@olea@mstdn.social @trixter Basically, what happened was that the fediverse had been around since forever. The Mastodon guy showed up one day (I think in 2017), and he insisted that the network was this different thing and there were those who bought it.
It got particularly bad in 2022 when he marketed it as a solution to "Twitter" and people parachuted in insisting on what the network should be like. That is also probably why admins are in a permanent culture war with one another.
@olea@mstdn.social @trixter Sometimes, I wonder if Mastodon branding the network a "safe space" wasn't a mistake. People get these unrealistic expectations, encounter unpleasantness, and they don't know how to deal with it.
If folks want a safe space, maybe a dedicated social network would be better (with the understanding they could go elsewhere for spicier discourse).