@FranceskaMann @menelion As for me, I'm from Germany.

@garo @menelion

OK. Are you far right Germany? What party are you in?

@FranceskaMann @menelion I'm not really deeply politically engaged or anything like that, so I wouldn't know the right terms either. I would say I'm center right though again, that's just from what people tell me and what I agree with and what I don't. I would say that currently, the party whose takes I agree with the most is AfD even though I don't agree with 100 % of them, I would say a majority.

@menelion @garo

you vote with the far right but consider yourself a centrist. I'm OK with you feeling uncomfortable here on mastodon, Garo. Perhaps you should take some of the criticisms to heart?

@FranceskaMann @menelion Sorry if I expressed that unclearly, I meant that I would consider myself middle right rather than far, but still right. I think it's unfortunate that more center or right people get shut down so quickly from what I can see, but I basically never engage in any political debates. I'm not here for that, and if I see it I try to ignore/avoid it. I don't feel uncomfortable or anything, that's just my opnion. Maybe I'm also not informated enough, which would be fair enough as again, I don't follow this space closely or at all.

@garo @FranceskaMann There is a thing you should also know, Franceska: Garo and I, we are both blind. blind community was exiled from Twitter not because Musk (or not only), but the main reason, and for many, *the* reason was that he banned Twitter API the first night he was in power. that means, we can't develop our own convenient clients (i.e., applications, programs) for Twitter. Hence there was a great exodus of the blind from Twitter. And it was a bit unexpected for us (coming from different backgrounds, with different political views, united only by our visual impairment/blindness), that Mastodon was so much left inclined and so firmly opposing anything that disagrees with this ideology.

@FranceskaMann @garo Also, I was born and raised in the Soviet Union, and that brings me flashbacks. Many of leftists here on Mastodon proclaim themselves as communists, anarchists, marxists and definitely anti-capitalists. But, for goodness sake, I know how that bloody disgusting F… — breathe, I breathe, inhale, exhale… okay. — I know how communism looks like if it is in power. gulags, gray clothes for everyone, empty shelves in grocery stores, everyone with a tinny tiny slight bit of power is gross and rude to you, "because I can"; no freedom, everything is banned, our secretary general (read "tsar/president") is the best, and if you don't agree, gulag is waiting for you; our country is the best, and the world is full of enemies, etc., etc. So when I see "communist" in profile, my eye twitches immediately. And I remember when the Iron Curtain fell, what was the feeling!! McDonald's! You know McDonald's? No, you don't, because for you as American it's something… usual. Like air. Like water. Like a sparrow in a tree, like grass in the field. For us it was — THE FESTIVAL. the festival of civilization. And still now, thirty-something years past, when I want a burst of good mood, I go to McDonald's. And I'm grateful to the gods I have it. It's… Sorry, Franceska, I can't express my feelings enough, it's absolutely something else. I nearly said "you have to live it", but hell no, I don't wish it to anyone, even to my enemies.