The fediverse is small, and thats both a blessing and a curse - one of its several blessings is that in a smaller space we all individually have a bigger impact on what the culture of this space is like.

On this comm (and on lemmy broadly) there’s a lot of discussion about how to grow the fediverse, what to improve, but an easy thing you can do for the fediverse is right in front of us-

  • Be kind

  • Ask people what they think, and why

  • Approach folks you disagree with with curiosity rather than hostility (EDIT: no, this is not specifically referring to Nazis. I get it, they’re the first thing that comes to mind. I’m not telling you to approve of Nazis I’m just saying be kind to your fellow lemmites)

  • Engage sincerely

  • Ask yourself if there’s something nice you can say

  • Make this small space worth being in

A platform lives or dies by what’s available on said platform and often we have this conversation in the context of “content” or posts - and we may never have as much content as reddit does. But content and posts aren’t the only thing this kind of platform offers- it also offers people. It offers community, and human interaction.

Culture and community is lemmy and the fediverse’s biggest differentiator, and we all have a role to play in shaping the culture of this space.

The biggest thing you can do to help the fediverse is make it a place worth being.

  • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Unless you’re a republican or other type of nazi. Then you can absolutely go all the way to hell.

    Tolerance got us here.

    • SorryQuick@lemmy.ca
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      23 hours ago

      It’s not about tolerance imo, it’s about discussion. You’d be surprised to learn their reasoning if you actually listened to it. You don’t have to agree with it.

      Both sides have this problem right now. Both only converse with their own. Why are republicans not changing? Well if their friends, family and everyone they talk to is a republican, they’ll never be exposed to different opinions.

      Don’t forget that both sides can have valid policies depending on how you view the world. I’m not taking about trump and whatever you people are doing out there in the US, but in general, conservatism is the idea that people will manage their money, rather than the government.

      Look at Quebec for example. A very socialist government. 2 years ago they invested a ton of money into one electric bus company. Well that company failed really bad and while they aren’t completely bankrupt, they aren’t far. It’s easy then to then see why conservatives would want to vote conservative. If their money had stayed in their pocket instead of going to the government, this wouldn’t have happened.

      Same thing with health. The public health system is currently clogged up so a lot of people end up having to pay to go to the private sector to actually get cured in time. So conservatives believe this whole system is a huge waste of taxpayer money. Most conservatives I know aren’t agaisnt the government helping with that, but they’d rather the government just pay the invoice after you went to a private clinic, similar to insurance in the states, rather than try to control a system that clearly isn’t working.

      • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        You’d be surprised to learn their reasoning if you actually listened to it.

        Turns out their reasoning a lot of the time is divinely ordained racism and sexism. Turns out thats been the reasoning behind a lot of humanity’s choices.

        • SorryQuick@lemmy.ca
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          23 hours ago

          That’s the problem. You see the other side in a way they themselves really aren’t. When people say the left is just as bad as the right, they don’t mean in opinions and policies, but in behavior, just like you’re doing. They both think themselves as having the moral high ground while the other side is complete and utter evil.

          Honestly of all the conservatives I know, I don’t think a single one of them is remotely racist in any way. One in particular is agaisnt talking about lgbt stuff in schools but he also has a trans friend and thinks as long as they’re adults it’s fine. It’s not being evil, it’s having a difference in opinion.

          • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            People said everything you’re saying 30 years ago and used it to justify letting fascism grow unchecked. Now we’re here and you are still afraid to be firm. You are why they’re in power.

            No more compromises. No more chances. No more conversations. People are being abducted. People are dying. There’s no time left for patience.

            They change NOW. Or they can fuck off.

            • SorryQuick@lemmy.ca
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              22 hours ago

              I have no issues with facists fucking off. The problem is most people on lemmy seem to give just about everyone they disagree with a facist tag. Honestly in the US I agree the situation is different, but here in canada, I haven’t heard of anyone dying or being abducted by conservatives.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      9 hours ago

      Nazis can always join their own defederated server and have their little circle jerk, nothing is stopping them from going and joining exploding heads; they don’t have a right to be part of federated fediverse and have their bullshit heard.

