Has anyone else noticed how prevalent Hexbear posters have suddenly become? Maybe sometime last week I noticed nearly every political post had at least one long thread of Hexbear users that do nothing but repeat CCP talking points while waving anyway anything even remotely reliable as Western propaganda. That or getting all excited about trolled libs. The way they tell it, you’d think everything from DW, to Fox, to Propublica, to straight up AP News articles, are all written by the same people.
Not to mention, their info on the Fediverse observer is either straight up wrong or there’s some serious botting going on. According to that, the instance is less than a month old, yet somehow they already have one of the largest, most active userbases, along with far and away the most comments of any instance.
Seems to me like Lemmygrad on steroids. Considering we defederated from them, seems like a no-brainer to block Hexbear as well.
So glad this thread could become such a perfect microcosm of why we need to defederate.
I just noticed them today when a post from their community reached my front page. They called my server, lemm.ee, which is just a neutral general Lemmy instance, a racist neo lib instance and should be defederated. No idea what’s up with them but I did notice them show up out of nowhere.
edit: oh this thread definitely convinces me they’re a toxic as hell lemmygrad 2.0. Luckily there’s a Lemmy PR that allows instance blocking. It’s just being tested right now and then will be merged.
Your instance IS a racist neoliberal instance. Perhaps you should engage with the accusations and investigate their merits rather than prima face using them as evidence that the most active and egalitarian instance in the fediverse is malicious by demanding less racism in our discussions and less brutality in our politics.
God forbid we want to live in a better world.
dude I’m just here for memes and video games, what are you expecting me to do there, my instance is doing just fine
Its possible you haven’t noticed because these kinds of things aren’t on your radar, they’re just normal because theyve never been questioned, I have no doubt you have no ill will and are just there for the memes, but to those who see the broader trend of the community its rather blatant. Hope that explanation helps you understand where we’re coming from
Yeah that makes sense and is like the first comment that isn’t super aggro
I mean, you did add the edit
before most of the responses, so I don’t see why you would expect people not to be aggressive. You also accused the site of botting because it’s more active than yours (“10 upvotes in 10 minutes” lol)
Well, its the first time I’ve had this interaction on lemmy today, when I get to the 5th time in a few hours I have to explain this I may be slightly more annoyed and a bit more aggro haha
Sorry you’ve been a bit burned, we can get intense sometimes, but we mean well at the end of the day.
The key is to ask questions, if you have any you want to ask, in good faith. “Can you tell me about X?” and then go from there, people make a lot of assumptions about what we believe and why, because a lot of why they don’t believe it themselves is because theyve been lied to. So don’t assume, ask, I promise you people won’t be shy they will happily tell you way more than you could ever want to know about it
I’m sayin that from first hand experience because I used to be a communist hating austerity loving homeless hating liberal pos, I was probably a lot worse than most of the libs people are mad at in this thread, but threads like this are also what helped me find my way this way so, hey, circle of life
I promise most of us are nice people and fairly easy to get along with. We’re just very… tired of certain narratives and ideas and dont have much patience for them. I honestly think some of my comrades can do a bit better at remembering the human here, but its also understandable why they dont have patience for certain things.
So I initially was super off put by hexbear when it started showing up. But reading through this thread, and your comments, I feel differently.
My main thing is the “own the libs” type narrative because I considered myself a liberal. I didn’t want to feel attacked while trying to expand my view. But reading through these I think that’s because Ive always defined myself as a “liberal” but I think I just conflated that word with “left”
Based off a lot of what I read here, I actually am considering joining the instance because I do agree with the sentiments and I do want to educate myself beyond what I’ve been taught in the very flawed US public school system and the headlines I’m fed daily.
Thanks for your responses.
Also, can you explain pbb to me because people were talking about the nuance of it but it just looks like some shitty pig balls to me.
A lot of people do this, I used to do this. Its basically the linguistic norm in America. Back when I was an Obama liberal, it was because I thought he supported my social democratic values (Berniecrat, basically) that I held at the time because he was good at pretending he did. And I definitely thought I was “the left” then. I’ve moved left from there since then. But I do absolutely identify with your position and why people saying “dunk on libs” might be offputting to someone who has always thought that liberal meant left. But yeah, by Liberal we mean the original definition of the term, “person who supports capitalism”.
Eehhhhhhh I’m going to disagree that there’s much nuance to this but I dont totally know the history of the emote lol. Maybe someone else does. I think its just something people use to respond to outright fascist opinions (which sometimes, there is an unfortunate crossover between the opinions of a centrist liberal and a fascist, which is where the saying "scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds) comes from. But there’s literally a post in our instance right now calling for people to chill a bit on using it and use it only when someone REALLY deserves it.
Also, thank you for keeping an open mind and being willing to learn new things.
Lib successfully owned
We say “own the libs” specifically for this reason. It’s never alone, and always followed up by dozens and dozens of good faith posts and responses that attempt to peel back the “liberal” facade. Owning libs isn’t owning people, it’s getting people to abandon the fence and actually come to terms with or reveal their ideological positions.
The two options are either “oh shit, you’re making good points and I’m going to pay more attention” and “fuck you, we need more genocide”. Without fail we either convert fence sitters or force fascists to reveal themselves.
Hexbear is the Thing test for Lemmy instances. Which is why you should be weary of any instance that defederates us. Especially because the reasoning of “oh were niche” is bullshit seeing as how we have an active mycology comm and I’ve never brought up a topic there that didn’t have people engage with me.
The fact that we’re so ideologically consistent and coherent and have diverse interest groups is what scares fash. Because we can come into your Warhammer miniature comm, talk circles around you in your own topic and also call out the fact that you painted a panzer division emblem on one of your Repulsor models and then drag you out of the community kicking and screaming.
