This is like a yes and no. There is a lot of communist talk, I’ve added comrade to my dictionary thanks to hexbear because I like the sound of comrade more than friend or buddy. They are very pro-Palenstine and hate Zionism. They also don’t find Ukraine too favorable. But there are disabled, mutual aid, movie nights, lots of shit posting, dunking, and as you said trans and em_poc communities. There is a shock sometimes, like on 9/11. They hate the US, this is ok for me because I also hate our government. You can wish death on execs/wealthy assholes without getting banned. There is a culture, lots of emoji with esoteric meanings, and you will get banned for saying certain things like comparing China’s president to Winnie the Pooh. Generally they favor China to an extent and the Soviet Union to an extent. But you will also get banned for transphobia, they are protective of their trans users/comrades. And they are pro-vegan, anything with animal products needs a content warning. Many things need CW, but I am ok with that. They also introduced me to Disco Elysium, which is an amazing game. Hexbear is … unique.

I cannot stress enough how great this website is. I was using it to teach myself calculus, there are awesome videos that break everything down and taught me much better than the professor I had.

Ignoring the points of the argument, you have to tell them to “disengage” with nothing else posted in your comment to them. I have a troll following me around every time I talk about a certain topic and the only way to get them to stop (for a brief moment) is to say “disengage.” I’ve made it clear I don’t want to talk to them anymore, multiple times, but still I have to type “disengage” every time they reply to me the same exact bad faith shit they always say.

If you don’t want to deal with them altogether, you have to consider blocking them. The troll I’ve been dealing with has tried to egg me and others into blocking them, they celebrate each time they get blocked. So I also understand if you don’t want to block them, they are miserable people who enjoy feeding on negativity. The fact trolls roam lemmy can dampen your enjoyment, it really does suck.