Asklemmy

It potentially opens you up to radicalization in the wrong direction.

Good luck man, you're about to learn how easy it is to get banned on those free speech alternatives. Still funny though.

Be careful however. No matter what, you're still just a brain in a flesh jar. You are susceptible to false information and lies as your brain can't really differentiate between false and correct info that well.

You are not immune to propaganda

They’re not looking for freedom of speech but freedom from consequences.

You’ll get banned there real quick.

You can if you want. You'll certainly find new perspectives however you will be unlikely to get any good discussion. If you go there to antagonize they will simply ban you as they don't want lefty memes or left leaning messages.

I don't think being on the same platform as hate speech makes you a bad person. You're only wasting your time and exposing your self to needless hate and toxicity.

I don't think it makes you a bad person, but I do think you'd be banned faster than green grass through a goose

I think it is generally a bad idea to support sites that promote hatred and fascist ideas by providing them traffic and content.

Perhaps an unpopular take, but my suggestion would be to think if you can come from the perspective of love: do you love these people, and care about them, though they've believed lies? Can you converse with them with respect, listening to why they feel how they do, and be patient to bring truth only to help them, not to self-righteously vindicate yourself?

Then again, this is the internet, so if you jump in, post inflammatory memes, pat yourself on the back for being so clever, and jump out again, and show us the results; perhaps I'll giggle along with the rest of us.

For a different take, you might like to note that part of the effectiveness of propaganda is not a good rational explanation but repeated asserted lies. Jumping into a different set of assertions can help pop you out of ones you've wrongly believed from your own background - but it can also wear you down to believe, or half believe, what the other community is saying even if it's without merit. Keep a check on the things you read: What's the actual source behind this? Could these be repeatedly misconstruing that thing in the same way (so they look coherent but aren't)? Is there some useful truth in here I missed? And is there a subtle lie attached to the truth? And there's lots of other helpful questions you can ask: but keep a sensible head and be prepared to step back and look at something else.

Free speech enthusiasts are exercising hatred. Before non-hateful people realize this they sometimes conflate it with the inversion: speaking truth to power. Or sometimes simply "freedom" which isn't perfectly absolute when we live in a society. If you wanna witness hatred then follow the free speech thread.

Places that advertise themselves as being free speech

• Expectation: You are free to say whatever you please
• Reality: Oops! All CSAM/racism and they ban on a hair

those things can honestly be posted here on .ml or on instances like hexbear, blahaj and such.

if you want to challenge your and other's perspectives, you would do better doing so in instances such as lemmy.world or maaybe reddit, you are likely to encounter some pushback but they generally can be talked to. free-speech code-for-fascism sites will just ban you at best. if you actually want to troll them you will probably only have a chance if you organize.

that said if you are feeling masochistic you can go on 4chan, its probably where most of them hang out publicly, and its the rare place where they actually wont ban you for nothing.

It doesn’t make you a bad person but it’s not a healthy way to spend your time. It creates a feedback loop of finding things that upset you, ineffectually combating them, getting upset at the lack of positive results, and trying to fix that dissatisfaction by finding more things that upset you to fight against. You’ll think of it as a way to entertain yourself but, on balance, you’re the one getting the most stressed out by it.

If you want to troll the far right, you’re better off trying to do that in spaces where other people can see you doing it because that has an actual possibility of affecting their behavior. Real life, for example.

Just do it and post screen caps here.

Sounds like a waste of precious time

Learn how to mask your IP using VPNs or other open proxies before any of that.

I guess lots of people can relate to this on Tw(X)tter. After it was bought by mister X. it went downhill. Still a lot of left leaning people are on it with the idea to fight from within (or because they think "everyone is on it" or "important people are there". Personally I think it is a lost cause and would leave as soon as possible. Apart from that do not underestimate how you can be influenced if you don't do fact checking. A person I know told me year ago that they liked to read on a far right forum years (for fun or something) and is now like "yeah, I also think migration is a bit of problem". Go figure :(

I am not familiar with the ones you mention. I do however suggest you read this: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/01/neutral-vs-conservative-the-eternal-struggle/

Especially the part you find if you search for "Voat" on that page.

part of me wants to be the antagonist, and post lefty memes, and music with a left-leaning message

that can be this very instance on lemmy.ml or many many others right here, like hexbear, blahaj and such, if you want people you will slightly antagonize, but can at least be talked to go to lemmy.world, maaaaybe reddit. its generally not worth your time to go to free-speech code-for-fascism sites because at best you will be banned. if you really wanna troll them, you wont be effective unless you organize.

if you really want to be a masochist, go to 4chan or something, its where most of them probably are publicly.

If you know who you are and what you believe in then you should have no fear like others are saying. Go wherever you want and talk to whoever you want. I used to regularly post on /r/debatefascism before it got banned on reddit. I was disappointed when it got banned.

When you argue with someone online, you'll never change their opinion.. but you may sway some random lurker just browsing through.

I understand that a lot of the far right use "free speech" as essentially a dog whistle- but freedom of expression in my opinion is a vital part of a free society. That doesn't mean private places like Lemmy instances have any obligation to follow free speech. But I do support and respect places that do.

The "free speech" instances are just cesspools of a different shade. Sticking to any one singular platform, you'll eventually notice them start to slide towards a groupthink/echochamber of sorts, regardless of the focus of the instance.

Easiest way is to just browse multiple instances of different types. At least the unhinged insanity of each side cancels each other out for the most part.