The philosophy behind FOSS is inherently left wing and anarchist; communities working together to provide and produce tools for the common good, without a profit motive. Coupled with the lack of advertising and promotion of the sites, people have to seek them out, leading to a self-selecting user population that skews left :)
this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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I think pretty much everyone views their political ideology as "the one that stands for freedom", and it just comes down to what it means to be "free", and the follow up of free from what.
I feel like libertarians would love the concept of FOSS and decentralization, and I don't think anyone would argue they skew left.
So, I disagree that FOSS is inherently left wing. I think it's attractive to the left wing for many good reasons. I think people project their own politics onto whatever they love, and things can be loved by very different groups for different reasons.
I would say that FOSS typically draws a more educated crowd, and right wing rhetoric and propaganda typically target those of lesser education and lower cognitive ability, simply because those people are the most likely hosts for rightoid brain worms. Why do colleges skew heavily left, gee it must be brainwashing /s
Eh, there's plenty of educated right wingers. Not fascists as much, but the kind of fiscally conservative economists who preach austerity are often as not highly educated, just lacking in empathy.
You're speaking of pundits and politicians whose opinions are public and widespread. There is little reason to believe that those folks are sincere in their public statements. They are motivated by greed to lie in an effort to sway the opinions of uneducated people.
Among the general public, those that sincerely hold conservative political views are cognitively impaired. Source: they vote for things that are objectively against their own prosperity.
FOSS isn't inherently left wing. It is often charitable work but that's far from unique to the left wing. That can also just stem from "I wanted this program to exist and it didn't, but I don't want to put even more effort in to monetize it." Plenty of FOSS projects start as someone wanting to learn something early on in their career as well (which is both a pro and a con because ... if you're learning you might be making some bigger mistakes).
Anarchism ... I just don't really agree with that at all. Lots of larger FOSS projects do very much have governing bodies that decide what to do and how it shall be done. In many cases FOSS authors are a one person governing body making all the big decisions.
Organized charitable work is far from anarchy even though anarchism dreams of everything being organized charitable work.
As a left winger myself...
.... I'm not sure Foss is inherently left wing. Inherently anti authoritarian for sure, but I can totally see a libertarian type making a pro-FOSS argument from a capitalistic-individualistic and it being rather sensible. (Aaaaas long as we ignore the ways it'd contradict other beliefs right wing liberals tend to hold, but yknow. Compartmentalisation is a human superpower)
I think I'd still argue the free open source part is inherently left wing. Why would I, a right wing libertarian, lend my time to developing a piece of software that I am unable to make a profit from? I have no motive.
Something like bitcoin is the kind of tech project of that mould that i think attracts the right wing libertarian. Just my opinion though.
Why would I, a right wing libertarian, lend my time to developing a piece of software that I am unable to make a profit from? I have no motive.
Because you do stand to gain regardless. "I have my code on the source of " is like. Amazing portfolio material for any job interview. I had a friend get a job in the games industry (though they regret it to this day because the game industry sucks--) with nothing on his resumé except for a smattering of mods for popular games.
Any pro-capitalist person with a functioning brain will acknowledge the role of non-monetary "Profits" in every human relationship, yanno?
That's true, but it still doesn't change the fact that the FOSS ethos runs in direct conflict with the ideals of capitalism and private ownership, and libertarians are nothing if not fanboys of those things.
Being able to do what you want is a part of private ownership. Some people just like making their code available to everyone.
Because reality has a left-wing bias.
Damnit this would've been my immediate response, too.
Heh. Because lefties are just conservatives who got mugged by reality, and once that happens there's no going back? ;-)
It has to do with profit motive. The Fediverse, and the Lemmy sub-protocol, arose when for-profit enterprises (TwitX and Reddit, respectively) began prioritizing their own bottom line over the enrichment of their users.
This has always been the Faustian bargain of social media: you are the product and you receive free content at the cost of advertisements and data mining.
Once the monopolists of the social sphere overstepped their bounds - got too invasive, or tried extracting value directly from the end user - free alternatives formed.
Naturally, the only people self-aware enough to be put off by the exploitation of these monopolists were left-leaning. There’re a lot of people out there who will pay to be cocooned in an echo chamber (viz Truth Social) but leftists like to pretend they’re too good for that shit.
So here we all are, enjoying a methodone drip of social media without all of the optimization and dopamine-tweaking hooks that for-profit socials live by.
It’s not a bad outcome, really, and if someone somehow wants to start a counter-culture right wing node on the fediverse, nothing is stopping him except a total lack of willing participants.
Say what you will about leftists; at least they try new things - and conservatives, as you would expect from the name, do not.
It’s not a bad outcome, really, and if someone somehow wants to start a counter-culture right wing node on the fediverse, nothing is stopping him except a total lack of willing participants.
And the fact, that most instance would instantly defederate
This almost feels like bait, your instance is Lemmy.ml. The ml stands for Marxist-Leninist, your home instance is literally the home for far-left ideology. You'll still see a leftist bant for the reasons commenters have mentioned, but the single biggest reason is that your instance is owned and operated by them.
