I originally summarized my observations replying to Blaze in a different thread
I figured I'd include them here because in case anyone wants to correct my interpretation.
I had asked how he feels about posting in a com alongside people who are calling other users 'degenerate roaches'
He brought up that Hexbear users using the word roaches to refer to people too, my response:
From that link pretty much all of the usage is talking about the literal insect, or talking about reactionaries/fascists using it to refer to muslims, immigrants and other 'undesirables'.
Out of the handful of remaining uses, it's stuff like in the hexbear thread on this meanwhileongrad thread:
This is the most questionable usage I found, and it's referring to fash/reactionaries.
That's not the main point though, the bigger issue was getting called a 'degenerate' that's pretty much a red flag that someone's a cryptofash.
citing db0 on this one:
compare the use of the term on shit vs on hexbear:
While looking I found this one on hexbear from 5 years ago, almost 90 upvotes shitting on stalin for criminalizing homosexuality, and quoting him calling someone degenerate. I read this as extremely critical of Stalin:
All the usage on hexbear I see is either self-deprecating or discussing (negatively) about people using the term.
meanwhile on meanwhile on grad:
hmmm, calling people degenerates and complaining about commies, progressives and furries. 
Goat seems fine with replies calling people he doesn't like degenerates:
more examples:
site admin calls it out, entirely downvoted lol
Like you might think I'm being melodramatic, but I really don't see how meanwhileongrad isn't a nazi bar.
As I said, I don’t have a dog in this fight, it seems indeed bad to have such comments on both sides.
I really hope you re-assess both sides, because they are not equivalent.
I understand, there's plenty of problematic posters to go around, the issue I have is that it's normalized calling an instance which is overwhelmingly trans and queer 'degenerates', that's a major red flag, and it's behavior like that which was why hexbear defederated shit in the first place.
sh.it doesn't seem to have improved in that time
As a bonus here's some fun clips from this latest two minutes hate thread:
Goat has been really worked up lately, I arrived after the defederation happened, but I read the hexbear threads related to this not long after I started lemmy and his interpretation of events is comically conspiratorial.
The chronology was that hexbear had been off doing its own thing for like 3 years, and only re-merged with lemmy due to the technical issues maintaining a separate fork. That happened to coincide with the major reddit wave, correct me if I'm wrong but nobody here is taking orders from dessalines, right?
It looks like Hexbear tried to broadly fedarate, some users were looking forward to it, but others apprehensive and preferring to keep everyone else out. Once it became more clear how toxic and unmoderated most of the fediverse was, they made the decision to defederate.
Also is there a discord? The only matrix groups I'm aware of are for mods and the trans space. People should probably be aware that there's potentially nazi trolls hanging out there.
One last one for the road, goat upvote policing and accusing db0 of being pro-uygher genocide.
so what's the official hexbear line on calling people degenerates or cockroaches?
"Do you condemn ~~hamas~~ Hexbear?"
what we have to say, the funnier their lore about us gets, like a game of telephone where everyone involved is General Ripper
energy