Agreed. Though it is not just that one isolated user - the admins of Lemmy.ml are quite well-known themselves for administering their server in bad faith as well. The side-bar just says “A community of privacy and FOSS enthusiasts, run by Lemmy’s developers” (and then a link to “What is Lemmy.ml” that returns an error when I try to click it - btw for you with an account, does it go anywhere? maybe a community that is only visible to those locally with an account? for me it says “There was an error on the server. Try refreshing your browser. If that doesn’t work, come back at a later time. If the problem persists, you can seek help in the Lemmy support community or Lemmy Matrix room.” - but what about when you click it?). And it while people on that instance constantly criticize the USA’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, nonetheless if you whisper a criticism towards the likes of Russia, China, or North Korea, you will be banned even from communities that you have never once visited. That is simply how they do things over there. (further reading, see also so, so very many examples in !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com or !fediverselore@lemmy.ca or !meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works etc.)

Sadly, I am not anywhere close to joking or exaggerating. Also, while they ban people for mentioning that e.g. people died in the Tiananmen Square massacre, they also protect mods who act horribly towards their fellow human being. Here’s an interesting example that you can read it for yourself e.g. at https://hexbear.net/post/3706906/5518427 where after the mod told the poster (over a misunderstanding of an in-game event) that he wanted to kill them, and then even the unremoved comments from the mod doubles down with “nono I don’t want to shoot for pointing that it’s a game, I want to shoot you because…”, and then later tripled down still further, e.g. stating “I hope you die soon.”). To be clear, this post shows up on hexbear.net (for some reason, despite the original having been removed entirely), but the incident occurred on and the mod is from lemmy.ml - those instances are often intertwined, along with lemmygrad.ml.

So you may want to consider switching instances. A further thought: I am having to reply to you from a different instance than my original comment since I have blocked all users from lemmy.ml (although PieFed’s Notifications system is newly implemented and still not fully functional yet, causing me to have to hunt down why I received a Notification for a comment that I could not see:-). You will often face similar prejudice when speaking from that account on that instance - e.g. the apps Sync and Connect can also do such user-blocking of instances, and several instances such as lemmy.cafe and quokk.au and dubvee.org have outright defederated from lemmy.ml entirely. Thus you may sometimes feel like you are speaking into a void and wondering why nobody will respond to you - I am explaining that this may well be a reason why.

I hope that you don’t feel that I am picking on you personally, just trying to share that thought that could help you understand the contentious situation between the “tankie” vs. “liberal” instances on the Fediverse:-). If you wanted an instance that is specifically leftist, slrpnk.net seems awesome? In contrast, lemmy.ml merely pretends to be leftist, while actually advocating solely for formerly communist powers, despite them being currently capitalistic, and definitely authoritarian - e.g. you will see people praising the virtues of North Korea there, but nowhere else on the Fediverse that I have yet seen! Although for me, it’s not even what those users believe, so much as their improper argumentation form about it, e.g. here’s an example from the bad-faith user you mentioned, posted just prior to the USA election, which seems to be an attempt to encourage the BuT bOtH sIdEs EqUaL ThO rhetoric:

And I see this kind of thing so often from users on lemmy.ml, that I just blocked the entire instance - again, I hope you personally don’t feel attacked by this, just sharing my reasoning in case that may be helpful for you.:-)

A finger to sit on? How wonderful? 👍

Damnit, physics wins again!

Okay, you now know what your next drawing target should be - get quacking!

Naw. It needs jeans. Or beans. Or both.

(None of your images looks like drawings of a duck to me!?!?!?!:-P)

There literally is a !bestoflemmy@lemmy.world :-)

I suspect fowl play!

Surprisingly that advice works?

I think you just won…

Lemmy, for today. :-D

What if this is a quantum duck that is simultaneously both two ducks, but also just one duck?

I just wanted to find someone that I could say “duck off” to - can that be you? :-D

Uh oh dude… never bring a knife to a gunfight, smh… :-D

Same in return!:-D

I like to think that we all waste many of our talents here - it’s what brings us all together:-).

You are talking about user-level blocking, whereas iirc defederation is an instance-level blocking that also stops user comments too, as well as votes.

The “election” is perpetual. People will vote with their participation.

As it should always be.

Someone writing a wall of text when it is not asked for or appreciated may be being insensitive to their audience. On the other hand, I’ve literally had people ask for it and then someone else steps in to complain, so definitely there are Karens who feel entitled to whinge no matter what you do. Just settle in your own mind whether you are doing the right thing, and let being correct remain your guide as to what to do.

I am not the person you replied to but I wanted to echo and extend their statement: you may need to come to terms with the fact that you might not have the capability to help your friend, and it’s even possible that nobody does, unless and until they become receptive to that kind of aid.

I am not saying to do nothing, but do be aware of that, e.g. if you give them money and they gamble it away, will you just keep giving them money until neither of you has any at all? And then repeat for every single one of your friends as well?

Decide what you can do and what you cannot. In any case you may not be able to “save” him - that is something that as an adult he needs to do for himself, and may resent you for even trying?