I came here a few weeks ago after many years of reddit. Altogether I find discussions I enjoy, however, the posts and comments noticeably lean, well, tankie (I didn’t know that term before I came here). It’s not that I am looking for an echo chamber, but I also don’t want to spend my time reading propaganda. I’m really curious about a lot of things outside politics, as well as the opinions and arguments of reasonable people across the political spectrum, but I don’t want to listen to the boring canned lies of fascists and tankies. I realized that people celebrating communist dictators trigger me, and this is something I didn’t have to deal with before I started reading lemmy, I didn’t even know this type existed.
I also notice that accounts created just a few hours in advance come from other instances to brigade political posts. Because of how lemmy works, I can block individual users or communities, but not individual instances. Is there an instance that could be a “safe space” from this kind of brigading and tankie spam? Or a way to use the internet to read interesting things now that blogs died and then Reddit became whatever it became?
Edit: Thanks everyone for the helpful and wholesome comments. Of course, some trolls/wackos showed up as well to say hi.
I largely use Lemmy because it doesn’t tolerate conservatives.
It’s 2026. There is no such thing as a moderate conservative. They don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. They don’t deserve yet another platform to argue in bad faith on. They’ve gone too far. Every platform they touch turns into a cesspool of bigotry and garbage opinions they think should be taken seriously or they play victim.
I don’t want them on Lemmy.
There is no such thing as a moderate conservative
IDK, I’d think most Democrats in Congress this decade are moderate conservatives (stupid Overton window shift).
i was confused at first when i saw moderate/ or reasonable conservatives. almost every conservative ive encountered just make uniformed rants or opinions about trump. my favorite is when they dont know about trumps actual policies and get defensive over being questioned about it,.
There are a lot of “bipartisan” social media websites (at least they self-advertise as such)
There are also social media apps for mainly conservatives.
Surely there can be one form of social media for leftists to talk to each other.I enjoy reading anarchists and socialists debate their case because I actually agree with points they make. I can see where each side is coming from and even have change my viewpoints at times.
Some edgy highschooler on the side screaming about how “God wants capitalism” would not contribute anything to the conversation. We already established their ideas don’t work, let us actually come up with new ones now.
screaming about how “God wants capitalism” would not contribute anything to the conversation
We have some of those here too
i would but they behave too much like conservatives for my taste especially how to they become defensive, and label everything “lib”
Surely there can be one form of social media for leftists to talk to each other.
Substack.
Substack from my limited experience was a bunch of ChatGPT written sychosis.
Refusing to even talk to people on the opposite end of the political spectrum just makes you another perpetuator of the massive political divide. Do you actually think anyone’s had their vote swayed by someone who refused to even talk to them. You’re not going to bring anyone to the left by demonising the right.
Political divide is things like budget, use of public lands, roads & infrastructure. We’re split on morality, ethics, bigotry, and child rape. A good number of us don’t even bother talking to family members anymore, why would I waste my time trying to converse with the dude who lives up the street from me that has a t-shirt of Donnie surrounded by bikini clad girls and “Chillin’ like a felon”?
Trump is the poster child of chauvinism, bigotry, bravado, greed, deceit, swindle, and zero self-control. His ability to get away with it has emboldened his supports to embrace their worst inclinations and treat their neighbors like Trump does. Granted, they are not Trump, so the average thief, wife beater, or kid diddler still gets arrested, but a lot have figured out they can be blatantly racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or a plain old dick in public and love that there’s no consequences anymore.
I have no interest in winning over people who have no shame, no remorse, and no empathy. Some will come crawling over when the suffering trickles down and finally affects them, but without any self-reflection or moral awakening, they’ll go right back to their old ways as soon as the burden is lifted. Fuck ‘em.
Refusing to even talk to people on the opposite end of the political spectrum just makes you another perpetuator of the massive political divide.
Extremely bold of you to assume I haven’t spent the majority of my life talking to them and trying to understand their extremist views.
I finally stopped because, as I said, they’ve lost the benefit of the doubt due to their own words and actions.
How long would you entertain the opinions and actions of Nazis in the name of getting along?
Also, if you think conservatives are going to start voting liberal if we play nice with them, well, you’re either very young or really haven’t been paying attention.
