I saw a post that talked about racism towards people and when I talked about it the response I got was very heated and a person even called lemmy.world a community of ‘hitlerites’

I have been around for a week or so and this is my first time seeing such explicit vulgar reaction towards another community, is this a one-off or should I block hexbear?

  • @cm0002@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    26 months ago

    Hexbear, lemmygrad.ml and lemmy.ml are the “Tankie Triad”.

    Hexbear is the worst most extreme of them and lemmy.ml is the least which is why they’ve managed to avoid getting defederated from world (either that or because they’re like the third largest instance behind only .world and SJW)

    Hexbear is pretty widely defederated

    • @Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      A lot of .ml users and communities are there just because it was the only big instance much earlier on. I’m in no way a tankie but still use .ml a lot (a community I run is on there) because it was the first one I made and i’m too lazy to look into new instances or switch.

    • @weeeeum@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      16 months ago

      I love this image. Something that always confused me is that they are communist, but support russia? An extremely far right government?

      • Diplomjodler
        link
        fedilink
        16 months ago

        Authoritarians like authoritarian regimes. They’ll perform extreme mental gymnastics to reconcile their preconceived notions with reality, like the tankies that declare China to be socialist. Also, most of them see the US as the Great Satan that is responsible for any and all evil in the world. Therefore anybody who opposes the Great Satan must be good.

    • Cowbee [he/they]
      link
      fedilink
      -1
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Why would supposed right-wingers be holding Leftist theory reading groups, hosting mutual aid comms, donating to Palestinian gofundmes, and supporting trans rights to some of the highest degrees on the fediverse? Irony? Seems like a silly hypothesis.

        • Cowbee [he/they]
          link
          fedilink
          -16 months ago

          I don’t see how that discounts anything, why would right wingers create a relatively isolated community to read Marxist and Anarchist theory, protect and advocate for trans rights, and frequently pin donation threads for Palestinians? Seems like way too much effort to be ironic, and defederating from other instances would hurt their supposed goal of “trolling.”

      • Sinthesis
        link
        fedilink
        -16 months ago

        hosting mutual aid comms

        I’ve seen those posts (I have no filter)… “I need money for rent” 🦗 🦗 🦗

    • @Loce@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      -16 months ago

      I like horseshoe theory. Basically far-left and far-right come to be same extremistic pieces of shit that are more alike than not, e.g. Hitler(right) and Stalin(left).

  • @Allero@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    1
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    Note: being on Lemmy for about a year, I didn’t live through the early days of this place. Here’s what I can recollect, as neutrally given as possible.

    TL;DR The recent conflicts between two politically different groups on Lemmy have radicalized many people, and many Hexbear residents in particular. Unless you are to discuss the far-left ideas and are very radical about disadvantaged groups, you are safe to block it.

    Hexbear is a far-left (as in actually communist) anti-discrimination community, initially more of a safe haven to promote equality and foster a healthy and welcoming place for leftists to come together.

    With core developers of Lemmy also being far-left, Hexbear naturally fitted the landscape along with the official Lemmy.ml, heavy far-left Lemmygrad.ml and others.

    As time went on, however, all sorts of left-leaning and apolitical folks, not just far-left, came to the platform, filling other instances like Lemmy.world (now the most populated of them all), sh.itjust.works and many others.

    As a result, Lemmy has two groups of people with radically different political views: one is a group of more or less organized far-left, and the other is everyone else, most commonly liberals. This distinction has caused a lot of conflicts and heated discussions based on political adherence.

    Most notable case is latest US elections. The far left side generally called not to vote Democrat as Biden has failed to deliver on many of his promises and empowered Israel to commit war crimes in Palestine, while the liberal audience called to vote Democrat to not let Republicans take the lead, which may arguably lead to an even worse outcome than unaccountable Dems can make.

    This divide has raised a lot of mutual hostility, brigading, and uncivil behavior, which has radicalized many on both sides of the conflict, the consequences of which you have got to experience.

    What to do with that is up to you to decide. Hexbear is very politically uniform and very political overall, so if you’re not here to discuss communism, you won’t lose much and will gain additional peace of mind.