      For that matter, nothing’s stopping the people who disagree with me from creating their own nazi-friendly Lemmy instance. This is not the Nazi bar, and it’s not going to be, so go ahead and open it yourselves. No need to let me know how it turns out, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a good guess.

          • untakenusername@sh.itjust.works
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            13 hours ago

            well yeah but I meant that Truth socials source code is actually a fork of Mastodon. I think they’ve even published the source code somewhere for legal reasons, which is so wired to think about trump doing.

            • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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              12 hours ago

              Holy crow I didn’t know that! I doubt Trump did it on purpose. I’m almost certain whoever he paid for Truth social just did the least amount of work possible to cash in, and forking Mastodon was probably it. The right wing is like a fractal grift, so it wouldn’t shock me.

    • Casteyes@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Generalizing is a logical fallacy. Not all Republicans are Nazis.

      Some are rotten. Some are good people that just got duped.

      It’s not black and white.

      • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Nope. They’ve had plenty of time to see the results of their actions. They’re complicit at this point.

        • Cris@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 day ago

          I can empathize with your anger but I do think it’s easy to forget just how much propaganda can shape peoples world views and idea of reality. It’s used so heavily because it works :(

          Regardless, I’m not trying to start a fight, I can appreciate having no more tolerance for the increasing cruelty of the state of the world. Take care ❤️

          • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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            19 hours ago

            There’s a story I heard recently that has really stuck with me. It happened in the Sobibor Extermination Camp during WW2. Basically the camp was structured so that captured Jews would be selected to be Kapos. A Kapo was a disciplinarian that kept the rest of the Jews in line, usually with a whip. A lot of the times the Kapo would repeat Nazi propaganda because the Nazi guards were watching too. The rest of the Jews could understand their predicament. But there was one Kapo named Berliner, nicknamed because he was born in Berlin. The rest of the Jews hated Berliner because he truly bought into the propaganda. Imagine, a Jew… in an extermination camp… talking about how Hitler was a misunderstood savior of the Jews right before he started beating his fellow Jews to keep them in line.

            It’s no surprise that Berliner’s end comes in the form of a lynching by the rest of the Jews he was keeping in line.

            • Cris@lemmy.worldOP
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              19 hours ago

              Thank you very much for sharing, I expect that story will stick with me too.

          • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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            1 day ago

            Republican core values are anti-human. Right from there, we have nothing to talk about.

            Get these lizard people off our planet!

        • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          That’s the part that I still can’t wrap my head around. We know it will be shameless shilling and nepotism along with stochastic terrorism and still vote for it anyway? Wtf

          • Cris@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 day ago

            Its easy to forget they live in a fundamentally different reality shaped by a buble of media. We all do, but conservative media kinda feels like an alternative universe.

            When confronted with the world we live in they reject it as unrealistic because it differs too much from the facts they’ve accepted about the world.

            My grandpa is a trump voter and I do my best to still talk to him. At an individual scale he’s a kind, sincere man who has always been welcoming of my queerness and tries to understand me. It’s very painful trying to discuss things with him even though it stays a kind interaction when I lead with kindness. It requires a lot of cognitive dissonance, but he lives in a fundamentally different reality than I do and I honestly don’t know what I can do about it :(

            That’s the dangerous thing about fascism. Decent people buy into it. Become complicit or enable it. It wouldn’t be a real threat if they didn’t. But it engineers a reality for people to believe in, and lo and behold, they do. And cruelty ensues :(

        • Casteyes@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Nope. There’s really hasn’t been. A lot of them are waking up. You’re being divisive. And that’s not what the country needs.

