Argument about why an instance doesn’t want to federate with another instance that’s devoted to political trolling. Apparently that kind of behavior is simply a core tenet of the belief system, and to criticize it is to reject the whole ideology.

Modlog: https://lemmy.ml/modlog?userId=22989130

  • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Honestly, Cowbee is one of the few over there that I retain full respect for. They tend to stay on topic and polite, and that’s good enough for me. The rest I can accept under viewpoint diversity.

    I don’t know, man. He’s not unhinged or assaultive like some of his comrades, but he engages in wild bad faith, misrepresenting the other side’s arguments to make his own look better by comparison and similar behavior. I feel like there is a word for what it means when someone’s generally civil, but their way of approaching the conversation is offensive and unproductive…

    (I actually don’t agree with “sealioning” as a sin. Generally it seems like it’s a way to evaluate a discussion where one participant is being focused and factual, and the other one is being unhinged and changing the subject, and claim that the focused and factual person is the evil one. But Cowbee to me is a perfect example of someone who even when being “polite” generally speaking is poisoning the well. Just check out his assertion in this thread that everyone on lemmy.world is on the DNC team and just deletes any leftist viewpoint of any type… I don’t know, maybe he genuinely believes that. But it is clearly nonsense from anyone who is paying attention, and you can literally see people in this thread trying to tell him that’s not the reason and him rejecting it “no that is the reason” and so on.)

    @[email protected] would it help if I offered specific examples of the wild majority of the lemmy.world viewpoint being anti-DNC and people posting leftist viewpoints equal to the lemmy.ml viewpoint? I completely guarantee you, this is one of those MAGA “free speech” type constructions where you are upset because lemmy.world does not ban dissent from a very particular leftist viewpoint, and you’re conflating that with them banning the leftist viewpoint. If you genuinely believe they ban leftists I can give more or less an infinite number of examples of the leftist viewpoint you want to see, not being banned from lemmy.world.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      I don’t appreciate the psychoanalysis you tried to do on me. The truth isn’t that I’m a leader of some org, nor am I paid to be a communist, nor do I argue for the sake of “feeling successful.” I’m a communist, and I like to talk about Marxist-Leninist theory, correct misconceptions of Marxism-Leninism in theory and in practice, and generally try to help create more comrades through honestly and firmly explaining my views and engaging with people’s points.

      I’m not a troll, nor am I bad-faith, me being “polite” is more because I believe it gives the highest chance of the other person actually engaging with what I have to say. I’m not doing so to feel like a better person, to stroke my own ego, or anything like that. It’s purely for the utility of increasing the chance of reciprocity.

      As for the Lemmy.world admins, they are still federated with hilarious-chaos, as Carcosa said in this thread. Lemmy.world, if they were truly serious about brigading, would have defederated from hilarious-chaos, which does have documented cases of brigading.

      Hexbear does not, however, have any such instances of brigading, nor did Lemmy.world even give federation a chance. The only remaining explanation is that Lemmy.world did not want to federate with an active instance that is ideologically incompatible for fear of the hassle moderating would become on an ideological basis. This is why, in Carcosa’s argument, they specifically mention that when hilarious-chaos is still federated yet is confirmed guilty of what Hexbear is only accused of, the only logical explanation is ideological incompatibility.

      I’m aware that you can cherry-pick leftist stances on Lemmy.world. You can critique the DNC, etc. My point is that the manner in which the Lemmy.world admins and mods censor is by outright defederating from the communist instances, cultivating an environment hostile to such views among active users, and giving infinite leeway to moderators and power users that constantly shit-stir, as well as remaining federated with instances like hilarious-chaos that do brigade and have documented evidence of such.

      All in all, it’s well-documented that the Lemmy.world mods and admins have a number of team members actively hostile to critique of Israel, protect zionism, remove critique of the DNC as “misinformation,” etc. The fact that they don’t remove every single leftist comment does not mean they are not taking an active role in steering the narrative and pushing out leftist viewpoints. It isn’t an all or nothing thing, and I never claimed it was.

      Like Carcosa said, I would have preferred the .world admin team just outright state that it’s due to ideological incompatibility. That’s what Hexbear does when voting to defederate from, say, sh.itjust.works or Lemmy.world. It’s clear and honest.

      • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 day ago

        All in all, it’s well-documented that the Lemmy.world mods and admins have a number of team members actively hostile to critique of Israel,

        https://lemmy.world/search?q=israel&type=Posts&listingType=All&page=1&sort=TopWeek

        Click on any one, and you will find a comments section absolutely chock-full of critique of Israel. What is it that you are complaining about? What types of stories or comments would you like to be able to post on lemmy.world that you currently cannot, can you give me an example?

