Please understand that plenty of us do not judge people based on instance at all. I genuinely don't care.

didn't you know that signing up for an instance is actually evidence of thoughtcrime?

FWIW, I left .ml after about a year (and around a month ago) because there were just enough threads shit flinging and just enough posts like below, and just enough people who would dismiss any argument based on seeing .ml that it annoyed the shit out of me.

Not for how anyone at .ml ever treated me. (And FTR I'm not a communist)

So I'd say how much you worry about it is up to you, but switching instances is also pretty easy.

there's always going to be this stigma against .ml users due to how the .ml instance was formed and how the general userbase behaves.

the good news is that you are always free to switch instances if you find out that you dislike the instance you are currently on. while your posts, comments, and "karma" won't transfer, you can transfer everything else such as the communities you follow, your settings, and your blocklist.

Don't worry much about your instance. .ml is fine, but Lemmygrad.ml in particular is a very strange place. Have a look if you want to read what non-religious people hostile to the United States/West think. Sometimes they make good points but they're such fundamentalist assholes about everything.

You're not expected to know.

Just sign up somewhere else.

All accounts are throw away.

Most of us don’t judge users but we are internally vocal about our own social challenges.

.ml is a big instances and people coming from the old web find such attractive, it feels like “the official one” we are well aware.

The have been attempts to advertise avoiding those but were not exactly a well coordinated organization.

Regardless the ideology of .ml and others big instances pose a problem in centralized power. Lemmy works best as many tiny servers organically building a network of content and ideas.

All of Lemmy is accessible as long as your instance is federated (almost all) however some may defederate from those problematic big ones, limiting the posts you can see.

You wont lose much by changing instance right now. There is no karma or rewards associated with your account. You can also make multiple on different instances with the same user name so you have a backup if your main instance goes down.

The core community is mainly holier-than-thou FOSS types, and you're surprised that it's insular?

Same

You can always move to another instance. The instance I joined first is very lovely but they're a bit heavy on defederation, so half of the comments are unavailable. It's actually very nice, but fomo is too strong with me. When I feel depressed by humanity, I switch back to that one again and feel better, not seeing all the bullshit.