Remote View

2mo ago

Temporary rule added: no US politics

Until the rule is removed, any new posts about US politics will be removed.

163 comments

Instead of complaining can someone who dislikes this decision please just create a community like "AskLemmyUS", post a link here so people can find it and get on with it?
- !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
- That's what I've told so many complaining people. If anyone wanted to they could make one and it would be filled with users in hours, just click create community. Hell tell the mods here to suggest people go there for those discussions, they'd probably link it in the sidebar. But someone has to do it. (And as a mod of a few other communities, someone else can take that one)
- After today's defederation of discuss.online with hexbear.net, and the post Could Discuss.online become the go-to USA instance?, I created the !askusa@discuss.online community (anyone with an established Discuss.Online account and reputation want to help mod it?). The instance admins don't want such controversial material like USApolitics, but AskUSA as a nice, friendly community to have neat discussions in is perfectly compatible with the mission statement of my home instance!:-)
  I modeled the community name after !AskUK@feddit.uk and made it a sister community, along with this one (any others that should be added?).
- But that would be US ExCePtIoNaLiSm!
  
  No, US exceptionalism is turning every single general purpose community into US politics.
  For the 4% of Earth's population that does indeed live in the US, there could be local communities.

How the fuck is Lemmy supposed to serve as an open alternative to corporate controlled social media when the mods ban discussing one of the most impactful events of the day? You should be begging people to talk about politics here. Unsubbed. EDIT: AND BLOCKED. If I wanted to hang out in a fascist community I'd join twitter.
- By giving people the opportunity to host their own instances and create their own communities with rules they like. This however does not mean that everything should be allowed everywhere. Actually this means that everywhere you go people make their own rules and if you dont like them, go somewhere else or create your own community.
  
  This however is the main problem of social media in general. It creates circles of like-minded people where it is really easy to reject "other" thoughts and accept "our" ideas without much questioning. This is less a problem for people who are trained in critical thinking, but might be dangerous for more unstable people.
  I'm just saying that a mix of different views is always good to some degree. Whether/how this should be done on Lemmy is a different thing.
  
  Ridiculous copy/paste reply. You're not making a good case for people leaving corporate media for Lemmy. You're encouraging them to stay where they are.
- I'm for making a megathread for people who really want to talk about it here but I genuinely don't understand why you're upset you can't talk about US politics everywhere in the platform. There are tons of communities for that. AskLemmy is for
  open-ended, thought provoking questions
  Instead, most US related posts are for venting and complaining. See these communities instead:
  !politics@lemmy.world
  !aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
  !leftism@lemmy.world
  !politicalhumor@lemmy.world
  !news@lemmy.world
  And dozens of similar communities on other instances. It's not censorship to ask you to go to use the proper channels, not everyone here wants to see US news everywhere.
  
  !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world too
  
  Thank you for responding with a redirect instead of a shut-down.
  
  It'd be different if the instance was actually crowded and overrun, but it isn't. The instance gets like 20 posts on a good day.
  
  upset you can’t talk about US politics everywhere in the platform
  I'm upset that a moderator believes that banning the discussion of a major national / international event is healthy for the community. I could understand that for a niche community like Music but not one of the most popular general purpose ones. There's no reason this should be banned other than a personal preference. This informs me that the moderators of this community are not interested in an open platform for genuine discussion.
  
  How is the American presidential choice of picking 80 year old sociopath Donald Trump not a thought provoking issue?
  But sure. Let's focus on why Bananas are yellow.
- Mods are people of the community too. If you don't like them, you can make your own community.
  
  That's a bad take. The mods made the choice to moderate a general-purpose community in the first place. If they want a more narrowly-focused community, they should make one.
- Because we're glad it is finally over after having deal with your election bullshit for the last half year? We made contingency plans for a trump win, so we acknowledged his win this morning, hope the planning is sufficient, and finally move on to something else.
- Because you can go to literally any instance and create a community just for political drivel or even just go to the hundreds of other communities already dedicated to exactly that.
- No kidding.
- !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
- ... You know you can just create a community and post stuff there, right?
- Good riddance man, Sheesh. Why are you so upset?
- Bye, no one misses you. You won't be much valuable for this community anyways so it's better if you aren't here
- Most impactful event of the decade. This reaches far beyond the US.
  
