Lemmy was released as an open-source fediverse alternative to Reddit.
Just over a year after launch, r/ChapoTrapHouse, moved across after being banned from Reddit. This is likely what you’re referring to. It had well over 100,000 active users on Reddit, so represented a sudden sizable influx of users.
I’d wager the biggest influx of people by far, though, occurred when Spez upset a majority of mods and many users by banning third party apps.
People looked for an alternative, and Lemmy was it.
But why are so many people who lean left politically? Because the Venn Diagram for “people who like the idea of a decentralised platform that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires”, and “people who would like society that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires” is nearly a circle.
That’s what I thought as well. No ads. No one tracking you. No one profiting off your data. Sounds like leftist ideals to me. Freedom from corporate bullshit.
Well, all the data is available for anyone on the internet to use as they please…
The developers for Lemmy are also leftist; that the original Lemmy was lemmy.ml speaks to their politics.
ChapoTrapHouse likely moved here because it was already leftist.
I wouldn’t call them leftist, as their views are too pro authoritarian. They more branched off in a different direction that sometimes looks more right than left.
They get angry when you call them tankies.
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There’s also the people who got pushed out by right wing admins/mods. I personally switched after I got banned for saying riot police should quit their jobs en masse following RvW. I still stand by that statement.
Wasn’t it also built by Marxist-Lennists?
decentralised platform that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires
Hum… Isn’t that part of the “Freedooomm!!!” dreams that comes bundled with minimum state and individual empowerment? I’m pretty sure it is.
No, I hate the term as it’s usually used as a pejorative and is so reductive as to be essentially meaningless. I’m a democratic socialist.
That’s a leftist. You’re a leftist, buddy.
I relate a bit, though. I think it’s cringe when socialists call each other “comrade”.
Is a communist the same as a progressive? A democratic socialist the same as an anarchist? Call me what you want but like I said, it’s reductive and meaningless.
Progressives aren’t a thing, it’s simply an Amaerica counter label to conservatives so they have something to attack.
And as an anarchist, I’ve no problem being lumped in with like minded views.
We’re leftists and proud of it.
Progressives aren’t a thing
Because you say so?
Nonsense.
Yes. It’s an American term used to describe those who are in opposition to conservative views. It’s not an ideology.
But please, tell me what being a progressive values compared to any other leftist. What makes a progressive different from a anarchist, communist, or a dem soc who have defined values and beliefs?
State ownership of utilities for one.
What, progressives are in favour of state owned utils or aren’t? Explain yourself properly.
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That’s so vague that a conservative could call themselves progressive because they think it’s saving lives to ban abortion.
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Communism is a conservative authoritarian dogma. The exact opossite of progress… or anarchy.
Lol, said confidently by someone who very clearly has not read anything marxist
“In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat, or working class, holds control over state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the transitional phase from a capitalist and a communist economy…”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat
Except, there’s no such thing as a communist economy, so the transitional phase lasts as long as there’s capital to reallocate. Then peoole start to flee across the barbed wire and the facade falls down.
there is no such thing as a communist economy
Can you back this claim up? Market economy is a term for a reason. An economy doesn’t have to be market to be an economy. Have you never heard of a planned economy?
the transitional phase lasts as long as there’s capital to relocate
No. The transitional phase lasts as long there is classes that necessitate a state.
You have a very simplistic understanding of marxism that cannot be rectified through a fucking wikipedia search. Read the source material or stfu
The statement “communism is a conservative authoritarian dogma” being backed up by referencing the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat is… definitely something
You’re thinking of ML tankies.
Communism is a stateless, classless, system where people enact mutualism and socialism without state coercion.
What makes this thing you’re describing, not anarchism?
I think you’re thinking of anarchocommunism specifically. Which is “not all communism”™.
State-based communism is a thing, that many people usually called tankies by others, do believe in.
The difference between non-ML tankie communism and anarchism is the means of getting there.
Communists want a vanguard state to slowly whittle away.
Anarchists want to skip that step.
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Why must we divide the tribe? I don’t know how leftist who can’t identify as such plans to exercise collective power. But you do you.
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Eh, it adds variety. I’d grow rather bored of addressing everyone as “friend”, “buddy”, etc.
Not everyone. But it’s definitely very overrepresented here, including some large communities of extremists that I don’t typically see elsewhere.
Overrepresented may not be correct, the majority of the english speaking world is far to the left of the US. Even the US population is like 60-70% left leaning, it’s just that the left has lower voter participation rates.
This used to be true, but I don’t think it is anymore. Or at least my perception is that some parts of the american left are way leftier than the europeans left are.
Being in so close proximity to the obvious evil of communist regimes might have something to do with it.
