2y ago

Is there anything good in Hexbear?

The few conversations I've had there have been unproductive and inflammatory. While even in other instances when I've said something someone disagreed with they would at least support their statement. Also no one would tell me why the "Confused Unga Bunga" meme is racist but they keep accusing me of it. I'm all for open discussions but even the comments there are so angry and toxic.

Edit: I'm reading every comment and taking everything people said and considering all sides. My stance on the phrase has changed but I am still hesitant about giving hexbear a chance. I'll sleep on it though.

84 comments

Unga Bunga is racist because of this shit.
The phrase has a long history as a racist dogwhistle, and is deeply tied with "Race Science" horseshit.
- Yeah I saw that but only after I added terms like racist and offensive to my search result, meaning if I just type that phrase by itself into Google nothing. I also don't watch any of that shit because it's like you said, horseshit.
  I will not use the phrase in the future though.
  
  Yeah I saw that but only after I added terms like racist and offensive to my search result, meaning if I just type that phrase by itself into Google nothing.
  That's the point of a dogwhistle. If they didnt want to whistle, they'd just yell a slur. The whole point of its racist usage being able to signal racist ideology to those in the know, while hiding behind people like yourself who insist on it being fine.
  The preferred response to learning of a dogwhistle for the first time is to go "Oh shit, my bad, i wont use it again." It costs you nothing and removes camo for actual detestable people.
  When you argue to the effect "It not that racist", you provide screening for racists, and are doing their work. Normalizing crypto racist shit attracts racists. For this reason, you will be dunked by bears.
  
  Still waiting for you to block this instance.
- What the actual FUCK? I’ve never seen that shit before, and never want to see that shit again. Offensive.
Interesting, I haven't personally had any run ins with Hexbears, but everything I've read from them in non-Hexbear communities has generally looked fine to me. Sure, they argue hard and in detail when it comes to anything political and they can also be a little edgy, but I haven't seen any of them be assholes, abusive, argue in bad faith, etc. So far I have appreciated their contributions. It probably helps that I generally agree with (many of?) them politically as far as I can tell, but despite that, if I saw them being assholes I would make notice because I don't believe in defending the people in your team even when they're doing wrong. I would be more likely to call them for taking the wrong approach instead. Do you have any example threads that demonstrate what you're describing?
- What I've personally seen is that the moment they're mentioned they descend en masse on a thread. Most comments are fairly innocuous but there's always a few that are overly aggressive, and if nothing else the sheer volume can be overwhelming.
- They don't and they never do
I don't understand all the hate. They're just fucking funny. I have a great time there.
Maybe if you're not a Leftist then there's no appeal.
- They do a lot of harassment and say some hateful shit. It's not all jokes.
Not really. Since we don't have the ability to instance block ourselves yet I changed instances to one not federating with them to avoid them and similar authoritarian instances like lemmygrad and exploding heads. I swing pretty far left on the political spectrum myself, but there's a difference between that and simping for dictators, genocide denial, and other problematic things. I don't even get it, China and Russia can hardly be described as leftist by any definition but they'll bend over backwards to defend anything they do, and try to change the subject to another country instead if they can't.
- I really don't understand the defense of Russia. Like if you are claiming to be communist, it's arguably the worst example of exploitative capitalism going right now. Or they claim it's because of colonialism while ignoring Russia's history of conquering and controlling any nation near them.
Hey everybody, here's the very first usage of "unga bunga"
Only those toxic Hexbears could possibly criticize this
- Vile.
- Edit: Yeah I see your point.
  
  I assure you, racists have not forgotten.
  Really, you don't have to defend it.
  
  Edit: removed the snark because you do appear to be taking criticism, which is something someone with terminal reactionary brainworms does not do. Self criticism helps us grow and get better opinions, and I hope you'll reevaluate Hexbear differently now that you see where we're coming from
  
  Racist tropes don’t have an expiration date what are you talking about
  
  It has more lasting relevance than your "my wholesome
  buddies totally were just talking about a caveman video game from the 90s that never actually says Unga Bunga in it" claims.
  EDIT: Seems a 90s video game may have had a racist dogwhistle in it. Which absolves all uses of a racist utterance forever and ever!
  
  The N word had its first documented use in the early 17th century so it's clearly okay to use nowadays
  
  Historical usage informs modern usage. There are still people very negatively affected by outdated concepts that have carried through into modern language.
  Like women being associated with the word "hysterical" based on the idea that "hysteria" was a "wandering uterus" and caused behavioural problems. That idea is first found four thousand years ago in ancient Egyptian documents - yet still has influence on our language and thinking today.
  Time is not always enough to make poison innocuous.
  
  You could probably argue something like that, but perpetuating something so deeply rooted in racism isn't worth it when the payoff is... Meme funnies.
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=ifv-3aSEckA
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
skill issue
We have my hampter. His name is Biggs. His favorite hobby is biting my fingers and calling me a virgin on the internet
- That's crazy, does he have a friend named wedge.
  
