uses American stuff
Upset there are Americans there
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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I don't use stuff from that continent (in fact, as far as I know, Kbin is European, and lemmy.world is even based in Europe). But when I browse through all, majority of content is related to US somehow, and majority of comments are related to something in the US too.
I can block communities and instances, obviously, but generic communities are being pushed to US culture somehow, despite having allegedly users from other countries and continents. And there is no filter, unfortunately, so either block or get bombarded by US-related stuff
Would it be because most EU countries are using other sites that are in their own language? Idk why I'd visit a predominantly English site if my English wasn't super proficient. That would just leave the US, UK, and Aus mostly, and the US dwarfs those by quite a bit.
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Yes because this community definitely doesn't have a huge bias towards US culture.
Makes you wonder if the demographics are skewed towards Americans. Or maybe others are not that vocal about their local culture?
Any fellow Europeans here?
Actually when I moved here from Reddit I really enjoyed that it seemed like the perspectives weren't so US-focused. I don't know if there were really more non-US folks or if maybe the more left leaning userbase meant I noticed it less. But now I feel like I've been in quite a few threads where US dominance was in full force, like the one asking why weed is illegal but alcohol not, or anything that mentions gun control.
Weed is not illegal for the majority of Americans, funny enough. Europe is a different story.
There are more lemmy servers hosted in the U.S. than any other country, although they certainly don't make up the majority. IDK about users though.
Yes
I don't get it. Are you saying that lemmy.world has too many US users? Why would that matter?
As an American:
I do try to avoid spaces with an over abundance of other Americans. Largely because I get way more than my share of American news pushed at me on all fronts every day and those people just tend to echo what CNN/Fox has to say about something over and over.
But to other nationalities, any space with a US presence is regarded as "CIA controlled propaganda and those Americans are all slaves of their rich overlords and their capitalism is the singular reason the world is shit"
Believe it or not, American media exists on a spectrum too, just like anywhere. Ironically, the people who spout this uninformed nonsense remind me of the lowest-common-denominator types of Americans who are afraid of Chinese immigrants and healthcare because "communism".
I don't regard any place with the US presence as a CIA clubhouse, but you must admit, The Default Country for many on the internet, here included, is the US. So yeah, most of the news are the US news
Because it means that contributions are always leaning towards American viewpoints. From politics being mainly concerned with US politics to comments being written from an English speaking, US perspective.
Would you join an instance with a dominating presence of Russian or Chinese or Brazilian or South African or Iranian users? I hope you can see why it matters now.
So, you're saying that US users on lemmy.world are keeping other nationalities from talking about issues or viewpoints relevant to them?
No, not at all. But by sheer number of submissions and comments the collective hive mind will tend towards topics that are relevant for the biggest population.
It's nothing malicious. People are simply less likely to upvote and engage with content that does not interest them or is not relevant for them. All natural of course. But the side effect is that minority topics are suppressed.
There really are just a lot of us. Many English speaking platforms will naturally be filled with US folks because of the sheer number of us.
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I would love to see some examples of these minority topics being down voted or suppressed since it seems to be deeply affecting international users' experience.
To me, it seems like you and the OP resent US users for simply existing in an online space without putting forth any solutions to the issue. Are you sure you're not trying to find ways to justify anti-US bias?
If you want the space to have more equal representation, why not produce high-quality content that appeals to your fellows rather than moaning about people who by your own admission mean no harm?
As @[email protected] already pointed out (thanks girl!), I never said they would get downvoted. It's just that if US news are upvoted and international news are not, then sorting by upvotes (which any reasonable algorithm will do), will inevitably lead to a reduced visibility of said international news.
