The alt social media are a good place to run away from algorithms and explicit mass manipulation from other big tech, be more free, independent, and spread ideas, but I also think that the fediverse is being filling with people with radical political ideologies, some kicked out of traditional social platforms for this same reason. I’m not saying that we can’t have discussions, but I think that many people are making their own echo Chambers in the fediverse.
Fedi attracts anarchists, socialists, and communists because the administrative style is one of community responsibility, personal safety, and a more active system where you get out what you put in. Fedi mods are often pretty responsive and most of them are chill knowledgable people with leftist tendencies, so like attracts like. But in order to feel comfortable in a fedi space you have to research your server, communicate regularly with local users, stay on top of blocks, and get to know the meta a bit.
Liberals like mainstream services like reddit/instagram/etc because they incentivise turning your brain off. After signing up, the system is designed to feed you content and only show you concerning ideas if they’re trying to bait you into ‘engagement’ as a kind of free advertising.
Fedi conflict is more similar to real life conflict where you see a lot of the same people all the time and sometimes have to figure out how to solve problems together. This is why things like mutual aid are common on mastodon. This is also why I think lemmy could have only been created by communists. You have to be commited to the slog for the good of your community.
Conservatives and fash, conversely, try to create social networks where no trust is involved. They make crypto-based apps, chan sites, and fedi forks where anonymity trumps all else, communication is only entertainment, and blocking is an annoyance because they would rather troll than feel the slightest bit of rejection.