There are no communist regimes…
Both Russia and China are authoritarian dictatorships operating on a semblance of oligarchy controlled capitalism at this point.
Not at the moment (especially Russia, who doesn’t even claim to be), but they definitely were in the past.
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What’s changed is people’s outspokenness about their political views.
The American Left, on average, would be considered well in the middle of the right in most of the world. This has resulted in “far left” in the US encompassing everything from global centrism to far left extremism. As such, using the term is pretty pointless without adding enough context so others know what is included.
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Even the US population is like 60-70% left leaning, it’s just that the left has lower voter participation rates.
Left leaning vs leftist is a much higher bar and I’d wager under 20% of the US (voting) population is leftist. That’s just based on my memory of how few leftist representatives we have in congress… Far from an exact science.
I am definitely a liberal, but I’m by no means a leftist.
Left leaning Americans are still on the right compared to most countries.
Lemmy definitely has a super majority of people who are politically left. Lemmy also has a very large amount of extremely politically left people. I am not sure why this is the case.
However, not every Lemmy user is politically left.
I am not sure why this is the case.
Because Lemmy was created by leftists having their communities banned from reddit. It is and always will be a leftist platform, same as whatever garbage Trump made will be a right wing platform.
always will be a leftist platform,
I don’t think that’s the case.
Being decentralized means that anybody could create a right-wing instance, and it may be able to federate with enough other instances that it becomes big. If it gets enough users, it could make Lemmy more right-leaning overall.
It’s not inevitable that Lemmy stays left-wing. But a centralized platform like Twitter or “whatever garbage Trump made” can be curated to be right-wing only. Just as lemmy.ml and perhaps some other instances may be curated to be left-wing only.
There is zero chance any instance that is a right wing instance would not be instantly defederated from every single other instance on Lemmy. Like, actually zero chance.
I disagree.
Right-wing doesn’t have to mean far-right, extremist, rampant bigotry, or conspiracy theorist stuff.
Besides, many instances are more to the right than lemmy.ml, which I think was the original instance. So overall, Lemmy has already been shifting “to the right” for a while! Lol
Well, if you have ever happened upon any “conservative” community on Lemmy like I have, you start to notice that they are often victims of vote brigading. I once saw a community where literally every single post in it was like, -90 or lower. Now, I still blocked it because I block all political communities, but it was not at all surprising that that was going on. If that is happening, if the instance doesnt get instantly defederated (guaranteed Beehaw defederates from it), then it will absolutely get brigaded on an hourly basis.
I see; interesting. I how “conservative” are you talking? haha
I have no idea, I didn’t spend much time on the community page past seeing one post very negatively downvoted. Then I went to the community page to block it and literally every post I saw was negative. So I scrolled down to see more because maybe it was a fluke or something, and literally every single comment was very downvoted. I don’t remember anything about the posts, community, or its instance other than that the word “conservative” was in the community name and the posts were definitely on the right of politics.
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I am. I think you’ll find we’re mostly on a leftist spectrum relative to America’s Overton Window.
They are pretty common here yeah, lemmy was built by communists
This is our social platform!
The peoples platform
I don’t know. I’m mildly left by normal standards, a Nazi by Lemmy standards and a communist by conservative standards.
Most, but not enough.
Not enough people or not leftist enough?
Both
I disagree.
I disagree with your disagreeing.
I disagree with your disagreeing of my disagreeing.
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You are mistaken my friend, for it is I who holds the privilege of “Based”. However, I am afraid that, as a consequence, you now hold but the rank of cringe.
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Maybe not stupid
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No, not everyone.
No.
Nope, but the dangerous ideologies are the norm here. It was quite shocking after switching from reddit.
Dangerous for who?
Uh, negative. I am a meat popsicle.
People have a wide variety of opinions and interests that are not represented well on a two dimensional left right spectrum.
Lemmy has a fair few people who will fight you over their own perceived interests.
Because Lemmy is so small it’s common for the same people to argue over their interests in every community. In the morning I catch up on the all feed in 20ish minutes (I block politics and memes).
Take that together if you say something against any groups zeitgeist or one of their trigger topics it feels like all of Lemmy is dog piling you.
Remember online isn’t the same as real life, express yourself and share your earnest ideas and don’t care about downvotes. If someone is being unreasonable just ignore/block them.
Honestly, avoiding the all feed may be better for my enjoyment of the platform. On Reddit I used to just sub to my specific interests and never interacted or saw all the politics talk or general memes. When I moved here, most communities were too quiet for it to take up the same spot for me, so I started browsing by all instead.
I’ll give it a shot, thank you for the reminder/realization.
