I saw a post that talked about racism towards people and when I talked about it the response I got was very heated and a person even called lemmy.world a community of ‘hitlerites’
I have been around for a week or so and this is my first time seeing such explicit vulgar reaction towards another community, is this a one-off or should I block hexbear?
Note: being on Lemmy for about a year, I didn’t live through the early days of this place. Here’s what I can recollect, as neutrally given as possible.
TL;DR The recent conflicts between two politically different groups on Lemmy have radicalized many people, and many Hexbear residents in particular. Unless you are to discuss the far-left ideas and are very radical about disadvantaged groups, you are safe to block it.
Hexbear is a far-left (as in actually communist) anti-discrimination community, initially more of a safe haven to promote equality and foster a healthy and welcoming place for leftists to come together.
With core developers of Lemmy also being far-left, Hexbear naturally fitted the landscape along with the official Lemmy.ml, heavy far-left Lemmygrad.ml and others.
As time went on, however, all sorts of left-leaning and apolitical folks, not just far-left, came to the platform, filling other instances like Lemmy.world (now the most populated of them all), sh.itjust.works and many others.
As a result, Lemmy has two groups of people with radically different political views: one is a group of more or less organized far-left, and the other is everyone else, most commonly liberals. This distinction has caused a lot of conflicts and heated discussions based on political adherence.
Most notable case is latest US elections. The far left side generally called not to vote Democrat as Biden has failed to deliver on many of his promises and empowered Israel to commit war crimes in Palestine, while the liberal audience called to vote Democrat to not let Republicans take the lead, which may arguably lead to an even worse outcome than unaccountable Dems can make.
This divide has raised a lot of mutual hostility, brigading, and uncivil behavior, which has radicalized many on both sides of the conflict, the consequences of which you have got to experience.
What to do with that is up to you to decide. Hexbear is very politically uniform and very political overall, so if you’re not here to discuss communism, you won’t lose much and will gain additional peace of mind.
I just took a look at your participation in the hexbear thread you are referencing, and I’m confused about the issue. Seems like you got mostly thoughtful and positive replies. There was some .world bashing at the end including the bit you quoted. It seems strange to me that rather than ask questions about hexbear to the actual users there, you came over here to ask on an instance that has daily threads complaining about leftist instances.
It’s a tankie instance. You’re not missing anything important or reality-based by blocking it. You should also block lemmy.ml.
I’ll do you one better, why is Hexbear??
Tankies
It’s an instance meant to seem attractive to western youths while explicitly only serving the needs of the Chinese Dictatorship.
Most of their users are bots, human decency is their kryptonite. If ever you are convinced that any of them are your friends, you’re just another mark they intend to make full use of and throw away: you are not a human being in the eyes of Hexbear.
Hexbear.net is a Left-Unity instance populated mainly by Marxists and Anarchists. They generally don’t get along with Lemmy.world, whose admins defederated from the major Marxist-aligned instances.
Whether you block Hexbear is up to you, I enjoy my time there a lot but it’s also because I’m a Marxist. The ones saying they are “pretending” to be Leftist never seem to be able to explain why a large group of people would all ironically have theory reading groups and ironically support trans rights for years, even before federating with anyone else. What would they have to gain?
If I were you, I’d ask on an instance actually federated with them. You’ll get different perspectives than you will here, which is always the case when it comes to controversial topics like Marxism, where opinion varies greatly from instance to instance.
The issue with hexbear isn’t Marxism or anarchism or communism, it’s apologism for violent authoritarian regimes to the point of insisting on an “alternative facts” version of “history”.
Alternative facts is when you refuse to admit you were wrong after carrying water for a single source white supremacist even when all the major media platforms that boosted the claim dropped it years ago.
So for years, as a ‘good leftist’, you continue repeating blood libel while you scream at people to support a capitalist committing genocide.
I really can’t tell what you are talking about.
