The fediverse is small, and thats both a blessing and a curse - one of its several blessings is that in a smaller space we all individually have a bigger impact on what the culture of this space is like.
On this comm (and on lemmy broadly) there’s a lot of discussion about how to grow the fediverse, what to improve, but an easy thing you can do for the fediverse is right in front of us-
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Be kind
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Ask people what they think, and why
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Approach folks you disagree with with curiosity rather than hostility (EDIT: no, this is not specifically referring to Nazis. I get it, they’re the first thing that comes to mind. I’m not telling you to approve of Nazis I’m just saying be kind to your fellow lemmites)
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Engage sincerely
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Ask yourself if there’s something nice you can say
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Make this small space worth being in
A platform lives or dies by what’s available on said platform and often we have this conversation in the context of “content” or posts - and we may never have as much content as reddit does. But content and posts aren’t the only thing this kind of platform offers- it also offers people. It offers community, and human interaction.
Culture and community is lemmy and the fediverse’s biggest differentiator, and we all have a role to play in shaping the culture of this space.
The biggest thing you can do to help the fediverse is make it a place worth being.
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Hating successful people is the best way to insure your own failure.
This applies to real life as well. Results may vary.
This sounds dumb.
- Ask people what they think, and why
Why thats none of my business? Presumptuous to think someone should submit themselves to your inquiries.
- Ask yourself if there’s something nice you can say
Better yet, ask someone else because you can’t be trusted, obviously.
I totally agree with your message.
These days everyone who is not ultra-left easily gets labelled as Nazi, similarly everyone who brings up any rather left argument will be called a woke snowflake.
Thus, any dialog is immediately shut down. Listen, understand, exchange arguments.
That is what unites everyone who believes in liberal values.
ngl this is such a toxic community. The Nazi thing is definitely part of the problem – we live in an age of “soft fascism” so of course we have our fists up and we see nazis everywhere. Honestly I think most of the nazis are on twitter or truth social though, they don’t come to lemmy so much. Hmm, don’t assume that someone espousing an (1) conservative-looking belief is a nazi maybe?
Love this post!
I usually try to until the other person shows me that there’s no reason to be.
I have mysteriously vanished for like 2 or so months now (which is a good thing, please take breaks from the internet every once in a while), I don’t really remember NOT being kind here.
And this post reminds me of why Lemmy is a good place to begin with.
Also try to post stuff. I need to follow my own advice more.
Baby steps! :) I found it helped me build the habbit if I kept an eye out for posts that could be cross posted to smaller more niche communities
There are a lot of times where a post only gets posted on a bigger community because it has enough traffic, and smaller niche communities would benefit from folks crossposting it around!
Yeah all good advice!
And not just memes and shitposts you find elsewhere
Make things and share
It ain’t gonna be perfect but that’s half the fun
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Great post.
To add to this, not resorting to calling others tankies or Russian bots when you have differing opinions, especially around politics.
Sometimes they literally just are. Not seen it on Lemmy but on Reddit I definitely interacted with users, age under 1 year, all suspiciously pro-Putin. It’s rare and I’m looking for it, but still.
It’s not rare at all. These people are massive contributers to political/tech communities, thousand plus posts in a year. You’ll see them spamming posts about Israel, denying genocide in Ukraine, and misreprsenting to outright lying if you call them on it. All over lemmy.world and lemmy.ml.
It’s rare and I’m looking for it
Unfortunately not that rare of a POV to find. They just generally don’t do the young account thing. Some are true believers. Others likely state actors. Don’t see as many bots but the greater levels of transparency and lower active population probably makes it less worthwhile of an investment.
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I could be wrong but to me it feels odd to think lemmy is big enough to be worth organizing psyops for.
Not to say it couldn’t be an issue in the future, but it feels much more likely that people expressing pro Russia sentiment are just people who bought into that particular brand of propaganda.
Which like, to some extent all of our individual world views are shaped by the environment of propaganda we’re exposed to. We’re all products of our social conditioning, and ultimately that’s exactly what propaganda is. Media designed to socially condition people to a certain set of beliefs. All we as individuals can do is be aware of it and be willing to look at our own beliefs critically.
But at the end of the day I think the folks praising Russia on lemmy are just people. People I personally think are misguided, but I don’t think theyre generally acting in bad faith any more than the general population here.
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Honestly if anyone is doing that I really feel like it would be the US, not Russia.
Russia’s goal is to sew discord and unballance the populace that drives politics, and for that to work you need a MASSIVE scale that we just don’t really have. They don’t really have much to gain from the IP addresses of a handful of leftists
But Lemmy is exactly the kind of hotspot for people DEEPLY angry about the government of the US to organize that if we’re big enough to be on their radar, the US government would have a vested interest in keeping an eye on potential dissidents. Unlike Russia IP addresses and personally identifiable information would be useful to them, in identifying threat actors, tracking their activity and volatility online, and building cases that would allow them to prosecute should said dissidents escalate
That’s how it looks from where I’m standing anyway 🤷♂️
well the good news is that everybody - and that includes the US - creates psyops all the time, so that makes it fair.
