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.

  • Tabitha@fediverse.booEnglish
    5438·
    11 months ago

    Hexbear is for left-unity and has users that range from all spectrums of the left. The clear message here is, if your on the left, lemmy.world is not the place for you. If you support the free exchange of ideas, lemmy.world is not the place for you. The mods couldn’t even be bothered to lie about which rules hexbear users were supposedly going to violate.

    • GONADS125@lemmy.world
      1910·
      11 months ago

      Nah, I’m very left-leaning and will stick with lemmy.world, which allows criticism of communism (unlike hexbear) while also allowing for criticism against capitalism.

      If hexbear was really about free speech, then they would allow criticism of communism in their instance. Their content manipulation tactics like vote brigading are a good reason to defederate as well.

      Lemmy.world defederated from them due to their open statement of intent to engage in toxic, rule-breaking practices. Hexbear is poised to be a giant echo-chamer and then you criticize lemmy.world of being an instance with strict ideological fixation and enforcement? It’s so hypocritical. It’s just projection.

      No one is stopping open discussion on lemmy.world. Just protecting users from an instance with bad intentions/restrictive narratives/perspectives.

    • monobot@lemmy.ml
      78·
      11 months ago

      I am not on the left, but I do have sceptical attitude toward military organizations and banks.

      This sais to me “if you are against military killing people and banks taking money from poor people, this place is not for you”. Which would make me only normal human being, not leftist.

      • Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        102·
        11 months ago

        Yes most people don’t realize that they themselves hold leftist views because those views are rational, reasonable and ethical, but everything to do with the left has been demonized by a hundred years of propaganda from the likes of the US and other capitalist nations

      • zouhair@lemmy.ca
        92·
        11 months ago

        Which would make me only normal human being, not leftist.

        You just described being a leftist. Right wings people literally believe that some people deserve to starve.

    • faintedheart@lemmy.world
      210·
      11 months ago

      Exactly feels the same. No free speech here. But lemmy.world rules says that this is not a free speech area. They have the decision to control what they want. I came to know about the rule just now. I didn’t read it until now and I can’t blame them.