Adrian Zenz
I really don’t think they are a left-unity instance considering that they get very upset and unpleasant to talk to if you don’t support authoritarianism or their alternative “facts.”
Like I’m cool with all sorts of different leftist viewpoints and I think it’s necessary that we support each other, but I draw the line at authoritarianism and rewriting history.
Anarchists are explicitly welcome, so authoritarianism is definitely not a requirement. And what “alternative facts”?
Things like the denial of the tiananmen square massacre or claiming that North Korea is a free and prosperous nation, both of which I have seen with my own two eyes on hexbear.
While I am not an anarchist, generally I am cool with them. Who I am not cool with are Marxist-Leninists, which are authoritarian.
From the wikipedia article on Marxist-Leninists:
In the words of historians Silvio Pons and Robert Service, elections are “generally not competitive, with voters having no choice or only a strictly limited choice”. Generally, when alternative candidates have been allowed to stand for election, they have not been allowed to promote very different political views.
61·6 days agoThe people of the soviet union, at least as far as Pat Sloan experienced in ~1937, had the most limited choice: any person
I have, while working in the Soviet Union, participated in an election. I, too, had a right to vote, as I was a working member of the community, and nationality and citizenship is no bar to electoral rights. The procedure was extremely simple. A general meeting of all the workers in our organization was called by the trade union committee, candidates were discussed, and a vote was taken by show of hands. Anybody present had the right to propose a candidate, and the one who was elected was not personally a member of the Party. In considering the claims of the candidates their past activities were discussed, they themselves had to answer questions as to their qualifications, anybody could express an opinion, for or against them, and the basis of all the discussion was: What justification had the candidates to represent their comrades on the local Soviet?
As far as the elections in the villages were concerned, these took place at open village meetings, all peasants of voting age, other than those who employed labour, having the right to vote and to stand for election. As in the towns, any organization or individual could put forward candidates, anyone could ask the candidate questions, and anybody could support or oppose the candidature. It is usual for the Communist Party to put forward a candidate, trade unions and other organizations can also do so, and there is nothing to prevent the Party’s candidate from not being elected, if he has not sufficient prestige among the voters.Several things in there I dislike:
Raising hands does not seem like an accurate way vote. Peasants who employed labor couldn’t vote. People could vote even if they weren’t citizens. No mention of being able to vote for non-communists. There are trade-unions and other candidates but it doesn’t mention their political alignment
To defend non-citizens voting, the Soviets valued labor over nationalism and anyone could vote despite not being citizens if they worked there. Kinda like if the US allowed immigrants to vote who weren’t yet citizens.
Trade Unions were often independent as well. Really, the book itself is fascinating.
I support immigration but allowing non-citizens to vote seems like an easy way for foreign governments to swing elections in their favor.
Yes, I get that the trade unions were their own thing but that doesn’t mean they can’t also be communist.
No mention of being able to vote for non-communists
???
Anybody present had the right to propose a candidate, the one who was elected was not personally a member of the Party
???
I don’t really understand what you’re getting at here, you’re being very vague. I’m a Marxist, I enjoy my time there, I don’t really think I can say I share your same views on it.
When the instance I’m on was still federated with hexbear I did go and check them out to see what they had to say and with my own two eyes I saw people there denying the tiananmen square massacre and claiming that North Korea is a free and prosperous nation. Not to mention that when visiting other instances, such as the one I’m on, many would be extremely rude, which is why they got defederated.
Hexbear’s stance, and most Marxists in general, on Tian’anmen is that hundreds of protestors and PLA officers were killed in Beijing that day as the PLA advanced towards the square, but that the square itself was evacuated peacefully, which matches leaked US cables and the CPC’s official stance on what it calls the “June 4th incident”. This is a rejection of the commonly reported story of 10,000 people being killed on the square itself, which originated from a British diplomat’s cable. Said diplomat was later confirmed to have evacuated well before.
