What my front page looks like with no-politics content filter on
Basically my entire feed is like swiss cheese due to all the articles about Trump and Musk.
Does someone actually enjoy consuming this stuff all day every day? I can't possibly imagine Lemmy ever becoming popular among the normies if this is what they'd need to deal with.
I've been using Lemmy less lately because it's all Trump&Musk every time i open it.
PieFed, which federates with Lemmy so you can get all the same content, just added a new step to the onboarding process which sets up a Trump and Musk filter based on your preferences:
You could create an account that blocks off communities for news and technology, and any other communities that have a high likelihood of reporting on current events. Just switch to the account on days where you just don’t want to read such news, for any respectable reason you may have (it’s understandable, it can be draining).
This should be a no-brainer, but Lemmy doesn’t really filter stuff out by default, unless the admins decide so. So as long as you’ve created an account on a fairly managed instance, and given that the current news cycle, especially in the Western & English-speaking world, you won’t be able to escape Trump and Musk, especially when they’re dominating headlines due to how they are literally affecting the lives of millions, if not billions, of people.
I just think the nature of how Lemmy came about and who created it means that it's mostly used by very serious people worried about the state of the world.
It's one of the reasons I still use Reddit honestly. Lemmy is good for politics, FOSS, and Star Trek.
Wait what... Your feed is totally different from mine i guess
I don't think it's about enjoying the content. I don't filter it because I like having a firm grasp on what is happening politically in the world. As annoying, frustrating, and anxiety inducing as it is, Trump and Musk are two figures that are currently doing everything they can to fuck up our planet and governments so that they can make a few bucks. Yes there is a lot of musk and Trump content, but sticking your head in the sand and hoping it doesn't effect you until it's over is probably not the best way to handle it. I haven't been on Reddit in years, but I recall it being the same situation there during Trump's first term, there was just a little more non-political content to help dilute it due to the larger user-base.
[...] there was just a little more non-political content to help dilute it due to the larger user-base.
There was/is a lot more and that's one of the various reasons the different Lemmy/Mbin/Piefed sites haven't swayed people over yet. There's far more people around here replying to posts like this and news posts, as well as creating news/politics/"dry" posts or find-anywhere-fare like memes/shitposts than much else.
It's why recently I've tried posting more than media news links to a few of the different entertainment communities. Around here you really have to post/comment on what you want to see more than on the big corporate sites.
sticking your head in the sand and hoping it doesn’t effect you until it’s over is probably not the best way to handle it.
Consuming anger inducing political articles all day every day is probably not the best way to handle it either. For most people, this likely has far greater effect on their mental wellbeing than what these guys are doing policywise. On Reddit, there atleast was a slim chance that you could make an convincing enough argument that someone would drop their support for them but good luck finding such person on Lemmy. We're preaching to the choir here.
anger inducing political articles all day every day
Ah yes, those two whole posts out of four about politics in your screenshot really fill up the day 🙄
You literally have the "solution" in hand, yet still insist on whining about being "forced" to confront the reality around you. Just live with having it blocked instead of trying to force everyone else to stop sharing important news and information.
For most people, this likely has far greater effect on their mental wellbeing than what these guys are doing policywise
Nazi detected
Honestly the last time Trump was president I think it was similar on reddit and in the media in general. It's just that news about the stupid stuff he does seem to generate a lot of engagement and that's what platforms and news organisations are looking for.
I like to be informed about the stupid shit happening, so yes, I enjoy it. It's basically 5 minutes each day where I look at /all, the rest is subscribed stuff which doesn't have politics.
I'd like to be informed too but at this point it's essentially a choice between being firehosed by american politics or blocking all of it. I wouldn't mind if it was just the occasional article when something actually newsworthy happens. Now it's for a large part just recreational outrage.
"Recreational". What a heartless dismissal of the swaths of new people being impacted and harmed every day by each new move by these fucks. Just stick to your subscribe feed if their suffering is such an irritant to you and leave the rest of the site to do what it will, yeah?
There are people around me enraged/supportive of it. I want to be able to be a voice of reason, and I can't do it if I don't know. I don't want to be just "generically" informed.
