The instance seems to be mostly right wing trolls. I know defederating is unpopular but I don't think much is to be lost in this case and it can save the mods some headaches.
Edit: the response on exploding-heads.com to my reporting of transphobia. Courtesy of the "second in command"
Don't de-federate unless they're allowing the planning of violence, CSAM material, or actual abuse.
As a leftist I see it like this:
Blocking someone is: "I don't want to see this"
De-federating is: "I don't want you to see this"
Blocking someone is: Ignoring a person saying bigoted things.
De-federating is: Jailing a person saying bigoted things.
If you can't handle people saying shit you don't like then you need thicker skin. If you can't engage in a conversation with a person who shares an opinion that you fine distasteful then you need to seek maturity.
If you can't disagree with someone without physically attacking them, then you don't deserve to be part of a community. If you can't exist without abusing another person, then you don't deserve to be part of a community.
As a leftist you should be familiar with the paradox of tolerance and the dangers of giving a platform to hateful ideas.
I'm familiar with the Paradox of Tolerance and its propensity to be wielded like a cudgel when someone wants to be intolerant of an idea.
Who gets to decide which ideas are the bad kind of intolerance and which are the good kind of intolerance?
I say we should be intolerant of people who use force to spread their message. I say we should be intolerant of people who would shut down a conversation over a disagreement.
We absolutely should not federate with instances who allow for the promotion of violence or other kinds of direct action against groups of people. If Exploding Heads allows that then I agree we should de-federate. From what I can see it's your standard right-wing instance. I disagree with a lot of opinions expressed there but I can handle blocking people and filtering my own reality. I don't need someone else to do it for me.
I agree with you friend, I don't agree with the EH posts, they don't like people who are different, but as far as I can see they have an active moderation team that delete any mention of violent content or slurs such as the n-word.
I think they are actually doing a decent job at keeping actual violence away.