  I don't think we've got Wedge but we've got
  
  and I'm pretty sure Barrett's around somewhere too
  
  Not that I know of but you'd have to ask the man himself
  @Biggs@hexbear.net, GET IN HERE
- Its less the socialism that users have a problem with and more the genocide apology and dictator simping.
  
  Any examples of genocide apology by hexbear users?
we have fun here
- we do a little trolling
I subbed !urbanism@hexbear.net and honestly, it's too much image and not enough text for my druthers, but the kids are all right.
this thread is on the front page of hexbear now, it will be a fun one
Yes, we have the best emojis and also movie nights
- Movie nights?
  
  https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies
  Playing now in fact!
  Tonight is "The Craft"(1996) & "John Wick:Chapter 4"(2023)
  Tomorrow is Anime night & Sundays are Cheesy Slop Night. Not sure whats been queued for those tho, not my current wheelhouse.
  
  We watch movies together online 🤫
- Dammit, you got me with the froggy chair. I don't care for politics whatsoever, but as long as you come in with the froggy chair you'll have something worthy.
In my experience? No.
There's nothing productive from over there
Literally during the time they were federated with Blahaj I ended up blocking almost 4 dozen of them for their absolute toxic behavior including being dismissive of genocide, simping for dictators, and who could forget their stance on Ukraine. Their stance basically boils down to letting Russia steam roll them.
There's nothing productive from being federated with them.
The question itself is inflammatory but there has generally been a good discussion. Locking instead of removing.
No, they're bad people. Their whole point with federation was to troll other instances.
Uh, the XiBucks, obviously.
Look, I get it. Hexbear is a demanding place to be. It expects you to not be a complete asshole almost all the time. You're regularly tested on knowledge of an emoji system so complex, it's been known to make London cab drivers cry. If you unthinkingly parrot talking points, you'll be pounced on with annoying facts and aggressive reasonable concern for the value of other people. And if you emit the slightest Hitler particle, you'll be outright banned. How authoritarian! Honesty, sometimes I wonder why I signed up, never mind stay around.
But then I remember that the folks there are a deeply caring lot, who see the problems in the world and actually want to do something about it—even though the goal often seems barely possible—and, in spite of everything, retain a sense of humour and try to make improvements for each other, even if, for now at least, it can only be a :meow-hug:.
Oh, and the XiBucks, of course. Some of us even get roubles, too!
Nope. Its about as useful as any extremist population of users. Full of holier than thou bullshit to excuse their own prejudices and generally garbage world view.
Apparently it's not super great? I haven't noticed https://lemmy.ca/post/3532299
Extremely toxic shithole.
The emotes are cool idk
- Emotes? Do they work with Voyager?
  
  I don't think Voyager supports images in the comment sections.
  
  I don't see them in the app, so not yet, I guess.
  
  I don’t know. Sorry
Not that I’ve seen.
Nope. There be trolls over there.
Oh yay another one of these threads. They sure are different from each other and provide substantive conversation.
No
Are you not aware that the confused Unga Bunga meme is based on a caricature of an Australian Aborigine, or do you not understand why the caricature is racist?
- That photo is from a film about neanderthals. The phrase "unga bunga" has its earliest known usage in a Bugs Bunny short mocking Aborigines, but it's a generic enough phrase that I'm not sure you can write off the entire phrase as racist against Aborigines: any nonsense word could be used in its place and I'm not sure anyone creating or sharing the meme has actually watched that Bugs Bunny clip from 1950. It's just a nonsense phrase used to indicate low intelligence or nonsense. Given that the photo is of a neanderthal, I think anyone seeing the meme will understand that it's supposed to mean "a caveman would be confused by this" and not about any particular group of modern or indigenous humans. Most usages of the meme imply that the poster themselves is the confused one, so I don't think a racist would find it very funny to post something like that.
  https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/confused-unga-bunga
  Given that the words "unga" and "bunga" have existed in print since at least 1700 AD, I'm not sure we can point to that one Bugs cartoon as the definitive and only definition of that particular nonsense phrase. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=unga%2C+bunga&year_start=1500&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3
  
  I promise you plenty of indigenous Australians have had to tolerate this phrase and the associated ableism for that entire time, and it is still used against them now.
  The association of 'primitive' cultures and low intelligence is a huge continuing problem, including dehumanisation in the form of calling people different species' names.
  
  I grew up watching those cartoons, and we definitely used it in an anti-aborigonal way for quite some time after it was pulled. Into the 90s at at least, probably mid-00s.
  I'm glad to hear it's losing that history.
- According to knowyourmeme the dude in the meme is a neanderthal character from a movie.
  "Unga bunga" was originally used in a cartoon in 1950 with a caricature of an Aboriginal Australian, and it's completely reasonable for someone to not know that. I didn't until you prompted me to go and research the meme.
  The phrase seems to be nonsense babble - there's no way to deduce the Aboriginal Australian racism link from the movie image or caption, you have to actually research the backstory.
- In what sense is it based on an Australian Aborigine? The movie it's from is explicit that the character is a Neanderthal.

84 comments