As a centrist on Lemmy I feel you exactly. The political atmosphere here is so much more diverse than Reddit that 90% of people disagree with anything you say.

If you think being anarchist on Lemmy (or anywhere else, really) is annoying, try being openly vegan!

In all seriousness, having strong convictions or unusual identities and being open about them will always draw strong reactions. People don’t generally like being challenged, and will make it as painful as possible for anyone that pushes back on their lifestyle and assumptions about the world. Anarchists, MLs, vegetarians, free software advocates, environmental activists, atheists, anti-car advocates, trans people, non binaries, and asexuals all experience this on a constant basis.

You’re then left with a choice - be less open, or be ready to live with those reactions and start preparing emotionally for only a partial victory when the most liberal of your “allies” inevitably betray those convictions. The second option is hard. Really hard. We need the people willing to make that choice though, and the people able to get back up and keep fighting after that gut punch are needed even more.

Without the trans people and drag queens that fought at Stonewall and since, gay and lesbian acceptance wouldn’t be where it is in the US and Western Europe. That battle is still being fought in much of the rest of the world. The list of betrayals by the LG community against queer and trans people is far too long to list, and the battle for trans rights even in the US looks to have a long and bloody future (and the outlook is no less grim across the pond).

Even when they aren’t defeated, every delay of a coal mine, oil pipeline, or fracking project buys time for hundreds of millions of climate refugees expected as our world warms. Without those protest actions, we wouldn’t even see half measures like the Inflation Reduction Act or the half implementations of COP climate pledges. For those future climate refugees, even if they’re still forced out, that’s extra years of a liveable home.

The impact of Veganism on animal welfare is more complicated due to the need to weigh the way animal treatment degrades even further as profit goes down against the decreased number of animals that do the suffering (which is itself questionable as decreased profitability means more meat consumption by less wealthy people, who are far more numerous). The increasing number of vegetarians, growing use of plant milks, and plant-based meat substitutes that even some meat eaters use wouldn’t exist without the years of Vegan activism, research, and providing an early market for plant based products. One of the biggest impacts is probably one of the least recognized - TVP mixed in with chicken or beef in the global south to stretch the same amount of meat to more meals because it’s cheaper.

Every one of these examples has taken decades, and represents only a partial victory. Every one is a struggle that’s still ongoing. Every one still faces the same kind of name calling and resistance you’re experiencing. So stick to your guns, if you can, as long as you can. It matters. It makes a difference. But it takes a really, really long time and is annoying as fuck. At least you can take some comfort in the fact that your detractors wouldn’t be lashing out if you hadn’t pricked their consciences.

The world thinks black and white these days. Any bit of nuance is incomprehensible for many

I have a theory that the more reasonable the political beliefs the less attention they garner and thus don’t become as popular. No one wants to have a boring conversation about things that are just objectily good. The people want discourse!

from what you’ve typed here, it doesn’t sound like you’re expressing very thought-out arguments.

everything is a broad stroke or a defensive sarcastic poke.

your account is only 2 weeks old and this is your first post.

I just checked your comment history, a lot of your comments look designed to antagonize people and you use broad terms like fascist a lot without adding anything relevant to the conversation.

If you comment on specific policies without coming to a knee -jerk directly insulting holistic conclusion you probably won’t be called out as often.

imagine that the people you are talking to are real people and how willing they would be to engage with your ideas if you said to a person face to face the things you are writing.

tbh like, have you tried any other social media? lemmy’s honestly pretty cool for anarchists comparatively, i suppose except for the fact that it’s too small to spend all your tine in explicitly anarchist spaces. Yeah it’s not amazing but that’s pretty nuch inevitable with any large and relatively diverse group of people

if we want anything to change
we've got to do it on our own
just know
you're not alone

I don’t know if Varyk’s claim of your style of engagement is true, I haven’t looked at your comment history, so I’ll respond to what you’ve faced regardless of if you’ve attracted more disagreement than strictly needed.

Being an anarchist, and being super direct and upfront about your views, is going you get you some ire no matter where you go.

The reason is, generally speaking, you’re looking through history and systems of power with a lens that makes the problems with those other systems quite glaring.

The people who have adopted those other systems and ideologies will have already accepted the cognitive dissonance that comes with them, and they’re not going to take kindly to your nuanced opinion that makes them have to reevaluate their cognitive dissonance again. It’s much easier to dismiss or attack you instead.

Now there are ways of softening your critiques and opinions to make them less liable to attract anger, such as adopting the Mr.Rogers style, but sometimes that can be too soft, depending on the context. You’ll have to decide when that’s appropriate for yourself.

Also, bear in mind that while sometimes your viewpoints and arguments will gather hatred no matter what you do, and it can seem hopeless to express your views, as though it does no good; there are many more neutral lurkers than there are people who engage with you directly, and you’ll be having an outsized impact on that group just by having that counter arguement or viewpoint available for them to compare, which may unknowingly be changing minds for the better.

Annoying being an anarchist (or variants, dv incoming) in life, pretty standard, every time I’ve tried, that’s your moral/ethical choice, stand by, take strength from whatever you do, and change what you can.

Get used to it, anarchists pick losing fights against the whole world

Maybe its their right to tell you your opinions suck in their eyes

Also “liberals”, using that therm for US democrat voters will make you look like a Trump supporter in the eyes of basically everyone.

What’s an ML?

You’re wrong, having any firm opinion is annoying on Lemmy. Everyone here is the most difficult person in their social circle and we will throw hands

It’s hard being anything these days because actions speak a lot louder than your internal ego.

Reassess your values, then reassess your interactions with strangers.

Welcome to humanity, I guess. We’re full of contractions and no matter your opinion, someone will hate you for it.

I wouldn’t worry too much about it and just focus on your own beliefs first. You’ll never start a conversation with someone or change their opinion if you only tell them how they are wrong. And I’m not just trying to single you out. In fact, the people you are complaining about do the same thing. As soon as someone’s beliefs are put into questions they will do anything to defend it no matter how irrational it is and will even contradict themselves just to prove that one belief.

As an example, unless you’re a straight up piece of shit or a bigot I can’t find a reason to actually support innocent people getting killed or hurt. But if someone supported a person/people before shit got worse, they’ll try and justify it and believe there must be a reason. It’s kinda like a toxic relationship. Someone will stay in a relationship with someone for years with abuse, but because they love them they’ll try and justify it and believe they must have deserved it. It’s really easy to see shit from the outside, but from the inside you want to believe there is a reason and that you are right. No matter what. Because if you’re wrong, what do you even stand for?