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"Federating with Biggots"

Much of Mastodon and the greater Fediverse enjoy and employ their ability to block people and instances en masse. It’s a great feature on Mastodon, unrivalled by any proprietary walled gardens. However, I take a step back when it comes to someone demanding that we must defederate.

I have found the following reasons to allow instances to connect to white nationalists, edgy-teens, Americans, and the like:

Normalization

It’s famously impossible to argue someone out of believing nonsense with facts and reason (famous yet wrong, but it certainly happens rarely). However, normalization happens all the time. Someone spending a lot of time reading about how trans people are all crazy internet feminists may slowly change their mind once they work in an office with someone who’s just a normal woman. People with naïve views on immigrants can change their mind after meeting enough immigrants. Anyone who thinks the Jews control the world should see how well the Jews organize a cedar dinner.

Avoiding bigots is usually a good idea, but telling others they cannot speak with bigots is not.

Family

Lots of us have family with unfortunate views. We may not visit very often, but not everyone wants to abandon them. In fact, someone spending a lot of time alone and unemployed, on the internet, reading conspiracy videos, sounds like a sign they need more normal interactions, not less.

Instead of thinking about ‘your racist uncle’, try thinking of ‘your idiot nephew’. He’s still a person, even if he’s young, impressionable, and tried to fit in with the wrong crowd on Discord.

Cutting family ties can be good, but telling others to cut their family ties is not.

Education

They are all sad trolls living in their mum’s basement.

This misleading and occasionally pernicious cliché has outlived its usefulness, even as a cope. There’s more to the story of idiots online, and some people want to stay informed, whether they’re professional journalists, bloggers, or just want to understand where on earth all the crazy is coming from.

“Don’t feed the trolls” is one thing, but “do not observe the trolls” is another.