Remote View

3mo ago

Leaving lemmy

I joined lemmy after reddit API changes, as many people did. At first, it was amazing. The community felt so alive, so friendly and welcoming. Obviously, the activity wasn't exactly as large as it was on reddit, but I was patient, I knew more stuff was coming, and I was excited for it.

Unfortunately, this period would not last long. It would not last even a week until I got into my first argument with a tankie. I saw them and argued with them from time to time on reddit, but people there usually saw right through the bullshit and downvoted them to oblivion.

Here, it was so much different. They were all upvoted and supported by hordes more tankies. Constant genocide denial in China, support for Ruzzia, and somehow, for North Korea.

In retrospect, I should have left then, abandoned lemmy then and there, not really return to reddit, just leave both alone. I would have saved myself some sanity.

But I didn't, which I regret. I wasted my time here, constantly seeing this bullshit, and sometimes, I didn't even have the motivation or energy to argue with them.

The amount of genocide denial, dictatorship praising, and insane arguments I've seen in a month blew past the amount of this shit I've seen on reddit in a fucking decade.

I don't see the future in this, none whatsoever. Lemmy will be here, but it will always stay a tankie hellhole unless you block thousands of people and whole instances. And if you do, the tankies will always just migrate to other instances to keep spreading hate.

You guys are awesome. Keep doing what you are doing, but I am tired of this bullshit and I am done.

67 comments

While I have my run ins with tankies sometimes, I actually don’t think it’s that bad. Join an instance that blocks lemmygrad and hexbear, ignore lemmy.ml or block it too and you’re golden.
That’s the power of fediverse, it’s flexibility.
Also tankies have a strong foothold on Lemmy, because they were here first. But they are not as numerous as you or they themself think. Watch them outside of their safespace communities and see them downvoted into oblivion.
- The fact you can block an instance where communities reside that you have issues with is incredible!
  It’s like if Reddit gave you a feature to block a subreddit and all the users that subscribed to it in one single action.
  Edit: OP should try creating an account on different instances? For instance on the instance hosting the community that just posted this to..?
  I have several accounts and sh.itjust.works has been doing a stellar job with managing the toxicity from leaking into this instance.
  
  Yes, absolutely! The ability to do that immensely valuable.
  I actually don’t like to use it too much, because I like to see whats going on and don’t want to lock myself into a bubble.
  But my instance is thankfully defederated from lemmygrad and hexbear and I think about blocking .ml too. I think nothing of worse will be lost.
- lemmy.cafe blocks the big three and has good uptime
  
  Unfortunately it has been plagued by server issues - e.g. it hasn't shown any picture previews for weeks now. I can't view its internal community where this is being discussed, but that instance may not be the best to recommend anymore:-(.
  There's also dubvee.org but it's regional, and there's quokk.au but people say that the admin doesn't respond when asking to make a new account (may have been temporary?). There's PieFed which looks amazing, but many times I get a Notification but can't view whatever it's trying to point at for a variety of many reasons. Finally there's the Sync and Connect apps for Lemmy, which can block all the users from an instance without needing admin approval (I have not tried either though so can't speak to their functionality beyond that).
  Though now I see calls for violence from all Lemmy instances so it's no longer just the big 3.:-(

It's nice here on instances which have both Grad and Hexbear blocked. I remember the early days on .world, when Grad was still federated. Those were some high-intensity dipshits.
Anyway, you do what you need to for your mental health, my guy/gal/nonbinary pal. If ever you change your mind, most of us brainrotted terminally online types will still be here when you come back - and hopefully will have continued to marginalize the tankie fuckwads.
- Lemmy.cafe is pretty cool with ML blocked, though I’ve noticed a seepage of tankies into .world and lemmee unfortunately
  
  Really? I've noticed a decline in tankies, at least in the long-term. I remember when World News and Political Memes still had significant tankie contingents. Like, 1/5 comments/votes were tankies. Now it's more like 1/10. There are just a handful of prolific tankie or tankie-adjacent posters which linger, like a fart in an elevator.