  Feel free to discuss it on !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world https://lemmy.world/c/politicaldiscussion
- You can literally go anywhere to see your dumbass yank circus. Leave me alone.
- Byeeee!!! 👋👋
- 100% agree.
  The moderation is completely out of hand. Instead of being happy we have a platform where we can discuss things outside of big tech platforms, we have people who think moderation is more important than letting people express what is on their mind, specially on this day.
  Wish I could make the mods be a bit mature here, but probably not.
  Whats next, banning people for discussing moderation? I would not be surprised at this point.
  I've been here from the start so I'm just angry to see this kind of thing here. Whoever mod who did this should look in the mirror and think "is my behavior a plus or a minus for the platform".
  
  Hold on, do you think this is a ban across all of Lemmy?
  
  Feel free to express what’s on your mind in any of the US politics communities on Lemmy.

Would it be possible to have a single mega thread for all US politics questions?
There are alot of worried, scared people with alot of questions. Why not have a place for it, keeping the rest out of the community.
- !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world

Thanks, other communities like !nostupidquestions@lemmy.world don't have such rules, the community is overriden with questions about US politics
- I get that it's annoying, but we're sad, and angry, and scared, and we don't know where to go. Maybe someone will make us a community called "Now what?" where we can cry, shout, wallow a bit, and then make a plan for survival.
  
  Yeah I think both are valid tbh. I get that a lot of people don't want to hear and and I get that a lot of people are upset. How do you compromise and help with both?
  
  Be the change you want to see then. You can make that community. I mean this in a supportive way. Go for it!
  
  !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world seems good as it allows self-posts
  !politics@lemmy.world for news
  
  Two posts for you
  https://lemmy.world/post/21703175
  https://lemmy.world/post/21704454
- Sure, but... is "too much discussion" really a problem that Lemmy has? This is kind of a threatening time for some of us, especially if we don't have a lot of friends irl.
  
  "Too much off topic discussion or discussion in one topic that stifles other conversations"
  Better?

I get it, but realistically there's only like 20 posts a day left in here. Nothing is really getting overrun.
- 10 yesterday. We are too small for temp rules.
  
  But would those 10 people make other 10 posts when they are overrun by posts unrelated to this community by people who don't want discussion and just want to vent their anger?

I came here since I was fed up with the politics on Reddit.
I was pretty disappointed when I saw the same thing happening here. So thanks!

It's honestly tiring to see the 20th post on the same topic from a country you don't live in

Thank you! Could this be permanent? People can use an AskLemmyPolitics community if they really need to.
- !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world seems good as it allows self-posts
  !politics@lemmy.world for news
- That or maybe politics Friday when those posts are allowed?

pointless. the entire lemmy will be on fire for a month or so.
I've blocked all US political communities. I've blocked 20+ users who posted US political content in other communities. When I now filter by most popular in the last 24h, it's only US election outcome content.
- Seems like a good reason to have this kind of rules
  Also I posted in !newcommunities@lemmy.world a thread for non political communities

at this point i'm starting to believe that the reddit format just rots people's brains.
i don't know the reason behind this decision, maybe it was taken in bad faith or something, but the amount of people shitting and pissing themselves over this when there are already other communities better specialized for it is mind numbing.
- Indeed

ABOUT FUCKING TIME!

I disagree with this decision because people need to ask questions to prepare for their safety.
Please reconsider this rule.
- !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world has 5 few active threads since yesterday, such as
  https://lemmy.ca/post/32448239
  https://lemmy.ca/post/32449540
  https://lemmy.ca/post/32446060
  Feel free to open others if needed

We just had probably the most consequential election of our life and you want to ban discussion? Jeezus.
- This is an ask community, not a politics community. Not everything revolves around America
  
  ... And now you can't ask anything about politics. There's was doubtless going to be political questions to ask, and politic adjacent (where do I move) that will all be removed.
  And you can't even ask about effects on the world either! Gaza, Ukraine, NATO, trade, tariffs, etc. Are those going to be removed? All valid questions, but sounds political to me.
  Like way to shut down shit tons of conversation.
  
  It isn't called 'ask lemmy about anything other than politics'.
  
  How does that disqualify US political questions from being posted here, then?
- Not ban, move
  
  It's not a book ban, the books just have to be approved before they can be brought in, and they haven't been approved, nor will they be.

Please permanentize this!

This makes me more likely to actually visit here. I'm sick of reading propaganda and people spouting propaganda from all sides, and I come to spaces like this for funnies, interesting topics, and so on. My political interests go elsewhere. I appreciate not having to wade through them here.

