Kbin/Mbin (and possibly others?) definitely have the edge here since those platforms make votes public (only admins can see them on Lemmy). So, if you want to confirm what I'm saying here, go view some of these posts from Kbin/Mbin.
Every time one of the "usual suspects" says stuff like this in the comments, there will later be posts detailing how Biden is doing (or at least earnestly trying to do) exactly the things they're saying he needs to be doing (oR ElSe i WiLl noT voTE anD NEithER ShoULD yoU!!!11!!). 100% of the time, those posts are downvoted by these same "usual suspect" accounts.
What gives? They have very strong opinions about how he should run his administration, so you'd think they'd appreciate him doing what they've been so helpfully suggesting. Unless....it was never about the issues at all.
That thin veneer of concern they're hiding behind is not as thick as they think it is and is quite easy to see through. Now you know where to look.
Edit: Please don't name and shame any specific users. That may violate the community or LW rules. We all know who most of the "usual suspects" are.
You know what? You're absolutely right about this.
It is too easy to fall into "sounds like a bot, must be a bot" as a mode of operation when it may just be an actual person poking out of an echo chamber for a minute to see what things are like elsewhere. Instantly shutting them down is probably part of WHY there's so much "the leftists are an echo chamber" rhetoric being advanced in right-leaning circles...because that's what that would look like if you were on the receiving end of a downvote for doing nothing more than saying what YOU think is the truth, especially if it's all you've heard and still think noone's lying to you.
I not quite in a spot where I think I can equate downvotes with censorship, possibly because I don't fully understand how lemmy treats them in comparison to reddit, but I will definitely be much more careful with mine.
Thank You.
Just to be clear I guess I don't believe that down vote = censorship, like when a user does it i dont believe they are censoring. but I think there is something inherent to the platform that makes it function in that way. I'll need to think about it some more. I don't use down votes for this reason but I could more closely interrogate my reasons.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of that I'm glad you were able to see where I was coming from and take something away from it. See ya around!