I find the quality and variety of discussions on the fediverse to be lower than what I had on reddit. Lemmings have strong preconceived notions and little interest in changing viewpoints from new information. I think I’ll be switching back.
Edit: you’ll find that most of the comments deny any shortcomings of the culture and go directly to invalidating my opinions via character assassination. If lemmy was a community that actually stood for the ideals which it espouses it would take constructive criticism in the spirit in which it was intended. QED.
That happens in any online space. The internet is not a great place for that kind of discourse because it lacks the context that you have with people that you associate with in real life. When you talk about politics with a family member, coworker, or friend with who you have a disagreement with, you know the experiences that they had in life and led them to hold that belief and so you believe that their viewpoint is genuine and so you look to change their mind. Online the person on the other, you know nothing about so you are more likely to be frustrated with them and consider them a troll or political enemy.
The secret is knowing when to disengage with someone online because otherwise you will get jaded.