this post was submitted on 01 May 2026
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I'm sorry if this breaks a rule for this sub or isn't in the right place.

I really don't know, most of the time I just lurk. I had an alt on Hexbear because they get defederated all the time, and I really enjoy their content, but it got banned because I called out Nazi propaganda about Ukraine(It's why I was banned. I'm not trying to talk politics I would like to focus on Lemmy), and I'm just very confused. The rules they referenced for the ban seem to barely apply to what I said, and in general, the server seemed like a cool place to be. I definitely felt like I was in a community where I belonged.

I'm just boggled and could really use some hand-holding on this one. In general, the rules of the Lemmyverse confuse me. I want to see everything, but the places I like most are usually defederated from the larger communities.

If this isn't right please please, just point me to where I can ask.

Thanks!

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[–] Tomassci@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It is one of the three major Tankie federations. Lemmygrad, Hexbear, and .ml. For starters, Tankie is a term originated as a pejorative on those that advocated for the Warsaw Pact invasion into Czechoslovakia in 1968. Nowadays, Tankies happen to be uncritical towards places like China and North Korea, viewing them as good places that the CIA lies about to make socialism look bad (let's not mention that China is more corporatist, even in Tankie responses when you point out that billionaires in China are a thing), and lots of them also happen to be campists, aka people that support a country as long as it claims to be anti-US. Don't get me wrong, the US did a lot of shit that is not talked about, but when you claim to be a Marxist-Leninist and support the theocratic Iran over the Iranian MLs...

And also, they love banning people they disagree with. Probably the most coherent thing about their ideology, given their authoritarianism.

[–] tangible@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm probably going to regret this question, but why do they need THREE instances

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 day ago

Lemmy.ml is the dev instance and is the most default of the three. While it hosts a lot of "default" communities, the devs/admins have encouraged creating more instances over one default instance.

Hexbear.ml comes from the former subreddit r/chapotraphouse and was created as a new place when the old sub got banned. They shitpost the most loudly out of the three.

Lemmygrad.ml is the most "academic" of the three. If you hear anyone say to "read theory", the discussion about it will likely happen there. It attempts to be the most serious of the three instances and actually tries to analyze some modern communist writings.

All three are banned in China, but lemmy.world can be read in China.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 68 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

You know that fifteen year old mindset when you just begin to grasp the idea of and your role in social responsibility but you're still fifteen so you're an absolutely obnoxious shit about it? Like "omg babies all abortion is bad". "Only white people can be racists" "shearing kills sheep!!!" level shit.

And you know how some people never get out of that because they like the taste of what they think is moral righteousness but is actually just huffing your own biased farts while defining random "acceptable" targets to abuse?

...yeahhhhhh.

Purity politics can eat my shit.

[–] SharkWeek@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 day ago

Oh lordy, yes to this!

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Unfortunately, it’s what has become of the internet. If you’re not correct enough, then you are now “other.” I wish more people could see what the tribalism is doing. I miss the old internet every day. For a small window of time, we were all made closer by being able to talk to each other. Ignorance was forgiven if it was acknowledged, if you showed growth. Then assholes with money and an agenda started controlling the conversation. I’m sure there are true believers out there who stifle and snub anyone who isn’t 100% on board with their ideology, but for a time we were building coalitions to change the world.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 14 points 1 day ago

Nah, there's plenty of internet outside that. Those behavioural groups clump together

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago

Nah, you've seen the shoreline and assumed that's all there is, there's a whole vast ocean out there

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[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 87 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Hexbear and ml are notorious for this type of behavior. I wouldn't take it personally. They just act like authoritarian leftwing views are the only valid viewpoint and are incredibly thin skinned, especially when it comes to China and Russia. Consider your ban an informal initiation to lemmy. I got banned from one of their communities the other day because of something I said about Kamala Harris that they disagreed with. I also got banned from a different instance because I wasn't nice when someone picked a fight.

Being confused about the rules for all of the different instances is normal. Just do what you're going to do and don't sweat it too much.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can't say I've ever spent any time inside the hexbear community, but all the external examples I've seen from them, not once have I ever seen anything remotely left wing. What they spout is pro-Chinese government, pro-Russian government talking points, and 0-100 death threats.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Authoritarian left, not libertarian left. Very into iron fisted centralized government.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There's nothing left about Russia as it is today. Fully capitalist shithole.

China's weird, it's more like an auth center government IMO. Very much still promotes capitalism and mints tons of new billionaires every year, but also has some sensible social policies and superb public infrastructure. Means of production are still mostly privately owned, but land is government owned so billionaires are free to billionaire, but you can't pass your home down your family forever without paying for it again since the land it sits on is on a 70 year lease which you may or may not get to renew.

IMO for the .ml and hexbear types, it doesn't really seem to be about auth left, it just has to be auth and anti-western. Even auth right is fine as long as it's not a western country.

[–] IAMgROOT@lemmy.wtf 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

banned from .ml for criticizing Stalin ⛓️‍💥🕊️🕊️

[–] kurcatovium@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

Achievement unlocked

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I’ve been here for like a year but it does feel like being in highschool sometimes lol. I gotta work on regulating my emotions better.

[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Personal growth is always good, but don't blame yourself for getting pissed at a tankie.

