I’ve been using Lemmy for a while now, and I’ve noticed something that I was hoping to potentially discuss with the community.
As a leftist myself (communist), I generally enjoy the content and discussions on Lemmy.
However, I’ve been wondering if we might be facing an issue with ideological diversity.
From my observations:
- Most Lemmy Instances, news articles, posts, comments, etc. seem to come from a distinctly leftist perspective.
- There appears to be a lack of “centrist”, non-political, or right-wing voices (and I don’t mean extreme MAGA-type views, but rather more moderate conservative positions).
- Discussions often feel like they’re happening within an ideological bubble.
My questions to the community are:
- Have others noticed this trend?
- Do you think Lemmy is at risk of becoming an echo chamber for leftist views, a sort of Truth Social, Parler, Gab, etc., esque platform, but for Leftists?
- Is this a problem we should be concerned about, or is it a natural result of Lemmy’s community-driven nature?
- How might we encourage more diverse political perspectives while still maintaining a respectful and inclusive environment?
- What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of having a more politically diverse user base on Lemmy?
As much as I align with many of the views expressed here, I wonder if we’re missing out on valuable dialogue and perspective by not having a more diverse range of political opinions represented.
I’m genuinely curious to hear your thoughts on this.
This is such a strange take to me.
I was on the broader fediverse for a year or so before lemmy took off, and I got used to the very strong left leaning environment I found there, where compassion for your impact on the people around you was built in to the norms of many of the communities. I wasn’t used to it, but I was so glad to have found it.
And then lemmy happened. And unlike the rest of the fediverse, which was largely populated by people escaping twitter because it had been taken over by a fascist, the lemmy population was largely people escaping reddit because they could no longer use 3rd party apps. And the difference in ideology between those two groups is night and day.
To me, the broader fediverse feels left wing and comfortable. Lemmy feels centrist, where half of my time as an admin is banning trolls and bigots spreading hate.
tl;dr - Your definition of leftist is not my definition of leftist.
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Maybe; yes
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It’s a mindset thing. The more you interact with others positively while disagreeing, the better things will get. This only applies to reasonable disagreements.
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People will learn more, but people will be wrong more. Unchecked political diversity drives away normal takes. No political diversity makes people afraid to voice disagreement.
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Lemmy is the definition of a left-wing echo chamber. We all see it and if you downvote me for pointing this out - you are lying to yourself.
It is very rigid in its ideologies, even more so than reddit.
There are many posts preaching for the choir, but I wouldn’t call it an echo chamber. It’s more like a dead sound chamber where the ideas dies in agreement. It doesn’t bounce off the walls or resonate. It’s already there so no answer is required.
Lemmy would benefit from more users playing the devil’s lawyer, but I think it’s too small for anyone to use their main profile for that, and alt-accounts would quickly get blocked or banned.
Actual users with opposing views wouldn’t be of much help. Politics isn’t very nuanced these days. It’s not red or blue, left or right or whatever. It’s polarized into a new duality: Those that give a shit and those who are proud idiots. Lemmy is on the good side of this and will not benefit from being more accepting of idiots.
I don’t consider myself leftist or rightist. I flip both ways on different issues and the middle on other things.
How ever Lemmy is becoming less tolerant of jokes and any view that doesn’t line up with a moderator’s view on the world.
It took a long time for me to get a ban but it’s happened a couple times now.
Admittedly they’re from .ml
Though some more left leaning communities have gone full on dog like as though it’s Reddit
Moderators shouldn’t be allowed to post to their own groups. How do you question a post by a mod without getting deleted/banned?
Multiple moderators i guess, why mod a group you can’t engage in
I have noticed this trend. On the one hand, “Truth has a liberal bias” has always been true. If a community is geared towards truth and evidence, like as not it will lean left. There is copious evidence for this, for any random topic.
On the other hand, it has resulted in a lot of “I downvote complexity” behavior, which is, in my view, problematic. It is very easy to take stances of ideological purity online, and behave as if any recognition of greater complexity is EVIL!!1! I see this again and again. This is a way to make your ideological movement irrelevant and unworkable.
