Some core developers of Lemmy are hardcore tankies and that attracts others.

Also, for someone from Africa it's weird to claim they are not involved in this. China is strategically investing in African countries. If your country has any mineral or other strategic resources, China is no doubt already there.

On one hand, Lemmy used to be a safe-space for communists (including those that wish for the USSR back) before Redditors moved in. The developers of Lemmy themselves are politically pro-China and anti-USA.
On the other hand, the USA have stopped being the shining beacon of freedom and democracy they used to be seen as by many people in the west. So anti-USA posts will get lots of upvotes even from people in the west or the USA itself.
And thirdly, the western countries' refusal to speak out against Israel's genocide in Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon has turned most of lemmy against their governments.

China just looks less bad in comparison than it used to be.
When western governments don't give a fuck about human rights anymore, they have no standing to criticize China over it. And when western media refuse to even address an ongoing genocide carried out with western weapons and money, trust in them is lost and people start to doubt whether the stories they tell about the evil adversary China are true after all.

So it's a mix of Lemmy's original board culture, and a major shift in public perception in general.

P.S.: I'd love to read more news and stories from African countries on Lemmy!

That's happening because you're on lemmy.world, which is connected to lemmy.ml. if you look at those pro-ccp threads, they'll be coming from lemmy.ml, the authoritarian socialist website.

My website isn't connected to .ml, so I don't see any of that nonsense.

Lemmy was created by communists, for communists. It's gonna have communists in it.

Lemmy was made by communists, seeking to build an alternative to Reddit where communists will not be able to be fully censored. Federation also is similar to how the USSR was federated, and FOSS attracts the left. As such, many areas on Lemmy are going to be pro-CPC (and supportive of socialist states in general).

This isn't the case on every instance, though. Each instance has its own political leanings, some very anti-China and anti-communist in general. It depends on the moderation, federation practices, and focus of the instance itself.

Communists tend to be pro-African, especially the Alliance of Sahel States.

Less Anti-West, more like Anti-US. And the China drones are another thing entirely.

Anyone else get a suspicious anti-genocide vibe from this place? 😳

There are absolutely pro-authoritarian agitators here who feel the need to inject their venomous or smug anti-west rhetoric at any opportunity, just looking to start an argument or push propaganda.

As far as posts about African nations being ignored I’d say that’s par for the course for the West. We’re wildly ignorant about the continent, so much so that we say that someone is “from Africa” while ignoring the 50+ countries that exist there. Our news doesn’t cover it unless we can bomb it or exploit it.

Full disclosure, I live in Africa and don't have a dog in this fight

This upset China

The founders of the platform are tankies. Dessalines, for example, is a tankie that banned me for criticizing china.

if you are african you definitely have a dog in this fight.

africa has been ravaged by western colonialism not unlike we were.

Anything pro-African is mostly neutral but in essence ignored.

This is sad.

I’m American, and I want the Fediverse to be Euro, Africa, South America heavy. Basically anyone but the usual suspects that dominate news. I want to see stuff from other countries.

I was fortunate enough to get to visit Tanzania, and it was great. It’d be nice if your continent took over the world. Please…

Anyway, be aware that many of the authoritarian shills actually live in the US, Western Europe or wherever. Some do not, but the bulk seem to.

They’re just terminally online.

They don’t know squat about what’s actually going on in North Korea or Iran or China, and they wouldn’t be here if they did because lemmy.ml is banned China, Iran, and obviously North Korea.

Talk to the Eastern European Fediverse folks.

They know precisely what the deal is. You do not hear them praising the Soviets, that’s for sure.

I've only been on Lemmy for a few days but ...

You're on the fediverse. You are your own algorithm. What you see is what you chose to follow or what's on the instance you signed up to. Either way, you ended up there by choice. If this is a thing you notice after only a few days, you are not qualified to predict the doom and gloom of Lemmy. Work on your feed first.

You'll find biased communities on here. You'll find reasonable ones. But you need to go look for them. It's just as echo-chambery here like anywhere else on the internet.