I took a look at your profile and I think they aren’t the actual problem here. I mean, yes. Their dicksucking of dictators is strong. Like, holy shit! Go easy of the slurping, boys!
But if you waste your time in places where they are dominant, you’re gonna have a bad time no matter what. You should avoid those places or (even better) learn to not give that much of a fuck what others say online. Online communities should not be able to have a significantly negative impact on your mental wellbeing.
I hope you find a bit of relief. Take care!

There's plenty of instances that block the 2 tankie instances and even .ml. This is a self-inflicted problem.
- https://lemmy.cafe blocks the 3 for people looking
  
  Noice
- Check their profile.
  It's a lib troll,
  
  You do know where you are right? This is the community where we make fun of people like you

Yo Mate don't take what you see here so seriously, block .ml and stop looking at your phone. You'll be doing yourself a favour.
I have been in more arguments here than on reddit but I think it has more to do with the fact that I have a certain attachment to this federated platform.
I really want its model to succeed and when I see toxicity here it hurts way more than when it's on reddit/Facebook etc...
A lot of people are here in their own safezone so the moment you disturb someone even so slightly they go berserk.
it's hard to respect shitty opinions but it's best for you to just avoid and block. Real life is stressful enough you don't need to stress yourself more online.

Everytime I see these posts and comments I think:
“Where????”
I’ve seen 10 times more people complaining about tankies than actual tankies denying genocide. In fact, I can’t seem to think back to a single instance of someone denying China’s past acts.
Do you guys go to different instances or do you sort by controversial?
My issue with lemmy is that it basically become super political (thank you US election for ruining media again).
- “Where???”
  Any active political thread about China.
  
  All my political posts are about the us election. When China is mentioned, it’s never positively unless it’s about EVs.
  Could you link me an example by any chance?

I blocked ml and hexbear and rarely encounter them now. When I do, I block the user individually. It’s made lemmy delightful, frankly.

May I suggest trying out
lemmy.cafe
(which blocks ML too, on top of grad and hexbearg)
and only subscribing to non-political communities

“…and sometimes, I didn't even have the motivation or energy to argue with them.”
May I suggest just ignoring things (words, NOT actions) you don’t agree with? I don’t go to churches / temples / mosques / synagogues etc to yell at believers. I don’t post hunting photos in vegan and veterinarian subs. It takes two to tango.
In my personal experience I see much less “debatability” coming from (some) .world accounts - but I understand user experience varies massively from person to person.

We need a Lemmy tankie blocklist.
- I sometimes might block a little too liberally, so perhaps some of the people here are just TANKIE _LIGHT_^TM but I think 95% of my blocks are full blown tankies, and if instance is ML I won’t do any due diligence, instant block when you say something sketchy.

just subscribe and block man. in a buffet you don't have to taste everything. grab what you want. I block magazines im even just not interested in like sports so that when I do all I don't have to see them. there is a wierd view people have that subscribing is great and blocking is bad. if someone subscribes to stuff and never looks at all then its the same as if they blocked everything except what they subscribed to. Its all just filtering.

You can try https://lemmy.cafe
Ml, grad and Hexbear are defederated.

That's the thing with the fediverse. You end up getting instances where certain beliefs are held more strongly. The solution is to go somewhere where those instances are just straight up defederated (or ask your instance admin to do something). This does result in the instances who remain federated seeing less push-back against extremist views.
On the fediverse you're more in control of what you're able to see through your choice of instance, which affects the "all" view, and which comments show up on posts, obviously defederated instances' comments won't be there; who you follow or what communities you subscribe to, and your block lists.
If your instance chose not to do anything about tankie instances (or individual tankie accounts), then that's on your instance and its admins, not Lemmy as a whole.

- Mod abuse happens because of the power given to mods and the expectations of the communities they are in. Lemmy did nothing to update how mods work.
  
