Lemmy is still relatively new, and you grow the audience you nurture.

A lack of moderation means that racists, bigots, general assholes, etc, will find an easier time settling on this platform.
And I’ll be honest, if that would be where Lemmy is headed I’m not sticking around to see it turn into that cesspool

I’m personally quite happy with the level of moderation I’m seeing on lemmy.world. It’s not overly heavy handed, but it seems to generally be applied where it makes sense to apply. Essentially the “don’t be a dick” rules of the forum days of old.