cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/12273255
I’ve only been on Lemmy a few days and I’ve already witnessed a lot of thinly veiled transphobia, anything from people dismissing the existence of trans people, to trying to claim we are predators. I’ve also seen people downvoted in the general communities for expressing trans support, or seemingly for no reason other than simply being openly trans or visibly queer. I know it’s an ongoing effort to moderate transphobia on Lemmy, and the fediverse as a whole. We have to also address mentions of thinly veiled transphobia and transphobic users. Transphobia isn’t just a differing opinion, it is a dangerous hateful sentiment which causes harm to vulnerable people and it needs to be addressed, at the instance and community level. We need to put in the effort to identify transphobic dogwhistles and language used by transphobes to eradicate this type of behavior from our communities and servers alike.
Some people will argue that the light stuff isn’t something to worry about, but that’s not true. This is a tactic they use to blend in with normies and make them think that nothing they are doing or saying is wrong. It’s what transphobic right-wing YouTubers and Facebook users do to avoid being banned for hate speech. We are better than these corporations though, Fediverse is run by communities and for the users, we should not let these things slide as easily as Corporations do, they’re in it to make money, we… We’re in it to create a community for the users. Part of that means kicking out those who don’t have all our best interests at heart.
I think it depends on where you go. I’ve seen lots of supportive behaviour across the fediverse.
Everything on the fediverse really depends on where you go. That’s kinda the whole point.
Yeah I haven’t seen any mods who are for it, granted OP is on discuss.online and I have defederated a lot of hate instances. People on beehaw, lemmy.world, and quite a few others have been if anything overly accepting than not. However, it’s why I discourage browsing all and instead curating a list of communities.
I only saw one Mod who was for it and he wasn’t even using his mod powers to push it, he was just pushing transphobia apologia and happened to be a mod in a different community. He got banned quickly from the community he did it in by the way. Glad he did, I’m sure he would’ve kept going if they didn’t. Though I do regret posting to his community. I might make a post addressing it later in !trans@lemmy.blahaj.zone so people know to steer clear of those communities.
I have too, !mtf@lemmy.blahaj.zone, !trans@lemmy.blahaj.zone, and !asktransgender@lemmy.blahaj.zone are some really nice ones. Most of what I’ve seen weren’t bad communities or even bad posts, it was users commenting under posts, sometimes their own, sometimes other people’s. Some weren’t even in communities related to LGBTQ, but it came up and they were talking about it. Most of the users had the @lemmy.world extension but a few were lemmy.ml, and a few others too.
It may be more effective to bring it up to the moderators of the individual communities where you’ve seen it. Also, generous use of the report button.
Speaking as a mod, even speaking as a mod who’s terminally online, we can’t have eyes everywhere at once. Somewhere, in the depths of the comment chains, we always miss something, or skim over it. Reporting isn’t adding to our work load (generally), it’s a great help. You shouldn’t hesitate to report anything that seems like it breaks the rules/expresses bigotry.
This, and lay out the details like ELI5 and as an unemotional objective thing with detail.
I have received many flags to sort out that take more than a few minutes to figure out the tone and meaning. I strongly believe people have a right to be stupid, wrong, a bit rude, or to have a bad day. I need to know exactly why the comment is more than this in a well laid out fashion. If you think it is a pattern with the individual, prove it. If some subtle phrase carries more meaning than I may realize, say so. I want to make people feel welcome on all fronts with a Hippocratic framework of “first, do no harm.” At the same time, a visible mod is a bad mod. I will read every detail. I will give the benefit of the doubt in every possible case. I won’t be passive to bigotry, but I will allow an asshole that does no harm. I’m but one insignificant mod. I care a whole lot more as a person, but I act conservatively as a mod. When flagging something imagine the person on the other end is working on some big project, stopping their day, and taking a half hour to sort out the details, thinking them through, and taking action. It usually takes me longer to shift gears and do this in practice. I’ll usually send a message explaining why I did or did not do anything as well.
Welcome here!
Please report such comments or posts.
If it’s at the mod level, please document it on !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
We all try to fight against transphobia, but we don’t have eyes everywhere
Of all the stupid, bigoted dogshit flung around by Hexbear, outright transphobia generally is not one of them.
Most of the people exhibiting the transphobic traits and behaviors I’ve mentioned had @lemmy.world extensions on their account. I saw only a few from lemmy.ml doing it, and essentially no hexbears doing it at all.
There is an entire trans community Lemmy instance in case you were unaware. Not saying it makes transphobia here okay or anything, just might be helpful to know.
I know, I’m subscribed to many of their communities already, they are some of the nicest people I’ve met on the fediverse. If I was going to recommend my friends join Lemmy I would recommend they join lemmy.blahaj.zone. However even though there are good instances which are safe spaces it doesn’t detract from the problem, since they will still use the federated general communities and thus will still encounter those problems. Even if they’re on the friendly insances, the problem gets federated.
That’s why it is important to address transphobia in the fediverse as a whole, having safe spaces help but we should expect a level of common decency in any community. Not just in the trans-specific communities.
The tone of this ostensible appeal for tolerance strikes me as disturbingly aggressive and inquisitorial.
