Lemmy was released as an open-source fediverse alternative to Reddit.
Just over a year after launch, r/ChapoTrapHouse, moved across after being banned from Reddit. This is likely what you're referring to. It had well over 100,000 active users on Reddit, so represented a sudden sizable influx of users.
I'd wager the biggest influx of people by far, though, occurred when Spez upset a majority of mods and many users by banning third party apps.
People looked for an alternative, and Lemmy was it.
But why are so many people who lean left politically? Because the Venn Diagram for "people who like the idea of a decentralised platform that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires", and "people who would like society that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires" is nearly a circle.
That's what I thought as well. No ads. No one tracking you. No one profiting off your data. Sounds like leftist ideals to me. Freedom from corporate bullshit.
Well, all the data is available for anyone on the internet to use as they please...
The developers for Lemmy are also leftist; that the original Lemmy was lemmy.ml speaks to their politics.
ChapoTrapHouse likely moved here because it was already leftist.
There's also the people who got pushed out by right wing admins/mods. I personally switched after I got banned for saying riot police should quit their jobs en masse following RvW. I still stand by that statement.
Wasn't it also built by Marxist-Lennists?
decentralised platform that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires
Hum... Isn't that part of the "Freedooomm!!!!" dreams that comes bundled with minimum state and individual empowerment? I'm pretty sure it is.
No, I hate the term as it’s usually used as a pejorative and is so reductive as to be essentially meaningless. I’m a democratic socialist.
That's a leftist. You're a leftist, buddy.
I relate a bit, though. I think it's cringe when socialists call each other "comrade".
It's more embarrassing when people use the words "cringe" and "based."
Eh, it adds variety. I'd grow rather bored of addressing everyone as "friend", "buddy", etc.
Not everyone. But it's definitely very overrepresented here, including some large communities of extremists that I don't typically see elsewhere.
Overrepresented may not be correct, the majority of the english speaking world is far to the left of the US. Even the US population is like 60-70% left leaning, it's just that the left has lower voter participation rates.
Even the US population is like 60-70% left leaning, it's just that the left has lower voter participation rates.
Left leaning vs leftist is a much higher bar and I'd wager under 20% of the US (voting) population is leftist. That's just based on my memory of how few leftist representatives we have in congress... Far from an exact science.
I am definitely a liberal, but I'm by no means a leftist.
Left leaning Americans are still on the right compared to most countries.
Lemmy definitely has a super majority of people who are politically left. Lemmy also has a very large amount of extremely politically left people. I am not sure why this is the case.
However, not every Lemmy user is politically left.
I am not sure why this is the case.
Because Lemmy was created by leftists having their communities banned from reddit. It is and always will be a leftist platform, same as whatever garbage Trump made will be a right wing platform.
always will be a leftist platform,
I don't think that's the case.
Being decentralized means that anybody could create a right-wing instance, and it may be able to federate with enough other instances that it becomes big. If it gets enough users, it could make Lemmy more right-leaning overall.
It's not inevitable that Lemmy stays left-wing. But a centralized platform like Twitter or "whatever garbage Trump made" can be curated to be right-wing only. Just as lemmy.ml and perhaps some other instances may be curated to be left-wing only.
Because most intelligent people understand and feel empathy and compassion. And most nerds know what it feels like to be bullied and marginalized.
I am. I think you'll find we're mostly on a leftist spectrum relative to America's Overton Window.
They are pretty common here yeah, lemmy was built by communists
This is our social platform!
The peoples platform
No, not everyone.
I don’t know. I’m mildly left by normal standards, a Nazi by Lemmy standards and a communist by conservative standards.
No.
Uh, negative. I am a meat popsicle.
People have a wide variety of opinions and interests that are not represented well on a two dimensional left right spectrum.
Lemmy has a fair few people who will fight you over their own perceived interests.
Because Lemmy is so small it's common for the same people to argue over their interests in every community. In the morning I catch up on the all feed in 20ish minutes (I block politics and memes).
Take that together if you say something against any groups zeitgeist or one of their trigger topics it feels like all of Lemmy is dog piling you.
Remember online isn't the same as real life, express yourself and share your earnest ideas and don't care about downvotes. If someone is being unreasonable just ignore/block them.
Honestly, avoiding the all feed may be better for my enjoyment of the platform. On Reddit I used to just sub to my specific interests and never interacted or saw all the politics talk or general memes. When I moved here, most communities were too quiet for it to take up the same spot for me, so I started browsing by all instead.
I'll give it a shot, thank you for the reminder/realization.
Is every "Conservative" stupid, hateful, racist, and bigoted?
Maybe not stupid
Those become politicians and billionaire fellators.
I tried my left hand. Its just not the same.
Yes and no? The humans, probably. The accounts created to keep tabs on the leftist humans? Maybe not…?
Just kidding, NO conservative or government groups have EVER silently infiltrated ANY leftist groups, and me suggesting any account here is a propaganda bot or whatever is TOTALLY outrageous!
Post anything you want here, it’ll NEVER get screenshotted & linked back to you or your job in some giant hack in 5 years 🥳🤩😎
I am not.
(I'm not though, but we're definitely a downtrodden, highly abused and much ridiculed minority in these parts)
Not Me
I don't know that I'd describe Blue MAGA as left of anything, since they're an pro-market authoritarian movement, but whatever they are, they're either a majority or a VERY vocal minority.
Nope, but the dangerous ideologies are the norm here. It was quite shocking after switching from reddit.
Dangerous for who?
