For me it's been like a splash of cold water to the face, remembering just how fucked up 
tier liberal takes were, are, and will likely continue to be.
I'm sure there's downsides to complacency, but it was nice having some ground assumptions when going into a thread, like "society can and should be improved somewhat" or "the ruling class acts in its own immediate self interests and any other claims regarding their motivations are propagandized lies" or "climate change is real, it's bad, and it's getting worse," or more trivial stuff like "Tesla cars aren't good."
I'm sure potential comrades are out there and while it really is necessary to reach out to more people at some point (offline too, orgs especially, but while we're here, you know?), it's been sobering to realize just how far rightward mainstream "progressive" liberal thought really is on average. 
I've felt that too. I can't stand reddit debate nerd shit. But, having never used reddit, I've had fun pushing back on the reddit libs shoulder to shoulder with fellow hexbears and other lemmy comrades.
So there's an aspect of this I've found myself enjoying/invigorated by. But, i might get over it, and i can understand it already feeling old to people who've already been through it before.
I do hope that within hexbear their will still be a place to have actual discussions amoung leftists who have disagreements whithout being derailed by libs, who don't share any of our common understandings.
Yeah, i tend to just use mockery, since i find that quaint nerd shit silly and hilarious. I hope that they can learn to laugh at themselves instead of taking arguing with people so seriously as to use such an exasperating and bizarre style of interacting with people online. And if they don't learn that, they deserve to be mocked even more lol