I just had a good interaction with someone on blahaj. Without going into too much detail, they had posted posted some inflammatory (as in meant to invite "dunking" by hexbears) imperialist apologia, got called out on it by some of our users and some blahaj users, and then deleted it and posted something positive instead. Some of our users (including me) exchanged good vibes and best wishes for our communities to live in peace and a negative interaction transformed into a positive one.
I know, this is pretty much the best outcome for a situation like this. And of course, we have seen some extremely bad faith words and actions by some users on other instances, but I would like to see this less common outcome become a more common one (and for us to stay federated!).
I don't want us to give up our culture and our principles either! Many users on other instances aren't used to seeing our kind of politics at all. When you're talking to someone in real life do you immediately break out the Stalin portrait and the budenovka and launch into heated polemics against things they had considered just basic facts about reality? I would love for that to continue on our instance, but I think we should cultivate an approach of carefully considered discussion on others (when we can). It's definitely possible to be a communist or an anarchist without being so antagonistic all the time. Our political thought and practice flow from the basic experiences of working class people which mostly everyone can relate to.
That being said, what I said really only applies to people who don't mind living in peace with us in the Fediverse. I think that's most people on other instances. At least from what I've seen, the worst of the arguments and struggle sessions that happen on other instances were exacerbated to that level by just a few bad actors in the other communities. One of them was even very obviously using multiple accounts to draw hexbears in (who can't resist a good dunking lol) and turn the thread into a mess. It's a good idea to consider whether using the PPB on some troll's self-debunking argument is worth it or not, especially when they may be trying to make our community look bad rather than trying to prove any actual point.
Unless we avoid contributing to more incidents it's likely more instances will defederate from us. Some of these are probably unavoidable just because of the personal attitudes of the admins there (like with lemmy.world). And we will also probably become more insulated again if that happens. Some of us think that's a good thing and that's fine, but personally I like seeing and engaging with all the nice furry, LGBT, tech, etc. content from other communities! And I like seeing new users here.
Now if you read all that you should probably go touch grass for at least a few minutes hehe. Mandatory reminder that all this doesn't really matter much politically, the Fediverse is a small community within a small community, go do real life stuff with people, and so on and so on.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on all this. I have to go now but I'll be back later.
Edit: :(
It sucks we had to defederate but I support the decision after seeing some of the stuff that happened. Fuck that 196 mod and fuck liberals harrassing our queer users for not sharing their imperialistic hegemonic omnicidal worldview.
I'll believe it when we dismantle the nukes, class society, and fossil fuel industry. A better world is possible but only if we fight for it.