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.

  • Ysysel@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I’m a bit new to the fediverse and I came to lemmy.world because it’s one of the big ones and thought it would be “neutral”. But nothing quoted in this post seems dangerous or against the rules ? You don’t even explain what rules they are supposedly breaking ? It’s weird that the admins posted this thinking “people will understand”. All you are saying is “these people are from the left”, we don’t like them.

    You should clearly states in your rules/description that you are a neoliberal instance and contradictory opinions will be squashed.

    • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      There’s a huge difference between leftists and tankies. They’re obviously the latter. Nobody but tankies want to deal with tankies.

    • Firemyth@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Want about that statement was neutral it was very obviously saying duck you if you aren’t communist

      • ccdfa@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Doesn’t it say the contrary? It says that the dunking on lib stuff should be kept to their own instance and that users should instead be informed and simply debate other users from other instances.

        • Firemyth@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          Wait- what are we talking about? I was referring to the hexbear response. They are saying fuck you ifnyou aren’t communist. They aren’t there to debate or be reasoned with.

          • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            They are left-unity. That means some are communists but others are of other ideologies e.g. anarchism. So no, they are not saying ‘fuck you if you aren’t a communist’ because that would alienate half their user-base. The ‘left’ is much broader than whatever counts as the ‘left’ in the US (which mostly isn’t ‘left’ but only ‘left of… XYZ’).

            Do you not think it’s a bit ironic to say that they’re unwilling to debate or reason in the context of dotworld defederating before there’s any chance of engagement? If there’s anyone unwilling to debate and reason it’s those who made and support this decision to defederate before they have to suffer the indignity of debating and reasoning with even more people with views contrary to liberalism.

        • Firemyth@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          I don’t think they would make the distinction. Regardless they made it pretty obvious that they aren’t around for actual intelligent debate. They have one goal- pushing anti west sentiment

          • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            aren’t around for actual intelligent debate

            You’ll find that Hexbear users are all for intelligent debate between themselves, other comrades, and even with liberals when said liberals are willing to listen. From the post on Hexbear that sparked the dotworld defederation:

            Please read and respect the rules of the community instance in which you are posting/commenting. 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.

            Sounds like there is a strong push for intelligent conversation but others aren’t willing to have it.

            It’s not possible to be ‘left’ in any real sense of the term and not be ‘anti west’ in some form because west is structurally an ongoing regime of genocide and exploitation.