ama
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Please stick to one of either three post types:
A standard Ask Me Anything post.
A request post -- (What is the format and why should I make a request post?)
A gauging interest post -- (What is this?)
What is an AmA?
AmA’s or “Ask Me Anything” began on the old internet, originally AOL chatrooms, later followed by Slashdot. They are crowdsourced interviews where the interviewee first makes a post describing who they are and what they do. Commenters then leave questions and can vote on other questions according to which they would like to see answered.
The interviewee can then go through and reply to the questions they find interesting, and easily see those questions the internet is dying to have the answer too. Questions will be a mixture of radical, serious and lighthearted resulting in the kind of interview you won’t get elsewhere.
What Topics Are Allowed?
Anyone can do an Ask Me Anything. The topic of the AmA must meet the rules below, and in some cases you must provide proof of the claims you are making. Ask Me Anything topics fall into two categories:
Something that plays a central role in your life. The prime example of this is a person's job; posts about someone's occupation are almost always allowed. A person's topic should be something that they know thoroughly and is important to them; this gives them more to discuss and a more thorough background in the field.
A truly interesting and unique event. An example would be "I organised a protest against x." It's an activity that doesn't play a central role in someone's life but is so uncommon that many users would not have experiences of their own to relate to it.
AmAs should NOT be about:
Mutual-Aid and Crowd Funding - AmA submitters that include any aid or funding campaign must be eligible for an AmA without the campaign for it to be allowed. Additionally, the focus of the AmA must not be the campaign -- those posts would be more appropriate in the mutual-aid community. Posts about suicide.
Other Restrictions:
Giveaways are not permitted on AmA. Contests and giveaways already running on a third party site prior to the AmA are acceptable
Proof
Proof in the case of public figures or orgs may be a social media post on an official account. For other topics it may be a proof image. This does not always have to be included in the post at the time of posting and it may be discussed with the moderators and provided privately. We will ALWAYS respect your complete privacy.
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Hi JT. I think it's safe to say, you've had a good deal of success in reaching people online and opening them up to socialist concepts. But are there any instances in real life where you've felt you "got through" to someone in some significant way? I mean that in terms of just straight up talking to someone in person who wasn't aware of your online work and making real headway, but also if anyone you know "in real life" has told you that your online work is what helped change their perspective. In either case, did they have anything specific to say about what it was that "won them over"?
Just to add a little context, I remember you mentioning on the podcast that you and some old college buddies still on occasion get together and do powerpoint presentations for each other. First of all, my god, that's some wholesome nerdiness. If I remember right, those friends were more receptive than you had expected, and I always wondered about what they thought much later on, after you became a reasonably big online persona.
In addition to my above serious question, I wonder if you might just maybe indulge me a little further with a second one? Would you be willing to nudge Hakim & Yugopnik into doing an AMA here too? I don't know if that's socially/parasocially uncouth of me to ask, but it would be awesome if we could pick the brains of all 3 of The Deprogram boys
I have jokingly said that since Hexbear was fortunate enough to get you, we should let our comrade instance, lemmygrad.ml, have the honor of hosting Hakim's AMA. But then Hexbear and Lemmygrad need to have some sort of posting battle, and only the winner gets to host Yugopnik. Regardless of the particulars, Hakim & Yugopnik may really enjoy it as a respite from the monotony of being forever stuck in your basement, yeah?
(Apologies if any of this was asked before, I'm still working my way through the thread)
Great question! I've spoken to a lot of people over the years, and in my experience most of them are very receptive so socialist ideals until you mention the s-word. That's to be expected, but it's always annoying to have to change gears and defuse potential objections. If you can just plant that tiny little seed of "huh, he's a good guy and he's a socialist...maybe they're not that bad," you've won a tremendous victory. As far as specifics go, I've had a couple past coworkers reach out over the last few years and say that they're now socialists because of my work, which is really cool. I think having that personal connecting when talking about socialism can really help break down those deep-seated ideological barriers. As far as I know there isn't any one thing I've said that has won someone over, it's always more of a process of learning and self-reflection.
I'll definitely mention AMAs to the others, I'm sure they'd be happy to do one if they can find the time!
Yugopnik posted here before (looking for Eugene V Dabs) so unless lemmygrad has a better argument, he's ours.