Not really meaning for this to sound as arrogant as it's going to, but... Lemmy is almost entirely populated by nerds so far.

Nerds tend to be open to tech, maybe a little smarter overall. You know? You can tell by the grammar, the spelling. It's a different group here.

Reality is left leaning, and the stupider someone is, in general, the more likely they are to lean right politically. The rest of the right are the really rich, who tend to be up the psychological spectrum toward sociopathic, so of course they would have no time for caring for others' needs.

I think you'll find a lot more leftists interested in platforms that are not powered solely by money and profit. Lemmy, much like Mastodon and other federated platforms, only need instances to run to be usable. It doesn't require millions of dollars to keep it afloat.

Generally speaking centrist and right wingers, especially in Western countries, tend to be very capitalist. They only understand the value in terms of money.

"I've noticed that lemmy as a whole has much more moral, empathetic individuals than reddit (outside of political servers of course)

Reality has a well known left leaning bias.

Conservatives and their politics do not have equal status. In this climate, "both sides" is toxic and suggest each is equally supported and viable. They are not. The right is an incredibly hateful minority end should be treated as such.

Lemmy is exactly as left leaning as Reddit was before the wave of propaganda and bots emboldened the right wing crazies to think they were the majority or welcome. I remember the falsely inflated upvotes that made those morons think they were the "silent majority".

Left wingers: "The right is full of neo-fascists who want to exploit natural resources, subjugate minorities, project their own pedophilia habits onto us, roll back the clock on women's rights, and are willing to lie, cheat, beg, borrow, and steal to get it all done!"

Right wingers: "The left is ANNOYING!"

It was because at the time of the exodus from Reddit somehow the conservatives (echoed on the sub by that name) felt that protests were ridiculous and they were on Reddit's side. So less likely to be jumping to an alternative.

Somehow the right has turned into not meeting any authoritarian boot they don't suddenly feel an urge to lick?

There's been tons of right-leaning Reddit alternatives before, but they always quickly devolved into Nazi spaces.

Lemmy was the first one that I'm aware of, which told Nazis to fuck off right from the beginning.

So was reddit a long long time ago. I watched and felt it shift to the centre the heavily to the right. Conservatives destroy everything in the world. I don't doubt your favourite communitues will start heavily skewing right soon enough.

Anti-corporate platforms don't generally appeal to people that built and uphold the existing corporate status quo.

The first wave here were anticapitalists, anarchists or communists. The second wave are the most anti-corporate "liberals".

I once got dogpiled in r/lsd of all places for saying employers shouldn't be allowed to drug test for thc. I got swarmed for "being a druggie" in a sub about lsd.

I quit reddit for good not too long after that. What a fucking shithole.

progression tends not to be conservative

Makes sense that leftists would be more likely to reject the platform that is centralizing power

Just to clarify...is /showerthoughts just a place to post an opinion?

I'm still new here and still trying to figure out what the community is like.

I consider myself left of center on most (but not all) topics. I have a deep hatred for the GOP and everything they stand for, but I also am willing to nitpick the endless things that the Democrats do wrong. Ultimately I consider myself a pragmatist - in other words, you will never get your left-of-center policies enacted if the country as a whole is still leaning to the far right. Try to shift the country to your side first and THEN go for more progressive stuff. It absolutely doesn't work any other way. Trying to push for change too fast and too much will only get you a ton of blowback which will ultimately hurt your cause.

So having very briefly explained my overall stance even I was surprised by some of the comments I've seen - like far left stuff. But it's weird here because there are just simply not that many people, so even one or two comments in a lightly trafficked thread might make you think a site is heavily biased one way or another.

Also, please note that we have already entered US campaign season. Like the FBI has been warning us for literally years now (but few take seriously), there are indeed "bad actors" out there on various social media platforms (Reddit was notorious for this) trying to sway the US election toward Trump. They will do and say anything for it to happen, and that has been proven time and again. Like they fooled some gay groups a few years back and convinced them that Trump would support them, or back on Reddit reading Bernie-focused subs trying to convince progressives that, once again, Trump was the candidate who Sanders would prefer to win. Wild, and crazy stuff, but all it takes is a few percentage of people to buy into this mess to swing an election. Lemmy is not immune to these propaganda campaigns either.

Lemmy is much less US-centric than Reddit.

Left and right are two stupid categories built up by propaganda, get them out of your head and start to think on your own terms

Maybe because on reddit you have an absolute fuck ton of right wing propaganda bots.

Isn't it obvious? Most of the recent wave of users to federated sites was caused by the enshittification, which means:

when an online platform becomes more monetized and less user-oriented the longer it lasts.

This is a problem caused by capitalism. Therefore many of us will be anti-capitalists. Many of us will value creating things that put people over profits.

IDK, seems like European right wing is considered left wing in USA.

So for most Americans, most Europeans are left wing.

Maybe lemmy has more Europeans?

I'm not surprised that people who reject a platform with centralized authority for shifting to "deliver value to shareholders" mode would be more leftist.

reddit had given into the "work the refs" strategy of the American right wing. That artificially elevated the voices of the right and suppressed the voices of the left. It's actually the case when you look at surveys and voting behaviors that right wing ideas are abysmally unpopular.

So when we're on an actually free platform that doesn't have an "engagement" based algorithm driving anger and division, with no one putting their thumb on the scale (or people who try getting defederated), "leftist" ideas come up.

The confusion reflected in the OP is the obvious outcome of the post Fairness Doctrine "both sides" media landscape. There really aren't as many right wing people as left wing. We are legion.

Unfortunately the chuds have started pouring in, because we all know those people cant just let people enjoy themselves if it means they're not getting attention.

See, my worry was Mastadon's Fascist rep. Lemmy's left twist is no sweat of my back.

It’s made by Communists

All the right wingers went to Gab, Parler, Voat, Poal, Truth Social and other places.