1y ago

Why is all of Lemmy filled with Anti Israel content?

I hope I will not get downvoted because I'm genuinely wondering

Lemmy almost has no users from neither Israel or Palestine, however most of communities filled with Anti Israel content, I even tried muting all news related communities, but now I see anti Israel content in completely unrelated communities, like !android@lemmy.world and !memes@sopuli.xyz

Is there a reason why Lemmy is so fixated on Israel/Palestine? Neither of other world conflicts get even close in terms of attention. It's neither a case on my microblogging Fediverse account or my most "algoritmic" social media, even kbin part of the Threadiverse seems not as obsessed with it, what's so different about Lemmy?

(Sorry for a bit clickbait-y title)

Edit: I actually might take down this post because half of people in replies completely misunderstood it

75 comments

Maybe it might because Israel is in the wrong? Maybe overreacting a bit and committing something awfully close to genocide? Just a thought.
- I think the reason why people in the US care about this genocide (and not others) is because the US is funding it so hard.
  
  I care mostly because it’s wrong.

Are you asking why Lemmy has a lean towards political activism? Why the political activism is so heavily focused on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict? Or why they've chosen the side that they have within that conflict?
All three are completely different questions, and all of them are complicated and also pretty much impossible to answer with any real confidence. But they're interesting.
Anyways, which is the biggest thrust of your question?
- I am talking about apolitical communities, or those that are supposed to be apolitical at least, i apologize if I haven't made it clear enough in my original thread.
  
  Apolitical communities formed of people that are otherwise more politically active sorts may see a little more politics than normal, during particularly emotional times.
  It's more about the people than the community.
  
  Zionists can't help but cry regardless of what community they're in. Add lemmy's general stance against apartheid and oppressive government and you have a community primed to "pick on israel" when they're actually just expressing their opinions. The zionists love to make themselves the victim regardless of actual circumstances
  
  Lemmy doesn't have many enforced apolitical communities. Because even the meaning of apolitical is contentious and arguably political.
  
  There is no such thing as an "apolitical" community - not here on the fediverse or anywhere else.

you wish fewer people were horrified and outraged over active genocide?
- Even if genocide happens as you say, I don't see any attention to other genocides in the world on there, only to this specific war
  
  Because it's the most recent world event. Were you not seeing constant discussions about Russia/Ukraine when that first started?
  
  This is a logical fallacy. For example just because the Uighur issue receives less present attention (because it's not NEW) doesn't make the latest attempt at genocide more acceptable.
  
  People in the US are concerned about this genocide because we're paying for it. The US sends Israel billions of dollars every year. This is our tax dollars at work.

I mean… while I defend the right of Israel to defend themselves from attacks, they're basically committing genocide in the name of "defense" by not discerning between innocent Palestinians and Hamas. And thus, they have become the bad guys through their bad actions and are getting a lot of hate over it.

maybe you should unsubscribe to anything that keeps filling up your front page with such things.
That's what I do. I don't see anything that I don't want to see.
- I said in the reply that I tried, I have a separate non political account and I tried to do it on it, and it haven't worked, I still seen a lot of discuss relating to it on completely apolitical communities

"Is there a reason why Lemmy is so fixated on Israel/Palestine?"
I figure that people who take the time to swap to federated social media are generally going to be people that are a little more political...
and Israel is currently actively committing genocide. So political people are posting anti-israel posts. It's really not more complicated than that.

What's different about Lemmy compared to other sites? The Palestine/Israel conflict is the main topic point today. Everyone is talking about it everywhere, whether it be Reddit or Twitter. Are you up to date on the news?
- I know it is the main political discourse, and yes I know how many attention it gets But I don't see much attention to it outside of the political circles neither on Twitter or on Reddit outside of a few specific exceptions
  
  Maybe you're not subscribed to many places, I see it everywhere in my feeds. For what it's worth I rarely see it on Lemmy outside of meme and politics communities.

I can’t speak for others, but as I see it, the Israeli government is committing atrocities on a daily basis. So is Hamas. I’m against senseless violence in general, but since the IDF has the upper hand and has killed the most civilians in the current conflict, I’m more likely to complain about them.

It's the same as anywhere. FWIW obviously inflammatory stuff gets removed from !android@lemdro.id under rule 9. Disagreements are okay, but folks are expected to keep things civil. Also an issue for kbin/mbin is that moderator removals aren't federated probably to/from Lemmy.
- Hmm, actually now that you say it, it may be the actual reason, sounds pretty logical to me, even tho I do think (most?) Mod actions do get federated.
  
  To be investigated.
  If you use the spammers from the last two days as evidence for mod actions federation, those actions were not really federated (I know for sure that admin ones are not between Lemmy instances, let's not even ask K/mbin), it was more than everyone was blocking the accounts on every instance.
  Actually, I just checked, they are not.
  Example:
  https://feddit.de/post/6311541?scrollToComments=true
  https://fedia.io/m/europe@feddit.de/t/430802/Central-Paris-attack-leaves-one-dead-and-one-injured#comments

Lemmy originally has an anti-west bias. That naturally spans to general communities as well

I haven't seen any comments like what you're describing.
- Can we switch accounts please?/s Actually in one of the replies a person mentioned that it might be because of the mod actions not federating properly to kbin/mbin, and it's actually sounds as a logical reason, especially if you say that you haven't seen what I'm describing.

