Ask Lemmy

No

True, we've already seen that right wingers are paid off by Russia to spout about inflation and other brain rot. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnJ6Ttaiu9M ) And a lot of people who are from the US compare their country to EU countries and find glaring holes in their society, like a lack of socialised healthcare, streamlined government services, ect and rant about it like Lemmy is twitter. Keep in mind that because Lemmy is majority English speaking the vast majority of post will be about the US, because its the defacto empire of the 21st century. For me I go out of my way to include communities from my own culture so I'm not out of the loop. The kinds of people who post politics to !Menes are the same people who take the definition of "meme" literally, and suck to talk to at every party they attend.

Honestly, most of it seems like edgy kids who learned about communism from a YouTube video and are now convinced they have the secret to a better world that nobody else understands. So many of the comments display a substantial lack of understanding about the real world. Many other comments are completely disingenuous, blatantly ignoring or attacking anything that doesn't support their singular argument. They're the viewpoints of inexperienced teenagers, not adult discussions.

There are certainly propaganda posts and communities, but I think the majority of the work is done by actual people who are just echoing what they've read or heard. Filter out a few key communities and a lot of it will disappear.

But, to answer your question more directly, yes, I do feel what you're saying and it gets annoying. Sometimes it gets overwhelming and I consider just deleting my account entirely. I'm so very tired of only seeing the extremes of either side of the pendulum online, rather than having a place for discussion with people of all viewpoints. I'm tired of the polarization.

Lemmy was founded to be where anti-American Americans would go after a lot of their subs were quarantined on Reddit.

That said, it has a major American focus because a lot of users are angry with the American system and don't have a ton of experience with others directly. They've developed an echo chamber here and only got interrupted by the Reddit exodus.

It really takes living in America to appreciate how necessary anti-american sentiment is. Regime change begins at home.

Stop fucking declaring war on your allies and neighbours if you don't want people fucking pissed at you.

When the sentiment is anti-west generally, and anti-EU, then it seems sus to me, just anti-American feels pretty valid.

I understand the concern and certainly believe that troll farms are slowly creeping into Lemmy as it gains traction. However, I think most of US bashing is authentic as it reflects the enormous impact of US political life on the rest of the planet. Moreover, other countries receive a constant flux of information about the US, to the point where it seems that US news is as important as domestic news. The fact that Trump remains omnipresent in the media doesn't help either.

I would be surprised if hostile countries thought that Lemmy was popular enough to bother infiltrating. They probably haven't heard of Lemmy at all.

I think the explanation is simply that Lemmy's users are all contrarians, or else they would be using Reddit. Frequently they are of the international leftist sort due to the founder effect.

The best thing you can do with your free speech, while you've still got it, is to exercise it as much as you can. Call them on their bullshit. Call EVERYONE on their bullshit. We need more people aware of the absurdity of the world we live in.

Whenever something occupies the entirety of the media landscape, it's bound to have at least some legitimate detractors.

As for specific divisive propaganda, let's say Russia and China, yes it's there, but they're more sophisticated than just going "America bad". China usually sticks to generalized anti-western hegemony, and Russia usually goes the Newt Gingrich route of choosing wedge issues.

While there's a lot of "America bad" sentiments going around, a lot of it is legitimate opinions while others default to it due to their tankie background. I think the actual propaganda segment is fairly low.

!AskUSA@discuss.online seems fine

Plus, they don't even use the metric system, and I don't like their version of football!

America has made a LOT of mistakes, and started (or backed) plenty of wars/revolutions. We’re the only major industrialized nation without some form of healthcare for all. The gap between rich and poor is tremendous, and only growing larger. Our legal system has some flaws, to say the least. America is the richest, most powerful country in the world. We didn’t get that way by always making ethical decisions. There’s a great deal of legitimate criticism out there.

Plus, this is a worldwide site. If Americans themselves don’t always like how the country is run, why should people of other countries always speak positively of America?

There is plenty to criticize the US about, and I say that as an American. We sure as shit are very, very far from perfect. The same is true for every country to varying degrees.

That said, yeah, I'm still suspicious of it and you should be too. People are always being manipulated to act against their own self interest and it would be wise to stop and consider the message and where it's coming from.