          • Genius@lemmy.zip
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            2 days ago

            They had 4 years of Trump to see the truth for themselves. And then they got to see Trump break another election cycle’s worth of promises on top of that!

            • Casteyes@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Trump’s first term was nothing like this. It wasn’t full on facism like the current term. The economy wasn’t being completely obliterated and people weren’t being disappeared.

            • Casteyes@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              I’m being clear as well. If you want to be hostile to the whole group that’s your personal choice. I’m going to express the reality of the situation though. Bye.

      • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        If you’ve been getting duped for 50 years, then maybe you’re just too stupid to vote. People with a bit of a plant in their pocket have been disenfranchised for a lot less

        • Alpha71@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Perhaps. However. on the other side I think of this quote. “Poor people have been voting democrat for 50 years, and they’re still poor…”

        • Casteyes@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          MAGA wasn’t formed until 2016, the party was much different before Trump. But who cares I guess. It seems people just want to hate the other side here. Which is no better than them.

          • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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            6 hours ago

            It really wasn’t different before Trump, it was just a little more articulate in its rhetoric.

          • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Before that was the tea party loons, before that was the airbrushed WMD photos, before that was McCarthyism…

            When the other side is always fascist, the answer is always FUCK OFF NAZI PUNKS

            (Maybe people wouldn’t hate the “other side” if it wasn’t straight up 4th reich on paper 🤷)

    • untakenusername@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      Ik a few people who lean to the right economically but aren’t in favor of all this authoritarian stuff And they’re not Nazis, you cant just generalize so broadly about what should or shouldn’t be tolerated. Ofc if someone is being blatantly racist that shouldnt be tolerated, but economic discussion is totally fine

      • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Turns out Republicans social and economic policiy is dogshit. There are three types of Republicans; power hungry sycophants, cultural chameleons that dont care but to blend in, and then the largest proportion… salt of the earth morons.

        • untakenusername@sh.itjust.works
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          13 hours ago

          I’m not saying their policies are any good, but the golden rule still stands, if a Republican who isn’t evil is nice to you, it only makes sense to reciprocate that.

        • untakenusername@sh.itjust.works
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          20 hours ago

          You do realize that there are members of marginalized groups who have been elected as republicans. Like there’s black republicans. Is voting for them ‘blatantly racist’? If you overuse language it loses some of its meaning

          • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            When you need to resort to “but I have black friends” to defend racism, you’ve lost.

            • untakenusername@sh.itjust.works
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              18 hours ago

              I’m not resorting to that. I’m not saying that. I’m saying that the idea that voting Republican is inherently racist, is wrong. This really isn’t that complicated.

              • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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                15 hours ago

                You are incorrect. The republican party is the party of bigotry and cruelty. To vote for them is an explicit endorsement. Adults are accountable for their allegiances and their actions, and we have had decades to learn.

      • shaggyb@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Zero irony. Nothing funny here. Nazis fuck off. Republicans fuck off. Trumpers fuck off.

            • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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              1 day ago

              The “tolerance paradox” is a handy tool with which to justify violence by those on both sides. If I’m just fighting intolerance, then my actions are justified. It’s a common rally cry used by authoritarians to stamp out diversity and democracy. To really hammer the point home, the Nazis were the first to employ it. By blaming their issues on the “intolerance” of foreign states, they justified a global war. It is obviously the inspiration for Popper’s 1945 work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. Russia is currently using this fallacy to justify the war in Ukraine, claiming that the West is “intolerant” of Russia, and they need to defend themselves against this intolerance.

              Here is a full quote from Popper on the subject if anyone is interested.

              I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise.

              But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols.

              Popper’s argument is laid bare here. Tolerate up to the point of violence. That is, if one physically attacks us, we no longer have the burden of tolerance. Popper is commonly misquoted and intentionally misused to justify violence, suppresion, and censorship against disagreement, and that is clearly not his argument.

          • dickalan@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Either you’re being intentionally obtuse or you’re being paid by Russia either way….