Maybe a loose fit, but not that loose.
Bro, we don’t want you guys to come over to the left anymore. We want you to stay over there and preferably go back to Russia where you seemed to enjoy the governance and social structure.
I don’t want them on Lemmy.
Lemmy is open to anyone though. Excluding someone based on what they believe, slides into the very fascism that many on Lemmy proclaim to be against. Intolerance is never a good thing, regardless of what your political outlook is.
You are certainly to welcome block people you don’t want to associate with, but trying to exclude a group of people because you don’t believe them is nothing to brag about.
There is no such thing as a moderate conservative. They don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.
I can assure you that there plenty of moderate conservatives. Your refusal to admit this, is the exact sort of extremism that OP is trying to stay away from.
Again, you are free to believe that and act accordingly, but excluding someone from a platform, purely based on their beliefs, is what you are supposed to be fighting against.
Many on Lemmy think conservatives exclude people based on their beliefs, and are close-minded. Now look at your words and switch use the words “liberal” instead of “conservative.”
If you read a conservative saying the exact same thing you said, but using “liberal” instead of “conservative,” you’d be pretty angry. You are doing the exact thing that you accuse them of doing.
Paradox of Tolerance my dude
Life and people aren’t nearly as awful as Lemmy constantly paints them to be. Too many users here just doomscroll and get a kick out of pretending the world’s already doomed and deserves it.
I refuse to live like that. My life is about finding joy, helping people, knowing my neighbors, and genuinely loving others. Because of that, the so-called “paradox of tolerance” doesn’t apply to me. I’m not tolerating intolerance; I’m just choosing not to build my world around hate or fear or negativity.
Good for you, must be nice living in a fantasy land like the pyro from TF2.
It’s fucking delusional it’s what it is, and you can’t just choose to ignore the paradox of tolerance, unless you want to turn your favourite bar into a nazi bar
How is it a fantasy world?
Do you realize that the US isn’t a war zone, and that most people just go along their daily lives of dropping kids off at school, hiking, mowing their lawns, going to work, going to the park, going on dates with their significant other, watching netflix, etc?
Most non-Lemmy people don’t make their politics their identity, nor do they talk about politics every single day, nor do they call every single person that disagrees with them a Nazi or a Fascist daily.
Most just don’t care about politics. As we saw in the election.
How is that a fantasy world? Normal society isn’t even close to what the Lemmy-verse is…lol
Lemmy has the worst cases of doomscrolling and negativity that I have ever seen.
A: you assume I’m American. I’m not. That’s an insult where I’m from.
B: it’s not open to everyone, don’t be stupid. It’s a walled and managed garden like every social media, just the walls are guarded by volunteers instead of staff. And instead of single source of moderation, it’s literally hundreds of teams working together (Federation)
C: Right, let’s say that someone says something shitty and bigoted, you saying I should let them stay, in the interest of “balance”? Just answer that
I’m saying that not every conservative is shitty and bigoted. Lemmy doesn’t want to admit that though. That’s my point.
Lemmy has about 1.366 million registered users worldwide (with monthly active users way lower, around 48,000–50,000). That’s less than 0.0004% of the US population of roughly 343 million. Not even close to representing how the general US population feels about things.
A: you assume I’m American. I’m not.
Then you don’t know how America really is and have no room to talk with any authority about it. All you know is what you have read on news and Lemmy. That’s only accurate for extreme stuff. The vast majority of the US is quiet and boring. Which is awesome.
Lemmy has about 1.366 million registered users worldwide (with monthly active users way lower, around 48,000–50,000). That’s less than 0.0004% of the US population of roughly 343 million.
I don’t know I had a dude wake me up at 5 AM every morning for 18 months so he could parade his loud truck and his Maga flag down the street. For me, the paradox of tolerance was broken when the police wouldn’t stop him from breaking the law every day.
You guys let your extremist run wild and terrorize society for the last six years. You have no moderate views you have no moderate inclinations. You have no conservative values. It hits pure regressive politics and hate mongering. The only thing you conserve is hierarchy and perverse incentives.
Please explain “you guys.”
I’m not republican. I didn’t “let” anyone run anything. The US voted, and Trump won. And next election people have the option to vote someone else in.
