Obviously, the internet has always been a toxic place, (the phrase “flame war” has been around for decades,) but it seems to have gotten so much worse over the last few years. I used to think decentralization of the internet would fix the worst of it, but Lemmy seems to have gotten worse alongside the rest of internet culture, proving me wrong. How do we fix/improve this culture of toxicity?
I’m not positive that you can do much outside of simply (temporarily or permanently) banning people who are acting shitty.
On the flip side, banning people because they disagree with you is how we end up with the kind of echo chambers that breed other socially toxic problems like strict partisanship, and cults of personality… so it’s a fine line.
Generally I don’t see a lot of people on Lemmy acting like straight-up assholes. I don’t always agree with people, and I think there is a potential for “flame wars” and arguments, but as long as everyone is acting in good faith and being reasonable about what they are expressing I feel that’s generally an acceptable level of conflict.
I’ve never wanted someone banned because they said something I didn’t like. Like… If someone wanted to come here and make the case for why Donald Trump is a great president, I would love to see them try. The real problem is when people resort only to trolling and forego any attempt at having a real good-faith conversation. That’s when the relationship breaks down and the conversation is no longer conducive to running a real community. When people start acting like assholes, making personal attacks, or continually arguing in bad-faith, then I think it warrants at least a temporary ban.
The goal of the internet should not be conflict avoidance or group-think, but mutual respect and treating each other like human beings. For the most part, I think the Fediverse is pretty good about that.
You can also ask that your admins defederate instances where shitty-acting people are allowed to set up shop.