Fediverse

Unless you’re willing to go with a very closed off instance you’re still going to be interacting with the broader fediverse which is very left.

I don’t think that’s really going to change unless there is another big migration and I don’t necessarily want it to. But I would like if Lemmings would be kinder to one another and realize that not having read 800 pages of leftist theory doesn’t mean you’re an evil imperialist. Everyone is on their own journey to understanding the world and I think a lot of people here are so judgmental that they would be fighting with their own past and future selves if they could meet them. It’s OK to disagree sometimes. Yes, even when people hold harmful views. We all do to some extent.

You’re going to get yelled at by lefties on any instance. That’s how federation works.

Please join a small instance. Lemmy doesn't work if people don't spread out. Just choose some small instance that seems chill. You can search and sub to any community. It really makes no difference.

I just got yelled at because I can’t be Left wing unless I want to destroy capitalism? Which feels weird.

That's a terminology issue that you're going to run into in any sufficiently political community. 'Left-wing' in casual use in the US refers to "everyone except the Republicans and some moderates", but "left-wing" in any serious political talk refers to anti-capitalism.

Although I'd agree that lemmygrad, lemmy.ml, and hexbear are far-left, with only one specifically right-wing instance that I can think of, I don't think that most of the remaining Lemmy users on lemmy.world, lemmy.dbzer0.com, lemm.ee, beehaw.org, or any of the other big Lemmy instances are particularly extreme in their views.

On average, Lemmy users do seem to be more left-wing than right-wing, probably due to right-wing Redditors being less likely to mind Reddit's monetization of its userbase, and more likely to mind Lemmy's far-left instances.

While I don't think Lemmy should encourage far-right users to join, given that racism and bigotry degrade any platform that allows such speech, I do think that those on the right who are not extreme and are capable of having thoughts independent of the MAGA cult should be welcomed on any instance, given that echo chambers only serve to propagate existing views, rather than foster discussion.

The key part in joining any instance are the instances that either block it or are blocked by it, so perhaps one that blocks lemmygrad, lemmy.ml, and hexbear by default, while minimizing the number of instances that in turn block it, would be optimal to have access to as many communities as possible.

Here's a list of Lemmy instances by number of instances blocked and blocking, for reference. Seems to not be quite up-to-date, and can't find the instance I'm on on the list, but it should still be somewhat helpful for comparing. Personally, I prefer being on an instance with as few blocks as possible (implementing those blocks instead on a user level as a means of curating my all feed), since the Lemmy community is already small enough as it is, but new users might not want to have to configure those blocks themselves.

Interesting take.

I think what you‘re talking about is called „anecdotal evidence“. Destroying capitalism is definitely not the „mainstream“ on lemmy, far from it. Although We dont have „normie-lizing“ moderation and bot armies that bury every post thats out of the norm.

Of course we attract a lot of freedom loving people. Freedom, turns out is an extremist left view. Asking to be paid for work done, asking to be able to work from home, etc.

I would ask your friend to show you more than one incident and also ask them to be open to making a new experience.

And although everyone will hate me for it: if you want fediverse lite (or bastardized corpo fediverse) you can always test bluesky and threads. They are more mainstream since they have larger user counts.

The instance you're on only matters in so far as which other instances they've defederated.
You can probably find more centerist instances, but it doesn't really matter because your friend is probably just going to be in the same communities anyways.

I'm not really sure I'd call reddit left of center, though.

Roughly speaking, Lemm.ee is more libertarian some libright. Slrpnk is libleft but is home to pleasant politics community. Dbzer0 is anarchy leftist. World is closest to US centrist. Lemmy.ca is kind of Reddit's onguardforthee vibe, Left/NDP wing.

Thing is that influences from other more ideological instances will make it onto All threads. "Lib-shaming" is something some folks at lemmy.ml, hexbear.net and lemmygrad.ml like to do frequently, which is where those experiences might have come from.

My instance doesn't really take a political stance, you're welcome unless you're an extremist (left or right, doesn't really matter to me).

Edit: But I think you're not gonna get better content anywhere that's federated, after all, your instance doesn't matter that much if you're seeing the same content everywhere.