Are you assuming I’m republican just because I said not all republicans are bad?! Dude, come on…think about that. Fucking Lemmy, man… lol
The paradox of tolerance is real, it has been broken. They wanted to genocide me after Charlie Kirk died because I made meme. Millions of people used their voices to call for violence against the left. Like left of hitler basically.
So yes you have chosen a side. You turn a blind eye to the horrors unfolding across your country and pretend like people are innocent actors. Keep ignoring the calls for violence, I suppose if you don’t feel included in them, then they can’t hurt you 🤣
They wanted to genocide me after Charlie Kirk died because I made meme.
No they didn’t. Also, how about not make a joke of someone being murdered. Never cool. Never funny.
Keep ignoring the calls for violence, I suppose if you don’t feel included in them, then they can’t hurt you
I see much more calls for violence on Lemmy than anywhere else. I refuse to give in to the negativity and extremism of Lemmy. I choose to fill my life with love, laughter, friends, and understanding.
If January 6th wasn’t enough to rethink your party members, then you chose a side, and you’re with the traitors and oath breakers.
I’m not republican or conservative tho. So that has nothing to do with me.
Lemmy is open to anyone though.
Sure is. Doesn’t mean I want bigots/fascists here, fucking up yet another platform.
Excluding someone based on what they believe
How long would you be willing to entertain Nazis? Would you say the same thing about them? That we should just listen to them and give them a chance? That we should tolerate them? Now, American conservatives aren’t Nazis, because Naziism was a specific fascist movement in Germany a century ago. But American conservatives are fascists because they match the definition.
Now, I’m not sure if you possess eyes or ears, but fascism is now here, in America, due to conservatives. I’m done giving them the benefit of the doubt. They do not deserve it. They do not care to argue in good faith.
but trying to exclude a group of people because you don’t believe them is nothing to brag about.
Words placed into my mouth. I’m not making some concerted effort to exclude conservatives from Lemmy. Never said I was. I said I don’t want them here. That’s my personal opinion. You seem to really care about people, even fascists, getting to have their opinions, so let me have mine.
Now look at your words and switch use the words “liberal” instead of “conservative.”
Ah. I see. You are a “bOtH sIdEz” advocate. One of those that believe everything is equal. Well, I’m here to promise you that is false. Both sides do no want the same thing and do not go about getting what they want in the same manner. Not even close. Your entire argument is based on all things being equal. That simply isn’t true, so your argument is weak.
The right side of the aisle uses violence and intimidation to get what they want FAR, FAR more often than the left side does. And that is a fact supported by a shit ton of data. So why should we give a side that uses those tactics regularly the same benefit of the doubt that we’d give a side that doesn’t? That’s nonsense.
NOT. THE. SAME.
You’ll still be singing Kumbaya while you’re being gassed.
You are a “bOtH sIdEz” advocate.
Yep. Both sides have their share of idiots and extremists.
You clarified and said that conservatives should in theory be allowed here, and that’s exactly the point I was making. So we’re good.
They should be allowed, even when we disagree with them. I don’t buy the line that all conservatives are fascists, the way so many on Lemmy love to claim.
I’m really glad the real US isn’t anything like the nightmare version most of Lemmy seems convinced it is. lol
The difference between a Lenny communist is: no one takes them seriously, they do not control the entire government, they are not using the government to shoot dissenters in the streets.
Some of those crazy bastards probably would if you gave them control of the government, but that’s beside the point because no one has done that yet. But when they do, I am going to support whatever they decide to do to the Nazis.
I agree with your broader point but the bit about supporting auth-left fighting Nazis is a risky bet. I don’t think we’re close to having a marxist-leninist vanguard party overthrow the regime here in the US, but historically when they have been empowered to enact violence against fascists they end up taking the state monopoly on violence for themselves and turning it on anarchists and other socialists with slight disagreements.
But Iike you said, they’re not the ones controlling the state at the moment. It’s just something to keep in mind for the future in case an ML vanguard party leading a revolution in the US actually ends up being on the table. Depending on how bad things get a lot of people might consider it worth the risk.
When trump started his shenanigans I was a little fearful of the auth left rising as a reaction. The French blood flows strong through me, and I long for a tale of two cities end to the story.
I’ll take my chances with the authoritarian left at this point.
