Remember that old Latin dictum: “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto?” In my case, there's one thing I do consider alien, and that's being afraid of the unknown, and especially of unknown, different people.
I'm reading a thread where someone is expressing their fear of a massive migration to Fedi from Twitter. It all feels xenophobic and egotistic. “I liked it when my world was just my own little bubble, but, with every expansion, it became less and less my own, and I hate that.”
Well, I don't. I like meeting new people, visting new places, listening to new languages and exposing myself to different points of view. And, yes, I still use the mute button more times than I'd care to count, because I'm also aware that 95% of everything is shit, but you have to expose yourself to it if you want to discover that 5% that's really worth it.
I despise people who are not open that way. You don't have to like everything (I certainly don't), but why would you preemptively close yourself to it? It feels narcissistic: “I have never left my tiny village, but it's obvious to me that there can be nothing better beyond its border walls.” Smol brain, if you ask me.
@josemanuel I think the recent concern might be that the latest mass migration might be filled with the kind of people that they don't want to see around.
So for them, instead of 95% of shit, it might be 99,99% of shit.
@josemanuel Oh I'm using my block and mute very liberally the last weeks. ;) But I guess there are people who want a gated community. In a way I can understand that, sometimes you just want a cozy blanket, heh.
But then... If you want that and if they're convinced others want that, you can always have your own instance where you only federate with certain instances. That's actually the power of a federation, it doesn't need to be -one- federation.
@trinsec
> sometimes you just want a cozy blanket, heh.
I can understand it, too, but it feels childish. And not because of the metaphor.
> you can always have your own instance where you only federate with certain instances
That's why I found the original thread to be xenophobic. Because, of course, you can do what you suggest (and they have!), but they'd still find some other argument against welcoming new people. In this case, The Culture: “They're coming to change The Culture!” Smol brain indeed.
@josemanuel @trinsec Well, the real problem is not different people coming and going as far as nobody is forced to listen to them. I agree with you, that is just plain freedom we all exercise.
The real problem is the entities (governments?) who might go after the people who would be migrating. Such migrants tend to silently and unwittingly bring with themselves also the wolf pack which hunts them. Due to their size and coarse way of dealing with the world, governments/police/state actors don't care about individuals, they use trawler approach and carpet bomb the city: i.e., if an instance becomes crowded by people they go after, they'll take (or enforce to take) the instance down, no mercy shown. See Parler.
@FailForward I may be wrong, but Parler was probably an FBI honeypot. That said, nobody is forced to interact with them or give them refuge if they break their instances' rules. As long as admins do their work properly, what's there to fear?
Furthermore, haven't we talked since forever about how the Fediverse is so resistant to censorship due to its decentralised nature?
To be honest, I think you make a very valid point, but what prompted me to write the first post was the reasoning behind their fear. They weren't worried about being censored or cancelled by association, but about the loss of their ‘culture,’ which is what made me realise they were being xenophobic. “They come to change our values, our traditions, our sense of humour, our memes.”
@trinsec That's the thing. Nobody forces anybody to see anybody around. Some people fear new people like the block and mute buttons didn't exist.
To my mind, using those when necessary is better than keeping others away by being passive-aggressive and then, when they leave disgusted or bored, nudging themselves and say: “See? We were right about them.”