Jay Baker (they/he)

“Use a pen PIN, Sideshow Bob.”

It’s what happens when we have libertarianism without socialism. One without the other is bad news.

And it’s happening in a lot of other countries - here in the UK the political culture is more right-wing than any time since at least the Second World War (and that’s saying something).

It’s Late Stage Capitalism: in order to continue business as usual in the face of all reason and evidence of its devastating effects, capitalists look to authoritarianism and fascism to ensure capitalism’s continuation.

Most potential technology will of course be acontextual and lacking any kind of critique of capitalism. I witness people I know make all kind of “wise” decisions based on career expectations or ambition and definitions of “success,” and they’re actually really miserable yet can’t seem to recognise why. I’m unconvinced AI developed by capitalist companies would provide healthier perspectives. Heck, even humans fall short in such roles as counselling, when they lack class consciousness or a critique of neoliberalism. AI probably doesn’t stand much more chance.

I was merrily using Lemmy, and later on Kbin in addition to that, for many months.

But then in recent weeks the culture seemed to change: More aggressive, insulting, and rude posts, even over nothing; some of them first responses to posts, others over nothing particularly political, just pop culture opinions and the like. And way, way more downvotes. And that last one was particularly new to me personally.

I’ve always been a laughably polite person, even irl, according to folks who know me, and had been the same online unless someone was outrageously offensive and mean (though in recent years simply handled that by a process of mute > report > block, rather than waste energy). But in recent weeks I’d noticed way more downvotes coming my way on innocuous posts, which was a first for me. I’d even told folks who were unsure about joining Lemmy, “Ah, don’t worry about the Marxist-Leninist reputation and the bad rap; I’ve never experienced any tankie stuff on there, and only ever had positive experiences - I mean, look, I’ve barely ever been downvoted, only ever received kind upvotes for what I’ve tried to ensure are thoughtful, positive contributions!”

Lately it’s turned nasty, and negative. I joined Kbin and most discourse on there was either polluted by the same culture rising on Lemmy, or dominated by people mocking Beehaw for wanting no part of what many agree is a recent influx of bad habits from Reddit folks. This theory is particularly popular on Mastodon, where people pointed out the switch from Twitter to Mastodon was more politically motivated, whereas the Reddit exodus was more about convenience. I thought that was an interesting explanation for these more negative experiences of late.

I’m sorry if this is a long post that doesn’t at first seem to address the actual question, haha! I guess I’m just trying to contribute my own personal perspective that is related to the topic - and demonstrates why I’ve recently arrived at Beehaw, as an online space that appeals to me, in contrast to those other aforementioned places.

Liftoff is working really well for me!