Can I just say, without invalidating your underlying concerns, that this place truly gets better when you start blocking communities and individuals, and doing so knee-jerk if necessary with no thought or remorse.
The tip of the identity iceberg doesn’t need to come into play, really. I’ve learned that in this world there are contributors and detractors. There are those who add, and those who take. There are good faith contributors, and there are misanthropes who aren’t happy until everybody else isn’t happy.
I don’t care what race or age a person is, if there’s an MS article and the only thing they do is show up to vandalize the comments section with the single word Linux… I’m blocking the fuck out of 'em immediately. I block people confidently braying opinions where you need but scratch the surface to see how ill-considered they are. I feel no duty to correct these people or listen to another word, its not my job to fix them. Blocked. Show up in a legitimate policy discussion just to bash out fuck [politician]"? Blocked - dialogue at the level of a surly grade 8 student isn’t my jam.
Would I want a friend IRL that just says whatever’s convenient at any time, regardless of how germane, factual, useful, or genuine? Or would I avoid them IRL because they’re a nightmare? That internal reflection guides a lot of my block decisions. Also why I find it so easy.
To summarize my novella, I think this is how I made my Lemmy experience more sane, because it was borderline intolerable at first. To the plus, it only took about 20 or 30 blocks to realize that almost all of the toxicity arose from a small batch of select kooks.
Talk about dramatic. Bro just block people and get on with your life.