        You can critique the DNC, etc.

        remove critique of the DNC as “misinformation,”

        Got it 😃. Anyway, can you point me to one single instance where something critiquing the DNC was removed as “misinformation”? I don’t know anyone active on LW, in or out of authority, who likes the DNC.

        cultivating an environment hostile to such views among active users, and giving infinite leeway to moderators and power users that constantly shit-stir

        Yes. Like I said, your complaint is that they don’t ban people who disagree with you, or “shit-stir” in the propaganda framing. By not banning your opponents, they are “cultivating” an environment where people are allowed to be hostile to you, and you don’t like that.

        (Of course, on Hexbear, that framing is accurate – anyone who comes in with a “liberal” viewpoint will, indeed, stir shit, because dozens of people will start howling, posting abuse, yelling at them, basically turn the thread into a debacle, and then they will be banned. Which, like I said, is why Hexbear is widely defederated.)

        I have more to say on the wider issues, but let’s start with asking you to back up the statements about LW’s moderation by answering the factual questions above. I actually strongly dislike lemmy.world’s moderation also, just for different reasons than you do, and I think your reasons are entirely just fantasies that .ml and friends share between themselves that have no basis in reality. Show me why I’m wrong though.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          Sure, here’s what got removed and eventually got me permabanned from politicalmemes on Lemmy.world: example 1, example 2, example 3, and example 4. Here’s an image of a couple of them for easier access (old screenshot):

          So, when combined with the fact that they defederate from leftist instances, prop up well-known shit-stirrers, and permaban dissent from leftists, it’s pretty clear that the leftism is the issue for them. You may turn a blind eye to the mod and admins being abusive, and their hostility towards leftists, but this community is filled with examples of moderator and admin abuse on Lemmy.world directed against leftists. It’s undeniable that the anti-left bias is pushed by the Lemmy.world leadership, and blocking Hexbear is only one of many examples of that in practice.

          Really don’t know why you expect me to take you seriously when you call me a liar to my face.

          • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            1 day ago

            Are you permabanned from [email protected]? It doesn’t look to me like you are.

            https://lemmy.world/modlog?page=1&actionType=All&userId=5159239

            Can you show me a screenshot of the permaban?

            It looks like they removed those comments. I mean, I actually agree with you here, they shouldn’t have removed that, it’s sort of a slippery slope to go down that “misinformation” should be subject to prior restraint, because one person’s misinformation is another person’s dissent.

            Regardless, it doesn’t look to me like they are banning “critique of Israel,” or for that matter of Democrats. Look at the rest of the comments section where your comments got removed, or the link to the search I showed you. Surely you can see that critique of Israel is the almost unanimous majority viewpoint on lemmy.world, right? Or no? Tell me, that’s not just a rhetorical question.

            Most of the things you get banned for are for intentionally misrepresenting the other person’s point of view, which makes perfect sense to me, or apologia for genocide (presumably in Xinjiang) which I agree with you they should not ban for. My point is that critiquing Israel is absolutely fine on lemmy.world. Is that all you have, is that one time a year ago, a few of your comments got removed? Have you ever been banned from [email protected] or something for critiquing Israel? I critique Israel constantly and I have never been banned for it. This just seems like this wild counterfactual world you are trying to spin up here, where all I see factually is that a year ago one time you got some comments removed. Maybe I am missing seeing the permaban but I don’t see it.

            it’s pretty clear that the leftism is the issue for them

            If you make up facts and then use them to justify with an expansive spun-up narrative about it, then sure. My point is that when you ground it in the actual facts of what happened, it becomes a lot less pretty-clear.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              8
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              1 day ago

              Yes, I’m permabanned from politicalmemes. The original reason given was “you knew this was coming,” I’m not sure why it doesn’t show in the modlog anymore but here’s what it looks like when I’m logged in to Lemmy.ml, no ability to upvote or downvote nor comment nor post(notice your comment notification at the top):

              Secondly, I did not intentionally misinterpret anyone. Check the original thread, the user was deliberately saying that they doubt self-reported trans identification:

              As you can see, yerbouti was responding to comments about Hexbear having a high proportion of transgender users, which they proceded to claim were lying, equating them to proud boys members claiming they aren’t racist.

              As for my dozen bans from comms PugJesus moderates, they lost an argument in a comm they were getting called out for and banned me permanently from every comm they mod. Had nothing to do with Xinjiang or anything, just PJ emotionally lashing out.