I reiterate, Hexbear’s stance isn’t that the massacre didn’t happen, but that Western nations intentionally sensationalize the quantity of deaths and the character of the events. This is also why Western Nations don’t frequently report on the South Korean Gwang-Ju massacre that occured around the same era, where the South Korean millitary murdered thousands of High School and College students protesting against Chun Do-Hwan’s dictatorship. All of what I said is backed up by the Wikipedia page for Tian’anmen Square Protests and Massacre, such as Alan Donald revising his estimate from 10,000 to the low thousands yet BBC continuing to report the 10,000 figure:
In a disputed cable sent in the aftermath of the events at Tiananmen, British Ambassador Alan Donald initially claimed, based on information from a “good friend” in the State Council of China, that a minimum of 10,000 civilians died,[237] claims which were repeated in a speech by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke,[238] but which is an estimated number much higher than other sources provided.[239][240] After the declassification, former student protest leader Feng Congde pointed out that Donald later revised his estimate to 2,700–3,400 deaths, a number closer to, but still much higher than, other estimates.[241]
As for the DPRK, I’d have to see what you mean as an example. The common consensus is that the DPRK has a well-documented “defector storytelling industry” where defectors are paid for outlandish stories, and due to their unverifiability gets passed on as truth. A good documentary on this subject is Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul. Therefore, really, very little can be trusted on the subject. Brutal executions being reported such as one official being eaten to death by 120 dogs end up being reported uncritically, despite said official turning up alive later and the story originating from a Chinese satirical column, akin to the Onion.
This is where the joke of “Juche Necromancy” comes from, because supposedly executed officials regularly turn up alive.
The reason they got defederated from so many major instances is less to do with the politics and more to do with the spam, brigading, and bad faith interactions that had no intention of civility.
This is objectively untrue, Lemmy.world refused to ever federate, as, in their own words, a “pre-emptive last resort”.
In their statement, the reasoning they explicitly highlighted was Hexbear’s stances like being against western propaganda and disliking the mass overseas wars driven by the US. Don’t believe me? You can read it here - https://lemmy.world/post/2498330
So no, Hexbear was very explicitly defederated because of politics.
The world mods also outright support Israel.
You can tell someone is terminally reddit brained when they’re still accusing people from federated instances of “brigading”.
Credit where credit is due, youre honest and youre correct. Have my upvote!
I try to be both, lol. Thanks!
Left-Unity instance
I doubt it or I’d be over there. Instead, I got attacked and mocked by a circlejerking mob of angsty teens from Hexbear operating in bad faith for remotely questioning something about communism and then got permabanned from Lemmy.ml. I didn’t even attack it! 😂
Remember that they don’t consider liberals to be leftists
Do you have a link? Would be interested to see.
Oh another one of these
Short answer:
“What if 4chan was communist instead of neonazi”
Similar level of assholety and low post quality. Better politics. Overall don’t bother, not worth it.
“What if 4chan was communist instead of neonazi”
Not quite, that would be /leftypol/
Better politics.
This reminds me of one of their site banners:
Hexbear has its origins on Reddit’s ChapoTrapHouse which I’m pretty sure has a connection to leftypol in its history.
But sure
My point is:
Hexbear = Jerkoffs, except class conscious
Would be nice if they weren’t jerkoffs but hey, at least they have class consciousness.
This analysis isn’t quite accurate. On the whole, Hexbear is actually one of the kindest and coolest and community-minded places I’ve ever been on the internet. But I’d agree there’s an issue of a portion of users who happily get overly aggro if you annoy them (and being allowed to get away with it).
Better politics.
The same way getting stabbed is better than taking a round of buckshot.
Flashback three months and you were supporting a genocide
Bullshit.
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Abstentionism is transphobic.
