I think it has become more than apparent that our federation with Hexbear has degraded the quality of browsing on this instance. I'm generally for open federation, but the amount of brigading and general toxicity is not conducive to the friendly communications that make Lemmy great.
Realistically, how is one of the most active instances supposed to interact with any community without coming across as dogpiling? It can kinda work if you all share similar political viewpoints but when it comes to politics there is literally no way to avoid dogpiling by your definition.