There is perennial discussion about what fediverse servers (Lemmy or otherwise) to recommend to new users. I have a proposal, perhaps not very original but I haven't seen it made often.

Let's just recommend that newbies pick an instance that is located close to them geographically. That's to say: their country, their region, or (ideally) their town.

Some context. Personally, I am not totally sold on social media, federated or otherwise. The evidence is now pretty clear that it causes major social harms. One way it does this is by fuelling polarization around hot-button national and international debates, at the expense of local issues. Reviving democracy is going to mean boosting communities at a local level. This could be a small way to do that.

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[–] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago

Then openly express your political and moral beliefs in your community and see how civil your community is with you. Rinse and repeat many times over. I'm sure after doing this many times, you and them will have come to a mutually respectful understanding and have a greater understanding of the world, with your beliefs reinforced by having to defend them, and your views changed by sympathizing with each other. Everyone wins, and a stronger community and democratic consensus will have been achieved.

If you have read the above and thought, "Yes, exactly." All I can say is, how nice for you. The rest of us have a reality to return to.