I joined lemmy after reddit API changes, as many people did. At first, it was amazing. The community felt so alive, so friendly and welcoming. Obviously, the activity wasn't exactly as large as it was on reddit, but I was patient, I knew more stuff was coming, and I was excited for it.
Unfortunately, this period would not last long. It would not last even a week until I got into my first argument with a tankie. I saw them and argued with them from time to time on reddit, but people there usually saw right through the bullshit and downvoted them to oblivion.
Here, it was so much different. They were all upvoted and supported by hordes more tankies. Constant genocide denial in China, support for Ruzzia, and somehow, for North Korea.
In retrospect, I should have left then, abandoned lemmy then and there, not really return to reddit, just leave both alone. I would have saved myself some sanity.
But I didn't, which I regret. I wasted my time here, constantly seeing this bullshit, and sometimes, I didn't even have the motivation or energy to argue with them.
The amount of genocide denial, dictatorship praising, and insane arguments I've seen in a month blew past the amount of this shit I've seen on reddit in a fucking decade.
I don't see the future in this, none whatsoever. Lemmy will be here, but it will always stay a tankie hellhole unless you block thousands of people and whole instances. And if you do, the tankies will always just migrate to other instances to keep spreading hate.
You guys are awesome. Keep doing what you are doing, but I am tired of this bullshit and I am done.
While I have my run ins with tankies sometimes, I actually don’t think it’s that bad. Join an instance that blocks lemmygrad and hexbear, ignore lemmy.ml or block it too and you’re golden.
That’s the power of fediverse, it’s flexibility.
Also tankies have a strong foothold on Lemmy, because they were here first. But they are not as numerous as you or they themself think. Watch them outside of their safespace communities and see them downvoted into oblivion.
The fact you can block an instance where communities reside that you have issues with is incredible!
It’s like if Reddit gave you a feature to block a subreddit and all the users that subscribed to it in one single action.
Edit: OP should try creating an account on different instances? For instance on the instance hosting the community that just posted this to..?
I have several accounts and sh.itjust.works has been doing a stellar job with managing the toxicity from leaking into this instance.
Yes, absolutely! The ability to do that immensely valuable.
I actually don’t like to use it too much, because I like to see whats going on and don’t want to lock myself into a bubble.
But my instance is thankfully defederated from lemmygrad and hexbear and I think about blocking .ml too. I think nothing of worse will be lost.
lemmy.cafe blocks the big three and has good uptime