that is true but most of my friends are still on X. Very few of them have moved to mastodon or Bluesky.

It feels lonely here. I need to make new friends to change that :)

the generalized community among Mastodon appears to promote the opposing extreme

Maybe if you very explicitly only count #Mastodon instances, but if you mean the #Fediverse instances, you're quite incorrect. The Fediverse hosts a very wide array of opinions, though I would not be surprised if your instance has a sizable blocklist which makes you feel like this is not the case. Hugboxes are quite dangerous, yet some fedi admins, especially Mastodon ones, seem hellbent on ensuring they never ever hear any opinion they disagree with. If you feel like the Fediverse hosts only a particular viewpoint, I would highly suggest joining a better instance.

even unpopular opinions are okay.

Looking at your instances absolutely humongous list of banned instances, that is definitely not the case.

But the general culture that I've witnessed

As I said in the previous toot, this is most likely to do by the kind of instances you adopt. If you're only sticking to #Mastodon instances with admins that consider it a hate crime to disagree on something, then yes, that will be your experience. I'm unsure as to why, but Mastodon instance admins seem extremely eager to defederate from other instances on a whim.

I entirely support the idea that an individual has the control to block people or instances that they don't jive with

I support this too. Individual users can block people they disagree with, because they're only hurting themselves if they create their own hugbox through these actions. Admins doing it for their users is morally wrong. It leads to this situation where you don't even know that most opinions are blocked from your view.

I feel like people, with clashing opinions, can get a lot more done by communicating

Definitely! If you truly believe in what you typed here, I strongly urge you to either self-host, or find an instance with admins that do not wish to act as fascist dictators to fulfill their own fantasies. In general, I recommend to stay away from #Mastodon instances because it seems the norm there, although there are a few instances with reasonable admins. If at all possible, self-host an instance, so you can be totally sure no insane controlfreaks can ruin your experience. Its also better to have many small instances for the Fediverse in general!

@tyil damn ur right. lol. I see a few though I know are just trollfarms tbh. But it does kind of seem to confirm the "in general this seems to be the case".. I've seen a lot of backlash about threads joining federation, and the thought of X even federating if they wanted to. Honestly exactly my issue though. It's like you have to pick sides no matter what.. every instance has this and that instance blocked.. show me one that doesn't block anything but then also doesn't wind up, in itself, getting blocked.

Edit:
Self hosted is pretty good but in past it has been really hard to find/fill my feed. Not to mention the demands on disk space seems to get quite intensive after a while.

see a few though I know are just trollfarms tbh

Sure, but should those be immediately defederated completely? Seems like massive overkill to me.

in general this seems to be the case

If you stick to those instances, then sure. If you do not, like me, you'll see it differently. You choose to stay within that narrative now that you know your current instance is part of the problem.

I've seen a lot of backlash about threads joining federation, and the thought of X even federating if they wanted to

I dislike the idea of them federating here, too. The people that come to the #Fediverse do so because they dislike the proprietary platforms and their tactics of manipulation for profit. Getting them here would only lower the quality of discourse on the Fediverse.

you have to pick sides no matter what

You don't, your admins do it for you without you knowing it.

show me one that doesn't block anything but then also doesn't wind up, in itself, getting blocked

This seems like a weak argument. Any instance I might show you, you can just add to any blocklist at that moment just to ensure you're always right. Besides, getting blocked by incompetent power-hungry #Mastodon admins requires no bad intent on the blockee's part, so it holds no meaning to be blocked in itself.

I know my instance is blocked by a few dozen other instances, but that doesn't mean my instance is unusable. On the contrary, the instances that don't block me value free and open discussion of any idea, which means that my experience of the Fediverse is much more wide in opinion than yours can ever be.

@xnite @tyil I do appreciate you interested in dialog. Very few opinions actually change that way mind you.

Bigger issue is the platform nor those on it. What gets amplified or silenced. There is a clear bias in X that uses free speech as a cover for an anti-woke agenda.

@tyil I may be wrong but doesn't that very same platform, X, support free speech both ways? I understand for sure how much it's become a hate machine within itself. I notice it every time that I've logged in over these past couple of years and it's almost as if you can't escape hearing a racial slur or hateful comment against an entire group of people. I absolutely see that as a problem. What I don't see is people combating those views or even trying to create a dialogue of any form of understanding. Very rarely do I see an opposing view. From my perspective those who would disagree the loudest have walked away and left the entire platform one sided. Those who are left get dog piled with none of their own "dogs" to jump in and defend them.
Does true change not come from within? What happens to a society when that society does not speak up against the things that tear them apart from the inside out?

The most important question: Do you ever feel like maybe we are living in that part of history where the future children, who are learning about our time, raise their hand and ask "why didn't anybody do anything to stop them?"