Really well said, thank you. I haven’t used Lemmy long, and only recently started actually posting and commenting much. I’ve never used another instance, or account. I need to do a lot of actual reading on how Lemmy/Mastadon/Fediverse works and how things interact… honestly, I was just missing Reddit and looking for a place to bullshit, read fun stuff, and make lame jokes.

I’ve definitely noticed a bit of tribalism. That seems to be the entire internet lately. It’s like all the algorithms pushing user retention by only showing people things they’ll totally agree with or totally hate has… yeah, caused everything to break down to high school cliques. I’d say intensified, but I vaguely remember drowning in anxiety back then. If you don’t agree with something on a topic that the group has an established condoned and expected outlook on, then you can get tons of down votes before anyone could possible even read your message.

That makes me sad. Not because I care about internet points, want to be Mr. Popular, or can’t accept that not everyone will like or agree with me. It kills genuine thoughtful discussion, open and honest exchange of ideas and differences and points of view. That was always what drew me to places like this. Sucks to see the internet grow but become so much smaller and less welcoming. It’s the internet. It’s connecting the bulk of the human population. It should be a melting pot of endless ideas and cultures and points of view, not a ton of relatively small groups of very similar people who have decided it’s moral and right to hate anyone with thoughts and ideologies that don’t align with their own.

Ironically usually while virtue signalling and insisting it’s the folk they hate who are hateful, not them.