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lmao the blatant transphobia “disengage with the largest trans safe space on lemmy”
you’re so obvious
even if one assumes your trollish comment was in good faith, it only takes a single glance at hexbears front page to see it’s filled with kindness and reason. just people having fun online while still making space for serious discussion. and again, making sure marginalized people are safe and welcome. I wonder what your real issue with the site is?
seriously, what other site allows trans people to safely and comfortably be ourselves like this? https://hexbear.net/post/4271750
There is literally nothing transphohic about their comment, what the hell are you on about? People don’t like Hexbear because it’s trans-friendly, people dislike it because of their tankie politics and users that act like edgy 14 year olds.
Tank goes vroooooommm.
Nobody mentioned blahaj broski
when i used blahaj i was harassed by transphobic chasers. it is NOT a safe space.
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Defending chasers attacking someone is transphobic, and you need to do some serious self-crit if you consider yourself an ally. However, elsewhere in this thread you are attacking transgender individuals and accusing them of “faking it,” so this is a pattern and not a one-off.
You mean being dubious of an online poll
There’s 7 featured posts, which I assume are stickies made by the moderators. The 3rd post after that, so the 3rd actual popular post, is “fucking libs are still making excuses in the comments”. Such kindness and reason …
Funny how you don’t say anything about what that post is actually about - it’s about redditors excusing Kamala’s support for Israel. They aren’t kind to you if you defend the mass slaughter of civilians, no.
It seems to me that showing equal kindness to oppressor and oppressed would be supporting the oppressor.
Deragotory language, generalization & stigmatization. It is hate speech against all liberal minded people, there is nothing kind or reasonable about it.
Hate speech? Is “lib” a slur now? Are liberals a protected class? It’s not “hate speech” it’s just criticism of a political position.
Literally got banned from a world com for using “lib” as a slur. Honestly, they’re not a protected class but they’re such idiots post election loss that it might as well be a slur. They have zero self reflection and are blaming everybody but themselves for the landslide loss of the presidency, the house, the senate, state and local government positions. Everyone else just voted wrong and hates minorities you see.
“A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something.[1] It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pejorative
So yes, it’s a slur.
To be clear, If you truly believe lib is a slur, then you also believe “tankie” is a slur but is justified.
Rather than making a silly argument equating pejoratives for political positions being equal to slurs based on immutable characteristics, you could just not do that.
Lmao. Guess we better update the slur filter to remove all instances of the word “lib.” Sorry, am I allowed to say it in quotes like that, or is it too offensive? I wouldn’t want to offend your delicate lib sensibilities.
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That’s a bold claim. A quick look at their top communities list (one of the top 15 being explicitly a ‘community for transgender and gender diverse people’) and the first two rules of their CoC make it seem especially trans friendly.
MLs are incredibly good at hypocrisy.
one of the top 15 being explicitly a ‘community for transgender and gender diverse people’
And as we all know if someone says they’re a certain way that makes it so!
This level of naivete seems to be a requirement for being on .ml
If only there was a way to verify their claim so you weren’t forced to take their word for it.
Look, maybe you’re right. But this was one of the lamest responses to someone bringing receipts that I’ve ever seen.
someone bringing receipts
That didn’t happen here, cute
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Since you’re bringing up instance stereotypes, I have to say I’m disappointed to see baseless conspiracy claims from a dbzer0 user. dbzer0 is usually decent.
And as we all know if someone says they’re a certain way that makes it so!
Are you implying that this active community is somehow just an elaborate hoax? Why?
Are you implying that this active community is somehow just an elaborate hoax?
Oh, nice, a lack of reading comprehension as well
Look, there’s no reason to disbelieve here. If they claim to be trans, and they try to have trans-friendly policies, and keep talking about trans issues, why go this route?
Is your greater point that they’re pretending to be mostly trans as a way to use their trans-identity as a shield for criticism? If so, criticize that when they do it. The counter-argument to “you can’t criticize me because I’m trans” shouldn’t be “you’re not trans”, it should be “being trans is not a defense”. Ya follow?