I'm also African. I used to be fairly biased towards west, as in letting them get away with foreign intervention with just minor scrutiny while being strongly against china russia and islam for their downfalls(misogyny, oppression ect). up until the whole files release and that took me down a rabbit hole of learning about reality of 9/11 the magnitude of bias in mainstream media and finally reading about history of socialism and eventually communism starting from Che Guevara

That alone already made me have severe criticism of US as is but what sent me over the edge is how complacent americans are, if these things happened in any other country the entire economy would be shut down by the people, but they're just trying to avoid talking or bringing up this subject, or saying it's out of their power, then the next moment starting a topic about their latest high end keyboard and travel plans, then switching to the difficulties of living end to end

I do my best to try and be kind i swear i do, but things like this actually drive me insane not cause they happen but because of how often it does. I kid you not i'm completely sold that if anyone will stop the west's imperialism and foreign intervention it's going to be another African American or LGBTQ or some minority as usual, because only suffering can bring about change and i do not see suffering from the lifestyles of the americans i talk with, it's always only on paper

The way i see it is they feel unmotivated to reign their government in due to their lifestyle no longer being at the top of charts or better than europe? How does that fix anything in their situation though, and what do i say living off only 2 meals a day to save money? The only thing that got majority of west sphere to hate genocidal regime wasn't their tax money being spent on it but the raising of gas price? Please someone make me central again i'm so sad now

No i'm not paid off i'm just waiting for the American people to pull their weight in all of this or not silencing and smearing people that are trying to pull in their behalf before i can feel the brotherhood bond with them as i do with soviets(not current russia) and china fighting back against RAM cartel and fossil fuels, please

What is "the west" meaning nowadays anyway? US threatens to invade Europe and is closer to russia than NATO. They are barely allies anymore.

Yeah, there are certain "tankie" instances (such as hexbear.net, lemmygrad.ml) that are like that, and most sane people block them to protect their sanity, so no one counters them

Although I'd say it generally skews to the political left, it's a mistake to think of the fediverse as a monoculture. Lemmy as an open source technology is politically neutral, as is ActivityPub as a federation protocol.

At the same time, there are a few hard left communist "tankie" servers, and the creators of Lemmy identify as Leninists, and these types of people tend to be blindly pro-China and pro-Russia.

Personally I do not view either China or Russia in a favorable light... Having said that, I'm not sure I view any country in a favorable light right now, aside from I guess Canada and I guess New Zealand.

Have you seen how much bullshit "The West" has been responsible for lately?

I dont think it's strange at all for there to be a strong undercurrent of anti-western sentiment.

That's why I came to Lemmy. Sure open source and decentralized and all that too. But somebody on reddit described Lemmy as "Leftist Reddit" and I said count me in!

I support a multipolar world order, in a large part because I believe that's what's best for developing/non-aligned countries. Since the US has been the sole superpower and has sought to establish itself as the sole global hegemon, using military aggression to expand its influence and power, it seems pretty natural to oppose it and support competition.

If the US and China are both major powers, then non-aligned countries have the freedom to choose who they do business with, which means they have some ability to bargain for a better deal. If the US or the West were the only game in town, then you'd have to accept whatever they offer, or be shut out of the global marketplace. Furthermore, many of the natural resources of poor countries remain in the hands of the Western powers that seized them through force during colonialism (Haiti is still paying reparations to France for freeing the slaves, for example). Ending this system of neocolonialism is a priority, and that requires an alternative economic bloc.

I don't believe that China invests abroad just out of the kindness of their hearts, however, China has expanded its power through peaceful economic development and trade. China has not been at war with anyone for decades, in contrast to the US which has waged (and is waging) multiple wars of aggression, for the sake of seizing resources. Furthermore, the West will sometimes just decide to steal the assets of poor countries that are invested in their banks, as the did with Venezuela. When has China done this?

Even if you dislike the Chinese system, I see it as a necessity that enabled other systems to survive. The West has a specific system that they want to impose on the entire world, and if you're the only country not doing that system, you're screwed. But China is a lot more flexible, and imposes fewer conditions on domestic policy. This in turn limits the ability of the West to impose their policies, because a country can always choose to walk.

For those of you picking at OP "not having a dog in the fight", because they're in Africa, that is irrelevant to OP's point.

Because you have to get your friends to move to Lemmy too so the USSR/PRC loving weirdos become a lower % of total user base. Not kidding.

It’s probably because Americans are wanting a revolution to overthrow the pedophile Zionist class that has highjacked our country ✊🏼🇦🇱

Not really on topic - but a shoutout to https://baraza.africa/ one of the older pre reddit exodus instances.

Lemmy's core developers are Tankies (radical supporters of the CCP and anyone else claiming to carry on second world ideology, such as Putin) as are many of those running older instances. This includes older instances such as Lemmygrad and lemmy.ml, which makes them very entrenched. Still, they seem to be a very vocal minority, since larger instances like Lemmy.world lean away from that, and PieFed (an alternative but still intercompatible Lemmy alternative) is popular in part from those wishing to move away from Lemmy's tankie developers.

Thank you for bringing a new voice to the conversation.

