is much less US-centric than Reddit.

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13 points

Lemmy was initially created by communists.

It’s still in the process of being created, and the communism is a bit less in your face now alongside there being other contributors to the code, but that’s how it started.

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14 points
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Deleted by creator
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-2 points

Most of comments on popular communities boil down to “capitalism bad communism only solution”. Very in your face and everywhere

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-1 points

Are you arguing that Twitter is right wing because it is US-centric, and not because of Musk’s leveraged buyout?

I would argue that US social media platforms are (now) right wing because of aggressive financial attacks meant to break up open social engagement, as this is bad for business and sociopaths looking to exploit people for profit. Reddit was left wing, until it was bought and sold. Same with Twitter.

However my comment was merely rejecting the idea that Lemmy is left wing because it is not US-centric. Lemmy was started by tankies, who say they’re left wing and have some left wing ideologies, but really they’re more authoritarian fascists, and fascism is in fact right wing. However as Lemmy grew it became apparent that this stance would impede its growth - particularly in western markets - so the main devs have tried to minimise their political views and keep the program neutral; now those views are primarily concentrated at lemmygrad.

Lemmy is not US-centric, but that’s not why it’s left wing. Lemmy is left wing because rational empathetic thought is naturally left wing. Lemmy is full of communism because it was started by communists/tankies.

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20 points

I wonder if there are demographics by IP already? TBH most of the threads I’ve been in have felt very US Centric. I also came with the great reddit migration too though.

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6 points
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On my feed, at least, I have my frontpage set to whatever the kbin equivalent to “all” is. I see lots of other languages beyond English populating - particularly German. The Lemmy instance I chose when I initially made my way to the fediverse operates out of China. They’re chill over there.

I dunno. I think if you’re only finding people discussing the US here, then you’ve probably accidentally pigeonholed yourself based on your own interests. The fediverse is diverse.

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2 points

I mean yeah. Being only English speaking with gringo Spanish doesn’t let me understand memes in German or any of the other various non-english speaking magazines lol.

English is the defacto lingua franca though. Particularly on the web. The diversity I’ve seen still heavily leans English, and western, which makes plenty of sense.

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0 points

How do you get more languages?

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1 point

Nice!

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3 points

Thank fuck for that.

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5 points

Is it? Just look at the comments here - the thought is about political left and right and yet almost everybody is talking about conservatives, that’s a sure sign of Americans.

Plus I bet a good portion of the extreme left here are Americans disillusioned with their government, swinging hard into the other extreme.

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0 points

Really? I’ve only seen US related stuff here

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2 points
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How many of your subscribed communities lie outside of lemmy.world? Very possible you’ve pigeonholed yourself. World almost certainly has a heavy US bias as it was the largest instance with open registration during the exodus.

Lemmy is made up of a ton of instances, many of which have quite limited US-related content. Posts from smaller instances may not rise to the top of World but they do elsewhere. Whereas World posts are going to rise across most instances, due to sheer volume. Where the posts come from is not as indicative of diversity as where the comments and votes come from.

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1 point

Wait there are others apart from world?

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2 points

Prove it, because I only see US-centric posts while browsing /all.

And no, America is not the US.

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3 points

Your ALL is amplifying the highest engagement posts from the largest instances, particularly lemmy.world, which is definitely US-centric due to it being the largest open registration instance during the exodus… Go ahead and switch to your instances LOCAL and see what original content is being posted on sopuli.xyz. Quite a difference. https://sopuli.xyz/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&page=1&sort=Active

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1 point

The thing is that I don’t have those issues on Lemmy, because I usually browse by /local, both on this server and on beehaw. But I had to block lemmy.world with my user on Kbin due to that problem you were pointing out. And miraculously, I can see content from Kbin, lemmy.ml, blahaj, beehaw sopuli, and so on, because there is no way to browse only local content on Kbin as it can be done on Lemmy.

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-3 points

Lemmy is more centrist than Reddit

(other than the usual issues) Reddit was hated by the general populace because it was too right wing and it was hated by right-wingers for not being right wing enough

Lemmy is still new and hasn’t gained a large population as of yet, but it’s already still far more representative than Reddit ever was

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10 points

This is it. The US has gone so far right that centrism seems left wing. I have been generally comfortable with the tone of the conversation in the fediverse. Occasionally, I’d like to pull the conversations further left. I’ve been peeved or mildly disappointed, but never actually enraged or flabbergasted. Conversations have been pleasant and reasonable, even when I disagree with what’s being said. It’s been pleasant.

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-19 points

More centrist???

Lemmy is like a boiling pot of full-on tankie authoritarians. Reddit is only slightly less left than that but you still get autobanned from major subs for simply commenting somewhere deemed right-wing.

This reads like you never even visited Reddit.

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23 points

This reads like you never visited any instance other than lemmygrad.ml.

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1 point

I mean, good point actually. It’s very possible the issue is the instance I’m logged into. I switched around the time lemmy.world was hacked. But .world honestly felt the same as sh.itjust.works. Never fails that I login and the very first thing I see is some communist circlejerk with tons of upvotes.

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4 points

They literally can’t shitjustworks blocks lemmygrad

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13 points
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I have seen way, way more people crying about tankies than I have seen people advocating for Stalinism.

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4 points

Yeah I gotta disagree with you on that. Reddit is more representative simply due to the fact that it’s larger. Once Lemmy grows it’ll become more diverse and therefore more representative of the general population.

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2 points
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Centrism is the only fallacy I call out. Its completely meaningless even with context

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Showerthoughts

!showerthoughts@lemmy.world

Create post

A “Showerthought” is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you’re doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    • 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    • 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    • 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy’s Code of Conduct

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