Thank god for hexbear and lemmygrad though. Imagine the effort needed to block them all individually if spread over all the other instances.

If you've heard of Chapo Trap House that's them. If not, most of those kids/idiots/trolls are the type of terminally online fake leftists that give other leftist a bad image in general. They were so ridiculous Reddit got tired of their shit and banned them a couple years back.

is everyone ~~in hexbear~~ insane?

Yes.

Hexbear is sort of like a village of eldritch abomination worshippers in a Lovecraftian horror story - isolated, insular, entirely wrapped up in their own esoteric rituals and ideas and language, and immediately and collectively hostile to outsiders.

It's not just you

Childish? Kinda. Insane? No.

There are three relevant things to say about hexbear.

1. It is not a serious instance. Or at least not completely serious; they're mostly there for memes, funposting, "I know that feel" etc.

So they're less like the meeting room of a communist party than like the bar where those communists hang out and drink beer, after the meeting is over.

I feel like this is often misinterpreted, as HB users say something that is mostly a taunt and others interpret as actual argumentation. And it also tends to attract younger users, who... well, behave like young people?

2. Even if not a serious instance, they're serious about their views. Your typical HB user is communist, antifa, vegan, anti-cop, and interprets things in a very specific way. They're rather transparent about it.

And, because of #1, they aren't really willing to spend their time entertaining anyone's counterpoints. It'll be interpreted as sealioning or similar.

3. Hexbear was already its own thing before federation. As such it developed social norms that often conflict with the norms typically found in the rest of the Threadiverse (Lemmy, Mbin, Piefed etc.)

For example, even if Lemmy as a whole is prone to intrusive political discussions, HB users tend to do it far more. Because they're used to an environment where this is typically taken as OK.

When it comes to dealing with HB users here, my advice is the exact same as dealing with other users:

• if you don't like what someone is saying (because it's idiotic, obstrusive, or whatever), block the person for some peace of mind.
• if you're consistently uninterested on the content coming from an instance, block the instance.

Lmao, they sure are insane. But if you listen closely they will tell you that sanity is a western psyop and you should enjoy the simple truths of life, like shitting in your own pants and bragging about it online.

I'm on lemmynsfw because I like to argue about how shitty society is between wanks

Many of them, yes. They're among the most radical of the leftist instances, which means that they attract a lot of propagandists and tankies. They have some perfectly reasonable people too, but you know, vocal minority. Its the main thing most people notice about those instances.

Many people block hexbear, Lemmy.ml, and lemmygrad for these reasons.

You are correct. Do your mental health a favour and block that instance along with lemmygrad.

Do you have any examples of this? Since world is defederated from that instance, I only end up visiting it when people like you come in and talk about how absolutely crazy it is over there, so occasionally I'll take a curious peek. This time I see... a post about Indigenous rights, a post criticizing capitalism, a post dunking on musk, a post about FOSS... when do I start seeing the crazy?

idk, I've seen all the hype around hexbear users being obnoxious around Lemmy (including our own instance debating blocking the instance, followed by several of their members brigading the thread true to form)... but I've explored the communities on the instance itself and even subscribed to some of them like mutual aid, gaming etc, and those that I'm watching are actually just normal people doing normal things if more left than some other similar groups. In my experience it isn't "all" hexbear users, because that would be a dumb generalization.

There are some assholes on that instance to be sure. Show me one that this isn't true of. I'm glad our instance didn't block them because I now get to decide for myself. I block communities and/or users if they're a problem for me. I think that's a good way.

Obviously you can't lump them all into one category, but the majority of them seem to be willing to cause chaos on other instances for a laugh. Doesn't sit right with me, so i blocked them

To be clear, this is coming from you getting banned for being a debate-pervert after you claimed Putin invaded Ukraine to "reinstate the USSR" as a secret Commie and refused to take a pro-Palestinian stance, equating Palestinian resistance with a century of settler-colonial genocide.

I think it's a bit terminally online to run away to a defederated instance to lick your wounds, rather than reflect on why being a debatebro is unhealthy.

I don't mind communism. I do mind advocating for Russia, in a war where they are clearly the aggressor, and harassing then moving to harass the same left wing for not being as radical or as pro-russian and deluding themselves with false beliefs that they are alone and no one is left wing other than them

Not really. They have a lot of bits and in-jokes which are going to seem incomprehensible to anyone from the outside, but most of them are pretty chill if you engage in good faith. It's like a lot of tech communities; if you don't do your research and ask intelligent questions, you're likely to get told to RTFM.

"HB enthusiasts coming here and trying to call me out achieves nothing besides proving my point"

Without taking any sides, saying some group is insane and then saying that them lashing back "proves your point" is beyond stupid.

Like, of course they will, what else do you expect them to do? Sit and politely agree?

We should stop with this kind of BS in any sort of debate. Groups will protect themselves, and will not get polite to those who throw slurs at them; that's natural, normal and speaks nothing about their average behavior.

This never proves any point and is nothing but a dirty rhetorical device aimed to shut your opposition up and make them seem irrelevant. This is not part of any possible healthy conversation.

Also, post is not a genuine question.

Congratulations OP, this post made it to Hexbear! 🎉

Damn it's nice to see the comments are surprisingly evenly split between hating on it and actually being reasonable. Quite a difference from when redditors first moved in here last year.

I guess the more people talk about it, the more people actually visit it for themselves and form their own opinions.

I was bullied for off Lemmy.One by the hexbear mods who sent hexbear users my way to harass me...

All for (while I'm still a raging communist) not being a pro authoritarian communist.

Last I checked there was an instance rule preventing the posting of pictures of cheese without a trigger warning.

I was going to block them and lemmygrad at first but decided not to and instead tried to understand what all these people were about.

Now I'm a communist, have a hammer and sickle, live in China, and my favorite color is red. Death to America comrades! Get fucked libs /s

Seriously though, they're not anymore insane than us. Maybe just a bunch of drunken commies at a bar who don't really bother to distance themselves from the subjects of a century of red scare propaganda. In any case, it's worth keeping an open mind and engaging in good faith.

Though as leftist as I personally am and have become in time, I'm not going to call anyone comrade or start using hammer and sickle imagery except in the context of history lol. Libs can still get fucked though.