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.

  • @ghariksforge
    3•11 months ago

    Censorship in China does not have an impact on my life, or on the life of most people here. Let the Chinese people be the judge of what happens in China.

    On the other hand, censorship here matters a lot to us.

    • Flying Squid
      1•11 months ago

      I’m sure it doesn’t have an impact on your life… if you agree with whatever the government does.

      • @ghariksforge
        7•11 months ago

        I don’t live in China. But I live in a country where there are millions of refugees fleeing America’s wars.

        • Flying Squid
          -3•11 months ago

          Do you not understand what the general ‘you’ means? I wasn’t talking about you in specific.

          Chinese people who support the government obviously have no problem with the censorship and oppression. Plenty of Chinese people do, which is why they do all they can to get around it- like refer to Xi Jinping as Winnie the Pooh (until that was outlawed).

          Also, America bad does not equal China good.

          • @ghariksforge
            0•11 months ago

            The same applies in reverse. China’s problems do not excuse the fact that America is a murderous nation that has invaded/bombed multiple countries in recent times.

    • @AnemiaEnglish
      0•11 months ago

      That may be true but it should be considered before defending China in a conversation. Otherwise it would be like me advocating social justice and at the same time defending the Iranian government. All I’m saying is freedom of speech goes together with China like oil with water. But if you don’t really defend China then my comment doesn’t really apply.

      That being said I do tentatively (don’t really know the content of hexbear) disagree with defederating.