My comment will only mean something if you understand that I am actually a moderate. I have voted for both parties. I don’t vote for politicians. I vote for policies. Policies that I think make sense and actually work. As a for instance I am against the banning of abortion, but think there should be some time limit based on when the fetus could survive outside the mother. I think that’s a moderate position.
When I first took a break from reddit and came over to lemmy I just lurked around. I didn’t sign up. I wanted to see if it would actually get off the ground. Present were the usual political groups mostly all expressing democrat/progressive opinions. As with reddit this is expected since these types of communities are comprised mostly of young people who are mostly on the progressive side of politics.
On the conservative side there were only a few groups as would be expected. Reddit also has few but they are allowed to exist and most use a flair based system. So if conservatives what to discuss policies they are not overwhelmed by non conservatives. Simply put you need to message the mods and tell them why you are a conservative to get flaired or auto mod will hold your post or comment pending mod review. I do not think lemmy has this feature. I think that communities dedicated to a specific political view should not have to be brigaded by those who disagree with them.
The thing that I found interesting on lemmy is that the few other conservative groups were all banned along with their creators and mods. This was documented via the mod logs. I of course never read every post or comment but I never once saw someone threatening others or calling for violence. Apparently they were banished because of their political views. I no longer remember the group name but one of the banned groups simply posted news articles that called into question some democrat party policies.
Coming full circle I’m not really interested enough in politics to join any political groups. I just wanted to post my observations as to how lemmy seems to handle them.
I of course never read every post or comment but I never once saw someone threatening others or calling for violence. Apparently they were banished because of their political views.
“I’m super moderate, but without actually checking any facts I’m assuming that conservatives are being broadly oppressed and they need a safe space.”
Cool story, bro.
Do you think it may be helpful for others to have a few demonstrable points to accompany your accusations, though?
Those were my observations NOT accusations. Anyone can do a site search of lemmy and make their own determination of how many conservative groups that currently exist. This appears to be the only one. Then note the level of activity in this one remaining group. Lemmy like reddit can run things however they want so I am not condemning lemmy just noting my observations.
So basically “Google it yourself.”
It’s not my observation. While I had no idea it was happening, my level of interest dies outside of this thread - a thread that kinda sorta reads like an “as a black man,” only as a “as a moderate voter.”
If you are here to prove there is some sort of persecution, then typically citing the evidence is helpful.
If you are here to just stir the pot, though? I guess you’re doing a fine job.
This conversation just confirms why I stay out of political groups. As a moderate I incorrectly thought that I could make an observation without it somehow being viewed as some kind of heresy.
Dude - I don’t know where to look and a simple screenshot backing up your observations is no where near as difficult as telling me to “Google it,” basically.
I’d love to hear reasons people vote for Republican policies, as I do not see them being truthful in what they say the policy will accomplish vs. what is accomplished.
I have several friends who are conservative and moderates and have a text chain going back 6+ years, personally between them and myself.
The one constant we ask for, that has been instrumental in our continued friendship, is that if you make a claim provide the source.
It would be better if that was the accepted standard for discussions with differing view points.
I think it might be a good idea for American conservatives (not the election denying weirdo ones) to create their own instance completely. And defederate from instances with which they are concerned might interfere. Keep the conversation heavily moderated—again, keep the conversation about policy and not election denying nonsense. Just my $.02
I couldn’t disagree more. This is what I hate about the internet in 2023. Everyone is expected to fall into one of two buckets, and if you don’t fall into the correct one, you’re just not welcome on certain sites and expected to make your own site somewhere completely separate. Nobody can handle when people disagree with them, so instead we just get horribly toxic echo chambers.
Back in 2014 you could express a moderately conservative opinion on Reddit without being banned from subs. Hell, back in 2014 you could express far-right opinions and people would just rightfully call you a moron. But today on basically every site, you have 3 options: Agree with the site’s opinion, keep your mouth shut, or get banned.
The internet was better when people were allowed to disagree with each other.