Well, your entire argument is based on very vague anecdotal observations and you didn’t mention any concrete examples, so arguing against your points feels kind of pointless.

What were the exact things you said on which communities, that got you “dogpiled”?

And please just be honest, you are not some kind of politian trying to win a debate by any means possible, I see this more as a conversation.

I would say, Lemmy (or the Fediverse in general is just like real life. You can say anything you want, but don’t expect anyone to invite you to their party or talk to you, if you are being an jerk.

Meaning, that noone can ban you from Lemmy for anything you say. But they certainly can ban you from their own instance and / or not federate with an instance, you are on if they don’t like what you say.

Also, as a general word of advice, just be a decent, nice person and you’ll probably be fine. Online or offline. A major idea of the fediverse is to imagine and be part of a better world and if we engage with each other respectfully, everyone is better off.

Just because you are free to way whatever you want, doesn’t mean, that anybody has to listen or agree with you. If people don’t agree with your opinion and they let you know it, they are exercising their own freedom of speech.

And also, nobody owes you to platform your beliefs uncritically. Either you find a community, that wants to engage with you (and you talk to the other communities that wanna engage with your community) or you create your own community (and yeah, that could cost you a small amount of money and time). My point is, you can’t just expect people to let you use the resources that they pay for to platform opinions that they find harmful enough to not wanna talk to you again. Saying that someone banning someone from their community is impeading on your free speech is just like complaining that someone didn’t invite you to their party because you insulted them.