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

lol. No skin off my back. I just have friends in the area so I took the particular post a little personally.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, you just kinda have to not take lemmy that seriously. There may not be a bunch of crazy right wingers on here, but there are plenty of unhinged people still lol. Poke fun while it's fun, and if a conversation/argument stops being fun, just block and move on. No one's opinion really matters on here anyway.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

My experience once was the first time I blocked a community.
Not for being called out on their pillory (did google get that translation right? The medieval thing you get thrown tomatoes at) but for for butthurt they became for saying China has as many corpses in the basement as the US and essentially being contra to their world views.

[–] CombatWombat@feddit.online 2 points 1 day ago

Instance gossip always reminds me of Mean Girls

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[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Huh. Interesting.
So the reveived reactions I gatheree werent even that exclusive.
In retrospect I did say some (excuse my lack for better words) words with a narrow world view lense, but the responses were anything but constructive.

[–] FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

This was very informative. I was slightly sheltered from the nature of the server because I didn't log into my hexbear often and generally I just broswed the most popular posts. Thanks for the share.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] Lojcs@piefed.social 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

So their vulgarity isn't just them incubating in an echo chamber for 4 years, it's a part of their ideology. That explains a lot.

Edit: Although, it is peculiar how 'accepting vulgarity as a valid medium of communication' manifests as 'being toxic to the out-group'

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Thank you, I had found the Lemmy post, but it was three years old. That's an eternity in online forum time. The other links still make it seem like a cool place with cool people.

[–] Trincapinones@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 day ago (3 children)

In dbzer0 defederations are rare, we had a community vote months ago to deferate from hexbear because of their bad moderation and the result was not doing it, the philosophy here usually is that if you don't like some content or community, just block them.

[–] Tomassci@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Though, dbzer0 has been overtaken by Tankies as well. That may be part of the issue.

[–] Trincapinones@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean... I've seen more people saying that phrase, than tankies in my local feed, and I've seen some memes that looked like imperialist propaganda on the Lefty memes community being downvoted to hell, there are some tankies, but I still consider this instance an Anarchists one rather than one overtaken by Tankies.

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

A classical approach. That’s so refreshing.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The only event of that sort I remember was feddit.org
But they defederated from us, right?

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[–] blarth@thelemmy.club 12 points 1 day ago

I’m 100% certain they are Russian psyop campaigns.

if I'd describe hexbear with 1 word, I'd choose "tankie".

[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They are communists, in League with the remnants of such, Russia and China even though they are both now the worst capitalist hellscapes.

They are a sort of top-down organization, they have enforcers and they will troll you, they will troll you from other instances, they're rather known for it.

The people in charge are pieces of fucking shit, although they have a lot of users that are pretty cool, same as .ml it's the same people. Leadership, pieces of fucking shit, users, mostly cool.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

How tf do y'all keep such close tabs on who the people are in charge of instances and the fact that they use alts from other instances to troll people and all this other petty gossip bullshit? How do you seriously keep up to speed with that nonsense?

I just scroll and comment, bro. 🤷‍♂️

[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Because some of us have run a foul of their Doctrine not knowing whom they were, and been exposed to an avalanche of trolling, and trolling from other subs or instances I guess.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (5 children)

What communities are these? Sounds like these are some toxic and/political communities. I try to stay away from political discourse online.

(Btw, that's not how you use "whom" 🫪🫣❤️, sorry for pointing it out)

[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Hexbear and ml, hexbear is by far the worst. New people come on and wander onto these communities and say something that upsets them and get trolled to the point where they quit let me altogether it's actually a big problem.

I'm against censorship but many of these instances are not entirely wrong to De Federate from them, you have no idea how bad they are in this regard they are super aggressive. And their reach extends beyond those instances. If you piss them off there, they will get you banned here and there and elsewhere, and troll you.

To their credit, they were some of the original Developers as they were the first to be purged from reddit, and this is basically a Reddit refugee site.

[–] a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

get trolled to the point where they quit let me altogether it’s

This is why its a good idea for the bigger instances to defederate from hexbar

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

ml was actually my first server on the mobile app. I had no idea it was a black sheep until other communities on other servers stopped giving me access. I can't even remember now. I've been on world and just viewing offline for a while now.

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[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (4 children)

In general, the rules of the Lemmyverse confuse me.

We're a loose confederation of servers, so there's not going to be any overseeing group keeping everyone accountable to a general set of rules. If that is a bug or a feature to you is going to impact your enjoyment, unless you continue to have multiple accounts.

I only really have some others for when there are server issues or the handful of times I feel like checking in on something defeated from World, so it doesn't bother me often.

Can't you just make another user profile on Hexbear?

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[–] MrNobody@quokk.au 7 points 2 days ago (5 children)

You’d be better off in anarchist spaces if you want similar content without the support for invaders.

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[–] cattywampas@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Hexbear is a communist instance, the tankies get a little weird sometimes.

the places like most are usually defederated from the larger communities

This is a drawback to federation. I'm on my third instance because of stuff like this. I generally like lemmy but this is a reason it won't ever become mainstream, be that for better or for worse.

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[–] victorz@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I definitely felt like I was in a community where I belonged.

the places I like most are usually defederated from the larger communities.

I dunno bout y'all but 🚩

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