comfy

@Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com This highlights the problem with using relative terms like 'left' and 'center' and 'far'. They're subjective, and in my opinion, shouldn't be used.

I don't know what country or society you're in. "Left" can often mean anything from centrist liberalism (Democrat Party) to nothing less than socialism (socialists often consider liberalism to be in the center). Then you get literal Fascists (as in, Mussolini and Mosley types, unlike Nazi fascists) who throw a stone in the whole thing: their heritage comes from both the traditional left (namely syndicalism) and the right (ultranationalism), and don't neatly fit into progressive or regressive (BUF notably gained many women supporters for their pro-suffrage policies, progressive at the time).

One can avoid arguments like in the OP just by learning the proper terms for political views and ideologies. Are you a progressive liberalist? Are you a social democrat? Are you a democratic socialist? (yes unfortunately those two get confusing)

For more information about the political compass and examples of why it's not a useful tool, I recommend this video.

Definitely, and for most people (there are rare exceptions, like seats which aren't just Dem vs. Rep as the only viable candidates) I'd assume it's the pragmatic choice for now given the broken system.

When we bump up posts that we like instead of relevant ones, those things get the visibility. I think.

Yep, I haven't actually checked the 'Hot' algorithm code (it's publicly viewable) but I believe so. And there's another related tough-to-solve phenomenon in any social media site where the most populist, simple, agreeable things are likely to get the most upvotes/likes/etc., and therefore the most reward. So unfortunately, a front page is often filled with low-meaning content like those jokes, or shallow but agreeable populist platitudes (which there's nothing wrong with if you're here for entertainment, but is an issue for more serious communities). I think tons of moderation is also the only cure for that, because I can't think of an alternate bump system that works (for example, forums which use the 'last bumped' system reward posts for getting replies, so flame and troll posts that start rapid arguments rise to the top instead, and posts often just say 'bump'!)

As in, I don’t see what would be done besides tons of moderation or short post restrictions. Something I don’t find feasible

I agree. There could be tricks like auto-moderation software detecting replies that a comm/instance staff considers to be an issue (e.g. a reply just saying 'this' or 'lol') and auto-replying with a caution against low-effort posting, but false positives could be a pain so it all comes back to more moderation staff in the end. It's ultimately a network with a very open and growing community, unless you're in a smaller private community. And Lemmy enables those to be created, so I can be happy with that if I ever want to create a more serious place.

I don't notice that issue with 'comm', but maybe that's just because I've been around it and using it for years (just like the indistinct word 'sub' becomes meaningful and distinct in context once you see 'subreddit' a few times). It was a bit odd the first couple of times I saw it because I already associated the term with 'communications', like 'send out comms'.

Liberalism (I don't mean that as in 'left wing' or 'progressive', I mean it as in 'the Enlightenment political ideologies about liberty which the USA was founded upon') is founded on ideals like free speech and political association. They won't be prosecuted in the USA for being Nazis, they're constitutionally protected. Institutions will protect their ability to do this.

It allows us to identify them, but justice will not be delivered by the institutions here. That's where the community must come in and act, legally or otherwise. They can't offload their responsibility onto police this time. The community must organize and defend itself against fascists. Them being out and about just means we haven't made them scared and hurt.

The only reason I hang around here is because there’s no forum equivalent

Equivalent of what? A place where you could make your own communities? (without spinning up a server or being a disconnected island) Yeah, I can only think of imageboard examples of reddit-like DIY community sites, and those....... really aren't what you asked for (very few had intelligent discussions, and by their nature, they mainly just attracted people who got banned from more normal communities).

Unless mods wanted to spend 24/7 making sure people didn’t use FOSS Reddit the same way Reddit was used, that was always going to happen, if it hadn’t then people would have went back to Reddit to doom scroll again.

Exactly. There's not really any point to me crying 'we're not a reddit clone! we're not a reddit clone!'

Good question. Especially since a lot of these are things I only notice in hindsight.

• Volunteer to implement helpful hints at a systematic level, even small things like linking the join-lemmy.org documentation on the signup page by default, and adding placeholder text for instance and community admins to see and tweak for their own rules. I say 'volunteer' because the devs were, and are, far too busy to do everything themselves.

• Create and share around image/infographic guides on why Lemmy is different to reddit. This could actually have been a good promotion tool too, back when we really needed it. I actually hastily made a quick one during the sudden migration, but I don't think it's worth digging up, it was very basic and not well thought-through.

Then again, some people had no real problems with reddit except for the API stuff. The people who came here earlier often had complaints about reddit's overall community trends, you know, people replying to headlines and clearly not reading the actual article at all, empty fluff like a random pun being the three highest rated comments, buttloads of junk replies like 'wow', 'this', 'i wish i could upvote twice' to scroll past. And I don't think there's much I myself could do to fight things like that, without putting in far too much time and effort (this site isn't my life!).

As someone else said, the secret is that the US isn't 'turning into', it's been bad for at least a century. We've finally gotten to the point where racism is starting to get unpopular enough that it's not just normal and largely ignored.

Even without guns involved, there are many regions with antifascist groups which come and give them a beating (see Patriot Front getting run out of Philadelphia). Collective violent resistance intimidates them. Non-violent tactics are essential, they come first and are more important overall, but violence makes them scare to come outside. Just look at the dissolution of the British Union of Fascists after the '43 Group threw bricks at them enough times for a big example (there are many smaller examples - especially since modern neo-nazis tend to recruit scrawny teens online who can't handle getting beaten up).

Honestly, I regret not putting more effort into setting up a good foundation here before the API drama hit. There was a chance to fix many of the problems of reddit, and poor communication just let people import all the problems right back.

Hell, people are still calling communities 'subs'. Even basic stuff like that. And I'm not blaming people for coming into a place without learning about its culture, unfortunately that's just normal and it happens. I'm just annoyed we didn't create ways to educate them easily, like guidebooks and introductions on the sign-up page.

I'm going to redact my claim until I find evidence, because I may have just misinterpreted a flag they had up. Outlets are reporting the were a registered Republican.

the shooting was a reasonable response

Well, yes, but it was also an ineffective response. The problem isn't that Trump is the head of the party, it's the party. Trump isn't some magic irreplaceable leader, and a recursive solution isn't sustainable.

PS: (I said "it's the party", but that's not true either. The problem goes further than that; the entire system is rigged)

(Also, to be extra clear, violence is not merely justified but inevitably necessary, but randomly assassinating leaders isn't a viable strategy)