It's the second largest instance, plus it's the original instance. I can see why one or both of those facts might draw someone. Maybe they thought it was hosted in Mali!
Wait that’s really what it stands for? I keep seeing some commotion over it every so often but I thought it was just an abbreviation of a country or something.
Its the top level domain of mali, but the devs picked it because it can also mean marxist-leninist.
Sort of like how twitch uses .tv, even though it isnt situated in tuvalu
Yeah, there are some serious whackos on there. It's a very vocal part of the population. I highly recommend folks try other instances if they aren't hard-left.
I mean you signed up on lemmy.marxism-leninism. Yeah they tend to lean left, lol.
But yeah your observation indeed is is correct. Not only does lemmy lean left it often leans pretty far left too. It might feel like a breathe of fresh air but it's still a bubble and echo chamber. It's the same as truth social but the exact opposite. Nothing wrong with that per-se but it's a good thing to keep in mind. Factual information is regularly downvoted here not because it's false but because it doesn't fit the narrative.
I don't come here for the far left. I come here for the lack of the far right. The far left are some crazy nutters, too, but I think for the most part they are well meaning and that's a damn sight better than the far right who just wear hatred on their fucking sleeves.
It means I get some shit for not wanting to live in a big city or being happy driving a car, but I take solace in the fact that I'll be long dead before far left ideals take hold in any significant way. Meanwhile... fascism is a far more immediate threat, and that's the one group of fuckers I give myself leave to unabashedly hate.
There's no scarcity of hate on Lemmy either. It simply flies under the radar for most part because it's directed at things we hate too. Exactly as is the case on far-right forums as well. Just read the comments of any thread about Elon, Police, Ai, Facebook, Twitter, Capitalism, Israel and so on. You even admit participating in it yourself.
The far-right thinks of themselves as well meaning just as well. Nobody thinks of themselves as the bad guys. Claiming they intend to be hateful and evil is disingenuine. That's only how you view them. Their view of us is hardly any different. Both views are wrong.
I wouldn't say FOSS is inherently leftist, but it's certainly not a capitalist approach.
And Lemmy has been developed by two outspoken Marxists, so the earliest adopters before the larger waves of reddit exilees had a similar mindset.
Add to the fact that most of the oldest and therefore largest communities are hosted on lemmy.ml, which is run by the original devs, and features moderators who by and large also share a similar mindset (and suppress critical comments quite a bit), and you've got a lefty echo chamber going, that's spilling into the newer communities on neutral instances, giving the whole platform a left touch.
I once wrote a comment on a lemmy.ml page about China being authoritarian and my comment was removed, with a note saying "China isn't authoritarian, stop spreading misinformation" LMAO. Delusional people
They're not delusional, they're paid.
Why would they be paid for a software that can be used for free, to create larger servers than their owns, with completely separate communities they have nothing to say about?
Doesn't seem like a very effective strategy
Because the Fediverse is a great target for propaganda, which is invaluable for some authoritarian countries.
Lemmy is an echochamber with relatively limited, uncoordinated moderation. 1,000,000+ monthly active users, and lemmy.ml is a flagship instance.
This is my understanding as well. History of the platform skews it left.
But I also don't think in terms of left and right (though its hard to get away from the terms so widely used). For instance, most people tend to describe the difference in terms of money and profit (capitalism). I look at control and freedom. I don't want governments controlling what we see, hear, and say. I want us all to control our own lives. Lemmy/Fedi is completely supportive of that concept.
I don't want governments controlling what we see, hear, and say.
Might want to find a new instance
Education.
No for real, a lot of right-wing thinking comes from just parroting disinformation and being in their own echo chamber circles.
Educated people are more likely to 'lean left':
Environment: Higher education institutions often emphasize critical thinking, questioning of traditional norms, and exposure to diverse perspectives. This can lead individuals to adopt more progressive or liberal views.
Diversity: College and university settings are typically more diverse, exposing students to different cultures, ideas, and lifestyles.
Rationalism: Educated individuals may place a higher value on scientific reasoning and empirical evidence, which can align more with policies and positions typically associated with the left, such as support for climate change action and public health initiatives.
Perspective: Higher education can lead to an understanding of economic inequality and systemic issues. Educated individuals might support policies aimed at reducing inequality and improving social welfare.
Career: Many educated individuals work in fields such as academia, healthcare, and social services, where left-leaning values like equity, public good, and social justice are prevalent.
Generational: Younger generations, who are more likely to be college-educated today than in the past, tend to have more progressive views on social issues, such as LGBTQ+ rights and racial equality.
Education is also 'pushed' by a lot of adults when I was a kid. I thought it was kinda normal / lame because duh, of course it's important. I didn't get grasp deepl WHY until I was older and realized it's really a root causal issue of today's problems.
Educated people are more likely to ‘lean left’
I would qualify that as "Educated people with a conscience and a good ethical or moral base".
There are plenty of very smart, very evil right wingers out there.
Mitch McConnell, Manchin, Shkrelli, Ben Shapiro... I suppose you have a point.
They're all psycho left.