As much as folks decry the rigor of the MAGA right, where fealty to Trump is the only virtue, the Progressive left exhibits the exact same rigor, the exact same intolerance for deviation from its allies. Both Progressives and MAGAts see this as a virtue, but it very much is not: it locks you into a worldview that eliminates important complexity and any ability to see things from alternate perspectives. If you have a belief that your perspective is the only correct one, then the vast majority of the time, you’re wrong.
The only Adults in the Room are we Enlightened Centrists.One thing I’ve found in life is that extremists of any ilk have more in common than differences, they just wave different colored flags.
Given that in the US leftist perspectives on anything are few and hard to come by, I welcome Lemmy’s primarily leftist slant on things. Should one want to get a fascist or center/center right perspective, pretty much everything in the mass media in the US will provide that.
Reddit is mostly left
I fucking wish
Reddit is mildly left of center as a whole. It is not leftist. You do not find many people there who are genuinely anti-capitalist, which is a prerequisite for any flavor of leftism.
Reddit leans progressive liberal, and that, in America speak, is the left
Americans talk Newspeak thanks to a century of socialist purges and red scares. Their “left” is so far right that the actual left is silenced, is outside the Overton window. In terms of political vocabulary, Americans don’t know their asses from their elbows.
Thank you! This is how I have felt, as an American, for a very long time!
The BIGGEST issue we have here, IMO, is APATHY. So many Americans “don’t watch the news” or “didn’t like to talk about politics” or can’t handle anything being talking about the weather and other bland topics. I find it depressing and annoying.
Since my (leftist) instance is blocked, OP probably can’t even read this comment.
That irony aside, although I disagree that federated Lemmy as a whole is homogenous, it’s only natural that an alternative social network would skew away from the mainstream, and that instances would be relatively homogenous internally.
I believe this is by design, but to expect something else is unrealistic. The only options for Lemmy would be for it to be either further left or further right than Reddit. And there are a couple fascist instances, though they are blocked.
Since my (leftist) instance is blocked, OP probably can’t even read this comment.
That’s lemmy.world for ya
There’s a lot of stuff written on this topic, but I haven’t seen this mentioned yet: there are conservative instances on Lemmy, as a platform. Most of them are widely defederated, not necessarily for the views of the majority (though in some cases, yes), but because of asshats deliberately causing trouble.
Unfortunately, this is also a product of a wider shift in discourse by the right (understood in a North American context), which appeals mostly to edgelords rather than the (rapidly shrinking, already shrunk to the point of irrelevance/non-existence one could argue) thinking, at least ostensibly humanistic conservative.
There’s self-selection in action here. Which makes sense, even if I also find it troubling (there are people who can be reasoned with drowned out by Nazi assholes, who are willing to hear people out on the not-Nazi stuff, give positive reinforcement and with it a home to get radicalized).
I don’t have a good answer, and if I did I’d probably be up for a Nobel Prize given how wide and damaging the problem is. It ain’t just here - it’s pretty much anywhere anyone expresses any idea. I just happen to like this side of the Threadiverse much more, so it’s where I hang out.
Only real hope is meatspace, imo. And even then, not everyone has the privilege to engage this way in meatspace without a direct risk to their personal safety (see POC, our trans brothers and sisters, LGTBQ+ folks, etc.).
As a leftist myself (communist), I generally enjoy the content and discussions on Lemmy.
This post is a great example of what OP is talking about. OP gave no political opinion on anything and you are calling them out for not being a real leftist?
username checks out
I have yet to hear anyone irl that identifies as left that actually wants to hear what the right has to say.
Right now it’s all hate and bigotry. Which has no place in society as far as I’m concerned.
The only people I’ve seen concerned with people Hering out the right, are people on the right. “Centrists” are just right wing sympathizers.
So yes, I don’t think they’re actually left leaning.
I agree with the comment your replying to. It’s very fellow kids. It’s not how most people on the left talk.
Note: not the person you replied to.
go back to Reddit nerd
You sure you’re a leftist? I see more leftism allowed to exist on Lemmy than other platforms, but the majority of it certainly leans neoliberal.
Try criticizing NATO or the Democrats in Lemmy communities. See how fast the powermods and groupthink kick in to put a stop to it.
Wait you’re saying that calling people nazis if they have a different viewpoint than you doesn’t foster diversity? Who would have thought.
I’m interested in this, i left reddit due to that, if it’s just a reddit 2.0 i’m better getting off. So far it looks samey.
