Just blocked lemmy.ml from my Lemmy account, and I swear to god it's one of the best things I've ever done on this platform. My homepage feels actually clean now.

For the past few months I'd been seeing a lot of tankie posting and pretty much far-left propaganda on my feed. It got tiring enough that I finally checked my blocked-user list, and realized pretty much everyone I'd blocked was from lemmy.ml. So I just blocked the whole instance instead.

Saying this as someone who considers themselves a leftist: I used to think Lemmy itself was an echo chamber. Turns out lemmy.ml was the problem the entire time. Probably the reason I tolerated it for so long is that I agreed with a lot of what they posted, but like an oversaturated meme, I'd had enough. Browsing the platform was starting to feel way too tiring instead of fun, which defeats the point of being here in the first place.

The breaking point was seeing some dude post a "meme" implying North Korea and China are basically communist utopias and that the West sucks. I mean, the West does suck, but come on - you're saying North Korea is the ideal the West should strive for? What the hell...

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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (30 children)

I think Lemmy is radicalizing.

It’s not just Lemmy.ml either. I used to love dbz0, almost switched from lemmy.world, but now all the non-political content is withering away, and most of what I see is just absolutist, anarchist post. The admin is fine with explicit calls to violence against pretty much anyone.

And that’s fine. It’s their instance, they can their thing. But it’s so extreme I don’t even find satisfaction interacting with the instance anymore, like it’s a single community with one topic.

And I don’t mean to single them out. I have similar feelings from many instances, including Lemmy.world.

I’ve even seen some pretty extreme stuff on blajah, which I used to picture as a wholesome LGBTQ+ instance! Which I adore… until it’s not so wholesome.

What’s worse, Lemmy users don’t seem to care.

I’ll point out some off-topic discussion in a thread, and I just get piled on. Like, not every single Lemmy conversation has to involve statements about western imperialism or the futility of democracy or whatever, but apparently it does on Lemmy.ml, and it feels like it’s spreading.

That was more of a rant than I intended.

But I am concerned about this new internet place I like. I’ve seen one or two other Reddit clones wither away from political radicalization, too.

[–] RandomHugs@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I can see where you're coming from. At this point I'm not interested in engaging with content that has a negative impact on my mental health, even if I support those views. There's some extent of irony in this behavior, but I'm just tired of being constantly bombarded with reminders of our sad world. I don't use typical social media, and every once in a while when I catch a whiff of a friend's Tiktok or Instagram feed, I'm completely blown away by how much content there is designed to trigger a negative, or often an angry reaction. This was a big reason for me to leave Reddit and I'm trying to avoid this as much as possible on Lemmy.

I'm still very new here and still trying to figure this whole fediverse thing out, I've only been here for about a month, give or take. Like some other user suggested were common for newbies to Lemmy, I chose the most active instance without really thinking about it, and always scroll through /All. During my short experience here, I have blocked so, so many communities and instances already. Blahaj is one of them, not because I disagree with the importance or need to stand up for LGTQ+ rights, but because I feel that the general content posted there is naturally based on a politically driven agenda, which again is all fine, but I browse this shit before bed to escape my already constant anxiety, and I'm here for memes and a good time. I'm not interested in content that is either dystopian doomerism, American circus politics, war reports, or what ever depressing reminders of our current speedrun to degrade human life, in basically all categories.

I get that people are actively frustrated, angry, in need to vent, or in need of other's to help them feel less alone, that they're not the only ones who think the world is losing their minds. This space is perfect for people to discuss those things, to find likeminded people and even challenge their believes from other's opinions. But that's not what I'm looking for. I could just make it easy for myself and sub to the lighthearted communities that fits to my need and just scroll through that instead, but I enjoy the random posts from communities I wouldn't find unless I was scrolling through /All, like this post for example.

Instead, I just block everything that has a negative reaction that makes me chose to engage in that content from my side. Like another news article about Musk posting something dumb on Twitter once again, for example. If I read the title and want to click the post to read more, I stop to ask myself if feel that if the reason to want to read more stems from anger or frustration, if it does I try to move on. Not because I feel that the topic shouldn't be discussed or that it shouldn't have an angry reaction, but because it's fucking everywhere already and I'm not trying to feed my depression further. Call it an ostrich behaviour, but it makes my experience a little better.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

good news is that the majority of this content is coming from a handful of people. and you can block them and you'll see a massive reduction in it.

like some of the folks my block lists post 50+ times a day, and are in the comments of their post viciously attacking anyone who dares to question the legitimacy of the content they post, calling them names and often trying to bait them into saying something they can get them banned for. because it's like... their self-appointed job or something? i have no clue.

i also work in tech and i blocked a ton of the weird linux fetishist stuff, which again, was a few posters and communities who just evangelize non stop everyday about how superior and holy they are for their OS use, and how awful and terrible windows/apple is.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I get that.

That's part of my motivation too.

My mental state is not great, and I too came here to avoid a manipulative bombardment of ragebait. Hence its frustrating to fund other users reposting it, especially when its misleading or straight up misinformation.

I thought most of us came here to escape that trap, but apparently not.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

i have met people in real life who are 100% addicted to it and can't stop talking about it in person. it's simple like a way people live now, how they process the entirety of their life everyday.

and they won't ever see the fault in themselves. they will simple call you names and say you are implicitly supporting the 'bad side' in the story if you dare to say maybe it is stupid and rage bait. and yeah, they see it as their mission to 'educate' you and everyone else about the 'truth' they see that 'nobody else sees'.

it's a form of ego-tripping in the end. they feel like they are doing god's work, and proselytizing the good word of outrage and they must shun the non-believers lest their purity of their rage ever be tested.

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