    • @danciestlobster@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      16 months ago

      This is by far the best and most informative answer. The only thing it’s missing as another couple commenters pointed out is hexbear is all about their oversized memes and emojis, making anytime you happen upon one of their posts extremely conspicuous (even if politics aren’t being discussed).

    • @sudoer777@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      16 months ago

      Also Hexbear and Lemmygrad were populated by r/chapotraphouse and r/GenZedong users respectively when those subreddits got banned, which happened before the main Reddit exodus that populated instances like .world

  • DosDude
    link
    fedilink
    16 months ago

    I would block hexbear. I’ve done it server-wide. They are mostly very loud trolls pretending to be communists. Some could be actual communists, but I don’t buy anyone actually wanting to be in such a toxic environment and believe what they claim to believe.

    • @finitebanjo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      16 months ago

      They’re “communist” if you believe that supporting the CCP is “communist” and that the usa is “capitalist”. It’s all just political tribalism to them, that’s why they are also anti-Liberal and at times very anti-Democracy. The actual definitions of any of these political identities is completely lost on them, all of these words only mean west or east to them.

  • @gravityowl@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    Hexbear, together with Lemmygrad and Lemmy.ml are left wing, communist instances here on Lemmy.

    A lot of (new) users of Lemmy have very strong - as in negative - feelings about them because of their ideas. Which to me makes sense because a lot of these users tend to be more centrist in their views and have never read Marxist literature before.

    I will be honest with you and tell you my experience: they can be dickish and straight up trollish in their behavior, but not anymore than your average online trolls. The actual main reason people dislike them, is because they stick together and sometimes “brigade” post which nominates them and talk shit about them.

    I personally was on the receiving end of their trolling when I first joined Lemmy too. But among the trolls, there were also very nice users who gave me friendly replies. And I had great conversations with them.

    Eventually I even decided to open an alt account in one of those instances to learn more about their views and engage with them on their political knowledge. I really enjoy learning from them and having open conversations about politics with them. Even when sometimes I see their more extreme opinions, I still try to always be open minded at first. More often than not, I will learn that something I used to think on a subject, was the result of historical misconceptions or straight up propaganda. That is not to say that they can’t be wrong of course. But it pays off to be receptive about new points of view.

    There are some elements that can be considered extreme, especially to someone from the general public who has never engaged in political conversations with someone who is very much to the left. It takes a little adjustment if you want to try and engage because so much of the media and literature we consume reinforce our views on the system while they specifically try to be critical of it.

    Bur FOR SURE you will never see that instance be racist or bigoted. I have lost counts how many times I’ve seen that in other instances, but with them, you know exactly where they stand on that. As in, they do NOT tolerate that.

    Tldr: Hexbear (with Lemmygrad and Lemmy.ml) are openly communist instances on Lemmy. They are very vocals because they have a large userbase. They can be trolls that stick together sometimes. If you are politically interested/involved, I instead recommend joining one of their instances to see for yourself.

    Edit: you can also tell how much people here have a negative feeling about those instances by the reactions in this post. Everything remotely critical is upvoted, while anything that even hints a positive opinion of them, will be downvoted. And then more and more users will start downvoting without even reading the comments. And they will start attacking users because they disagree and feel the need to attack them because “that instance bad”…in a way not too dissimilar from the brigading I mentioned before for some of the users from those instances. Showing you a real life example of how there are extreme users in every online community

    • @Sootius@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      16 months ago

      I think this is probably the fairest description. Hexbearians are dickish trolls sometimes. Unfortunately, because Hexbear was the biggest Lemmy instance for the longest time, a lot of communities found this initially overwhelming, plus the big jump in political perspective is too jarring and can seem nonsensical.

      But I believe anyone who takes a moment to engage in good faith with the cool users, and ignore the trollish ones, will see you can have constructive, interesting and caring discussions and realise what the attraction of the community is.

    • Blackout
      link
      fedilink
      -16 months ago

      Sorry this is not true. They are very aggressive and attack every viewpoint harshly when it disagrees with their very radical beliefs. The reason instances ban them is they are not here for the conversation. Nothing good comes from that community, only confrontation.

      • @gravityowl@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        Sorry this is not true.

        It is true. That’s MY experience with them

        They are very aggressive and attack every viewpoint harshly

        And? I do too when I’m heated about a topic. If your viewpoint is to defend fascism, why not attack it? And I’m not talking specifically about you here. But if we’re debating, I expect someone to bring a good debate.