  Lemmy did nothing to update how mods work.
  Public modlogs are a big change
  
  Did you mean tools are given to mods?
  Power is given, and hardly survives being taken.
  TenForward forking from StarTrek is a clean demonstration of power. When abused less (or not at all) it thrives.
  Sauce: Power Paradox

I'm a leftie, but not a tankie. I'm not a fan of autocracy, or defending atrocities. Tankies are misguided but there are many decent communists, even if I do not agree with their views.
On Reddit, the Overton window is way over to the right. You make the point their posts are downvoted to oblivion. Of course with that, any left wing view is often down voted to oblivian. In a space where it is left leaning, like Lemmy, you don't get that and you have a more diverse debate. You'll get liberals over on .world engaging with communists, socialists and tankies. Some can handle a site where left wing views are allowed. Some won't. You have a block feature where you can block, grad, hexbear and even lemmy.ml if you're really struggling to digest left views.
If not, maybe your views are more rightwards than you realise and that bias on reddit is more comfortable. If that is the case, it may be better for you over there.
I personally don't get how people cannot understand that people have different views, especially in different countries. I'm left in the UK, a socialist, and sometimes Americans think that is a euthenism for communism because they cannot comprehend that the state can have a role in reducing inequality.
You highlight that genocide denial is rampant, but I see here people comfortable to be critical of Israel's treatment of Palestine. I think only some genocides/atrocities you want to see discussed.
Either way, I hope you find an environment you're comfortable in. Not everything has to be a battle.
- The genocide denial is very selective. If a "western nation" involved. You'll generally see widespread near universal condemnation. Should you dare to point out other genocides, historical or contemporary with leninist, Maoist, Stalinist ties. Be ready for strong tonal whiplash. Because apparently it's only genocide when capitalists do it. When those groups do it, it's a noble involuntary sacrifice for the proletariat by the benevolent vanguard party.
- For real. The people who flounce like this complaining about "too many tankies" tend to be right-wingers who are frustrated this is not reddit v2.

Can someone fill me into what a tankie is? I'm a progressive socialist, so do I fit that category? I'm genuinely in the dark about it
OP just seems mad that this is a communist safe zone
- I’m a progressive socialist, so do I fit that category? I’m genuinely in the dark about it
  No. In fact, they would regard progressive socialists as 'controlled opposition'. Tankies are typically Marxist-Leninists who constantly play apologia for fascist states painted red, like China and North Korea, and will always find some reason why fascist states not even painted red, like Russia, are Good, Actually, because they oppose the West.

I don't recommend leaving. Just block the tankies.

I find the tankies entertaining personally
- It is so easy to get them to start rambling. Just present them with a simple fact and they will come up with an elaborate story on how the fact is wrong.
  Come to think of I am the troll

I don't think I've actually blocked any individual for a reason other than being an outright troll in the pure post-2-piss-off sense or a spambot.
The thing to remember with the extreme left or right is that they're about as credible as the drunk on the corner ranting and raving about aliens putting mind control chips in their breakfast cereal.
I've engaged with them a bit too much at length occasionally, particularly on former accounts, but often as not it's for the novelty of a freak show spectacle.

I would be more worried about ads, memes and the government propaganda you see on instances like lemmy.world and global feed
That for me is what is ruining lemmy experience more than anything else. There are many tankies but they are usually self limited to their own instances.
Lemmy seem to have inherited reddit mechanics which are shaped after marketing and mass media advertising. Home feed is predated by shitpost and news from mainstream media. Serious subs suitable for discussions have hard time surfacing and this creates a loop where shitty subs keep get more popular.

A quick look at your comment history indicates that you're quite toxic yourself and it's no wonder you attract so much opposition. Leaving may very well be the right choice here and a service to the whole platform.

You are a troll, You are the problem,
Your instance don't even federate with HB and ML.
Bye bye.
Hope never see ya
- Is this a alt account by chance?
- This is such a weird type of troll though like we know which instance they're from so why are they bothered about other instances' federation?
  What's the end game here? To paint a bad image of lemmy and get us back on reddit?
  Maybe they just think that Lemmy is just one big website like Reddit which it isn't.
  
  I thinks that's pretty clear just by getting a glance on their user profile.

67 comments