We do not need abundant examples of what this niche shitpost factory is about, when it is named shitpost dot factory.
Yes we do. Names don't mean anything.
Look at our instance's name, what does that say about our instance? Should others have defederated because we have profanity in the domain name? No, that's ridiculous. I'm guessing the admin thought the name was funny. That's it.
I'm guessing "maga.place" was picked because it was available, the creator is conservative, and they thought it would annoy the liberals on Lemmy. All of that is fine, and none of it indicates that they're nazis or extreme right-wingers or anything like that.
Would you have told me, a century ago, that Der Sturmer should be judged on its merits, until we have sufficient evidence they’re not merely biased?
Yes, and I say that today. I don't dislike The Blaze, Breitbart, or Fox News because of their bias, I dislike them for their poor credibility. Likewise for various leftist "news" sites that we see posted here with dubious credibility. I would similarly reject that rag probably the first time I look at it, because it's obvious that sourcing assertions is not on its priority list.
I believe in free speech, and if Lemmy is going to be an actual competitor to Reddit, it needs to attract people from all ends of the political spectrum, with the caveat that bad behavior is not tolerated. I don't care if someone is from the left wing, the right wing, or some other wing, they should have a seat at the table as long as they're respectful and bring evidence to support their assertions when in communities that expect that.
And that's the thing. If you don't like what maga.place posts, you don't have to sub to their communities. You can even block the entire instance so you don't see their content. That's exactly the same as not buying Der Sturmer, and not shopping at places that sell copies of Der Sturmer. Defederation is more like banning Der Sturmer from the country, and I think that's a violation of the basic expectation of free speech.