Hello all, it is with a heavy heart that I must admit that I have become the drama that I always sought to avoid for this server. In this case, I could easily let sleeping dogs lie, but I'm somewhat exhausted and I don't really see the point of continuing here if there isn't some semblance of justice or rational thought to be found. More to the point, if Lemmy continues to display outright hostility and toxicity towards Americans at every turn, there is virtually no chance that this platform will ever develop beyond its current fringe status.
Although this server is based in Canada, I think we probably have a good number of Americans, and also despite recent events I think Canadians and Americans are fairly similar and have historically gotten along quite well with one another. I'm curious if a more diverse array of people will find any value in my actions, or if I'm truly just shouting into the wind. Strap in, because this is gonna be a long one.
This all started yesterday when @DankOfAmerica@reddthat.com made a post to AskLemmy. The original post read as follows.
I responded here. I had indeed noticed the constant derisive comments regarding Americans, although I didn't agree with the assumption that such comments were made by Russian/Chinese agents, and stated as much.
In my view, the responses to both OP and myself in that thread constitute clear evidence that at least one of our assumptions was true. In response to being called out on their hateful behavior, a number of users proceeded to double down, attempting to gaslight myself and OP and even suggesting that we were actually the Russian spies 🕵️♂️
Several hours later, one of our users decided to make a post "exposing" my behavior on !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com. Despite the fact that I hadn't utilized any moderator powers during this saga, he found my words to be offensive enough to post on said community. The post was eventually removed because it was unsuitable for the community, but not before I had replied in defense of myself. This was unfortunate, although understandable, because I felt that my response was something that Lemmy users could benefit from hearing.
I made this post because I want my fellow sh.itjust.works users to judge whether my actions and thoughts were reasonable, and I also want to expose this individual for what they are. My first option was !fediverselore@lemmy.ca, but it's not allowed to post drama that you're involved in. Also, I'm not really looking for the opinions of people who subscribe to drama communities on Lemmy, but rather the opinions of the average sh.itjust.works user. So here's the screenshot of the removed post.
Here's my reply.
It'll probably be easier reading if you go to my profile and/or his profile. Although the post was deleted, the comments should still appear in our profiles.
To summarize, this user bullied a brand new user into deleting their account, responding to an innocent, highly upvoted meme with this comment
He let’s me freely hang out at his nice place full of amenities so I can’t badmouth him
Lmfao, no, you can, you just like the taste of boot, and the benefits he gives you (that he only has because he exploits people like you) too much to.
Also, those last two points in the meme, as well as this being your only post on a new account strongly suggest that this is a troll, or at the very least, a really sad LARP, rather than observations made by someone who has ever spent any time at all with any actual rich people.
Two days later, he decided to call me out for mod abuse, despite the fact that I hadn't removed a single comment of his. Now he's decided to move over to lemmy.dbzer0.com, thank goodness.
But overall, aside from the specifics of this drama, I also want y'all to render judgment on whether or not Lemmy tends to exhibit a toxic attitude towards Americans. Notice that I said Americans, not America. I don't give a shit if people criticize and blatantly shit on America for the decisions that our government makes. But it's far too often that Lemmy users go beyond that line and decide to hurl personal insults towards Americans, often in completely non-political communities. I've always had thick skin and an open mind, so if I'm getting annoyed by it, my assumption is that most other Americans will find it intolerable. And although we don't need to be a majority American site by any means, the sheer numbers dictate that if Americans find this site intolerable, it will never achieve mainstream success.
And if I hear one more fucking person say that America only joined World War 2 after it was already over, or that we were cowards for not joining sooner, I swear to God I'ma start criticizing the metric system again 😂
EDIT:
Thanks for the replies, I'll try to be less of an arrogant prick going forward and in return I'd like people to reflect on my words from time to time. My primary motivation is making Lemmy better and having more diverse viewpoints, I wouldn't have called anyone out if I didn't feel that some of you are creating an environment that is self-destructive towards our goals in that regard. But maybe I'm overreacting, I would just ask you to put yourself in other people's shoes before making comments, and remember that we're all on the same team here, even the North American Scum
I agree, I think Lemmy should add an option to fetch all the historical posts from a remote community. Right now it just starts federating from when the first person subscribes to that community, but it would be better if it was retroactive.