@swiley Its pretty absurd the levels blocking has gotten. Usually its done under threat as many people demand you block a laundry list of instances lest be blocked.. it snowballs quick where instances wind up blocking instances just not to get blocked by what few instances can still see them. Its why we are so resistance to going down that very slippery slope here.
It seems to be a pretty big portion, and sadly there are very few instances that have local moderation rules and a polite environment but themselves are not block happy. Its so rare in fact that its been the main attractive feature QOTO presents to new users in my expiernce.
When users are more than capable of blocking instances on their own, and its a trivial matter to just go down a list when you first open an account and create your own personal block list, then I really fail to see the point besides perhap virtue signaling.
@mathlover what bothers me most with this reasoning is the view that other people are _too dumb_ to decide for themselves. it's essentially anti-humanist, contrary what those who hold it believe they are.
i'm getting a bit off-topic here: this school of thought has gotten a strong foothold in politics, that's why we get "anti-hate-speech" legislation. which will be applicable to everything in the end, as those laws always are.
@mathlover i'm in germany and it's more than likely that we will have such a law, sooner or later. our highest court is rather good with delaying those things as they are often against the constitution, but laws are then refined so that they are at the exact limits of what's possible.
that said: i guess it's rather calm here compared to the US, but i don't like where it's going..
@bonifartius
@freemo @swiley
I should add that at the moment things are calmer than they were even a month ago. Partly because COVID rates are down and vaccinations are under way (a lot of the stress of this was compounding political issues) and partly because we aren't constantly worrying about what Trump does. Biden may not be perfect (I disagree with his stance on at least two issues and with his handling of the Kashoggi aftermath) but at least he's not an attention seeker who does things when the camera pans away to get it back on him.