I got banned from reddit for saying that Nazis aren’t getting punched in the face near enough in modern times. They said that I was trying to incite violence against a group of people as if Nazism is just something you’re born with. So now I’m here.
It looks familiar, but I’m confused.
I had to answer entry questions to get approved.
I think I’m seeing it as hexbear is a conglomeration of sub Reddits. But it said somewhere that I can see other people’s servers somehow too. Just confused how that all works. It looks like there’s no hentai porn allowed on this one, which isn’t a deal breaker, but I am curious how all of the different servers mix and match and shit. Can someone please explain like I’m a redditor?
Is the equivalent of r/all just with people from hexbear? Or all of lemmy?
Also, what was the correct answer to, “what are your thoughts on Actually Existing Socialism?” I never heard of AES till today. Is the answer that it’s bad because it’s a dictatorship? I’d never heard the term. I’m an American, pretty sure China’s bad, but realizing we got hella propaganda too. I remember when we learned in school about the labor movement during the industrial revolution that we kinda seemed to celebrate that steel mogol that got shot and returned to work the same day as being a badass that stuck it to the crazy strikers, as opposed to celebrating the Luigi. Just trying to figure out with this AES question just HOW much deprogramming I need to do.
Also, did I post this in the right spot? Lol
The key thing to understand with lemmy is federation. On reddit, all the subreddits are ultimately on reddit’s servers and are controlled by reddit. On lemmy, different communities (equivalent to subreddits) are hosted on different instances. Each instance has its own rules and its own moderation and admin team, as well as its own site culture. Hexbear.net is one instance, lemmy.ml is another, lemmygrad.ml is a third. Because these instances’ respective admins have agreed to be federated, you can join, make posts in, and comment on posts other people have made in communities hosted on any of them, and their users can likewise post and comment in communities hosted here on hexbear.
If you click “Communities” up at the very top of the page, you will be presented with a list of communities you can interact with. By default, only communities hosted on hexbear will appear, but if you click the “All” button instead of the “Local” one, you will see communities on all the lemmy instances that hexbear is federated with. Similarly, on the main hexbear page, you can choose to see posts from only communities you subscribed to, posts from all hexbear based communities, or posts from all federated communities with the Subscribed | Local | All buttons at the top.
China is good, actually. We support AES around here.
Thanks! Great explanation!
Are federated lemmy parties all part of the same federation? As an extreme example, could I stumble into a conservative MAGA lemmy party from the “all” tab? Or are there different federations that would keep one side of Lemmy out of reach?
Is Hexbear locally hosted at some dudes house or is it hosted on a platform such as AWS? Assuming it’s a different answer for every lemmy party.
I think the entry question may have also mentioned Russia, they’re bad, right? I’ve been conflicted on China for a while - specifically because of Myanmar and Taiwan - but I realize that may be propaganda. Any sources that you can enlighten me with? If we like Russia here too, that’d be great. Looks like Korea (North?) is on the list as well:
https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Actually_Existing_Socialism
Do we like them here too? Could you enlighten me if you do?
It’s perfectly fine to view Russia as a miserably reactionary mafioso state, but the Hitlerian depiction pushed by the actual fascists in Ukraine and western media is ridiculous.
I think it’s really interesting seeing an American left-leaning person who is very positive on Russia but not China. Usually it’s the other way around.
Could you elaborate on your views regarding Taiwan and Myanmar in relation to China? The Taiwan one is normally sure to get a dozen people jumping down your throat, so I’d like to ask my fellows to exercise some restraint in that regard because you seem to be totally genuine and are speaking very graciously to us over what seem to sometimes be strong disagreements.
could I stumble into a conservative MAGA lemmy party from the “all” tab?
It depends on what instance you’re on. Here? Pretty unlikely. Instances can use block lists or allow lists for federation, Hexbear takes the allow list approach.
hosted on a platform
You could theoretically host a home server, I don’t think many do. I don’t know hexbear’s provider, but it’s hosted in France last I knew.
Korea
Korea’s pretty cool. Not the part occupied by the US.
China
China’s pretty cool. Not the part occupied by the US.
Russia
Is anti-imperialist and anti-nazi. That part’s cool.
