Can I go to these spaces and offer a respectful dissenting viewpoint?
No, you’ll likely get banned.
I also appreciate alternative perspectives, especially if they can back it up with solid sources. I’ve consistently pushed against defederation on my own instance because I think seeing their posts has value. However, in many cases they’ll brigade posts to drown out topics they don’t like, or if it’s on their instance, they’ll push for the users to get banned.
Unfortunately that kind of behavior from users is common on pretty much every instance from what I’ve seen. Just go to Lemmy.world and try to criticize Kamala Harris and see how it goes.
But from what I’ve seen the admins and mods there and on most other instances (usually) take a more measured hand and only ban when necessary, while frank discussion of Chinese history on Lemmy.ml is equated with racism and will get you an immediate ban from the entire instance.
That’s why I, even as a non-tankie leftist, prefer these spaces even though many tankies will claim they’re overrun with liberals. I still disagree with a lot of the conventional wisdom there, but I’m allowed to express that dissent and discuss any topic I wish to in a respectful way, which I think helps me and other people understand these contentious issues more fully and accurately.
Just go to Lemmy.world and try to criticize Kamala Harris and see how it goes.
I’m sure I have. I don’t pay close attention to which instances I post on, and I’ve certainly criticized Kamala Harris, perhaps more than Donald Trump, because there are so many posts from people who are obviously on Harris’ camp spreading disinformation and very few in the opposite direction.
Don’t get me wrong though, I despise Trump and believe he will be worse for our country than Harris, I just disagree that Harris is “good” in any sense of the word. She’s mediocre at best, and was dead last on my preferred list of presidential candidates in 2016 for the Democratic Party and Biden wasn’t much higher (Trump was dead last for me on the Republican side). My state is going to elect Trump, regardless of how I vote, so I’m voting third party to signal that I’m unsatisfied with either option. I voted for Biden last election though, because I thought he had a chance of flipping my state (I’m in Utah, and people here generally dislike Trump). But no, he lost by ~20% like most elections here, and Harris is even less likeable than Biden.
I, even as a non-tankie leftist
For reference, I’m a left-leaning libertarian. I support things like UBI/NIT, with the argument that it’s better than our overly complicated welfare system, which is hard for the people who need the benefits the most to actually use. I’m less motivated by “taxation is theft” and more motivated by “less is more” when it comes to government (i.e. I’m fine raising taxes, if it means government services are less complex/subjective).
So maybe I’m a bit less welcome than you, because I tend to push back on the general idea of “more government = better,” which seems to be pretty common among “tankies,” and I’m generally pretty skeptical of government in general. That said, I tend to restrict discussion to things we may be able to make progress on (i.e. UBI/NIT, abortion policy, etc), but even then I get a lot of pushback because I don’t agree with the underlying assumption that government is good.
No, you’ll likely get banned.
I also appreciate alternative perspectives, especially if they can back it up with solid sources. I’ve consistently pushed against defederation on my own instance because I think seeing their posts has value. However, in many cases they’ll brigade posts to drown out topics they don’t like, or if it’s on their instance, they’ll push for the users to get banned.
Unfortunately that kind of behavior from users is common on pretty much every instance from what I’ve seen. Just go to Lemmy.world and try to criticize Kamala Harris and see how it goes.
But from what I’ve seen the admins and mods there and on most other instances (usually) take a more measured hand and only ban when necessary, while frank discussion of Chinese history on Lemmy.ml is equated with racism and will get you an immediate ban from the entire instance.
That’s why I, even as a non-tankie leftist, prefer these spaces even though many tankies will claim they’re overrun with liberals. I still disagree with a lot of the conventional wisdom there, but I’m allowed to express that dissent and discuss any topic I wish to in a respectful way, which I think helps me and other people understand these contentious issues more fully and accurately.
I’m sure I have. I don’t pay close attention to which instances I post on, and I’ve certainly criticized Kamala Harris, perhaps more than Donald Trump, because there are so many posts from people who are obviously on Harris’ camp spreading disinformation and very few in the opposite direction.
Don’t get me wrong though, I despise Trump and believe he will be worse for our country than Harris, I just disagree that Harris is “good” in any sense of the word. She’s mediocre at best, and was dead last on my preferred list of presidential candidates in 2016 for the Democratic Party and Biden wasn’t much higher (Trump was dead last for me on the Republican side). My state is going to elect Trump, regardless of how I vote, so I’m voting third party to signal that I’m unsatisfied with either option. I voted for Biden last election though, because I thought he had a chance of flipping my state (I’m in Utah, and people here generally dislike Trump). But no, he lost by ~20% like most elections here, and Harris is even less likeable than Biden.
For reference, I’m a left-leaning libertarian. I support things like UBI/NIT, with the argument that it’s better than our overly complicated welfare system, which is hard for the people who need the benefits the most to actually use. I’m less motivated by “taxation is theft” and more motivated by “less is more” when it comes to government (i.e. I’m fine raising taxes, if it means government services are less complex/subjective).
So maybe I’m a bit less welcome than you, because I tend to push back on the general idea of “more government = better,” which seems to be pretty common among “tankies,” and I’m generally pretty skeptical of government in general. That said, I tend to restrict discussion to things we may be able to make progress on (i.e. UBI/NIT, abortion policy, etc), but even then I get a lot of pushback because I don’t agree with the underlying assumption that government is good.