This little instance has been great, but Lemmy and the fediverse in general is really dragging on me.
Every. Single. Thread. has the word "capitalism" or "Trump" in it somewhere. I'm sick to death of it. Even though I agree with a lot of the sentiment, the erosion of the middle class, the concentration of wealth, the consolidation of media, the "you will own nothing and be happy" mentality permeating the consumer space. In many ways that's why I left Reddit and joined Lemmy, but dang it that doesn't mean I want to talk about absolutely nothing else.
And the only communities devoid of politics are also devoid of content. I do a lot of worldbuilding stuff, and I've tried to make !worldbuilding@lemmy.world more active, but sometimes I feel like I'm the only poster. Then I look at r/worldbuilding, and there's a glut of really interesting posts showcasing people's imagination and creativity, and nary a mention of Musk or Epstein in sight.
And then there's the tech side of things. Hope you like Linux, cuz that's all you're going to see. And if you dare suggest that Linux may not be the right choice for your blind grandmother, you get eviscerated in the comments.
Granted, Reddit itself used to have a similar problem. It attracted a very specific type of user (neckbeards) and the experience wasn't great if you weren't one, but ironically the same popularization of Reddit that lead to its platform decay also solved this homogeneity problem. Similarly, Tankies and their ilk seem to flock to Lemmy, explaining the tone of the discourse.
Am I crazy? Anyone else feel the same? Did I knock over a hornet's nest and this post is going to end up deleted?
Not at all. You're spot on. Granted, I do like Linux and Star Trek so many of my bases are largely covered even though I have countless users and communities blocked.
I enjoy the world building stuff but am just a lurker. Same with a lot of other non-politics/news/rage hobby stuff. I've been trying to make an effort to post more lately, and only interesting stuff that's not just a rage-jerk, but I don't want to overdo it and spam or post low effort stuff just to be posting.
Unfortunately, your observations aren't new, and I've had the same thoughts for a while. It's something of a feedback loop because the more people who don't want to be here for the constant rage end up leaving, and the place just distills further. The only reason I've stuck around as long as I have is mostly in hopes of this just being a growing pain. I came here because I wanted to be here not because I got banned from everywhere else (which seems to be a significant portion of the userbase here, sadly).
All I can say is, if you can stand it, keep trying to be the change you want to be.