Submitted 1 year ago by comr@hexbear.net to meta@lemm.ee
I've seen way more offensive people on lemmy.ee than on hexbear. Tbh, hexbear is no worse than somewhat edgy redditors, so maybe that's not the tone that some instances want? With all the hubbub, I thought hexbear users were nazis, but they're quite tame (until proven otherwise).
In your instance’s code of conduct, you have this:
Please “remember the human” and be kind to your fellow leftists.
If you were to extend it to users from outside of Hexbear, that would make for a dramatic improvement.
Seems like ‘the team’ didn’t like your post btw. Your bad for trying to extend a hand I guess hexbear.net/post/611885?scrollToComments=false
I notice that hexbear is defederated from exploding-heads.
Let's just say "similar reasons manifested differently"
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Because they’re assholes that cause harm.
Did any Hexbear users reading that feel defensive, and immediately want to defend their positions? Did you immediately feel the need to point out all the great, positive things you’re doing IRL in your community? Did you write out a 5000 word essay saying that I’m just a capitalist asshole that wants to see kids murdered in schools (because hey, I know you’re going to troll my comments history, right?). Congratulations, you’ve just demonstrated my point.
When you go on the attack, you don’t change people’s minds. When a person feels attacked–and I can look through the comments here and see numerous hexbear users personally attacking people that are responding genuinely to the question–they become defensive. Being defensive makes them less willing to consider your arguments, and solidifies their own beliefs. The closer that belief is to their visualization of their identity, the more defensive they’re going to become. David McRaney–podcaster, author–has talked about this numerous times with psychologist that have published work about this, and has written a book called How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion on the subject that summarizes these research studies. You can observe the same kind of thing when you look at Anthony Magnabosco street epistemology; he persuades people by asking them neutral questions that allow them to consider their beliefs.
The argument against this approach is that you don’t owe anyone your emotional labor. And this is true; you don’t. It’s also not your job to educate people. But, conversely, when you attack people personally, you’re actively making the issue worse. When you attack people with memes and low-effort shitposts, you’re signaling to the neutral observers–people that aren’t directly invested–that you’re an asshole, which leads them to ignore any other points you might make. And, if you aren’t putting in the emotional labor and helping people to become educated, then the work isn’t going to get done and learning won’t happen.
Aside from that, the knee-jerk defending of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not a good look.
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Adding to this: if you want socialism, maybe try working at a grassroots level in your own communities. I volunteered as a food delivery driver for an anarchist collective throughout the pandemic, delivering free food to mostly trans- people that had lost their employment and housing. So, what are you, personally, doing outside, IRL, in your meatspace community, to make socialism more appealing to potential converts than the current system of corporatism that we live under?