For me, it's not even the possibility of negative responses. I could be 100% guaranteed to get a positive response, and I'd still hesitate to reach out.
Once people step into the topic, I'm bold as can be, but God, something deep and anxious in me regards bringing subjects up as an unforgivable interruption of someone else's life.
I can't cold call even online. I salute your boldness o7
This seems like an odd message considering that Lemmy, as software, is being praised here; and what is being criticized are instances wherein the admins enforce apologism for authoritarian regimes.
Sure, but only if they’re solely in those echo chambers, which if they’re posting in .world, they clearly aren’t.
Not necessarily. Like how people who use 4chan regularly maintain the standards and behaviors even though 4chan isn't their only online community of choice. People take their norms with them, even when they leave home, sort of thing.
And any ones who do are told off because of the content of their posts, not their home servers.
I mean, I agree this should be the case, my point is just that the bad reputation of an .ml home instance is not entirely unearned by the .ml community, regardless of the individual user.
I see quite a few inflammatory posters from .world and .ee (especially of the American exceptionalism, anti-Palestine, and more recently anti-Canadian (🤭) varieties) but I don’t automatically assume every single person on those servers hold those values. In fact, I think 9/10 comments I see you post specifically, PugJ, I agree with.
I can't speak for .ee, but I would point out the same about .world, albeit phrased differently. .world absolutely has a reputation for being more moderate and less leftist than much of the Fediverse (though, again, I would emphasize that 'social democracy' is the standard, and that both North American and European right-wing and center-right parties are reviled, so it's definitely a question of relative political stances), and if you see someone espousing a "Capitalism isn't so bad 🥺" view, the chances of them coming from .world is probably better-than-average, insofar as the Fediverse is concerned. It would not be incorrect to make that connection - pattern recognition is useful.
Remember to treat people as individuals, yes, but when all the [Sportsball Team A] fans are out wearing plain red shirts from [Local Store] for their team, you are not wrong to scrutinize people who choose to wear plain red shirts from [Local Store] extra closely in that light, even if that isn't that individual's intent or leaning.
If the users from there are participating in communities from outside that instance and following the rules, why does it matter if they’re from .ml?
Communities shape how people think and act. Normalizing bootlicking for authoritarian regimes causes those who participate in those communities to feel and reproduce that normalization. Not only that, but when grad and Hexbear were defederated by many instances, many users on Grad and Hexbear created accounts on .ml for the explicit purpose of continuing the authoritarian apologia they so enjoyed in the exact places that told them they weren't welcomed. At some point, pattern recognition sets in, and it's not inherently wrong for it to do so.
I don't think every .ml user is an authoritarian. But if I see someone making authoritarian apologia, I'd say a good 4/5s of the time, it's someone from .ml.
They’re not censoring or banning me from posting Winnie the Pooh, you know? Your experience may be different.
I mean, unless you frequent .ml communities, they can't censor or ban you.
That's the thing though. Those .ml communities end up quietly curated to curb any criticism of the admins' favorite authoritarians. Highlighting this fact is necessary, and participating in .ml communities is undesirable at best; those who still wish to do so should at least be informed as to what goes on.
Lemmy.ml admins remove content critical of the CCP, and similar things. The admins of most other instances don't do that shit.
Grad is much the same, while Hexbear is just 4chan for Stalinists.
It's such a magical thing when a dog sees snow for the first time!
Fuck, I barely had the will to fight to begin with. Now I wonder why I wake up.
Fuck, are you saying I'm no different than the tankies and the fascists?
Oh, now they're free for US exploitation instead of Chinese exploitation. How wonderful. /s
Happy to help! I'm terminally online af, so I see a lot of... all of the discourse, lmao.