This is Eglin Air Force Base checking in. 
Most addicted city (over 100k visits total)
Eglin Air Force Base, FL
Oak Brook, IL
South St. Paul, MN?
What I’m saying is that Reddit is packed with US government psyop coming from Eglin AFB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eglin_Air_Force_Base#Department_of_Defense
Instance admins have pretty good information at their disposal to identify bots.
I have yet to see any instance admin say that there is any significant amount of bots, outside of the occasional spate of spamming. I only see such theories & accusasions come from non-admins, with no accompanying compelling evidence.
I’ve had the thought that if I were to design a psyop campaign, a pretty solid option for dominating the discussion would be to come out swinging and accuse everyone else of being an agent. That way, people have to either constantly defend against accusations, or they conclude, rightly, the accusations are baseless and decide to disregard the very idea that there is a psyop going on.
I came to Lemmy (lemm.ee originally) with this attitude. Tankies really made me regret trying to be sympathetic too them. It was the most vile interaction I’ve had on the Internet maybe? You shouldn’t call people tankies if they’re not but real tankies are by far the biggest problem with the fediverse and it’s growth
yeah i’ve met some thorough tankies recently and wow are they annoying. just completely blind to reality.
On Reddit, I once bragged about having universal healthcare and got called a Nazi and a communist at the same time.
This is what happens when Xbox kids that use the n-word grow up. They learn new “bad” words and throw them around out of context and contradictingly. They don’t actually know what those things are, though, so it never makes sense.
I’ve been called a tankie here. I didn’t know what it was and looked it up, just to discover it was the literal opposite of the things I was saying. I was very confused and just put it down to frustrated self-projection. At some point they had been called that, it upset them, so now they use it to upset people too but they still don’t actually know what it is they’re saying.
If I see someone defaulting to Russian bot or tankie, I’ve found another Xbox kid and it’s in my best interests to just move on.
1 billion percent agree, not everyone you disagree with is acting in bad faith
when you’re dealing with fundamentalists or extremists things turn nasty very quickly because you’re questioning their fantasy world
doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad faith, often they will just ban you
Lemmy.ml and lemmy.world are infested with tankies though. It is probably going to make me leave Lemmy. I’ve already started to discourage people in my life from joining because of how bad political and technological communities are. A lot of other communities are just empty.
Lol. How fucking faaaaar right do you have to be to consider .world tankie.
Oh and I keep getting comments removed by mods just for calling out a tankie, but sure lemmy.world isn’t infested with y’all.
If you’re getting comments removed from .world of all places, it’s not because you’re “calling out a tankie”, that’s for sure. I’m assuming it’s more “screeching at a socdem”.
Also, what do you mean “y’all”? We Already established by your own definition that I’m not a tankie. Unless you’re just giving up the pretense that it’s not just a meaningless snarl word you fling at anyone to the left of you.
Not really. I gave sources of Ukrainian genocide, and it got removed. Y’all in the general sense, if you dont identify as a tankie, great. Maybe stop taking the bait then? Doesn’t feel like it from where I’m standing though.
I gave sources of Ukrainian genocide, and it got removed.
Why was it removed.
if you dont identify as a tankie, great.
Nah, that’s not it, it’s that I don’t fit the definition of tankie that you yourself articulated.
Doesn’t feel
Yes, I was already pretty convinced that who you call a tankie is entirely based on “feeling”
Dunno, ask the mod who removed it. I gave a very, very basic definition and you’re acting like it can’t be expanded upon or further elaborated. How very rigid of you. So, I have actual work to go do, in my community, helping others and practicing the ideals that I preach. Good luck not doing any of that here 👍
By the way, if the word tankie offends you so much, it might be because you have more in common than you’d like.
Keep spouting that tankie rhetoric. “Anyone who calls me out for my similarities to MAGA surely are the far right ones!” Lmao
Least incoherent anti-communist
1,400+ comments in 3 months. You do nothing in the real world. Terminally online. Your ideals are performative and you’re here sowing dissent in leftist circles. That’s exactly what tankies do.
Lol, I can see why even .world doesn’t want you.
No refutations. Got it.
Nah fuck tankies, zero tolerance for the intolerant.
Speaking past each other is IMO the biggest source of friction and division on the fediverse.
The thing that I appreciated most about Lemmy and my transition from Reddit is how cordial everyone has been. Even if a comment is taken out of context, people tend not to jump down each othersthroat and assume the worst, or make bad faith arguments full of fallacies. I’ve had legitimate back and forths with people, something that basically never happens on Reddit.
I hope you have a good weekend!
Thank you my friend, you too!
I can co-sign this if we can agree that some types of ‘disagreements’ don’t belong on the fediverse, a la the Nazi bar problem.
Please do tell how to increase the purity tests