Quick question: Are you a cis, white, heterosexual male with Christian/agnostic beliefs? Or at the very least, could you be mistaken for somebody like that? And do you live in an urban area, or a suburban or rural area?
Because as a bi trans woman who grew up in a relatively red part of one of the deepest blue states in the country and spent a LONG time being able to hide as a cis white male, it is two very different experiences of life in the US before and after transitioning and what kind of area that I’ve lived in. Cities are natural melting pots of diversity and run very liberal/leftist as a result, suburbs can be a mixed bag depending on where they are (though like often follows like and you tend to get concentrations of similar beliefs close together due to socio-economic factors), and rural areas are often very group-think oriented and form cliques like it’s highschool. I also spent a lot of time listening to what conservatives say when they think they’re in like company. And it’s very political.
You know how people say that the two things you should never bring up at work are politics and religion? Every place that I’ve worked, the people who cannot stop talking about politics have always been conservatives. From hating on immigrants or trans people to the guy yesterday who went on and on about how people only hate Teslas because they’re liberals who hate Elon and how great Teslas are while we all side-eyed each other (somebody said that the cyber truck is dangerous and looks ugly), they are constantly either trying to convince you that they’re right or just assume that you agree with them in the first place. I had a “both sides” so-called “centrist” trap me and another coworker in a conversation about another one of our coworkers after he found out that they were a trans man and just kept going on and on about how they had trans friends but our coworker would never be a “real man,” just like his trans friend would never be a “real woman.” Didn’t stop talking about it for over an hour, just talking in circles with barely a moment to take a breathe before he started talking again. I would’ve thought he was gonna pass out if I didn’t already know that he’s one of those people who would probably die if they ever stopped talking. He would also go on and on about the “violent left” but would get oddly quiet whenever a right-winger or MAGA voter would shoot up a place or something. Despite the fact that the US accounts for something like 95% of all school shootings in the world, and all but a couple of those have been committed by white men who either traditionally voted for Republicans or grew up in a conservative household, and that in the past 10 years something like 80% of mass shooting victims were shot by people (most often men, and usually white men) who also either traditionally voted for Republicans or grew up in conservative households
It’s only been in about the past 6 months that I’ve mostly stopped seeing MAGA flags outside people’s houses or on people’s trucks. Though there is one pickup at work that the owner stuck a “MAGA Edition” label onto just above the branding, and there is one guy who up until recently would wear a Trump 2024 shirt occasionally. He might still, but I haven’t seen it in awhile.
There are now about 20 states where it is either unsafe for me to travel due to state laws or where my existence is outright illegal in some way. Trans people were having their passports, driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and other forms of identification confiscated by the DMV after the election but before Trump even entered office. A law in Utah banning trans girls from school sports got overturned because it affected a total of 3 girls in the state and it was therefore considered a law targeting specific individuals, which is illegal. You can make it illegal to turn right on a red light at a particular street corner, but you can’t make it illegal for Tom, Larry, and Diane to turn right on a red light.
You can have reasonable discussions with conservatives, but because conservatism largely consists of the belief that there are groups that the law should protect but not bind, and groups that the law should bind but not protect, it can very quickly fall into arguing what kind of people do or don’t deserve to be treated like humans. Very often with them, respect means “respect my authority or else I won’t treat you like a person.” Back before 2001 and the rise of right-wing extremism these past 20 or so years, there were much more mild discussions between Democrats and Republicans, but that’s because the US largely has no true leftist institutions. The Democrats are largely a moderate conservative to left-leaning centrist party with a few moderate leftists thrown in (who are unpopular with the party leadership but usually popular with voters). So debates were largely about whether or not the tax break for corporations should be 5% or 7% higher than last year. Both parties largely agreed on policy.
In the US, there are two genders: Man and “political.” Two races: White and “political.” Two sexualities: Straight and “political.” Two religions: Christian and “political” (and which flavor of Christian you are can be considered “political” based on the region of the country that you’re in). If you can fake being in the former group in any way, you’ll have a very different experience living in the US than you would otherwise.
Nah fuck conservatives.
I said it before:
I do not want conservatives prohibited from joining Lemmy, but I do want conservatives to feel unwelcome joining Lemmy.
