Probably the most egregious behaviour is declaring different terms and conditions for sales and pre-orders after a person has handed over their money, particularly changing the terms around refunds. Literal Vader "pray I do not alter it any further". And illegal. Refunds in general have been a nightmare for customers with many making a complaint to the Attorney General of California which seems to have been the only way to get money back.

Check r/purism on Reddit if you want to see lots of examples of their shady behaviour.

Also: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Zlatan-Todoric-Interview

And: https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-purism-and-the-librem-5-part-1

Shady company

every instance has some users worth keeping in some conversation

That doesn't contradict what I said.

Refraining from making the fediverse an archipelago where people refuse to talk to anyone who had the misfortune of picking the wrong instance

The fediverse cannot now be made that because the fediverse is already that.

If you ask in earnest, you’ll get good responses.

This is not the case. Every time I've asked in earnest, I've faced mobs of lunatics.

Do they genuinely believe the shit they're peddling or are they paid propagandists or is their something more nefarious afoot.

From my interactions, I've come to the conclusion that they're mostly seriously broken people who've discovered Marx, convinced themselves that capitalism is the cause of all suffering and believe socialism is the solution that will free them from their trauma. The degree of their attachment to socialism is a reflection of the degree of their suffering and brokenness.

If they weren't so toxic, they'd be deserving of compassion and forebearance.

Thanks but I meant links to your posts :-) Or more specifically, the communities you post to with anti-regime info. I looked through your profile but I couldn't see where you were posting such things beyond World News.

if we want Lemmy to be something besides a place for Soviet simps to hide from criticism

There is definitely a place for Soviet simps in the Fediverse, it's just in a corner all by itself. That's the beauty of the Fediverse.

I post about horrors that are happening in Ukraine (not the ones that are committed by Russia, but by Zelensky’s regime with support from the west)

Any chance of a link? Just out of curiosity.

Every time we fragment the fediverse we make it overall worse.

Only if your conception of better/worse is focussed on user count rather than user quality.

Average users don’t even understand what they’re looking at when it comes to decentralized networks

Refraining from defederation won't change that.

Can I ask why you posted this here?

https://youtu.be/NBRquiS1pis