Update:
The comments from this post will not be removed as to preserve the discussion around the announcement. Any continued discussions outside of this thread that violate server rules will be removed. We feel that everyone that has an opinion, and wanted to vent, has been heard.
————-
Original post:
Yesterday, we received information about the planned federation by Hexbear. The announcement thread can be found here: https://www.hexbear.net/post/280770. After reviewing the thread and the comments, it became evident that allowing Hexbear to federate would violate our rules.
Our code of conduct and server rules can be found here.
The announcement included several concerning statements, as highlighted below:
- “Please try to keep the dirtbag lib-dunking to hexbear itself. Do not follow the Chapo Rules of Posting, instead try to engage utilizing informed rhetoric with sources to dismantle western propaganda. Posting the western atrocity propaganda and pig poop balls is hilarious but will pretty quickly get you banned and if enough of us do it defederated.”
- “The West's role in the world, through organizations such as NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank - among many others - are deeply harmful to the billions of people living both inside and outside of their imperial core.”
- “These organizations constitute the modern imperial order, with the United States at its heart - we are not fooled by the term "rules-based international order." It is in the Left's interest for these organizations to be demolished. When and how this will occur, and what precisely comes after, is the cause of great debate and discussion on this site, but it is necessary for a better world.”
The rhetoric and goal of Hexbar are clear based on their announcement: to "dismantle western propaganda" and "demolish organizations such as NATO” shows that Hexbar has no intention of "respecting the rules of the community instance in which they are posting/commenting.” It’s to push their beliefs and ideology.
In addition, several comments from a Hexbear admin, demonstrate that instance rules will not be respected.
Here are some examples:
“I can assure you there will be no lemmygrad brigades, that energy would be better funneled into the current war against liberalism on the wider fediverse.”
“All loyal, honest, active and upright Communists must unite to oppose the liberal tendencies shown by certain people among us, and set them on the right path. This is one of the tasks on our ideological front.”
- https://lemmy.world/comment/121850
- https://lemmy.world/comment/1487168
- https://lemmy.world/comment/1476084
- https://lemmy.world/comment/171595
- https://www.hexbear.net/comment/3648500
Overall community comments:
- https://www.hexbear.net/comment/3526128
- https://www.hexbear.net/comment/3526086
- https://www.hexbear.net/comment/3652828
To clarify, for those who have inquired about why Hexbear versus Lemmygrad, it should be noted that we are currently exploring the possibility of defederating from Lemmygrad as well based on similar comments Hexbear has made.
- https://lemmygrad.ml/post/158656
- https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/882559
- https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/540170
- https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/446529
Defederation should only be considered as a last resort. However, based on their comments and behavior, no positive outcomes can be expected.
We made the decision to preemptively defederate from Hexbear for these reasons. While we understand that not everyone may agree with our decision, we believe it is important to prioritize the best interests of our community.
No. Can you try and make it clear, so I can see the problem?
Some things that we probably agree; Hexbear is an ideological instance. While blahaj.zone is an instance for LGBTQ peeps. My big problem with this comparison is that they are not the same. No one becomes LGBTQ, people are born that way, while your political beliefs are the exact opposite. You are not born thinking that you are a communist, a liberal, or a nazi. In reality, a bunch of things happen in our lives that make us feel closer to certain kinds of thinking. Your phrasing of that statement made me think that you might believe that one could be born a certain way regarding their political ideology the same way that people are born gay, or trans for example.
The choice to come out of the closet is liberating and I'm glad I did it, but being anti-closet is an ideological stance.
The original phrasing was flawed, yes, but blahaj.zone isn't ideologically neutral.
They are a queer instance, but they aren't just a queer instance, are they? They don't merely accept anyone who is queer (queer racists, or TERF lesbians, for example, wouldn't be welcome), nor do they ban people who aren't queer at all. So the dividing line is ideological.
The line is more like: support for queer rights. They even specifically outline a philosophy of inclusion and empathy in their sidebar. But we wouldn't ban them for trying to spread their ideology
My opinion on that is that blahaj.zone is first and foremost a place for LGBTQ people to post about LGBTQ/ LGBTQ adjacent stuff. Now correct me if I'm wrong but from what I can see, nowhere does it say anything about any sort of ideological belonging. Yes, it does talk about empathy for others, inclusion, and acceptance, but it does not mention any ideology. I believe that you can be inclusive, and have all these other traits, whether you are a leftist or a liberal. Maybe it just me but I don't believe that empathy, acceptance etc are ideas that have to do anything with a certain ideology, to me they are just basic human decency.
Meanwhile, Hexbear has the following on its this:
A leftist social platform centered around community building through discussion, shitposting memes, and sharing content.
So no I still don't think you can compare blahaj.zone and Hexbear.