I’ve been using Lemmy for a while now, and I’ve noticed something that I was hoping to potentially discuss with the community.

As a leftist myself (communist), I generally enjoy the content and discussions on Lemmy.

However, I’ve been wondering if we might be facing an issue with ideological diversity.

From my observations:

  1. Most Lemmy Instances, news articles, posts, comments, etc. seem to come from a distinctly leftist perspective.
  2. There appears to be a lack of “centrist”, non-political, or right-wing voices (and I don’t mean extreme MAGA-type views, but rather more moderate conservative positions).
  3. Discussions often feel like they’re happening within an ideological bubble.

My questions to the community are:

  • Have others noticed this trend?
  • Do you think Lemmy is at risk of becoming an echo chamber for leftist views, a sort of Truth Social, Parler, Gab, etc., esque platform, but for Leftists?
  • Is this a problem we should be concerned about, or is it a natural result of Lemmy’s community-driven nature?
  • How might we encourage more diverse political perspectives while still maintaining a respectful and inclusive environment?
  • What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of having a more politically diverse user base on Lemmy?

As much as I align with many of the views expressed here, I wonder if we’re missing out on valuable dialogue and perspective by not having a more diverse range of political opinions represented.

I’m genuinely curious to hear your thoughts on this.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I’ll offer this thought…

    When I used to discuss politics with someone who viewed policy from the perspective of a different political party say 25-30 years ago, I would say 90-95% of what we wanted to see happen in the country was exactly the same. The differences were in how we wanted to get there.

    Unfortunately, today I don’t think that the views align much any more. The views have diverged, and at least on the right, they have become extreme to the point of openly courting fascism, government capture by the oligarchy, and the masses supporting this don’t care about the consequences so long as they think they have a punitive moral victory over their opponents. The left isn’t really the left anymore, and I’m not sure what they want for the country. I don’t think they know either. They seem more interested in inclusivity than they do in actually making economic policy benefitting anyone under the upper middle class level.

    All that said, I have yet to encounter one single instance of a conservative view on lemmy that wasn’t radical and antagonistic. I have also encountered far left views that were also radical and antagonistic. Far more hard left views than right, perhaps because there are so many hard left views the right stays away.

    I don’t have the answer to what would increase the breadth of political content in Lemmy discussions, but the highly polarized and emotional views of politics along with internet anonymity isn’t really a recipe for balanced discussion. We haven’t even touched on organized propaganda deliberately pushing inflammatory posts and lies that incite reactionary and extreme views in return.

    • Taalnazi@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      ‘Openly courting fascism’ is a bit of an understatement, tbh. Elon Musk did a sieg heil and Trump wants to deport minorities. Can’t get clearer than that.

  • Filipdaflippa@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Wait you’re saying that calling people nazis if they have a different viewpoint than you doesn’t foster diversity? Who would have thought.

  • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Seems like lemmy.world already provides plenty of right wing perspectives, we really don’t need me.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        Modded, and federated/defederated. They intentionally defed from the Marxist dominated instances because they wanted to erase any real Marxist presence.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            Lemmy.ml being extremely broadly federated but removing rule-breaking comments: scary and bad

            Lemmy.world defederating Marxist-aligned instances so no one on those instances can ever offer input: wholesome and liberal

            • krolden@lemmy.ml
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              6 months ago

              I really wish we took some more precautions before the reddit exodus. We saw it coming but I definitely didn’t do anything to plan for it. I guess I’d just not been there for such a long time that I forgot just how bad that userbase had gotten.

  • Gjolin@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    There is the same kind of special snowflake attitude on here that ruined Reddit. You people only want to have your exclusive social bubble where you can sniff each other’s farts. I’m not interested in that.

  • 🦇 Batman 🦇@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    like bluesky is rightist , lemmy may be leftist . it also depends on the server , left has blocked right and vice versa . try to find a right one

  • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    We already have people praising Liz Cheney.

    You could say “I am noticing a distinct lack of Neo Nazis on Lemmy”.

    To which I say why change that.

  • Zement@feddit.nl
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    6 months ago

    Reason and Science has always a left leaning bias. Simply because Nature doesn’t give a shit about individual feelings or if someone believes if homosexuality is wrong. Nature does it’s thing an humans who accept and understand this are not left-leaning but normal.

    Corporate Social Media is manipulated like hell to shift the bias. That’s it.

  • ZoDoneRightNow@kbin.earth
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    6 months ago

    I’ve seen right wing liberals, left wing liberals, marxists, stalinists and anarchists just to name a few. If anything there is more diversity here than other platforms as it isn’t just various shades of liberal.

  • Tangentism@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    There appears to be a lack of “centrist”, non-political, or right-wing voices (and I don’t mean extreme MAGA-type views, but rather more moderate conservative positions).

    TBF, they don’t exist.

    They’re might be some that on appearance hold reasonable views that are considered centrist /moderate conservative but if their privilege is questioned or their fragile egos get scuffed, they always and invariably go full on far right.

    Their moderate views are just a veneer that are held to appear as such and never stand up to pressure.

    • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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      6 months ago

      What typically America-centric thinking

      You can also tell by the misuse of “they’re” lol

      • Tangentism@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        I’m not in the US so that’s your first fuck up.

        Secondly, the misused ‘they’re’ was me not proofreading autocorrect too closely while I was on the train this morning.

        You sound like one of those butthurt centrists.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        I’m curious as to how their comment was “America-centric”? It seems as though it applies universally. Bad ideas are bad ideas, it doesn’t matter what continent it happens on.

        • Tangentism@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          That’s them being an elitist prick, full of English exceptionalism.

          You could look through their previous comments and find that they invariably wear the badge of “political moderate” but their world view based around their superiority seeps through eventually.

  • Kyouki@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Someone asked this same question a while ago related to also Linux users present.

    Basically seems to come down to techies being mostly left winged more frequently which makes up the vasg majority of Lemmy.

    I don’t miss the global echo and it’s kinda nice to read civil discussions or talks.

    Though i dont really focus too much on the political topic or consider people such to make it my concern when I read.

    Just generally enjoy the good talks, advice and things like I remember how the internet started when it also had 0 political interest.

  • Disquietus@sopuli.xyz
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    6 months ago

    I’m kind of surprised to see a post like this here, reference most of the many comments. In my experience online discussion trends towards radicalism and it’s not an ideal forum (ha) for reasonable political discussions; for example it’s very simple to demonize something, and with minimal penalty. One thing I can tell you is that there’s plenty of extremism here, and my feed is even spec’d towards memes and to avoid politics. The concentration is aggressive enough that these other perspectives you’re looking for are quickly savaged and oftentimes only expressed by people who aren’t smart in picking their fights and it shows in their viewpoints too. No idea how one would address that, like I said I think online forums are probably not the right tool for this sort of thing. Idk man, I just want my memes and hobby info without watching people seethe about American politics and wish for the murder of rich people in almost every community, political or not

    • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      No idea how one would address that

      Crush them with the bipartisan police state of course!

      You seem sad that others are voicing their struggles to survive. A choice you personally make by not blocking people that voice their experiences with capitalism.

      Block them. Ignore their pleading into the void. All is well. Nothing to see here. Move along. Pay your rent. Pay your health insurance premium. Invest in the stock market. Pickup this can.

  • zarathustra0@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Participating in this thread had left me feeling like lemmy is much more of an echo chamber than what I thought before.

    I like being disagreed with on occasion, but don’t feel like anyone really listened here. That is very internet but also pretty concerning.