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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.
@darwi_odrade Also im actually very well read on anarcho-syndicalist it is a well known theory. So no worries there. When i talk about left and right i do mean neo-liberals and not general liberalism.
@darwi_odrade The red blue split is actually fediverse lingo, it originates from japanese servers not USA ones. Red servers are ones that have porn, in the form of animations/drawings of underage kids, Blue servers are servers that block red servers for doing so.
This language in the fediverse evolved along lines of red and blue where red refers to non-moderated instances and blue refers to heavily moderated instances.
The lingo has never had anything to do with politics.
@darwi_odrade I am not saying i support the practice. I am just giving you the etymology as to how the two phrases came to be.
I read a few articles by native japanese on the issue. apparently the vast majority of japanese (according to these articles at least) do not see cartoons of underage children in sexualized or pornographic settings as being equivalent to child porn or even remotely related to it.
As a cultural thing they see it as not even worthy of being an issue in general (it is perfectly legal there and accepted publicly generally).
This is in contrast to the fact that actual child porn of actual people is considered completely unacceptable, illegal, and would get you shunned by society.
Again not saying i agree with the cultural perspective, but it appears to a japanese person they view this issue very differently than other cultures might.
@darwi_odrade The instances have red or blue in their domain name.. but the term has evolved past anything to do with porn.
There are many instances who consider themselves red instances who have explicit policies to block child porn now. So largely it has turned into its own term.
For example null.red as far as i can tell is a largely pro-LGBT server. but because they have limited moderation they likely picked the red in their domain name.
I would imagine they would, however, block child porn as they are somewhat moderated
@darwi_odrade I wouldnt presume to speak for them. But we arent talking about something exclusive to men. Both small boys and small girls are depicted and both men and women in japan seem to be interested in it (as im sure both groups are oppsosed to it)...
But I am no expert on it, so I'd be hesitant to push a perspective more so than that. I am mostly just relaying what I have read on the issue. It seems largely both men and women in japan dont see it as an issue. Again assuming the articles I read can be trusted.
@darwi_odrade While im sure many women arent ok with it, im not sure that can apply to all. As i said some women are very into it it seems (based on the articles i was reading)
I mean i could undertand if you think they are just saying its ok to get along. But then why do some women there buy the cartoons, or collect them? Their pattern of behavior seems to suggest many women dont just tolerate it but seek it out. Just as many men do.
As for porn in general. I dunno, I can think of three ex's who would always insist on taking me to the strip club. I dont do strip clubs myself, never had much of an interest, but they were ALL about it. They found it fun. These are women who considered themselves feminists too.
I'm not sure all women really feel the same as you is all. I'm not saying your wrong or that your feelings are invalid. Just saying I know plenty of women who behave contrary to what you suggest.
@darwi_odrade fair, I dont know enough of the cuture to agree or disagree
