It’s natural for things to get ugly when you can say anything you want. If you went up to a random person and said you’re a retard for wearing a blue lives matter shirt, they’re not going to high five you and say I respect your right to say that. They’ll get upset and maybe want to fight you. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of consequence.

I think you make a good point though. People want to be able to say what they want and don’t want others to say things they don’t like. It’s kinda hypocritical but also seems like human nature. There will be relays that censor and try to make it a safe space for certain people. If that’s not your thing, then don’t follow that relay. There will be relays that don’t censor anything and the quality of connections you can have there will be better for you. So the positive side is that you will interact with people that share your values for open and uncensored dialogue.

But the saddest thing of all is that the awful state of social media today isn’t completely a top down decision. A lot of people want censorship. A lot of people demand the cancelling of people they disagree with. It wouldn’t surprise me if people use the report button much more frequently than the block button. As a social media business, if the majority of my users are sheep that complain about certain personalities, I want to preserve the revenue I get from them so I’m going to cater to them. It becomes a simple business decision.