What do you consider pro African content? How do you view various parts of Africa? How do you see US and Chinese actions from an African perspective? How do you tend to get information about them? How do you personally view the presence of the US or China in Africa?

There has been a major uptick in people supporting socialism under the guise of social programs. Many will claim to support socialism because they favor things like universal healthcare, fair wages, unions, and similar policies. In reality, however, these things have nothing to do with socialism itself. They are social welfare programs that can be implemented under virtually any form of government.

What many of these people are actually advocating for is social democracy, not socialism. The fact that both terms contain the word "social" does not make them the same thing. Socialism, traditionally defined, involves some form of collective or public ownership of the means of production. Universal healthcare, labor protections, welfare programs, and unions do not inherently require that.

The most frustrating part is that many people simply redefine words to fit their preferred narrative. They make declarative statements that are objectively incorrect, then dismiss the actual definitions when challenged. At that point, it becomes nearly impossible to have a productive conversation because you're no longer debating ideas, you're debating the meanings of the words themselves.

It's because USA sucks and China rulez. Nothing suspicious here.

Welcome to Lemmy.

I don't know how true it is for where you live OP, but from my POV in western Europe, capitalism propaganda is non-stop. "Competition is good" is science, not a piece of ideology. "Billionaires are innovators" goes mostly unchallenged. "China is evil" is a fact, and when they do something good it must be because of corrupt intentions behind it all.

I agree that this constant rejection of that propaganda would be weird if you don't live 24/7 with that glazing of capitalism to begin with (which may or may not exist depending on where you live in Africa)

I disagree with the anti-west part. Anti-USA (as government or as an example for ethical governance) then, sure, but with good reasons.

And regarding pro CCP views, it depends on the context actually. You can't just throw everything on a bubble... The thing is that for a LONG time we have been fed by North American or European media the idea that China = Evil and USA/EU = Good, but nowadays, thanks to the expansion of information and people accessibility to other sources (such as the Fediverse), we know that's simply not true at all.

When you see, for example, powerful countries allying to Israel genocidal acts, maintaining civilians under siege for almost 20 years, or just turning their back to it as if they can't see the fucking obvious, you realize these governments are full of shit.

But it's not that people here are anti-west, or that they don't like western people as a whole. In fact, I'm sure most of users here are westerns. We just don't like how big western governments deal with things, and here people can actually talk about it. When you say some of these things on platforms such as Reddit or X, the rigged algorithms will sure punish you.

It's interesting to get a perspective from someone living in Africa. I sadly rarely hear from you lot there. What part of Africa, if I may ask, comrade?

If you ask me, the fascists that seize the US have indeed made the US to become a danger to Europe. The former's south and midwest rapidly are couping the rest from an imperfect bourgeoise democracy - into a fascist dictatorship. But it wasn't always that way, and this damage must be undone. The root cause of socioeconomic inequity remains to be addressed, while capital and oligarch flight must be halted. By kind and law, and by word and sword.

For there is a lot of good around in the world that we can find and when we look only for the bad, we become addled with inaction, with fear. And that doesn't help the labour's cause.

Most Lemmings are from Europe, North America, or New Zealand & Australia. More rarely will you find those from elsewhere. That, and Lemmy was primarily found on being a hub for Marxist-Leninists.

Though in more recent times more people that align with left-wing movements have joined here, primarily due to the Reddit API greed's exodus. Many came here due to the decentral nature of the fediverse, which is inherently opposed to the oligarchic structures that enabled that API drama in the first place.

So naturally there's a "bias" against capitalism, and since there aren't many socialist larger powers left in the world, that gives a pro-CCP boost. China's government is also often seen as a lesser evil compared to the American fascists, though I prefer neither.

Me? I have my reservations about Marxist-Leninism. I agree with Marxist theory, though.

I would describe myself as an anarchist communist, or a council communist. In terms of where I align, I decline states altogether. But for my own liberty to speak out, I'm not exactly a fan of the Usonian (since they repress personal liberties due to religious indoctrination) or Chinese government (due to their crackdown on class solidarity with queers). In both countries, a lot of people exist that have their own respectable views, but unfortunately, it is leadership that can be the root of repression and corruption. The EU is somewhat decent in terms of personal liberties, though it's far too neoliberal and too little socialist/communist.

Ultimately, I believe that socialism and communism are the better path, and that those are only possible through full liberation and emancipation from repression, including those of queers. I prefer a community exchange system over one where economic colonialism renews itself in perpetuity.

If you'd like some theory, I can recommend Kropotkin's Conquest of Bread, as well as reading on the Anarchist Library.

