There's been a lot of Discourse(TM) on the site lately that's ended up devolving into lengthy threads of outright hostility. There have always been, and always will be, struggle sessions where things get heated and people vehemently disagree, but I think I speak for most of us when I say it's been particularly bad lately.

I've been on Hexbear since launch and a mod of multiple comms for about a year and a half, and I have some thoughts about why the Discourse(TM) has trended in a more hostile direction, and how we can be better comrades to each other and our wider communities.

1. Assume Good Faith from your fellow posters.

This is a particuarly difficult hurdle to overcome given the site's lengthy and ongoing history with wreckers, bad faith actors and doxxing. I've been guilty of labelling innocuous posters as wreckers myself, it's a rational defensive mechanism against a constant stream of people who come here just to stir shit and push a fascist agenda. I also think the large majority of regular visitors here are well-meaning comrades.

Everyone has reactionary brainworms they need to purge - it's the natural consequence of living in a heavily propagandized capitalist culture. Sometimes people don't self-crit when they really, really should, and pushing back against highly reactionary attitudes is not only an unequivocal good, it's part of our duty as leftists. What's unhealthy, however, is reading someone's post or comment and interpreting it in the absolute most uncharitable way possible. We see this happen everywhere online - most infamously on Twitter and :reddit-logo: - and we rightfully dunk on it, but as terminally internet-brain-poisoned people, we aren't immune to falling into the same trap. Hell I find myself doing that sometimes in real life with people I'm talking face-to-face with, and I hate it. Pure Text is a wildly imperfect communication method.

@HoChiMaxh put it very succinctly in a recent comment:

HB is based on infrastructure that was developed by capitalists to weaponize our psychology make us obsessed about these online engagements. While the mods and users are cool, they’re cool on a mimic of a very sinister, brain-hacking model.

That is to say we all get too online sometimes, our ape brains mistake mean comments or ratios for personal attacks or social threats.

The reddit model, as with most social media models, is literally designed in a lab to farm negative engagement for clicks. IMO we've made great strides to nullify the most toxic effects of social media, but at the end of the day, this is still a social media site, with much of the same baggage as the Big Tech ecosystems. Most everyone here is coming from a working-class background and desperately wants to make the world a better place. Of course bad-faith actors and outright chuds are around, but if they constituted any meaningful majority of the userbase, the Hexbear experiment fundamentally wouldn't work and the site wouldn't exist anymore. It's important to keep that in mind to foster productive, healthy discussions that don't devolve into nasty insults and needless aggression.

2. Engaging is not a requirement, and neither is winning every argument.

This is another holdover from :reddit-logo:, where being right and winning arguments is held in unreasonably high regard over constructive discussion. Everyone gets heated sometimes; as leftists we are extremely passionate about critiquing the capitalist social order and bringing about liberation for all. We're also highly accustomed to being attacked from all sides everywhere we go by bigots and all flavors of reactionaries. It virtually requires us to adopt an extremely defensive mindset, even when we're among fellow comrades.

As stated earlier, it's our duty as leftists to call out reactionary thought. But its also important to, for lack of a better term, "pick your battles". Continuously engaging with a post or a user you find distressing or just plain wrong is not a requirement. There's much we can do online to help shift peoples' perspectives, but it's also important to know when the argument is taking a toll on your mental and emotional health. Reporting the post and moving on is always an option.

Invoking the right to disengage is also always an option, though I feel it needs to be clarified: it's NOT appropriate to use it as an excuse to get in the last word in an argument. If you mean to disengage, then only say "please disengage" or "I'm disengaging". Don't write an essay shitting all over someone and then tack on "disengage" at the end. That's not how that works and it's explicitly bad faith practice to do so.

In my view, I care far less about people being right all the time than I do about their willingness to change their perspectives for the better when presented with new information and earnestly listen to comrades with differing views. "Winning" an online argument means absolutely nothing if no hearts have been changed. Purge the Redditor living in your head.

3. Use the report button and/or DMs whenever something needs moderator/admin attention.

The moderation team consists entirely of unpaid volunteers. We have our own lives and personal struggles outside of the online sphere. Reports of reactionary content and shitty behavior are never intentionally ignored by the moderation team, we simply cannot be perfectly aware all the time every day. Sometimes, comm mods (the only team members with access to comm reports) go inactive without anyone really realizing. Sometimes our personal schedules don't line up on a particular day and things go unseen for a while. But the team collectively check reports and DMs multiple times a day, so if you see anything that shouldn't be on the site, please please please hit that report button. If there's a particularly egregious issue (ie. DM harrassment, coordinated wrecking), don't hesitate to DM sitemods or admins about it.

If you feel particularly strongly about enforcing the posting culture of Hexbear and want to contribute by becoming a moderator, instructions for applying are in this post, or you can DM @CARCOSA. Some comms have no moderators at the moment, and only comm mods are able to see reports, so any assistance on that front is extremely helpful in maintaining a healthy site culture.

The team has learned a LOT over the last 2.5 years of managing this site. Creating an independant reddit-esque offshoot was a huge undertaking, and it warms my heart so much to see how successfully we've all built a supportive community here.

That being said, it's important to remember that Hexbear Dot Net is NOT the revolutionary vanguard, it's a shitposting website, albeit a heavily moderated one striving to be a safe and welcoming space for ALL comrades. Mistakes will be made, as we're all only human, and not all decisions will be unanimously agreed upon. If you feel you're getting too wrapped up in site drama or conflict with other users, it's okay to take a break. Everyone needs a break sometimes. If you're able to safely organize IRL, that's the best thing you can possibly do to bring about the world you wish to see.

Final Thoughts

This time of year is rough for many people, whether they're dealing with chud family members, suffering from loneliness, battling with seasonal depression, or just the slow pace of the news cycle and the world in general leaving you far too much time with your own thoughts. For what its worth coming from an internet stranger, I sincerely love and appreciate all my comrades here. I have almost no one IRL I can talk to about leftism and this site is downright cathartic for me, and I know many others feel the same way. Remember: beyond the shitposting, we're all human beings just trying to survive in Hellworld.