In the past week I’ve been absolutely roasted for criticising two different countries. Normally I’d be okay with that, I can handle a mild toasting and after all debate is a good thing.
On both occasions though I was flamed for mentioning human rights issues that are established facts and have been known for many, many years. I was critical of the actions/laws of their governments and not the people, their race, religion, general political ideology or nationality.
On both occasions I was bombarded by long posts that parroted propaganda, and in the case of one country I was told (on multiple occasions) that I was ignorant, racist and even fascist for mentioning the issues I did. I’m not complaining about how I was treated, but as a reminder, I was discussing internationally-recognised human rights concerns that can be verified and based in fact.
I could just be paranoid but I’m fairly convinced the responses weren’t from patriotic citizens. I think they were paid trolls or bots, and I think their purpose was to quiet negative talking points about the countries that were mentioned.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
I am in enemy territory /s
Yes they (we) can be annoying, no lie there.
But are folks aware of who is building Lemmy? Like, who the devs are, their goals, etc.?
Yeah, the main dev I learned is a .ml believer. But there’s other instances and if they started mass censoring this place would die in a week.
From what I read thru some of the devs posts and drama on Lemmygrad, hexbear, etc, it’s complicated. Like, not super important for 99% of ppl to care about. My takeaway at the end was, yes the devs and the mission for Lemmy (and federation in general) is an inherently anticapitalist, or at least anti-monopoly, venture. Many first adopters were infosec/IT folks, ppl who could help build and give feedback, ofc, and were also ideologically aligned/adjacent. Basically, devs said that for this platform to have a chance at growing and being an alternative to privately controlled platforms, it can’t just be a politics debate playground; they wanted, needed, liberals to join and make their own instances, and help it grow. Which is happening and good!
I suppose this is a PSA as to who is building the true (imo) private* free speech digital platforms. It’s not liberals.