That’s cool, and we would be happy to hang out!
Oh, and we don’t just do politics, we have comms for music, movies, literature, random memes, and all sorts of things
It’s almost like we’re just normal people lol
Well then why are you jumping into a thread to start shit with people? This thread has nothing to do with your stated interests. Go do that instead. How is this an ‘us’ problem?
If that was true then why are you here talking shit
in that case there are the same 2015-era facebook-tier memes back on
What can I say, I’ve seen a disproportional amount of racism and liberalism coming from your instance. I hate generalizations too, but neutrality isn’t actually a good thing anyway. Because centrism IS a political stance and IS a racist one. Taking a stand for whats right is good.
I haven’t even seen any enlightened centrists on my instance, I don’t even see any politics on my instance! listen dude, i actually support china because i play genshin impact
Best post I’ve seen in ages lmao, unironically actually funny I almost burst a gut laughing, good post <3
New site tagline
Liberals are centrists though. And you have an entire comm about worldnews that’s inherently political…
I didn’t even know my instance has a world news, and it’s like barely active. Implying that represents my instance community is just bad faith. And no, libs are just like smug right wingers that don’t know they’re right wing, where centrists are just dumbasses who think they’re smarter then everyone while repeating reactionary bullshit
It’s bad faith to point out the explicitly political comm in my instance as evidence that my instance does have politics
To be fair though, I get the feeling this person is just naive and decently well intentioned. I get your frustration and lack of patience though. But
Is a pretty good thing to say lol.
it’s really amazing how you know literally nothing about the website you actually signed up for but you’re a PhD candidate on everything to do with hexbear
???
You claim to know nothing about the instance you’re actually on while passing judgement about hexbear, an instance you’re not even on.
I get the feeling you’re a decently well intentioned person, but there have definitely been liberal and racist comments coming from your comm. I don’t think its wrong to point that out, but sorry you got boxed in if thats not you.
hahahaha this will literally live in my head rent free for a week
Lmao new site tagline dropped
10 upvotes in 10 mins have to be botted or something, this whole instance is sus
We have a community that has been together for years. We actually care about each other, We love supporting each other whenever possible and We are a real community.
None of the shitlib
wannabe instances will ever understand.
Sucks to suck.
Yeah ngl the whole “we” thing is weird to me. I have never cared about any internet community lol.
This is literally a thread addressing our specific community. What are we supposed to do, refuse to reference that community?
Like I said you would not understand.
I told you all that so you all quit accusing us of post/stat manipulation.
Was there a big migration push recently? I don’t think it’s manip anymore, there’s clear organic traffic here that’s linking me pig shit.
We recently federated with the broader lemmyverse Idk what its called, I’ve just been posting here for 3 years using the same link on my bookmark, and when I clicked it today here I am replying to you
when does the war on lemmygrad begin
I’ve gotta respect the riffs, at least
Did you just call me a manip?
That’s just a pokemon
lmao I’m sorry about the pig shit, you seem like a cool person from your other replies.
yes, everyone is so alienated and atomized, broken down into monads so that no community can exist, because communities existing means they will collectively organize to defend themselves. they don’t want you to have a community, because then you’d be harder to exploit
are u trying to unionize internet communties
not really, I don’t think internet communities are “means of production”. I would like to dispel false consciousness, highlight class collaboration, and foster class consciousness
Because honestly very very few online communities are like this one. This community has given each other hours and hours of entertainment, support, and knowledge far beyond anything I’ve seen before.
I’ve been here for three years and I’ve seen people get jobs because of training resources and answers provided by other users. People who were ‘leftish’ but didn’t have library or academic access who were given links to free courses, books, and basically a whole leftist education they couldn’t have gotten otherwise. People have started reading groups for learning more and discussion. Gaming and movie watching groups for people who are isolated or just want to hang out digitally with comrades.
People have helped organise for various good causes and trans comrades have been given advice and help to find the medical supplies they need when living in places it would otherwise be impossible. The mutual aid that’s happened here has gotten people off the streets, helped unhoused people, paid for meals people otherwise would have had to skip, and kept people’s electricity on until payday.
I’m lucky enough not to have needed any of those things, but someone still sent me codes for a couple of video games I was curious about just because I mentioned I was stressed out one month and looking for something new to play. I could have bought them myself, but was a lovely gesture so I thanked them and threw the same amount I would have spent towards mutual aid.
Yeah, there’s a whole lot of shit posting, some struggle sessions, and occasional assholery too. But there’s a reason so many people are so active here on Hexbear. It’s special.
So talk shit, defederate, or maybe approach in good faith without your presumptions. Whatever you choose, we’ll be just fine.
We’re just terminally online and upvote each other
Though I’ll admit those stats here are a bit suspicious
Got me.
You: “another more active community than mine exists? No it can’t be, that’s impossible! It must be some trick, or foul magic!”
Us:
Is there a bot to explain your 0 upvotes?
Do upvotes matter to you lol
-person who just complained about other people getting upvotes
That absolutely was not what my comment was about. Is your entire instance this toxic as this thread?
I’ve actually never felt unwelcome or not wanted in hexbear. Probably because I engage in posts there in good faith and disagree politely.
this is a thread complaining about us, of course we’re not gonna be particularly nice
The defederation PR merge cannot come soon enough
Now said it without crying, lib.
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maybe we’re just better at posting than you
we see a good take, we hit the bear. we see a bad take, we reply. it’s just site culture as we don’t have downvotes.
deleted by creator
We would never suggest defederating, we love bullying racist neolibs
Neutral! Neutral between what?
Oh my, where is my fainting couch