Thanks to federation the frontpage itself is mostly non specific memes and tech/Linux content. But if you want a concrete example: here is a screenshot of [email protected]. the name of the community would suggest well, world news. The reality is ... Quite different:
The nine posts in the screenshot are about:
- Elon musk (50/50)
- Jk Rowling & a new Scottish law (international)
- US traffic blockades (US)
- Donald Trump (US)
- Israel war (international)
- US jails (US)
- US housing (US)
- Donald Trump (US)
- Donald Trump (US)
If you want the space to have more equal representation, why not produce high-quality content that appeals to your fellows rather than moaning about people who by your own admission mean no harm?
As i have just explained in my first paragraph this will not be enough. (And that's aside from the extra effort required to keep up said high quality work. Even if it would lead to equal representation, it's an uphill battle.)
Are you sure you're not trying to find ways to justify anti-US bias?
Yes, I am sure. I am merely stating a fact. This dynamic develops in any online space with a clear majority group. For example, take the /r/de subreddit. It is the default subreddit for German speaking users on reddit. Austrian and Swiss users are explicitly invited. And yet, by sheer number of citizens the news about German politics dominate the submissions. I do no more resent Germans for up voting content that interest them on /r/de (for example myself) than I resent Americans upvoting content that interests them.
Similarly you can take any other instance that is specific to a group, be it defined via country (e.g. lemmy.ca) or shared interest/experience (e.g. lemmy.blahaj.zone) and you will find that minorities that are not part of that definition will inevitably be suppressed. But these country or interest specific instances do not claim to cover the world. In fact, OP was probably writing this post not due to the presence of US citizens on Lemmy, but due to the overwhelming presence of US citizens on an instance that claims to represent the world. Renaming [email protected] to [email protected] would go a long way.
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The comment you replied to very clearly said “less likely to upvote” not that topics are downvoted. But this kind of American exceptionalism is like 90% of the problem I have with spaces being dominated by y’all. Frankly it’s insufferable how far up your own arses you’ve stuffed your heads.
Do you think "supress" simply means "not up voting non-US content?" Okay, maybe I got that one wrong.
But you really don't get how hostile you guys come off toward US folks who are just existing?
I mean, your comment is the very embodiment 9f the anti-US sentiment I see from so many. What are people supposed to do to appease you?
You barged in here and mischaracterised what someone said so you could be outraged…SMH and you still think we all are the problem.
The one thing that you could do, that any American could do, is be capable of introspection on this stuff. But this thread kinda proves how impossible that is. Other people and places exist. English is the lingua franca of the Internet. Would y’all please stop being so self-centred?
I "barged in" to a thread on Lemmy, a public forum where all are supposedly welcome? Are you seriously trying to exclude me based on my identity or background?
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i appreciate your leveled and honest analysis here. others are nitpicking your choice of language but personally this is the best summary of the situation i have seen to date :)
Be the change you want to see in lemmy.world.
- Abraham Lincoln or smth I dunno
I already do, not every day but sometimes, when I see something worth to be published. You can check inside my profile.
…no?
I mean they're not wrong, but it does seem silly to complain about American politics on a website where most people are American.
They could block instances/users posting content they don't want to see, or browse by "subscribed."
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You should have called them CIA plants, or Feds. That would have really showed them.
I wanted to see what I would get with the prompt "CIA Plants"
That's just US Election Season
Gringos tend to vore every conversation when that time rolls around.
Let them get it out their systems. They are in pain.
I'm from Latin America, btw.
It's always election season in USA
No I'm pretty sure that's exclusively 196 during this election season for some reason
for some reason
Perhaps the impending chance of us living with 4 more years of someone who openly wants to violently overthrow our government and be a dictator?
Well most of the political posts I've been seeing here have ranged from "Biden isn't any better" to literal Soviet propaganda.
lemmy users got that antipolitical brainrot
for some reason
I honestly hoped just blocking Lemmygrad would keep lemmy from going to shit but alas
Lemmy.world is just Reddit 2, basically.
It's because America is #1 baby!
/s
TAIWAN #1
Actually yes, you guys have a kick ass country and make all the cool computer chips I like.
1/10
How?
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