Lemmy was released as an open-source fediverse alternative to Reddit.
Just over a year after launch, r/ChapoTrapHouse, moved across after being banned from Reddit. This is likely what you’re referring to. It had well over 100,000 active users on Reddit, so represented a sudden sizable influx of users.
I’d wager the biggest influx of people by far, though, occurred when Spez upset a majority of mods and many users by banning third party apps.
People looked for an alternative, and Lemmy was it.
But why are so many people who lean left politically? Because the Venn Diagram for “people who like the idea of a decentralised platform that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires”, and “people who would like society that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires” is nearly a circle.
That’s what I thought as well. No ads. No one tracking you. No one profiting off your data. Sounds like leftist ideals to me. Freedom from corporate bullshit.
Well, all the data is available for anyone on the internet to use as they please…
The developers for Lemmy are also leftist; that the original Lemmy was lemmy.ml speaks to their politics.
ChapoTrapHouse likely moved here because it was already leftist.
There’s also the people who got pushed out by right wing admins/mods. I personally switched after I got banned for saying riot police should quit their jobs en masse following RvW. I still stand by that statement.
Wasn’t it also built by Marxist-Lennists?
decentralised platform that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires
Hum… Isn’t that part of the “Freedooomm!!!” dreams that comes bundled with minimum state and individual empowerment? I’m pretty sure it is.
No, I hate the term as it’s usually used as a pejorative and is so reductive as to be essentially meaningless. I’m a democratic socialist.
That’s a leftist. You’re a leftist, buddy.
I relate a bit, though. I think it’s cringe when socialists call each other “comrade”.
Is a communist the same as a progressive? A democratic socialist the same as an anarchist? Call me what you want but like I said, it’s reductive and meaningless.
Progressives aren’t a thing, it’s simply an Amaerica counter label to conservatives so they have something to attack.
And as an anarchist, I’ve no problem being lumped in with like minded views.
We’re leftists and proud of it.
Progressives aren’t a thing
Because you say so?
Nonsense.
Yes. It’s an American term used to describe those who are in opposition to conservative views. It’s not an ideology.
But please, tell me what being a progressive values compared to any other leftist. What makes a progressive different from a anarchist, communist, or a dem soc who have defined values and beliefs?
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That’s so vague that a conservative could call themselves progressive because they think it’s saving lives to ban abortion.
State ownership of utilities for one.
What, progressives are in favour of state owned utils or aren’t? Explain yourself properly.
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Communism is a conservative authoritarian dogma. The exact opossite of progress… or anarchy.
Lol, said confidently by someone who very clearly has not read anything marxist
“In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat, or working class, holds control over state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the transitional phase from a capitalist and a communist economy…”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat
Except, there’s no such thing as a communist economy, so the transitional phase lasts as long as there’s capital to reallocate. Then peoole start to flee across the barbed wire and the facade falls down.
The statement “communism is a conservative authoritarian dogma” being backed up by referencing the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat is… definitely something
there is no such thing as a communist economy
Can you back this claim up? Market economy is a term for a reason. An economy doesn’t have to be market to be an economy. Have you never heard of a planned economy?
the transitional phase lasts as long as there’s capital to relocate
No. The transitional phase lasts as long there is classes that necessitate a state.
You have a very simplistic understanding of marxism that cannot be rectified through a fucking wikipedia search. Read the source material or stfu
You’re thinking of ML tankies.
Communism is a stateless, classless, system where people enact mutualism and socialism without state coercion.
What makes this thing you’re describing, not anarchism?
I think you’re thinking of anarchocommunism specifically. Which is “not all communism”™.
State-based communism is a thing, that many people usually called tankies by others, do believe in.
The difference between non-ML tankie communism and anarchism is the means of getting there.
Communists want a vanguard state to slowly whittle away.
Anarchists want to skip that step.
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Why must we divide the tribe? I don’t know how leftist who can’t identify as such plans to exercise collective power. But you do you.
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Eh, it adds variety. I’d grow rather bored of addressing everyone as “friend”, “buddy”, etc.
Not everyone. But it’s definitely very overrepresented here, including some large communities of extremists that I don’t typically see elsewhere.
Lemmy definitely has a super majority of people who are politically left. Lemmy also has a very large amount of extremely politically left people. I am not sure why this is the case.
However, not every Lemmy user is politically left.
I am not sure why this is the case.
Because Lemmy was created by leftists having their communities banned from reddit. It is and always will be a leftist platform, same as whatever garbage Trump made will be a right wing platform.
always will be a leftist platform,
I don’t think that’s the case.
Being decentralized means that anybody could create a right-wing instance, and it may be able to federate with enough other instances that it becomes big. If it gets enough users, it could make Lemmy more right-leaning overall.
It’s not inevitable that Lemmy stays left-wing. But a centralized platform like Twitter or “whatever garbage Trump made” can be curated to be right-wing only. Just as lemmy.ml and perhaps some other instances may be curated to be left-wing only.
There is zero chance any instance that is a right wing instance would not be instantly defederated from every single other instance on Lemmy. Like, actually zero chance.
I disagree.
Right-wing doesn’t have to mean far-right, extremist, rampant bigotry, or conspiracy theorist stuff.
Besides, many instances are more to the right than lemmy.ml, which I think was the original instance. So overall, Lemmy has already been shifting “to the right” for a while! Lol
Well, if you have ever happened upon any “conservative” community on Lemmy like I have, you start to notice that they are often victims of vote brigading. I once saw a community where literally every single post in it was like, -90 or lower. Now, I still blocked it because I block all political communities, but it was not at all surprising that that was going on. If that is happening, if the instance doesnt get instantly defederated (guaranteed Beehaw defederates from it), then it will absolutely get brigaded on an hourly basis.
I see; interesting. I how “conservative” are you talking? haha
I have no idea, I didn’t spend much time on the community page past seeing one post very negatively downvoted. Then I went to the community page to block it and literally every post I saw was negative. So I scrolled down to see more because maybe it was a fluke or something, and literally every single comment was very downvoted. I don’t remember anything about the posts, community, or its instance other than that the word “conservative” was in the community name and the posts were definitely on the right of politics.
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I am. I think you’ll find we’re mostly on a leftist spectrum relative to America’s Overton Window.
Most, but not enough.
Not enough people or not leftist enough?
Both
I disagree.
I disagree with your disagreeing.
I disagree with your disagreeing of my disagreeing.
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You are mistaken my friend, for it is I who holds the privilege of “Based”. However, I am afraid that, as a consequence, you now hold but the rank of cringe.
They are pretty common here yeah, lemmy was built by communists
This is our social platform!
The peoples platform
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Maybe not stupid
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No.
No, not everyone.
Yes and no? The humans, probably. The accounts created to keep tabs on the leftist humans? Maybe not…?
Just kidding, NO conservative or government groups have EVER silently infiltrated ANY leftist groups, and me suggesting any account here is a propaganda bot or whatever is TOTALLY outrageous!
Post anything you want here, it’ll NEVER get screenshotted & linked back to you or your job in some giant hack in 5 years 🥳🤩😎
Nope, but the dangerous ideologies are the norm here. It was quite shocking after switching from reddit.
Dangerous for who?
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I don’t think that’s anywhere on the political spectrum
This is a weird claim, I’m curious to know what was the original message that you replied to
I think it said something like
I identify as an attack helicopter
I am not.
