Mander

However, from my prior experience with extremists in particular, I cannot bring myself to give them the time of day. It is true that this amplifies polarization, but there is only so much time and energy I can spend dealing with such folks. Believe me, I have an ex-friend who was (probably still is) a neo-nazi, and the years I’ve kept them around felt like a waste of my time, and a drain on my spirit, despite attempts to be understanding.

I understand that. In my case, I grew up in a small city in Yucatan in a boys-only catholic school. I went to a boarding school in the US when I was 15 for a year, and I was a catholic extremist teen at that point. I had been indoctrinated with "catholic family values" and taught to reject multiple lifestyles and behaviors as sinful and unnatural. And what brought me out of my bubble was meeting people and making friends that were very different from me in the US, who espoused very different values, and reading about those values online (at that point the internet was still kind of being developed). It wasn't a fast transformation, it took a lot of self-reflection. I came back home to pretty much fight with everyone in my community next 3 years and used every opportunity to preach acceptance. I was the "extremist" once again in my community, but now fighting for the side of 'satan', 'sin' and the 'unnatural'. So I think that my experiences are what make me feel like it is important to allow people to connect, rather than forcing each other into their own bubble. But yes, maybe it is not what is optimal. And we will find out, as the network evolves. This strategy may be unsuccessful and through a process of natural selection this strategy will be weeded out. I do not intend to let the instance become a platform for hate.

At the end of the day I respect your viewpoint, but I may have to leave this instance if no action is taken because I simply do not have the mental energy to deal with extremist content, even if it’s not an immediate problem. Thanks for engaging with my questions anyway, though!

I understand 100%!! I will do my best not to let it to come to this. It is true that not being so proactive increases the risk of this state being transiently visited. The way I see it is "Ok, let's first try to deal with this by taking atomic steps, instead of creating a community where the easy nuclear action is the default". But I fully understand the skepticism.

I have no issues when it comes to purging specific posts, comments, users, and communities that focus on hate. I visited the exploding-heads site and have seen some communities that I would purge if someone fetched them from this instance, but no one has fetched them, and no one has reported them. They don't exist in Mander. I am writing an actual policy now so that I can at least have a better framework to work with... Once I have that I might pull them myself and purge them. But I want to set the rules first. I do listen to everyone and try to make something fair, but it is.... actually a lot of work 😅 It would be much easier to block them and be done with it.

There are many comments on this issue. It is a bit fun and interesting, but it also takes a lot of time to think and write so much... I will focus on trying to write an actual policy instead of addressing individual comments.

If not here, I hope you do find a nice place to park in the fediverse! Thank you for giving it a chance.