I'm enjoying my time with Mastodon so far, and don't generally engage with politically heated discussions on social media anyway, but this is still my biggest concern as things stand right now. Part of the reason Hacker News is so appealing is the comments, in which you can often read opinions approaching a controversial subject from wildly different angles, sometimes leading to fascinating and civil discussions which leave you feeling better off and more well-rounded for having read them.

Within the currently popular Mastodon servers however, it definitely does feel like a bit of a self-imposed bubble, whereby the about pages espouse civil discussion, but in reality statements or opinions closer to centre on the political spectrum are usually met with hostility and treated as egregiously offensive. I'm hopeful it'll mature over time, settle into a less ambiguous moderation policy that allows for wider coverage of the political spectrum so long as it's civil and ultimately attract a broader range of users.