Not dominance through authority, but through culture.
And what if so many came on, that they started to work on making liberals feel unwelcome here? And they would post in threads laughing about it much they wand liberal people to feel unwelcome. How would you feel then? Because look at what you guys are doing here…
How about different opinions can co-exist as long as there is no hate involved? You are an example of the very extremist divider that OP and some others are talking about.
I’m sure that’s what will happen because that’s what always happens. The left makes a cool space and conservatives slime their way in and ruin it. I don’t give a fuck if you call me an extremist, I want you and yours to feel unwelcome.
I’m sure that’s what will happen because that’s what always happens.
But your ok if it happens for your side, right? Because that’s what people are trying to do. Same ole hypocritical Lemmy as always I guess…
I want you and yours to feel unwelcome.
What?! I’m not republican or conservative. Because I say that not every conservative is a bad person, you think I’m conservative?! Say wat mate?! Feel free to go thru my posts and comments and feel free to point out anything you think is republican.
I refuse to give in to the negativity and extremism of Lemmy. I choose to fill my life with love, laughter, friends, and understanding. But hey, you do you. Nothing you do or say affects my real life in any way whatsoever.
Fuck all of that. Conservatism is a cancer. Every one of them can go to hell.
Cool. You are the exact extremism that OP is talking about trying to avoid. Congrats.
I’m not interested. You don’t compromise on this. You don’t tolerate it. It’s a cancer. If his preference is to help it metastasize, he is the one to be avoided.
Ok, well good luck and hope ya do better in the next election than you did in the last one.
Wait, I thought you weren’t a conservative? Who’d you vote for then?
I’m not conservative. I support third party voting. Democrats suck as much as the Republicans.
You know, OP is doing me a real service by posting this thread. I’m just scrolling down and blocking nazis right and left.
Real life. If you want moderate, complex opinions. Talk to real people. Not the bots and shills that populate this place.
You want an online community that allows both the right and the far right? That would be ALL OTHER ONLINE COMMUNITIES!
We came here specifically to get our own forum, where the centre left, regular left and far left are all allowed. This is a forum for the working class, not for the capitalists. And you capitalists can’t handle the fact that us workers for once get to have a forum of our own.
Who said this is a forum for the working class? I have not seen this mentioned anywhere. Read the sidebar: this is a generic forum for everyone. I’m inclined to think you are making this up.
Why do you want people with extreme views (left or right) in your community?
(ive been told my writing style is a bit abrasive, but i got a touch of the tism’, and that can effect the “cadence” of how i write. so take that into perspective when reading this inside your head. im not hostile.)
“Who said this is a forum for the working class?”
its implied, considering almost 99% of the worlds population needs to work to make a living and to support their loved ones who cant. and the vast majority of the people who post here arent billionaire oligarchs, or petty bourgeoisie. its statistically unlikely. therefor, fair to say.
“Why do you want people with extreme views (left or right) in your community?”
radicals are at the forefront of change in every conflict. for better, or for worse.
today (in the US) to be opposed to fascism, is to be considered a “far left terrorist” or ANTIFA. another boogeyman made by the fascists to scare people away from “socialism” or the “wokes” or some other nonsense.
the new modern definition of “far left extremism” is a dog whistle used by fascists trying to play the “both sides bad” or “innocent centrist” take that ultimately leads left leaning people and fence sitters further down the road of fascism, for those who take it at face value. overuse of the word “tankie” as well, which has been used as a blanket term for socialists/communists a lot more in recent days. but most people dont understand its roots, or the roots of socialism/communism, and how they have changed since their inception.
unfortunately, the reason so many “far left” voices appear here, is because platforms like reddit started banning people because they called out fascism, and began communicating on how they should stop it. or simply joking about it. i personally am one of those people, i said elon musk did a nazi salute, and was likely a nazi to some degree. and i was perma banned within minutes. for “violent” content. (it wasnt in the slightest) so here i am. and honestly its quite nice, people are more level headed, kind, and willing to discuss things thoughtfully. without the “gotchyas” and hostile armchair intellectualism that is so rampant on platforms like reddit.
this is a platform of the people, each instance essentially ran/hosted by volunteers. working class people, like you or me. thats the basis of the fediverse. anyone can spin up an instance, some bigger/better than others, and choose to link with all/certain instances. some instances can be honey pots, filled with bots, AI slop. or real human beings, making real connections. who knows. its crazy out here. still small, quiet. but growing, and getting louder.
the best thing about the fediverse, is that if you dont like an instance. you can leave it.
but if you dont leave quietly, its always a little bit sus as to your real motivations.