You are right

There's a lot to criticise Washington for right now, and westerners will generally care a lot more about it since it affects them, even if it's only indirectly.

It's also a bit of a reaction to how the western MSM tends to be the opposite, being critical of everything the CPC does.

I don’t think the platform is like that, as a whole.

But there are two groups that have created communities devoted entirely to making up strawman attacks against the other and they circlejerk over how much better they are than the other.

If they find a post outside their bubbles, you can guarantee it will have weird votes and comments.

All of the fun communities are free from this though.

You're in .world, I sincerely doubt there are that many massively upvoted pro-China or anti-West comments coming from your instance.

I live in Africa and don't have a dog in this fight

You're the prize the dogs are fighting over

Leemy seems full of young westerners with a strong attitude that used to be called "anti-establishment". I think this comes out a lot as overall negativity to the western world, which is seen as authoritative. colonialist, environmentally destructive, and pretty much on the wrong side of any argument by default.

For every post and comment where China and the United States comes up there's at least another companion post and comments talking about it. Just like this thread.

There's about a dozen users who have been arguing with each other for about three years now. Discourse simply cannot be neutral about this dynamic with how they approach the topic.

And just an FYI; Some of the same folks will also crashout if you oppose Zionism, or insult the Epstein class.

Not really. Lots of not a fan of the US but most of western europe seem fine

The internet has been largely anti-west since as long as I can remember, but the pro-CCP thing is newer.

Part of it is because they're one of the only "flag carriers" of socialism, so to speak, and that blinds some really desperate socialists who can't see they are about as far from socialism as America.

Honestly being from Africa and with their belt amd road initiative there id think you have more involved than a lot of us in the west.

Yup I noticed this as well.

I mean as far as the us. there are these folks who like to put up god bless america signs. Now im not religious. I don't believe in god. Still. I look and say. That should be america be worthy of gods blessing. Now maybe europe is doing alright but the us has no basis for asking for accolades.

Yeah you can't even talk about how Mao killed tens of millions of Chinese without getting downvoted. That's present... But less prevalent than the general America-badism.

I have not but, I’m uncertain whether it is because.. I might have blocked certain people already, blocked an instance, not being active enough or all of it.

Fuck America!

American here. As we all know, America is the only important country in the world so there is little need for African content...

Hi Joe, although with a somewhat heavy heart as I think there are some Americans who would say that seriously. I would also love more South African content. It's a beautiful country with an interesting if checkered story and I would love to visit it someday.

That said, there are two things you should keep in mind. First off, whatever instance you're on has a large effect on what you will see on Lemmy, so if you want more African content you might see if there is an instance running in Africa or at least subscribe to communities on that instance. You don't have to join that instance in order to see them, but you do have to go looking for them.

Second, Lemmy has been largely adopted by a westernized population mostly of American and Western Europe origin, mainly because it provides a fediverse system with an experience similar to Reddit. Thus, much of Lemmy's traffic is current or ex-redditors, which are mostly from the aforementioned demographics.

Yes and that’s exactly why I use this place. I don’t want another Reddit. I want a space where a different viewpoint can be fostered.

The Truth About Tankies

Might be helpful

100%

CCP was a very strong grip here.

I'm going to get crucified for what I'm going to say. But here is when I noticed it. A few years ago lemmy was one of the only places AI was getting hated on very hard. Like other places had some small posts or conversations but they were pretty mature. But lemmy was hateful.

What I noticed was that it reminded me of something at the tip of my tongue. Then it hit me. The posts were all the same posts I saw in republican spaces. Like word for word same headline. Same energy, same bullshit. Except instead of immigrants it was AI.

I'm going to stop you people right there because I know what the fuck the comments will be already. So just stop. This isn't a comment about consequences of AI pro or con. It's a comment about an observation. Something I've noticed and the more I saw the more it made sense.

Lemmy was targeted hard and was one of the early generators of anti AI sentiment. It was impressive. What made it all make sense is that as much as we hate AI, it's here. It's not going away. Like any new frontier, the people who are first to new land will become the powerful and rich for the next generation. If I'm not fast enough, maybe I can make others slower. If we know CCP is here. And we know countries are trying to race their industries to build new patents and innovations in this new frontier, then it makes sense why such a small site like lemmy full of early adopters was targeted. It's why posts were reminiscent of the astro turfing we all saw in republican spaces about immigrants. It's not the there are not problems its about amplification, framing and narrative building.

CCP want western nationals to be behind the ball on innovation. They contributed massively to pushing stories early on about AI taking jobs, raping your women and stealing our way of life. If you really want to see CCP in action then search up the early AI posts here if they haven't already scrubbed them.