This post is from RT, about Ukraine/Russia/Belarus but the biggest thread in here is rehashing the Iraq occupation. Can we just discuss the original topic? Is that so hard?

This is why so many instances defederate from hexbear, they do this in every comment section. Just turn it into whataboutism against the US, and add nothing to the topic that's actually being discussed by the article. They're basically lemmygrad but brigade comment sections more often.

[–] awwwyissss@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, hexbear is trashy authority propaganda.

[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Brigading is their entire purpose for existence on this site, they actively plot to harass and invade other instances to deny people a platform and talk about where to spread their "forces" next. They were taking bets on where they'll be defederated next. They were never on this platform to participate in good faith.

[–] zephyreks@programming.dev -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Instances defederate from hexbear because of emoji spam more than anything else.

Defederation because of political views is, frankly, dangerous for democracy.

[–] Dee@lemmings.world 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This isn't about their political views in particular, this is about them brigading comment sections and derailing from the original topic and shouting down anybody who disagrees.

Defederation because of political views is, frankly, dangerous for democracy.

What? This is such a ridiculous claim I'm not even sure where to start. Federation does not equal democracy, and defederation from a shitty spammy instance has zero impact on democracy.

[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

And also don't forget the mass spam of oversized emojis and pictures of pigs shitting.

[–] zephyreks@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Democracy is built on discourse of opposing views. If we just censor all opposing views, then what the fuck is even the point?

[–] steltek@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

There's about as much discourse here as rival football hooligans having it out in the streets. A lot of violence but it doesn't really change the score. What's the point of talking when no one's listening?

[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Defederation is not censorship. All it means is that nobody on that instance wants to hear your bullshit, and are showing you the door. You're able to make an account on another federated instance if you wanted to hear those vitriolic, harmful people.

[–] steltek@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

Re: "dangerous for democracy". That's a little hyperbolic, don't ya think?

I don't support defederation. I think the calls for defederation strictly arise from political clashes that boil out of control and people that don't remember the Internet-that-was, before Reddit. "Free speech absolutist" wasn't a thing because no one pictured their little forum as mattering that much. Forum moderation wasn't about enforcing a specific world view or preserving an echo chamber, it was about preserving civil discourse. And since I'm typing this out I might as well add that I think if I was to dust off an early 90's or 2000's mod hat, I'd do the following:

Referring to other commenters as reddit refugee/hexbear/liberal/grad/imperialist/shill/anti-westerner 's is a 3 day ban
Bringing up the Iraq War, Tienanmen Sq, etc is a 3 day ban. Not some conspiracy to bury the truth. It's because everyone's friggin' heard it already and we definitely don't need more of it.
Lazy whataboutism is a 1 day ban. This is vaguely defined for a purposeful chilling effect.
War Is Bad. When not the topic of the article, fantasizing about a US-Ruso conflict/popular uprising/Taiwan invasion/WW3 is a 1 day ban.

What do people want this place to be? A place where all sides can meet (if they strictly behave)? An echo chamber? A raging angry gladiator pit? Like I said above, as a major Lemmy instance, this place should be downright boring and the extremists can retreat to other instances better suited to their anger.