No. I had no idea about this instance’s reputation when I joined Lemmy but it’s nothing like the other instance you mentioned.
It gets very tiring trying to have a conversation with contrarians who think everything Western is bad and anything Chinese/USSR is good. Or worse, that their highly suspicious news sources (some random blog usually) are telling you the real truth, while using any mainstream news media source makes you a deluded Lib
Never thought Lemmy might have a position on Team Fred vs Team Sanity