We get 10ish posts here a day... I guess if you want less activity here good job you win. I hate these temp rules in communities.
- I only see one thread in the modlog too. Seems kinda weird.

It could be useful to link to some relevant communities in this posts description if people do want to ask questions.
- Indeed, having !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world in the sidebar might help

This rule applies only to the AskLemmy community. A ban on US politics posts in AskLemmy makes sense for several reasons:
US politics tends to dominate many online spaces already, drowning out other valuable discussions.
Political discussions, especially about US politics, often become heated and polarized quickly, which can detract from the thoughtful, contemplative atmosphere that open-ended questions are meant to foster. When people discuss US politics, they tend to take hardened positions rather than engaging in genuine exploration of ideas.
US political discussions often fall into predictable patterns and talking points, which goes against the spirit of having thought-provoking questions. The same debates tend to play out repeatedly, offering little new insight or opportunity for meaningful reflection.
A community focused on open-ended questions should ideally have a global perspective. US political discussions can make the space feel less welcoming to non-US users who might have fascinating questions and perspectives to share about their own cultures, philosophies, and experiences.
There are other communities whose purpose better aligns with discussions about US politics.
People need some communities where they can engage with others and NOT have to see or think about the recent election.
Nobody wants every community to be a free-for-all about every topic. Please feel free to discuss US politics in a relevant community about the US, about politics, or about world news.
- Thank you so much !
  !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world seems like a good place to redirect those conversations, maybe you could consider adding it to the sidebar, should the rule become permanent?
  
  Thanks so so so much. Will take note.
- Commenting again to repeat that I think it's awesome that you're going with a redirect rather than the ban hammer approach.

I just made a post (my first actually) about this today. I think it's better for the user to decide what they want to see and use filters rather than block posts entirely.

Can we still post questions about politics when it comes to moving outside the united states?
- Of course not! That would contribute to the unmanageable stream of of 8-10 posts a day!!!
  
  Sorry, was this sarcasm? My autistic ass sometimes can't tell.

This should have been in effect for MONTHS leading up to their annoying elections.

Rare dotworld mod W

Maybe yall non-us-residents should create some content then eh?

Hey I don't mean to get political but I got a real quick question here. What the heck is an America?

Honestly I don't get the hype about the US presidency, like sure, it was kinda shocking at first how Trump won, but after that I accepted it. I'd rather listen to other issues than the same thing over and over again.
I also find it wierd that many of the fellow Australians around me know more about American politics than Australian politics, likely just because our media covers it to no effing end, sure, do one news story, but not a fucken bajillion.

Community for political discussion: !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world , mods please feel free to post this anywhere if you'd like to avoid the political posts/questions :)

I just had a couple of comments moderated because of this rule, and as a result discovered that this rule existed.
THANK YOU so much. I have never been so happy to have comments removed.

Idk what the mod team's philosophy is on incorporating member feedback vs shaping it to mod teams vision, but fwiw, here's mine.
I don't want to see every other post being about Trump either. But I also want conversation to happen. The compromise solution seems to be a mega thread; conversations continue without flooding everyone's feed. For however this temp rule is in place, delete offending posts and redirect to the mega thread.
- A mega thread on a topic as wide as US elections aftermath is probably too small.
  !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world has several threads about project 2025, do people actually consider moving out, what should be done now by parties and voters, etc

Doubling down on the censorship of inconvenient truths will surely help after your whole instance demonstrated the folly in censoring inconvenient truths. /s
Remember: if you think you have to censor the truth about your supposed left wing candidate of choice, they’re probably NOT actually very leftist at all and you’re doing fascist shit directly for a fascist.
If you refuse to allow people to speak the truth, you’re not even doing a decent job, pretending to be one of the “ good guys”.
- You have assumed the reason for the rule is censorship. I think incorrectly.
  
  It would add some clarity if the post included a justification for censorship to avoid speculation
- It's not inconvenient truth, it's white noise for the rest of the world
  
  White noise that sends missiles and bombs to kill millions around the world. It’s very dangerous white noise is it not?
  If the rest of the world is educated on our sham political system then maybe people like you can educate the identity politics dupes that I have to be censored by when I point to rampant corporatism in an impotent attempt to wriggle my way out of this wage slave trap.
  For example, here’s an image I love to point to that shows why the US is so stupidly tribalist:
  
  It shows what needs to be done to try and fix this shithole country.