What Hamas did was atrocious, and how Israel responds is even worse. Where I live, people are not against Israel or Palestine per se. They are against violence and genocide. And rightfully so. No matter who commits the crimes, or where they are committed, they are still crimes and it'd frankly be weird not to condemn them in the strongest possible way. Is it really that difficult not to think only in terms of us-them. black-white, good-bad and/or left-right? The level of discourse (or absence thereof) is quite disheartening.

This morning I read some statistic that approx 73% of all internet traffic is bots & shills.
So that might have something to do with this phenomenon you're experiencing.
- Most of that has got to be miscellaneous stuff though, like maintenance testing. How would that work out for business if more than half of us were bots?
  I will say though, it brings some assurance to be able to say "I'm also ____ on another website" as bots cannot operate universally with uniformity. For example, if I were to mention here how I'm DollarGeneralKenobi on PsychCentral and vice versa, it would pose a challenge to the bot thing based on the stereotype that a bot is only made to be interested in one meeting place.

Most really just dislike "the West" for its own misdeeds and interpret that as a cue to say "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". This is a false way of going about themselves, especially considering the revelations about Palestine lately revolving crimes of mass violation, which are similar to what the perpetrators of the Nanjing Massacre did.
There is no shame in being deceived, but considering how I was treated for it all, I'll be taking great relative pride in saying to everyone "I told you so", just like I can do for Ukraine. Still don't understood how anyone can say they're pro-LGBT and not have at least a little respect for Israel or its people.
It also makes it misleading many of the people doing this siding identify as misanthropes when they like a whole faction of humanity enough to side unconditionally with them. A true misanthrope, by definition, sides with nobody. Take it from me. I have my reasons.

##tl;dr Because Israel is breaking international law.
- Are you stalking my profile now lol?
  
  Maybe. Why? Does it bother you if people call out Israel?

And titties. I see more porn content than anything.
- Damn really? I don't see NSFW content at all, very wierd.

The Fediverse is heavily far left-leaning. The far left is anti-Israel, and thus so are most Fediverse users.
- Being against apartheid is not a "far left" position.
- Anti-genocide and anti-apartheid (antifascist) is not “far left.” Those things are far right.
- I know it is, however I'm talking about communities that have no relation with politics, news, Israel or Palestine
  
  Oh, I see. My guess is poor moderation.

Of course you will get downvoted because there is no nuance with those people (often Tankies or „anticolonional“/„antiimperial“ leftists) and when they hate on „Israel“ and „Zionism“, they more often than not, mean „Jews“.
And exactly those people are part of the reason that Jews are scared for their life all over the world.
As someone that considers himself a leftist, even by European standards, I am honestly disgusted by those people. I think „those people“ are willing to betray left values as long it is about Israel or Jews. Many of them even lack basic human empathy as long as „only“ Jews and/or Israelis are concerned.
Edit:
thanks @ElcaineVolta ! As you disapprove of my posts, I know I do the right things.
- Oh whatever. I'm a Jew. Israel is committing genocide. It's that simple. What they are doing is why I am scared for my life. Because they are radicalizing people against Jews through this genocide. Maybe you need a little empathy.
  
  I don’t care what you claim to be.
- name checks out
- There's plenty of nuance to be had here, but there's a clear cut reason as to why many are steering towards Anti-Israel, and it's not Judaism.
  It is true that Hamas has slaughtered innocent civilians, and Israel absolutely had to respond...
  But how on Earth can you sit there and side with a country who's reaction to a terrorist attack was to commit human rights violations and start a genocide against innocent civilians of that nationality?
  Do you mean to tell me that bombing hundreds of innocent Palestinians, and then cutting off essential water and electricity to many more is a warranted response to any of this?
  Also, since I keep seeing this - stop with the "Anti-Israel = Anti-Semite" crap - Israel is a Jewish state, not Judaism itself. This is the equivalent of saying Saudi Arbia represents all of Islam because of Mecca, or that the Vatican city represents all of Christianity.
  Criticising Israel for playing a game of morality limbo with the Hamas isn't an attack on Judaism, nor is it advocating for any kind of hatred towards Jewish people.
  Though let's be honest, if you won't even take a Jewish person's word for it that your take is shite, you're never gonna take mine.
- Seems to me you’re willing to abandon left values when it pertains to Palestine.

There is a lot of leftist/communist who run lemmy. I guess they are aint jewish and pro palestine. My guess
- I know plenty of Jewish folks who aren’t happy with the Israeli government and how this is being handled.
- Being anti Israel is not anti Jewish. Please don’t conflate the two.
- considering Israel has no problem killing Palestinian Jews, where does that put them on the anti-semitic spectrum?
- I know, I am completely not surprised by them, I am talking specifically about communities with zero relation to politics, to Israel or to Palestine. I apologize if I haven't made it clear enough in my original post
- It is so awesome to check the reduces to your post to update my blocklists on kbin - thanks for your service

75 comments