this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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It feels like this is very intense here compared to other social media services/protocols.

Why is that?

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[–] faltryka@lemmy.world 93 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Could just be a consequence of a less ideologically diverse user base to start with.

I’m so upset about (privacy, reddit, corporatism, etc, etc) that I’m prepared to leave my large online social networks for a smaller space on principle is probably a bit of an outlier position to take.

Not that it’s wrong, but it’s probably something we all agree on. Something out there is so fucked up we refuse to be a part of it on principle, even if we don’t fully agree on what that is.

[–] RalphNader2028@reddthat.com 18 points 1 month ago

This is the answer!

[–] 37piecesof_flare@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Principle*

Lovely observation of the greatest commonality here, though.

[–] faltryka@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Good call out, corrected.

[–] AskewLord@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

it's also an outlier position fueled by belief, and people tend to self-select to be around others who believe as they do, and punish those who don't.

it's one thing to be concern about privacy, it's another to browbeat anyone who doesn't have a pihole server and selfhosts all their media content as being 'fools'. i don't use linux other than at my job, and according to lemmy techies I'm a heretic.

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[–] kbal@fedia.io 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Lemmings have always been well-known for running in herds.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So...I'm guessing you haven't installed Linux yet?

If so, try Linux. We're not a cult or anything.

[–] dbtng@moist.catsweat.com 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

O RYL? :]
What distro would you recommend?

What do you think should be done about unbelievers?
After all, those who have strayed from the one true path must be dealt with...

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[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not sure. What does everybody else think?

[–] Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Because it's an echo chamber. You have communities that are modded by a small group of people who can control narratives through censorship, the community is very hostile to any differing views from their own, and the existing communities are so devoid of internal criticism that they start to purity test each other, which leads to more extreme views and develops a herd mentality.

[–] pkjqpg1h@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

But unlike social media you can follow different communities or make your own here is an example for "Technology" communities;

[–] artifex@piefed.social 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Mute lemmygrad, hexbear, .ml and maybe blahaj and see if you still feel the same afterwards.

[–] Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Basically filter out the tankies, and this place becomes pleasant. I can't say you're wrong.

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[–] AnDoLiN@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 month ago

Is it? I avoid politics and I've blocked the tankie instances. If anything, I worry there isn't enough communalism (there's a joke here somewhere) to sustain it.

Not exactly sure what you mean by herd mentality though.

[–] zabadoh@ani.social 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Looking at your post history, I'm just seeing that the down votes look average to me.

If that's what you're talking about, I wouldn't take down votes personally.

Often what people are down voting is bad news, not necessarily fake news or something they disagree with.

If that's not what you're talking about, then never mind.

[–] dbtng@moist.catsweat.com 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I started a thread about lemvotes some time back.
Several people went to look up their own post histories, and one guy offered the most unique insight.
Apparently in this Lemmy client on his phone, he was clicking a button to make posts 'go away' after he read them.
Well after looking up his own vote history, this guy realized he's been downvoting everything he reads, all the time. That was not a 'go away' button.
After reading this guy's confused bullshit with the voting buttons, I came to realize that there are innumerable reasons for why people vote, and it may not at all be what you think.

[–] zabadoh@ani.social 10 points 1 month ago

...this guy realized he's been downvoting everything he reads, all the time.

That's hilarious!

[–] AskewLord@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

true, but let's be honest most downvotes are just people disliking what you wrote.

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[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I'll tell you exactly why. As soon as I see what everyone else said.

[–] RalphNader2028@reddthat.com 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

I don't have an answer for you, OP. I will say that Lemmy is the angriest social media platform I have ever been on. I have never seen so many angry people who will actually stalk people (across mulitple posts) they disagree with, as I have seen on Lemmy. I've seen people here advocate for murder and torture of people and/or politicians they don't agree with. It’s crazy!

[–] foodandart@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Oh, spend time on Reddit.

I was there almost 15 years and it is mind-meltingly toxic compared to lemmy.

Now I'm on the lemmy.zip instance and tend to lean towards more tech ended stuff, so maybe that's the difference..

This site is light-years nicer than Reddit's been since about 2018.

I think it's the lack of rage-bots here, that's the ticket..

[–] AskewLord@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

My experience of reddit wasn't toxic until '22 or so. The first ten years I used it was mostly chill and fun, with the occasionally dramatic event that I had no personal stake in. I mostly was in my local city subreddit and hobby subreddits and a few reading ones.

But around '22 or so, for me at least, i started getting reported and banned regularly for sexism, racism, and violence. i think because I am not 'woke' and the overton window shifted to the point where my views were considered evil or something.

But since I'm an economic progressive and not a social engineering erase gender progressive, I'm a bad person now or something. I also committed the sin of having an outdoor cat and pointing out racial/sexist attacks on my local mayor.

