An “instance” is a server that talks to all the other Lemmy servers, where your account info and login are stored. There’s a lot of benefits to decentralization - even if one instance goes down, like lemm.ee, it doesn’t really impact the whole of Lemmy too severely. The cost of running an instance isn’t super high, which means that if an instance is being annoying about advertising or something, you can ditch it with little cost to yourself and even run your own instance if you want. A single cabal of admins can’t ruin it like Reddit (cough cough Spez) and it can be easier to curate your own experience by choosing what instances you want to ignore completely.

Any given instance is not necessarily a safe harbor, but as long as Lemmy is around, there will probably be multiple instances to choose from. The only thing you really lose is your post history - and you can link to your old account info in your new account for continuity’s sake.

COVID and all the resulting economic impacts, whether they were linked in the public’s mind or not.

Because even oligarchs aren’t kings.

There’s always another goalpost.

There’s also the fact that despite the economic recovery post-pandemic, every-day Joes didn’t see the recovery in their paycheck - and at the same time, inflation (price gouging, really) was rampant. The salt of the earth tends to vote by their wallet, and wallets were feeling the pinch at election time.

That, plus Democrats’ well-known propensity for utter failure at messaging, practically guaranteed a Trump victory.