OP seems to be confusing people with a distaste for fascism/general knowledge of communism/socialism, and the history that birthed them, for actual “tankies”
a common mistake made by the misinformed, and a common tactic used by the misaligned.
but id rather not make those assumptions, and assume its coming from a purely anecdotal view/experience of the world that i havent seen reflected in my own use of lemmy.
regardless, at the end of the day, its not left vs right, its up vs down. and i think thats the bigger zeitgeist here on lemmy
sorry for the wall of text. i hope this helps provides a bit more context.
It’s way past time to be reasonable about politics
Nowadays reasonable is radical. Moderate isn’t enough and conservative is poison
From what I can tell, Lemmy started as wildly left but if you avoid the .ml areas, you’re going to get a much broader mix of views.
I know of no one who actually esposes conservative principles to me. pay as you go, rainy day funds, infrastructure investment, efficient social safety nets, rule of law (constitution and founding principles respected even seperation of church and state), middle of the road (balancing state power [regulations] and private power). This is a us centric view though were our conservative party has seem to have thrown out all conservative principles. I do see plenty of generally left of center moderate liberals (don’t get me wrong a lot of ultra left too) although again often presented nowadays like ultra left views. Folks who don’t want to see an end to all capitalism but want to limit wealth disparity and the effect of money on politics, have social safety nets like universal healthcare and equitable public education, sensible regulation, progressive taxes, efforts to limit global warming fallout, etc.
Probably because none of those are exclusively conservative values, they’re if anything, generally liberal ones.
It’s looking very much like exclusive conservative values are those of exclusion and prejudice.
today but its been this fall the party has taken over time. go look what teddy roosevelt did and this was not one of those congress just happened to do it during his presidency. He was fully behind and putting forth a lot of it. This is what they mean by democrats being right of republicans. you go back far enough and republicans actually had some stuff besides lower regulation and taxes on the wealthy. they actually were behind tax increases because of the pay as you go thing. Really nixon sorta started the fall even though he did some stuff that was do to pressure on him along with stuff he wanted to do but abandoned or reversed course due to pressure. Then you get reagan who through out a lot of thier financial stuff and that was pretty much the lower regulation and lower taxes on weatlhy were all that mattered. They still gave some lip service to things like moral stances or trump to get the religious folks on their side but even that is going out the window. its crazy when you look at the changes in the party from roosevelt to nixon to reagan to bush jr. to trump.
Don’t look for a specific moderate instance, instead block extremist instances. I’m not positive but I think that also blocks you from seeing posts by users of those instances even when they post to other instances, but I’m not 100% sure
real moderate or usian moderate?
Schleswig-Hollstein
.world is the answer as long as you remove the reasonable part.
If someone planned to divide and conquer lemmy, they did a fine job. You can tell lemmy is left leaning by how fractured everything is. And it’s mostly filled with leftist who hate anyone left from where they are.
Reasonable Moderate Conservatives don’t exist, idiot
Lemmy’s pretty left leaning, extremely left sometimes. There was a conservative community for a while but it turned until a place to ridicule conservatives.
Maybe just start a new community, I think there are people here but a lot on here refuse to even tolerate the right.
I mean, a lot of us ended up here because we got banned from our usual corner of the Internet due to a right wing takeover.
I can’t imagine why people would be hostile the right wing beliefs right now??
reddit tries to appear “left leaning” but they allow too much astroturfing from right wingers and thier bots.
Did you notice when Trump took office there was a lot of unusual moderation changes on Reddit? They seemed like they did a clean sweep and brought in new blood. It WAS left leaning now it’s just center to right. Some of my favorite subs suddenly became rightwing propaganda machines. Very sad. I don’t consider myself a leftist but I do enjoy conversations with y’all. I like a left leaning space. I feel like the text only spaces are naturally left leaning because republicans have low reading comprehension skills and are unable to follow simple logic threads.