And FWIW this type of crazy has bled over into the real world for me. Extremist rhetoric invaded several activity groups I enjoy IRL. Like, I don't want to go to a book club and get lectured how I am evil for not buying/ the 'right' books, esp when I take most of my books from the library and most of the stuff I read is 100+ years old.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

I was there almost 15 years and it is mind-meltingly toxic compared to lemmy.

And yet it's fristratingly addictive at the same time.

Sometimes I have to go back to ask a question on r/skyrim mods and I always make the mistake of doing a bit of scrolling. Thankfully I always catch myself 20-30 minutes in, but that's still time out of my day that I don't consoder well spent.

Lemmy has no algorithm to feed that addiction, and I really appreciate it

[–] Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It should be noted that a very huge chunk of the userbase here are chronically online far left types who were banned from Reddit for being too extreme and toxic. Those same people came over here and brought the same problems that got them banned on other platforms here. Lemmy's is basically a cesspool of the Internets worst leftists.

That being said, I would say something like 40% of Lemmy's userbase is here for tech, privacy, and memes. If you filter out most of the politics, this site still has a big enough userbase to have an active and enjoyable experience.

[–] RalphNader2028@reddthat.com 3 points 1 month ago

Great points. I've seen people on here say that reddit is too conservative for them. Ok, if they think reddit is conservative, yeah, they are freaking extreme. So I think you make really good points!

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What instances have you seen that on? Definitely should mention it/report it to those in charge of those instances and if they refuse to address it at least block those instances or if large enough of a problem discuss defederating the instance from your own.

That said, calling for people who commit illegal acts or crimes against humanity to be charged with crimes is different than calling for someone to have their nails ripped off and partially drown repeatedly.

[–] mrdown@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

It is as angry as any other platform

[–] RalphNader2028@reddthat.com 3 points 1 month ago

I did report, and did block. And I got harrassed for reporting. But all good, after blocking and ignoring, I have moved on.

[–] AskewLord@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Just want to say I am dealing with this too. I had one guy yesterday reply to 10 separate posts of mine because of one thing I said in one thread they didn't like. I blocked them, but it is insane behavior.

These replies were no legit either, they were just slinging insults and character assassination and telling me how stupid and evil I was for saying something they disagreed with.

It's recent for me, this kind of nonsense has only been happening recently. a year ago it never did.

[–] RalphNader2028@reddthat.com 2 points 1 month ago

Yep, and what sucks, is that even tho you blocked them, they can still see all of your posts, and respond to them with the same attacks, but you won't see it. Everyone else will. Lemmy is getting more and more toxic.

[–] realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I think it's moderation. If you have a differing opinion from the mainstream (as in what the moderation team thinks), you'll get banned from the current community and any other community that mod is moderating. It's absolutely insane.

That quite obviously leads to a chilling effect where people aren't willing to discuss anything controversial freely, like their political stance, unless of course it's the one mods have.

I like piefed and Lemmy, but this is by far the worst place for any political discussion

[–] AskewLord@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

on reddit i got banned.

on lemmy communities I just got told I'm a troll. or to cite my sources. and if I cite them, then I'm a troll. or told how i'm a stupid bad awful evil person who has zero 'empathy' if I say, think housing policy is a complex problem.

It couldn't possible be there are legit points of view and opinions that are different than the predominant one...

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

That has not been my experience. There are a number of times I've had fundamental differences with the zeitgeist and I've been largely down voted before, but never banned. I don't think I've ever even had a comment removed, and some of them have been pretty borderline.

Maybe it's due to other issues besides your opinion? Idk. Hope you find communities that fit you.

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 6 points 1 month ago

That's what I herd as well.

[–] vogi@piefed.social 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Don’t understand the downvotes you get. I don’t think it’s Lemmy exclusive though. It’s just what the reddit like voting system promotes. Just hiding the score would make it a lot better i think.

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[–] schwim@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago

So.... everyone here is upvoting cat pics?

[–] mrdown@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Because we are human

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 points 1 month ago

Look! A three-headed monkey!

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If it's downvotes you're concerned about, I think the fact is that bad scoring aren't hidden by default like reddit which is why unpopular downvoted takes are more visible. People feel strongly here about their opinions but I wouldn't worry too much about the amount of downvotes in general so long as it's not because you're an asshole or troll.

Social media bubbles are present everywhere, the way the Fediverse is set up I think leads to stronger but smaller echo chambers, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing because you choose what kind of group you want to be with and which other "bubbles" you will interact with based on how aligned your values are with other bubbles. You get the choice of what things you want to debate and discuss and what you don't.

Depends on your instance. 

[–] weaponG@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Where there's a herd, there's a say.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

across lemmy??? I would say its the opposite with strong pushes one way from some and another by others and even some downright central and nuanced.

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