Thank you - I just found that after writing all that out:-).

I just commented over there too, saying:

There’s a huge difference between someone “doing precisely what they said they would do in advance” vs. a “Power-Tripping Bastard”, imho.

And my reasoning is that he outright says in advance that that is precisely what he will do?:

As an instance, we’re pretty heavily moderated in order to maintain a welcoming atmosphere that fosters civil discussion. We don’t “tone police” everything, but we do expect users, local and remote, to behave themselves and act in a rational, civilized manner. Those who cannot, local or federated, are quickly shown the door.

So it’s not 100% a bad thing, nor is it a wonderful thing either for people’s modlogs to be contaminated with a preemptive ban for a community that they have never heard of. He definitely seems to be trippin, but like, not maliciously, if that makes sense? Rather, like Beehaw, he seems to be attempting to make use of rather inadequate tools to do a job, and not caring so much how others interpret his actions.

One thing that is HUGE for me: let’s say that you don’t want an abortion. Okay then, so don’t get one? Something that affects purely oneself should be a decision made purely by themselves? To the extent that he is making a decision that affects solely his instance, he is entirely justified in doing so. Except that’s not 100% what is happening: there is a modlog entry that gets made. It’s tiny, it’s trivial, but it does involve the other party. Hence he gets some flak for that, and that’s fair.

But tbf, let’s examine the other side to that story: have you see the front page of Lemmy lately? Half the posts call for murder, if not outright in the title, then at least in the comment section?! I get it, the recipient was a bad guy, but let’s not mince words: vigilante justice will not end well. Imagine a guy walking home after finally getting his first month’s pay, except they delayed his first paycheck so he is walking home with $1000 dollars from his first two months paycheck in his pocket. If someone kills him and takes the money b/c “he’s rich” - never mind his home, his family, the medicine that his sick kid needs - how is that justified? I’m saying: who gets to decide who “deserves” this style of “justice” or not? The Russian bot farms posting on Lemmy? The people who hear it and genuinely believe & spread it around further?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am not against porn existing, but I am against it existing outside of bounds - it’s not friendly, when it appears without consent. Similarly, calls for murder shouldn’t be appearing in “memes” or “shitpost” communities that are made for fun. Like, I may be down for a serious discussion every now and then, but dammit can’t I have 5 fucking minutes to look just at puppy and cat videos?!? The answer, ofc, is no, b/c I am not offered that choice: my only choice is to “use Lemmy”, to “not use Lemmy”, or “to spend hours and hours and hours and hours configuring Lemmy to suit my needs”.

Have you noticed how we have less content / posts than we used to? We have more “users” - I have had 4 alts in the last year, 3 of which I actively maintain so I am 3 of these “monthly active users” all on my lonesome. And Blaze is like upwards of 20 (with good reason, though that level is likely unusual). Conversely, look at communities such as !nathanwpyle@lemmy.world - it had ~4 posts per month routinely, but now has none in the last 2 months. Where did they go? Damn, I REALLY loved those comics too:-(. I don’t have an Instagram account but I see much more content - including related to December - at https://www.instagram.com/nathanwpylestrangeplanet/?hl=en, just not on Lemmy anymore?

When we become known for being the Alt-Left, “Nazi fascist bar” that we are (advocating for extreme violent solutions = the most extreme form of leftist), mainstream people aren’t going to want to hang out here anymore. Admiral Patrick is one of the few that are fighting back. Now you are too, in even so much as asking for an instance that has defederated from the big 3 tankie instances (although imho it’s already too late for that: yes the “tankieness” is contained on those 3, however the extremism that so often goes along with that has spread to beyond those 3 instances - it’s fucking everywhere now), but he’s putting in some EFFORT to clean up this space.

I am halfway thinking of joining dubvee.org tbh, if he’ll have me… sure his method contaminates the modlogs, but it’s something to try to stem the tide of toxicity and extremism? And that’s better than nothing, to at least be able to take a break from it all for a handful of minutes each day and just breathe? I am not against others being free to vent their thoughts, but my thoughts should matter too, at least to myself?

I concede that there are no perfect solutions here.