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How the Liberal Left created the Conservative Right and extremism in the fediverse:
As someone who cares greatly about equality, and recognizes minorities and underprivileged groups deal with some unique and difficult struggles I realize the title to this post would seem a bit inflammatory. But that is not my intention, my intention is to address a very real problem.
As anyone on the fediverse knows there are generally two major groups of instances. Those that wont ban anything of any kind, no rules it's the wild west (red instances). Then there are those that ban anyone who shares any opinion that disagrees with their politics, even if you criticise both the left and the right in the same breath you will likely quickly find the instance or yourself banned.
However the unfortunate consequence of this pattern of behavior is to promote ever increasing support for red instances and to drive grey instances (instances that take a middle ground) into being red instances. Should be obvious why...
You basically have a spectrum of behavior with red on one side and blue on the other. With everyone crammed into the 0.1% of either end of this spectrum that means most new instances will start off, most likely, somewhere in the grey area, even if their just marginally shy of being red or blue in its full extreme.
The experience for an admin of such an instance is to quickly be overwhelmed with people from blue instances blocking and banning for things like criticising a democratic politician or something rather minor. By the end of the first few months a blue/left leaning instance will quickly find itself on dozens of suspend or ban instances as a result and find they only have a voice among the 99% red instances and the 1% grey instances out there.
Since this means they naturally wont have a voice among blue instances, and most people are on social media because they want to be social, this means their only incentive is to appeal to red instances (since that's where all their boosts and likes come from). Along with building animosity for how blue instances treat them and with the acceptance of red instances you will find all the incentive for the instances to move to be an extremist red instance with extremist no-rule policies quickly develop.
As such we see exactly what we are seeing now on the fediverse, an ever increasing number of red instances very quickly overwhelming and overtaking the blue instances.
Of course this is made worse by the fact that those ont he blue instances can only see other blue instances. so they will be under the mistaken impression that the red instances don't exist and that the blue instances are thriving and growing and dominating over the red instances. This ignorance just ensures the red instances grow unchecked and unchallenged.
As someone who's personal policy is anti-extremism, and with this pattern being one that generates extremism it is very VERY concerning to me.
@igeljaeger I mostly agree but i also sympathize with how they got that way. Many of these instances are pro-trans communities. They have been treated quite brutally by many and have become hurt, defensive, and lash out. While their behaviors arent right I can still have some sympathy for how it came to be.
@igeljaeger Some people can go to war and come back a sane person, most do not. Just because some people have exceptional strength of character is no reason for me to withdraw my earlier compassion for those who dont.
I'm not saying it is right, or even justified. Only that I have compassion for what they went through. I feel sorry for them more than anything that trauma has gotten the best of them.
@igeljaeger My empathy is universal. It exists regardless of pity or respect. The fact that i pity them is not why i have empathy for them. I would have had that anyway.
I do not have anyone blocked, my server does not silence or suspend any other servers. However for some reason I do not see their replies.
Weird even when i explicitly go to this message in QOTO it doesnt appear to be a reply but a stand alone post. Anyway....
Some may very well be doing it because it is trendy. Though I see no reason to presume that everyone who appears to be suffering from PTSD for being trans must therefore automatically be doing it to be trendy. That seems like a huge leap.
There is also the factor of passability. A person who is trans and very passable for the other sex is likely to experience far less assault than someone who is less passable. So it is understandable that not all trans people would have the same experiences or the same trauma either.
@wowaname @igeljaeger That is generally true, and I dont deny it. But my point is, even if you are being trans as a trend the trauma is still just as real.
If people are beating you, attacking your, threatening your life, and saying disgusting and hurtful things every day (what I have personally witnessed happened to every non-passable trans person I've seen in public)... well trend or not that will give you some PTSD.
Point is these are two separate issues.
@wowaname @igeljaeger When did I make the claim that it "excuses" anything? I said I had sympathy and compassion for why they behave the way they are.
Having compassion for someone is NOT even remotely related to excusing someones actions.
@wowaname @igeljaeger Well considering their trauma is because the world actively makes life more difficult for them it would make sense to me why they might feel the same about us.
I can't change how they respond, but I can change how I respond to break that cycle.
@wowaname @igeljaeger btw still don't see your replies. Have to go to your profile and refresh to catch it.
As some others pointed out, all it manages to do is hurt the sane transexuals that just want to live a normal life, as the image of transexuals is pushed by the screechers into one of overwhelming insanity and hostility, of shooting first and asking later.
Any group that refuses to act under assumption of innocence is just begging for enemies. I count myself amongst the "became actively anti lgbt due to constant unwarranted hostility" crowd, and I see little apologizing for it from them. The whole "minorities" mindset is poison. Deliberately so.
