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?
PSA: in the settings you can block whole instances, and if you want to eliminate this annoying problem, just block *.lemmy.ml and any instance that contains the string “hexbear”.
Problem solved.
Lemmy does have a propaganda problem, and it is not from the instances you’re referring to.
Yeah, that’s typical here. There are some places where, if you don’t align to the right tone, you will get a very negative response.
Thats .ml for you where they decided to be so left leaning that they did a u-turn to totaliarism.
The world has a propaganda problem. Governments and regimes worldwide have been spending millions and millions in propaganda for a century, the society we live in is rotten to the core, the average person is brainwashed to pick a side and thinking in left and right. Mass media have been a tool of the propaganda and have been used as a distraction weapon since their creation.
Lemmy borrowed it’s layout from reddit which is shaped and tailored around censure and propaganda. Just look at the all frontpage, the most popular subs are the same as reddit and you can’t really post anything useful in these, your observation about propaganda had to be turned into a question to fit in the ask lemmy sub.
One of the things I see a lot on Lemmy is people saying it reminds them of the old internet, and it does for me too, but alongside that comes a hefty dose of communism or anarchism, depending on the echo chamber.
Lemmy is a bit communist overall, but not the Marx and Trotsky kind. It’s very authoritarian friendly. I am not sure why, but it is a little annoying.
The Holodomor is real, and it wasn’t an accident.
I believe it’s because the original software it’s built on is created by a group with those views. That’s what I’ve picked up on at least.
It is real, but it was an accident.
I see you’ve met hexbear and lemmy.ml. They’re not trolls or bots. They’re just plain ol’ idiots.
I’ve experienced this, but only for Russia and China specifically. Most of it your typical tankie behavior, but not all of it comes from ml users.
100% but I wouldn’t call it a problem. I find it’s often refreshing to see the stupidity around you and not have it hidden behind a veil. I think you also get more genuine information here it just requires more from you to not get got.
Block and move on. I think I’ve blocked most of ml at this point, but there are a few normal users. At least 2.
That’s way more than on Reddit by at least 2!
Blocking bad-faith-arguers and general shitheads has definitely improved my experience on the internet.
This place has a very communist leaning userbase and with that comes a with a lot of tankies and chiaboos.
In the end USA and Europe have a lot of similar issues and that’s growing so it’s not like they are morally superior, but ya know tankies and co are very good at ignoring issues just as much as any red blood American.
“communist”
I was bombarded by long posts that parroted propaganda
Turns out that when you define “propaganda” as “anything that I disagree with”, and then go to spaces where a lot of people disagree with you, you’re going to see a lot of “propaganda”.
Why does it matter if the responses are from patriotic citizens or not?
“Bad faith” is lunacy, who cares? Arguments matter all on their own, regardless of the motivation for making them.
Of course you “think” they are paid trolls or bots, we all see that constantly. My first post on Reddit years ago was followed immediately by charges of being a Russian spy. Maybe they were a Russian spy and I was diversion?
Anyway, troll, bot, human, paid or not, irrelevant. The discussion is seen by others and judged on the merit of the argument itself. Stop worrying about the source, as you can never know, so it doesn’t matter. It’s not as if you get better results by talking to an unpaid patriotic person. Same shit.
Propaganda problem? Not at all. Every form of social media is rife with propaganda, as is every paper, website, news channel, and so on. How could Lemmy be any different?
The mentality that everything is an opinion and all opinions are valid is an sign of acute internet brainrot.
The truth actually exists. You’ve spent too much time on the internet if you think in terms of “choose your own reality”.
I think the point there is that the random opinions are valid because they are just opinions. Either they’re based on wrong or incomplete information or they aren’t. If you can get past that hurdle the discourse can offer corrections or fill in the blanks.
The arguments being made either have merit or they don’t. The ones with merit would approach that truth you mentioned, and the ones that don’t obscure it. If that makes any sense.
Ah, you must have encountered some tankies. I finally got tired of it and just blocked hexbear and .ml stuff. My lemmy experience is much better without it.
I had to block most of the Bahjal instances because they are just a transfem echo chamber and refuse to listen to any viewpoint that is even one atom out of alignment with the idea that Trans people are the next evolution of humanity. I had to quit Imgur for a similar reason. Frustrating because I AM an Ally, just one that is also, ya know, a realist.
You sound like a republican thinking they are oppressed, I hope I’m wrong.
In real life, i find that people calling themselves realists tend to be worn out pessimistics. (I’m part of that group on most days) It’s the first stage towards submitting to the status quo…
