In the past few weeks I feel like I’ve seen a lot more conservative comments being posted on Beehaw. Where before it seemed like occasionally some dazed right-winger would wander through now and then, it now seems a bit more like they specifically show up to any thread that brushes up against one of their pet issues.

The most recent example I’ve noticed is around the stuff with the Ladybird devs being weird about being asked to use inclusive pronouns, but it seems like a pattern.

Has anyone else noticed this? Any thoughts on a course of action other than blocking them all individually or reporting particularly grievous examples?

I really would be disappointed to see every single thread here slowly inundated with pettiness and hate.

  • averyminya@beehaw.org
    0·
    6 months ago

    Yeah. It’s frustrating. This sort of thing seems to tend to happen in any online space during U.S. election years, you would hope that a smaller community would be insulated from hateful mindsets. Unfortunately, I think there’s just no way to truly know someones intentions until they reveal them through action, so short of being suspicious of everything and limiting instance interaction to invite or application only isn’t even the best way of going about it.

    Generally, my go to is a humanitarian centered response from the capitalist perspective to meet them at their level. If these are real people, they must have someone they care about. Meet them there first, then meet them with the money mindset. We volunteer for a Healthcare for Everyone organization and my parnter loves talking to conservative businessmen who are against this, because all she needs to say is “wouldn’t it be great if the government paid for your employees healthcare instead of having to waste so much money giving insurance coverage to them?”. A solid 40% heavily reconsider their previous stance, simply because they realize they can benefit in a way they didn’t know about.

    I give humanitarian solutions while trying actively to not start attacking their mindset or their character. I vehemently oppose the fascism they follow, but any opportunity we can take to get people to see how awful and unprofitable it is, then I’ll take that chance. I’ve maybe had 15-20% positive interactions from this, but it’s also for the people on the fence reading, if there are any. But it is nice when the actual person I’m responding to has a moment of realization that things could be different with just a few changes. Usually they’ll ask, “if it’s so easy then just how do we do it?”. And I tell them we have to get involved locally, because that is the only way to start making changes towards the top. If every small city in America legitimately demanded that their reps make the changes we want, what choice would they have except to be voted out and be replaced by those of us who will make it happen.

    Then there’s the bots who I mostly just ignore and can hardly give the time of day to. I’ll go maybe one responding comment initially if I have the time and energy and leave it at that. Sometimes I do wish this instance had a downvote button for that reason, but overall it’s a net positive still IMO.