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Top-level
 Lemmy's developers say "we are strictly against all forms of oppression (including genocide), and dont allow anything that promotes or supports oppression" and "We definitely are very staunchly against bigotry or persecution of minorities, and are strict about banning that". This is difficult to fully reconcile with what actually happens on the developers' own instance, and those they feature. 2/6 26 comments
There's threads denyng the oppression of Uyghur muslims (this oppression has been well documented by NGOs, for example: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/help-end-repression-uyghurs-china). Other posts deny that North Korea is oppressive. Meanwhile, another suggests celebrating Stalin's birthday as he was such a great guy. (Incidentally, I have receipts, DM me if you want to see them for yourself.) 4/6 You get the picture. These posts were on the main Lemmy instance, as featured on the official Lemmy website. Over the past few days I have tried to engage with Lemmy about these posts in private, as I was sure it must be a misunderstanding. However, Lemmy said that "none of the posts you linked are against our rules", and refused to even discuss the actual issues because "this format is not conducive to political disagreements". 5/6 I deeply regret ever having publicised Lemmy. I'm really sorry. Don't use Lemmy. For whatever my opinion is worth any more, I would now recommend that people cancel their donations to Lemmy, stay as far away from Lemmy as possible, and donate to another Fediverse project instead. I was wondering whether to stay quiet, but it seemed better to speak up and say something 6/6 p.p.s. Someone has pointed out that lemmy.ml (the official Lemmy instance) resolves to the same IP address as lemmygrad.ml (the instance that contains the most disturbing material). Lemmy.ml also federates with lemmygrad, and the devs advertise lemmygrad on their "join lemmy" site. Do the Lemmy developers themselves run the lemmygrad.ml site? (Its main logo is a tank, incidentally.) p.p.p.s. There was an older "reddit for the Fediverse" project called Prismo which had some working instances at one point. Perhaps someone could resurrect it, to provide an alternative to Lemmy? @feditips I doubt I'd have the energy to build a new alternative, but it may be worth a try. I have a few ideas for how federation could be done better.  Lemmy is software. Itโs like Mastodon. Thereโs nothing inherent to Lemmy that is by any means political.  lemmy dot ml; it's a #Fediverse reddit clone, but apparently affiliated with some rather unsavory hard-Marxists.  @RL_Dane @AlgoCompSynth @feditips Mostly Chinese propaganda thou.
There's kbin and lotide if you don't want lemmy. Lotide's web ui is abysmal but considering the fact that it was made by a sourcehut user that's expected still doesn't change the fact it's atrocious. Well, there's the gatekeeper principle. By that, I mean if the gatekeeper of a community (in terms of leading, not "gatekeeping" as the word is usually used) is extreme, that community will tend to be extreme. There's nothing wrong with hard marxists interspersed among regular communities. They're just one of many voices. ... ... But when they're concentrated in one place, it can get kinda toxic. But there's always the possibility of forking lemmy, or merely establishing a sub-network that doesn't federate with the poisonous instances. @RL_Dane @AlgoCompSynth @feditips Beehaw doesn't federate with the tankies. And I would love for Lemmy to be forked and maintained by non-tankies. What's interesting is that Lemmy.ml lists lemmygrad as non-federated. @RL_Dane @Butterbee @AlgoCompSynth I wonder if they're now trying to make their connection to Lemmygrad less obvious... ๐ค Regardless, Lemmygrad is still being promoted on the official Lemmy website. @feditips@mstdn.social @RL_Dane@fosstodon.org @Butterbee@mastodon.art @AlgoCompSynth@ravenation.club Whatโs the current take on /kbin? It seems a viable alternativeโฆ   @feditips Tech is not neutral, it is affected by the values of the people who make it. If an online platform becomes popular, it gives the developers more influence, funding and power. I don't want to be giving that to people I don't trust. For example, the official Lemmy website advertises the problematic instances. And it seems the Lemmy devs run the problematic instances. @feditips |
Gregory's Server
The problem here isn't Lemmy's politics, but their attitude to threads about human rights violations.
On the face of it, the developers' main Lemmy instance has lots of uncontroversial general interest threads, but when you start digging on controversial topics a worrying pattern emerges.
The worrying posts are very reminiscent of the way certain churches have handled priest abuse claims: denial.
3/6