In general I agree it's pretty shitty that it's so much, but I care about people, and people care about this shit.
My feed looks a lot different. And I've been blocking posts with these keywords for some time now, plus I've unsubscribed from world news and politics communities... But I have a lot of meme pictures in my feed, tech related stuff, casual talk and general questions, comics, animal pictures, computer hobby stuff, movies and TV... Maybe you're subscribed to the wrong communities?
I've unfollowed so many communities due to the overwhelming amount of political articles already. If I keep doing that there's not going to be anything left to browse soon. People are posting that stuff even on meme communities.
That is correct. I've also observed Lemmy is a lot about commenting on the news. And I wish it was more about hobbies, conversations and interesting stuff. You're generally better off if you like Linux and AI, which are things I'm interested in and those are some pretty active topics... But I can see how that's not everyone's pair of shoes.
I appreciate the memes on Lemmy. Seems to be automated and they have low engagement, but it's kind of awesome to to scroll, lol at cat, and get some news.
I have these four keywords filtered and it mostly works for me without having to block politics or other whole topics completely
Replace Donald with RFK and you have my list. It's greatly enhanced QOL. I still get to hear all about those guys from everywhere else, so I'm not "missing out" on anything just making my Lemmy feed much better.
That's my experience as well. In order to get a healthy, moderate amount of news you have to actively avoid them. I even tried avoiding weather forecasts at one point but people kept telling me.
That is what does most of the heavy lifting for me too. Nearly all political discussion here is, in fact, discussion about either Trump or Musk. I'd be willing to bet that at any moment, atleast third of the posts on anyone's front page includes either of those names.
I dont understand, whats the infuriating part? How it would look without the filter? Is the image supposed to be an inspiration for filtering politics?
Edit: Ah I see, the horizontal lines represent filtered posts and there are a lot. To be fair, c/news has a looot of posts, sometimes I scroll past 10-15 in a row. Some are more relevant than others. Also, to answer your (kinda rhetoric) question, Lemmy is my main news source so I want to see the politics stuff.
The horizontal lines would just make me proud my filter works so well. My client doesn't have them, so I have no idea how much gets filtered.
Wait. So you’re saying that it’s infuriating to see politics in your feed after you turned off the filter to prevent seeing politics in your feed? 🤔
Edit: You know what, that’s my bad. I misread your post originally. My sincerest apologies for the confusion.
American politics absolutely dominate the fediverse, it's crazy
It was the same when Israel invaded Palestine, nothing but Gaza news on the frontpage. Trump's dismantling of the country is one of the shittiest things happening in the world right now, of course it will dominate the front page.
The unfortunate part is that he's going to be dismantling the country for the next 4 years
Sticking my head in the sand doesn't help me stay current on what's happening
I'd rather stay informed too but not at the expense of my mental wellbeing. It's not political posts that's the issue here - it's the amount of them.
It is absolute insanity.
It would take a real weirdo to enjoy news as it's rarely good, by definition.
It's about being informed. Can't help you with your desire not to be.
It’s pretty disingenuous to suggest that my decision to block political posts on Lemmy comes from a desire to stay ignorant.
All you have told us is that you don't want to see political news. Not sure what other conclusion I could be expected to draw.
No one enjoys it, but I kind of what to keep abreast of how they plan to fuck us in the off chance it helps me to make a decision that can save me some of the pain.
I specifically don't subscribe to many political/ news communities so that I can enjoy my time here. When I really want to know, I'll just go to all instead of subs
I subscribe to non-news, non-politics, and non-tech communities only. My front page is great and I can browse "new" and "subscribed" for several hours a day. If I do run out, only then do I look at "all".
Lꝏk at how many news domains I filtered in my lemmy client app (isn't even all of them , the form just stopped expanding past certain point)
Sick ofv hearing about those two guys , don't use social media to lꝏk at news links , the 1-2 news sites I actually do follow are basicly text-only with no images . But am not doing this out of politics avoidance , it's for different reasons
Particularly infuriating are this and memes (which I also don't care about) seem to make up like 80% total threadiverse content . Peops wonder wy peops stay on reddit lol