Update:
The comments from this post will not be removed as to preserve the discussion around the announcement. Any continued discussions outside of this thread that violate server rules will be removed. We feel that everyone that has an opinion, and wanted to vent, has been heard.

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Original post:
Yesterday, we received information about the planned federation by Hexbear. The announcement thread can be found here: https://www.hexbear.net/post/280770. After reviewing the thread and the comments, it became evident that allowing Hexbear to federate would violate our rules.

Our code of conduct and server rules can be found here.

The announcement included several concerning statements, as highlighted below:

  • “Please try to keep the dirtbag lib-dunking to hexbear itself. Do not follow the Chapo Rules of Posting, instead try to engage utilizing informed rhetoric with sources to dismantle western propaganda. Posting the western atrocity propaganda and pig poop balls is hilarious but will pretty quickly get you banned and if enough of us do it defederated.”
  • “The West’s role in the world, through organizations such as NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank - among many others - are deeply harmful to the billions of people living both inside and outside of their imperial core.”
  • “These organizations constitute the modern imperial order, with the United States at its heart - we are not fooled by the term “rules-based international order.” It is in the Left’s interest for these organizations to be demolished. When and how this will occur, and what precisely comes after, is the cause of great debate and discussion on this site, but it is necessary for a better world.”

The rhetoric and goal of Hexbar are clear based on their announcement: to “dismantle western propaganda” and "demolish organizations such as NATO” shows that Hexbar has no intention of "respecting the rules of the community instance in which they are posting/commenting.” It’s to push their beliefs and ideology.

In addition, several comments from a Hexbear admin, demonstrate that instance rules will not be respected.

Here are some examples:

“I can assure you there will be no lemmygrad brigades, that energy would be better funneled into the current war against liberalism on the wider fediverse.”

“All loyal, honest, active and upright Communists must unite to oppose the liberal tendencies shown by certain people among us, and set them on the right path. This is one of the tasks on our ideological front.”

Overall community comments:

To clarify, for those who have inquired about why Hexbear versus Lemmygrad, it should be noted that we are currently exploring the possibility of defederating from Lemmygrad as well based on similar comments Hexbear has made.

Defederation should only be considered as a last resort. However, based on their comments and behavior, no positive outcomes can be expected.

We made the decision to preemptively defederate from Hexbear for these reasons. While we understand that not everyone may agree with our decision, we believe it is important to prioritize the best interests of our community.

  • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
    1·
    1 year ago

    One can use different names for the same ethos. Semantics are always a bit of a distraction. The idea of freedom is closer to anticapitalism than hierarchies of capitalism.

    • Robaque@feddit.it
      0·
      1 year ago

      Nah, semantics is important, without it it would be impossible to properly communicate complex ideas.

      Liberalism and (left) libertarianism are very distinct, and seeing that freedom and equality are important to you, I think it would do you good to learn more about the latter. Particularly libertarian socialism, and anarchism :)

      • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
        0·
        1 year ago

        I’m familiar, no worries there. Semantics do have their use, say, a scientific research has to explain the terms it will use throughout.

        In public discourse it can lose focus of the subject at hand and lead to dogmatic labelism in communities.

        There are already so many words which have been hijacked with newspeak. We’re speaking of one. Most assume communism is stalinism, anarchy is chaos, feminism is female chauvinism etc

        So the people are reduced to bicker which means what while… well we know what is wrong with the world.

        • Robaque@feddit.it
          1·
          1 year ago

          Ok, I looked into it a bit more and stand partially corrected, I guess you technically could be a “liberal anti-capitalist” depending on the definition used, but still, I think that’s precisely why semantics is important. If you’re going for such a particular definition then you’d do good to specify it. At least mention an author or smthn.

          If anything, bickering would arise from misunderstanding. E.G. even though libertarianism is through and through leftist, (personally) I always clarify that I’m not referring to the self-contradictory thing that is “right libertarianism”.