They aren’t really anti-nazi as much as they are anti-ukronazi (and being anti-ukronazi is good, to be clear, but they could stand to take a stronger stance against other Nazis).
Wasn’t trying to go too deep, but yeah I could have been a bit clearer there.
There is a complicated network of lemmy instances, and which ones are federated with which others is a perennial source of arguments. You will never find a MAGA community on hexbear’s All tab, because the hexbear admins are careful to keep federation only with reasonably left wing and non-bigoted instances. Such instances do exist, but we are not federated with them.
Hexbear is hosted on a server farm somewhere, and the hexbear admins do take donations to pay for the server costs. You are correct that where and how exactly each lemmy instance is hosted varies.
We like North Korea, which we usually call the DPRK, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s actual name.
Russia is a more complicated case, because it’s not AES. Russia is a capitalist oligarchy, but it’s a capitalist oligarchy which finds itself at odds with the US and its puppets, so we often find ourselves in the position of giving it critical support, that is to say, supporting things it’s doing such as protecting the people of Donetsk and Luhansk from Ukranian nazis, while criticizing the power structure and the bad things it’s doing, such as repressing LGBT people.
Are federated lemmy parties all part of the same federation?
No, each individual server/instance can choose who they federate with. You can see who Hexbear federates with by clicking “instances” (in the web ui) at the bottom of the page.
Is Hexbear locally hosted at some dudes house or is it hosted on a platform such as AWS?
On some VPS I believe.
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You’ve chosen well, hexbear has the best emojis of all instances (what we call the different servers that we federate with like lemmy.ml and lemmy.dbzr0.com)
They are the best, but they could always be better
:beanis-salute:
is a real emoji though, does it not show up properly in your picker? 
I think I’m seeing it as hexbear is a conglomeration of sub Reddits
They are called communities, but much the same.
I am curious how all of the different servers mix and match and shit
In the same way that a gmail user can send an email to a yahoo user because both services speak the same language, so too can different Lemmy servers/“instances” speak together. It means that you will see people from other instances (me for example) make comments in posts on hexbear, or posts in community on hexbear. And so the other way around.
If you are on the web ui (not sure about the apps) in the front page will be three buttons: “Subscribed,” “Local,” and “All.” Subscribed will show you posts from only communities, local or remote/“federated”, you have subscribed to. Local will show you posts from all local communities. And All will show you posts from local and all remote communities that hexbear is federated with.
Also, what was the correct answer to, “what are your thoughts on Actually Existing Socialism?”
There are two answers to this: the direct answer is that it is not a test with a correct answer, it’s more a check to make sure you’re kinda fit for the community. If your answer was “we should nuke north Korea” then you might not be. The other answer is to talk politics and about AES and such, which I will leave for others.
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Welcome
If go on https://hexbear.net/communities?listingType=All&sort=TopMonth&page=1 you can see communities that are actually hosted on other servers but for most part it works the same.
You can also see people from other servers popping up on Hexbear, like Edie for example. You see that based on the URL next to her username. If you click on the little colorful pentagram below Edie’s comment you see the same post from Edie’s server (at least you would if the instance wasn’t members only or something).
Normally I stick to a single account in a thread, but to demonstrate a working pentagram I’ll break my rule.
Welcome!
Also, what was the correct answer to, “what are your thoughts on Actually Existing Socialism?” […] pretty sure China’s bad
Woah, and the admins were willing to give us a shot at deprogramming you?
Start here, we’re jumping in the deep end.
This looks like a lot of reading! See you in a bit!
See you on the other side
Welcome!
Others have given good answers on what Hexbear specifically is, so I’ll add a bit more to the AES question. It isn’t a question with a “correct” answer, it’s a vetting question to see if you’re a good fit for Hexbear, since Hexbear officially supports AES countries. What are the AES countries? Cuba, PRC, DPRK, Laos, Vietnam, arguably Venezuela, and former socialist states like the USSR.
The short answer is that you likely underestimate how much deprogramming you need to do. It runs deep, and in layers. There’s good resources here, so asking questions is encouraged!
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If you’ve not yet watched Yellow Parenti, it should really be at the top of your list. This video and Michael Parenti’s book Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism has helped a lot of comrades, including myself, deprogram themselves of US propaganda.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
