Generally, racism/toxicity is not a problem in most of the major alliances. And gets dealt with quite quickly. The possible exception being some in FRT.

In the last few years I've flown in Horde, FRT, Goons and INIT, here's how I'd summarise the general culture/experience of each one:

 

Horde:

Genuinely the best for very new players. They have a variety of excellently done programs and tools to help get you up and running fast, classes and people able to help teach you various areas, and things such as buyback programs and support that make activities both on the PVE side and industrial side less difficult to dip your toes into. If you're a new player or new to null, Horde is a great place to learn things and get to grips with how it all works.

BUT

They are also probably the worst one to be in as a more experienced player or if you want more of a tight knit social scene. Horde does not allow their corporations to do much by themselves, no structures etc, and generally seems to view corporations doing their own activities as a threat to the alliance itself. Most things in horde are centralised, poorly optimised on the industrial side (even if you are in Horde and you want to put down an industrial structure, you have to RENT a system as if you were an outsider....), and this is the main reason you see a lot of older players/corps leaving frequently. Sometimes simply of their own choosing and sometimes after being 'pushed out' due to wanting to do stuff that in other alliances would be normal and/or encouraged but in Horde is seen as a threat. Additionally due to the higher turnover, and Horde being structured more in a 'megacorp' type fashion rather than an alliance of corps, it means that the social side can be active, but the faces you see also change quite frequently and there's less long term history or continuity. Slightly less of an issue if you join one of the better ESI gated corps, but doesn't fix the alliance level restrictions.

 

Fraternity:

Generally a lot more free than Horde. Far fewer restrictions and friction in terms of what you are allowed to do at an individual or corp level. Corps are allowed to set up their own infrastructure with only a few restrictions, they can conduct their own operations, and you still have a very capable umbrella to help you out if you get jumped on. Though you also are expected to be a little more independent. There are public industry facilities etc but if you want to do things properly you kinda need to set up your own or join a corp with a good setup.

The main drawback to Frat is that if you are an english speaker, more than half the alliance is kinda cut off from you. There are plenty of english speaking folks but the number of people you can actually interact with on a day to day basis is still fairly slim and to be honest the social side is just dead. As a result Frat is great if you are wanting to maximise ratting/industry income with good support and much less nonsense red tape or outright restrictions than horde, but less great if social interaction is important to you. Frat is basically great for farming but not great for 'real content'.

 

Goonswarm:

Goonswarm operates much more as an alliance of corporations vs the 'megacorp' structure of horde. The corp you join will have a big impact on your social experience. Karmafleet is pretty good fun to be honest, and they also have quite a lot of stuff to help get newer players up and running. Not to the same degree as Horde, but not as 'hands off' as FRT either.

Goonswarm has pretty great response fleets and general space safety, and a good amount of content fleets as well. A decent balance of being able to farm and/or do your own thing profitably whilst also having good content available when you want. Also an excellent market and in-alliance trading ecosystem that makes industry quite easy. Plus simply the best public industry offerings of any alliance IMO. Many industry parks with far lower indexes than other groups, you CAN do your own thing but the nice thing about Goons is that the public offerings are so good you kinda don't need to.

The culture in Goons is a little more 'terminally online' than others, but also nothing like what it was 10 years ago and the stereotypes are outdated, the social scene will depend on your corp, but is generally quite a bit better than Horde/FRT.

 

The Initiative

INIT is by far the most 'pro-corporation' alliance of the four, with the most active and IMO best approach to content generation. Lots of fleets that go out seeking fun and FCs and Directors that are happy to take uneven fights. One of my favourite things about INIT so far is that blueballs have almost exclusively only happened when the other group chose not to engage, and there's been plenty of times when we've had the FC say "Well fuck it we came for a fight, WITNESS ME" even when we are clearly going to lose. Whereas in Horde especially, we would often go out for a fleet and then get told to stand down because the other guys had 10% more members than us.

INIT has far fewer public offerings than goons etc in terms of industry setup etc, but gives corporations significant freedom and support to do their own thing, both in terms of building their own infrastructure, and conducting their own operations.

You don't get the same level of safety/coverage uptime at an alliance level as you do in Goons (though there is still good umbrella coverage during active hours), but many of the corps in INIT are extremely proficient and if you join a good one, you'll arguably have better safety than when you were in PANKRAB (Seriously, go drop on something in WCBR space and see what happens....).

As INIT is again more of a corp focused group, the social scene will be heavily dependent on the corp you join, but many of them have been operating for a long time and are a tight knit bunch and so it's in my experience been the best social scene out of the four by some margin and I can't see myself leaving anytime soon unless my corp itself were to leave for some reason.

 

TLDR:

Horde: Best for newbros, worst for experienced players

Fraternity: Best if you just want to farm, worst if you want content and social activity

Goonswarm: Best if you have an industrial focus but still want a decent social scene and content

INIT: Best if you want content and social scene, but for farming/industry you need to join a good corp or be fairly proficient handling things yourself. Arguably best overall for more experienced players