Afasoas: What you describe about your perception of Mastodon is lived experience for women, BME, trans and disabled people on literally every other social media platform.
Fully recognised and agreed. You are absolutely right.
Are you sure it was hatred, or people 'venting' or discussing their lived experiences where cis white men have a lot of the power out there and abuse it.
I know it can be hard when a marginalised group you are not part of says quite blunt things like "bloody white people" or "fucking cis people". It can feel hard not to reply with the equivalent of #NotAllMen (#NotAllWhites or #NotAllCis)... Cos there's often general truths in there somewhere... Cos we KNOW #NotAllWhatevers but MinorityGroupTM often has to assume #YesAllWhatevers cos anything else simply isn't safe.
I really don't have any problem with people venting or discussing their lived experiences, especially when those people are oppressed and marginalised. In fact, I would whole heartedly encourage it.
I've been villified on-line for my views in several situations. For example, standing as a candidate on a socialist platform. I was threatened, sent hate male, verbally attacked and physically threatened in the street. But I had a choice, I could have stood down. I know there are people subject to abuse who do not have that choice, so whilst I can relate, I can't really relate.
I just wish there were spaces on-line where
everyone could feel respected and valued. I hate that there are members of certain groups who are subject to abuse for sharing, on
any given platform. I'm lucky to have a diverse group of people I consider friends and it pains to know that there are not many spaces where they would
all feel welcome.
I joined instances and followed people on Mastadon based on my technical interests. What I experienced was much much more than venting. Even with a thick skin, I wasn't really prepared to feel so villified.
On a slightly different note, I joined Telegram I got banned from a trove of groups managed by the same people for calling out some fairly horrendous misogyny and bigotry.