        The reason instances ban them is they are not here for the conversation

        Sorry this is not true.

        And I already gave my explanation as to why in my original comment.

        Nothing good comes from that community, only confrontation

        So just like your comment? Lol jokes aside, I already addressed everything you said before. But I’m happy you were able to disagree and get it out of your system. I’ve noticed a lot of Lemmy users have this weird obsession with those instances, when in reality they are just instances. They have both shitty and normal users. It’s always more nuanced than that.

        • Blackout
          link
          fedilink
          -16 months ago

          Just cleaning up after your whitewashing. Good try though. Their community is just a bunch of trolls like you said. I’m glad the instance I use block overtly toxic ones.

          • @gravityowl@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            1
            edit-2
            6 months ago

            Just cleaning up after your whitewashing

            What crimes exactly has any of those communities committed? I must have missed those posts.

            Also…I admitted some views can be extreme/incorrect. I never said they are the perfect instance. None is. And that’s not how you use that term by the way, my friend

            Their community is just a bunch of trolls like you said

            That’s not what I said :) you are very obviously misquoting my comments

            I’m glad the instance I use block overtly toxic ones

            Neat. Good for you then, that’s the beauty of the fediverse

  • Cowbee [he/they]
    link
    fedilink
    0
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    Hexbear.net is a Left-Unity instance populated mainly by Marxists and Anarchists. They generally don’t get along with Lemmy.world, whose admins defederated from the major Marxist-aligned instances.

    Whether you block Hexbear is up to you, I enjoy my time there a lot but it’s also because I’m a Marxist. The ones saying they are “pretending” to be Leftist never seem to be able to explain why a large group of people would all ironically have theory reading groups and ironically support trans rights for years, even before federating with anyone else. What would they have to gain?

    If I were you, I’d ask on an instance actually federated with them. You’ll get different perspectives than you will here, which is always the case when it comes to controversial topics like Marxism, where opinion varies greatly from instance to instance.

    • @BootyBuccaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      0
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Left-Unity instance

      I doubt it or I’d be over there. Instead, I got attacked and mocked by a circlejerking mob of angsty teens from Hexbear operating in bad faith for remotely questioning something about communism and then got permabanned from Lemmy.ml. I didn’t even attack it! 😂

    • DacoTaco
      link
      fedilink
      06 months ago

      Credit where credit is due, youre honest and youre correct. Have my upvote!

  • Communist
    link
    fedilink
    English
    0
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    ITT: everyone says they’re bad without giving any examples, telling you what to think instead of letting you form your own conclusions.

      • @kipo@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        06 months ago

        Sometimes I like hexbear, agree with them and laugh with them, and sometimes their insular attitude makes me cringe. I am very critical of the democratic establishment in the US but hexbear’s “blueMAGA” talk is really offputting to me and sounds like the incel / redpill speak from parts of reddit and other online communities.

        • @inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          0
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          Given the liberal meltdown post election and inability to self reflect about the landslide loss, blue MAGA is entirely fitting.

          • @michaelmrose@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            06 months ago

            MAGA is a movement that glorifies a Hitler like figure who has promised to put tens of millions of honest workers in concentration camps because somehow immigrants are the cause of all their woes. These folks were both willing to deny any loss for any reason and willing to kill their neighbors in a civil war to “take their county back” if they lose.

            “bluemaga” are people what mad that America’s Hitler won?

            • @inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              0
              edit-2
              6 months ago

              Blue MAGA is the cult like belief that the democrats can do nothing wrong and any criticism of them is a vote for trump. It’s idiotic, just like their red MAGA counterparts. They’re willing to accept a genocide so long as their team wins.

                • @inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  0
                  edit-2
                  6 months ago

                  You’re just mad because it’s about you. What’s stupid is thinking voting blue no matter who being a winning strategy. That worked out for ya didn’t it. Lost the presidency, the senate, the house, numerous state governments and local elections. Great job liberals! You’d rather lose to fascists than embrace leftist positions.

    • @GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      06 months ago

      I’d probably be more selective about blocking users from lemmy.ml, but I’m a bit biased in the question given the server I chose when I joined Lemmy