And if the argument is that hexbear want to appear more trans in order to “virtual signal”, then I’d say there’s plenty to criticize about the way they run their instance, we don’t need to try and deny anything good they do.
Thank you for this. I find it really frustrating seeing open transphobia go unmoderated (comments calling out the transphobia get removed instead) because it’s directed at a ‘safe’ target on the instance.
Transphobia is still transphobia even if it’s your political enemies.
Look, there’s no reason to disbelieve here.
Everyone just pretending it’s not hex ear we’re talking about
HB tend to be vary campist and do tend to rely on bad faith and hypocrisy a lot, but I don’t have them as act as direct liars.
If you think Hexbear is trans-friendly, then you’re transphobic.
No, lol.
Someone complaining about being harassed by transphobic chasers and you said “good”, it’s for allies.
bruh wtf
Leate’s modlog is filled with homophobia and transphobia under the guise of being an ally, this is a pattern and not a one-off.
Many such cases tbh, so many of these types are extremely quick to accuse others of ‘faking’ their positions and it’s always projection.
100%. Leate in particular has a nasty habit of suicide baiting and blocking anyone who calls them out, DM harrassment, and more. The loudest complainers about Hexbear are overwhelmingly the ones who got banned for bigotry, which they think they can hide by not mentioning that factor.
I’ve noticed that in .world spaces that users will bring up suicide unprompted, or call me mentally ill, only to delete their posts before moderation happens
Transphobia is when you disagree with a liberal about anything, regardless of how much you support and respect trans people, apparently.
This is a very bad take. It is well-documented that Hexbear’s userbase is around 50% trans, and has a well-developed moderation team in order to protect their userbase. Discounting trans people because they disagree with you politically is in fact transphobia.
It’s a bear with six legs
You either block them and die a liberal or you engage and observe and live long enough to start spreading their agitprop and using your new pronoun “comrade” as you lead the way to glorious revolution.
(Seriously though, they’re just people on a leftist political instance. You’ll get the good, bad, and weird, same as any other place).
You should block hexbear
Seems this post is being brigaded by hexbear alts fyi
Hexbear users will bully you to hell the very second you say something they disagree with. In my case, I said South Park is a funny show. They also think Putin is a good guy and at the same time they pretend 90% of their users are trans. Basically it’s a bunch of douche kids playing revolutionaries and intimating anyone they disagree with. My 2 cents.
It’s an instance that became known for brigading other instances to “dunk” on anyone who has remotely different ideas than they do, as well as spamming oversized emojis and pictures of pigs shitting on their own testicles. They have been defederated by most instances for good reason, as they always showed up enmasse to completely derail discussion and their own stated purpose of federating with other instances was to “dunk on liberals and dismantle Western propaganda”. Their users would harass people in DMs for weeks on end if that person said something they didn’t like. I was there to see this happen in several instances before they all defederated from Hexbear and it almost made me quit Lemmy entirely.
Below are some examples of various instances considering federating with Hexbear, only for Hexbesr’s users to cause enough problems to get defederated. The threads themselves are best viewed from an instance that federates with Hexbear in order to see the awful behaviour for yourself, and the lemmy.ca thread has several more examples of this.
https://lemmy.ca/post/3326347 https://lemm.ee/post/4543536 https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/2017079 https://lemmy.world/post/249833
Do note that a lot of Hexbear users have alternate accounts on lemmy.ml and midwest.social (because nobody wants to federate with Hexbear), and a lot of these people will be in this very thread trying to defend Hexbear. Don’t be fooled by them. Hexbear is a toxic cesspit.
ITT: everyone says they’re bad without giving any examples, telling you what to think instead of letting you form your own conclusions.
Here’s my take…
They’re more cohesive and insular than most groups you’ll find on social media.
They’ve brewed their own strongly held culture and ideology.
Many are also used to being ostracised by other communities due to sexual preferences or other personal attributes.
The result is, if you naively post in a thread in which they are active your opinion will get stomped on if it does not directly align with theirs.
