First a call-out of fatphobia (https://hexbear.net/post/4189552) that ended up proving its point, then the stuff about "he/hims" (https://hexbear.net/post/4187781) ". Apparently a mod got banned!?
I am not very active and I never look at the megathreads, the number of comments in them scare me away from them. Is that where it's happening? I feel confused about what this community is like now.
I, uh, don't really know what my point is. Maybe someone can explain what the state of the site is? Especially on the he/hims thing. Maybe that's the main point of this post.
I feel sad for people that got hurt by this.
Older users that listen/listened to the podcast Chapo Trap House and joined the subreddit (the namesake for this comm) from back in the day vs people who have come to Hexbear later on for the vibes.
The podcast in question (and adjacent TrueAnon et al) drew in plenty of baby leftists, but their style includes a fair amount of things this comm (once again, named after the podcast) or this website as a whole does not allow. Felix would have been banned a long time ago for body shaming Charlie Kirk or some dweeb. Brace for being ableist. Matt Christman for for being fatphobic in a rant somewhere. Etc etc. But the podcast(s) also drew in so many listeners who like it because it wasn't as serious as some of the other left leaning podcasts.
I believe a schism was always going to occur. Mainly between the old users who made up who we were and new users who want to shape what we will be. For some we have strayed too far from the days of allowing a reactionary comment up so we can dogpile on the reactionary, get them to post their penis then body shame them for their ugly penis or weight. For others, creating a safe space for comrades supersedes the need to leave up reactionary posts for the purposes of dog piling on a chud.
I gotta say I sort of disagree. I'm one of the people dogpiling on chuds, but I'm also for creating a safe space. I do not think the "new users" you describe are creating a safe space, they are creating a space of power users and unsure vibes. One person can fly off the handle and it's cool and fun, another can respond and get banned for debate pervetry.
In my view there's two groups: Those that understand what @CarlMarks@lemmygrad.ml was writing and those that decided to find some way to dismiss it so they wouldn't have to do any selfcrit. The removal of that comment is a great example of what I talk about when I describe people using leftist rhetoric to legitimise their shitty behaviour.