Even though federation has led to racists and/or NATO defenders showing up, I've also encountered a number if very cool people from other instances posting things like helpful advice on federation stuff, vivid descriptions of getting vored by a pack of anthro-hyenas, interesting insights and opinions on Star Trek lore, etc. I still haven't found much in the way of active hobby communities, but it's pretty cool to see more Star Trek and furry stuff in the timeline, and I feel it makes having to deal with the occasional deranged lib worth it.
Anyways, to all the genuinely cool people who wander into Hexbear threads, I'm very glad you've showed up to bless us with your wonderful posts and I hope you stick around.
Ukraine certainly was invaded by Russia, but let’s be clear about why exactly Russia invaded. The US/NATO had been pushing for membership and for Ukraine to host US missiles. These things have been explicitly opposed by Russia since even before Putin was president, and this was the stated reason for the invasion. Imagine if Russia decided to install missiles in a country close to the US, like Cuba for example? This of course happened and the US freaked out leading to a tense nuclear standoff.
Also, since the invasion, US leaders have repeatedly stated that their goal is to pull Russia into a forever war in Ukraine. They have stymied Ukrainian attempts at negotiating and are not at all interested in peace or “democracy” for the Ukrainian people.
Russia invaded and was wrong to do so, but the US/NATO helped instigate the war in the first place and continue to use Ukraine as a pawn for their own geopolitical goals at the expense of ordinary Ukrainians. Trying to frame it in terms of “good guys” and “bad guys” is absolutely wrong imo and oversimplifies what is really going on. The correct position in my view is to support negotiations that would end the conflict and allow ordinary people there to live normal lives again. This is something that the US/NATO has repeatedly opposed.
This is also in my opinion a good video on the topic and worth watching: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WZv0-0cx96g&feature=sharea
In addition to this, NATO has a pretty horrible history of involvement in things like rigging elections and supporting terrorist groups. Operation Gladio is a good place to start on reading about that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio NATO is, and always has been, a tool of US empire and nothing else. Of course people here would oppose it.