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.
Oh for sure. When I joined, servers and communities dedicated to specific countries or even cities had a bit of activity. Used to see a lot of German, Austrian, french, Dutch, Australian and NZ content in my feed. Now only the Germans and Australians, sometimes.
See, I always imagined Aussies as redneck brits, but somehow more approachable and friendly. But as they are quite literally on the other side of the world, I haven’t interacted with enough Aussies to confirm or deny such prejudice.
You guys really as friendly as my imagination suggests?
From my limited experience, kiwis and Canadians are friendly in a more polite/well-mannered way, Aussies are friendly in a more, errr, “colourful” way.
The Dutch are usually pretty good at announcing their presence, as they will flock to anything even remotely associated with their country. Just look at the comments on a Not Just Bikes video and you’ll see for yourself.
They’re also massive shitposters, so expect to find them in the less serious parts of the fediverse.
Both provide great strategies to pull them out of hiding.
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.
US dwarfs those by quite a bit, yes. But India dwarfs the US in number of English speakers. Really, a majority, or at least a plurality, of English speakers are from India.
Wikipedia lists India at #2 in English speakers, behind the US. While a ton, I’m sure most of them would still be using their own Indian sites over a niche of a niche site like Lemmy.
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.
There is no need to read those languages. Translations are still a thing. I remember that, while on Reddit, r/Europe posted links in other languages, but OP provided an English translation. So, yes, you can post national news in your official language, whatever it is, and post its translation, and now you have an international community or instance.
But it seems I'm the only one who posts links in my official language (Spanish) on international communities.
But I don’t think the Russians or Chinese would give two shits what I think about them dominating an online space
I’d expect anyone who’s dominating to not give a shit about others, because such a status somewhat benefits them.
Except that such a situation strengthens bias and creates an echo-chamber which may be problematic in the long run but isn’t seen as an issue most of the time, I think
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.
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?
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.
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?
This is exactly why I’m so tired of this discussion. For non-regional communities, there is literally no solution to the problem. Unless you could somehow succeed in actively silencing a demographic majority, the only options for an individual are to 1) abandon non-regional communities and focus on local communities and limited diversity of content, or to 2) keep participating in non-regional communities with their built-in, albeit skewed, diversity.
cw: examples of verbal attacks, open the spoiler to continueAnd then plenty of people (like your interlocutor here) choose option 2, only to get riled up by the natural repercussions of that choice to the point of being verbally abusive? Throwing around “seppo” “American exceptionalism” “lazy child murderers” just for the crime of existing as yourself on the internet?
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
Could you please provide some examples? I am at a loss about what that could be except some hate topics that I expect to naturally get downvoted
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?
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 :)
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
And to add, even our so-called “left-leaning” news outlets have a STRONG pro-establishment pro-capitalist bias, but we’re so immersed in it that I feel like it’s super hard to recognize. Anarchist and Marxist sources often get called out for their obvious bias, but guess what? CNN, MSNBC, WaPo… those are just as biased, but they’re more aligned to the status quo so we fail to see it.
I’ve personally considered blocking .world, but I like a lot of the users there and so I’d miss seeing them around. Like stamets and hamid, for instance (no pun intended)
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