Maybe it is more than an instance. Maybe it is an idea, a world-historical vanguard, light itself. 
actual attempt to answer (cringe)
We’ve been around for three years on a lemmy fork before federation. The lack of federation for years as well as the place we splintered off from (/r/chapotraphouse) already having a unique microculture within Reddit has given this instance, in my opinion, a distinct culture compared to general-purpose and even other hobbyist instances.
Regarding specifics, Hexbear is a vehemently queer-friendly/intersectional anti-sectarian socialist instance. Check us out 
Come join us under the nice warm hexbear kotatsu
Fine. You convinced me.
Oh look, the emotes aren’t ten stories high over here!
Welcome comrade
You’re free from the reign of giant PPB, comrade
The list of emotes are.
One of us one of us
now you get to join the rest of us in never being able to find emotes amongst the uncountably infinite images.
Wouldn’t it be funny if someone had absolutely no idea how to access all those emotes? Lol. What would you even tell them so they could figure it out? That would be hilarious!
Cough
if you know the approximate name for something you want, you can start typing :name and you’ll see a dropdown with the emotes that match. if you have no clue, you can click the little emoji icon just above the post box, scroll down past the standard emoji, and browse the emotes by category.
I’ve been considering it