While there is certainly nuance in Fediverse communities, I think the idea of "Mastodon people" has merit. Many people on Mastodon have strongly held political

While there is certainly nuance in Fediverse communities, I think the idea of "Mastodon people" has merit. Many people on Mastodon have strongly held political and cultural opinions and strong feelings on the types of ideas their conversation partners should have. Deviation from these opinions is usually met with derision at best but more generally vitriol and banning. It sounds like the OP ran against exactly this behavior. Over the years there's certainly been a rise in interest oriented communities, but even those come with strongly held cultural and political opinions. My experience comes from using Mastodon from 2015-2018 (where I got to witness the free speech instance wars) and ultimately distancing myself from it.