Out of the loop

My understanding is that it's not so much a "controversy" as a general dislike. We tend to dislike people who we feel are interpreting every little thing we say, no matter how innocuous, in the worst possible light. We tend to dislike people who hurl insults at us unprovoked, who respond to simple questions with weird pictures of Gargamel and other such content.

And then there's the existence of communities they have solely for the purpose of harassing other non-hexbear users and brigading communities from instances with the misfortune of federating with them, harassment campaigns which appear to be tolerated, if not encouraged, by certain other instances ending in .ml

While I have some serious political concerns with some of their shared views, I also think I'd have a lot in common with them -- a concern for LGBT+ rights, for instance -- and for the plight of the working class. Sadly, my experience has led me instead to instantly blocking any hexbear account on sight and disengaging with any of their content. I think other users in the fediverse have had similar such experiences. I've seen entire instances attempt to tolerate them, only to find that they're just inviting piranhas to the goldfish tank, and consequently defederating them.