              I don’t have more .world bans because I abandoned that place. There’s nothing I want to participate in there. I haven’t made up any facts, I’ve given my analysis on what I believe is happening, and justified that with real facts and evidence. Simple as that. There’s more examples of this kind of moderation on Lemmy.world, such as in worldnews, and these are only the posted about kinds.

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  7
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 day ago

                  I did not misinterpret yerbouti. Based on a prior interaction, I knew exactly what they meant. CW: Extreme transphobia. Their “research” involved a suicide joke and invalidating the expressed gender identity of Hexbear users. Yerbouti was just being transphobic, period. I’m not at all confused by the censorship, Lemmy.world moderators and admins protect and foster that behavior.

                  To respond to your point, myself and many other users’ direct lived experience has been Lemmy.world protecting transphobes and zionists, and banning those calling the DNC complicit in genocide. I’ve given you several examples of not just me but others. Certainly you can see the problem, right?

                  The fact is, the vast majority of people I interact with do take me seriously. You keep referencing this “reputation” I have with “others,” but I largely am seen positively by leftists and negatively by liberals, and those on the liberal side often still respect my honesty and civility even though they disagree.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 day ago

      One thing you have to remember about the communists is they see everything through the lens of class. They do not acknowledge any other form of conflict as legitimate, everything else is a smokescreen to distract from their attempts at class warfare. They have an overarching goal in mind, and they work backwards to diagnose the hurdles, placing value only in how something pertains to their goals. They’re zealots, no different from how a religious fundamentalist views everything in the framing of their religion’s worldview. Attempting to remain objective takes a backseat to these goal-oriented perspectives.

      The reason I accept the civil ones is they do have valuable input on occasion. While I don’t see class as the central cause of society’s ills, I do acknowledge class conflict as one of many “legitimate” forms of conflict. And in the same way that I acknowledge a theologian viewing the world from some religious perspective and analyzing all problems from that singular point of view, I acknowledge these folk’s rights to do the same from their class-based perspective. At least class exists, where someone’s mythical battles between heaven and hell may very well not.

      It really is helpful if you remember that while we may be trained in trying to stay process-oriented through things like the scientific method, that’s not a default way of thinking or anything. So, if you’re going to argue with one, you need to remember they’re not going to see even basic facts from your perspective. What is a fluke/outlier vs what is the statistical trend, is just interpretation until you have the hard numbers, after all. Keeping the focus on actual data and verifiable facts, while pointing out what is merely subjective interpretation, is a good way to keep the conversation somewhat balanced.

      • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        One thing you have to remember about the communists is they see everything through the lens of class.

        I almost agree with this. At least with Lemmy Communists, if you try to get them to sympathize with the Chinese working class and their struggle against their ruling classes, they will all of a sudden become a landlord-supporting cheer squad. I think WistfulNihilist pegged it right, they see everything through the lens of “our team vs. your team” and don’t care very much about the facts or will deliberately twist them around to suit that narrative, because they think that’s what they are supposed to do.

        They’re zealots, no different from how a religious fundamentalist views everything in the framing of their religion’s worldview. Attempting to remain objective takes a backseat to these goal-oriented perspectives.

        Completely agree. And I sort of agree with the other bit, I don’t really consider them as “enemy” because of that or anything. I’ve had productive conversations with them sometimes and sometimes learned relevant things. But yes, it makes them dangerous, and it also makes it darkly hilarious that they constantly accuse everyone who isn’t uncritically on their team in all things, of being victims of some kind of dogmatic propaganda and say that they’re only banning all dissent on their instances because they’re trying to help everyone see the light.

      • AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 day ago

        Doesn’t work, if you source anything they don’t agree with they’ll do mental gymnastics to find a way to discredit it in their mind and for their audience.

        It’s part of what you mentioned but it’s deeper. Even evidence is viewed through the lens of my side or their side. They will only every engage with the evidence that agrees with them. People who push this point get ad hominemed, then the communist commentator (there has to be a shorter word for that) will play victim when this person inevitably does it back.

        It’s the same playbook every time, and it’s clearly a community thing.

        • Carrolade@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          That’s the path to victory though. As soon as you draw out the ad hominem, you’ve forced them to pivot off of the main topic, withdrawing from an untenable position.

          You can’t actually expect a zealot to admit they’re wrong (edit: on an issue of core belief), that’s not realistic. You need to be comfortable accepting something else as the conclusion of the argument, by necessity.