DictatrshipOfTheseus

You could go be the on-the-ground correspondent for Channel Hexbear's NewsMega. Tell us what's happening with live updates and each time close with "back to you, SeventyTwoTrillion."

I haven't read all the replies yet, but this misunderstanding over the term "liberal" has come up many times now since federation. I would highly recommend reading through this other thread which gets into it with quite a lot of detail and history: https://hexbear.net/comment/3731464

In yet another case where this confusion happened, I wrote a brief explanation. I'll paste it again because why the hell not.

Just so it's clear, OP isn't drawing a distinction here between amerikkkan liberals and conservatives. A lot of times when leftists complain about liberals or liberalism, people who aren't exposed to leftism will mistakenly take this to mean that we're pro-conservative. We are NOT pro-conservative.

When we talk about liberals, we mean in the broader sense of people who subscribe to the philosophical tenants of liberalism, or in other words, people who think that capitalism is a good and/or natural thing. To us, conservatives are pretty much just a subset of liberals who have even more reactionary opinions about certain social issues than the standard liberal. This misunderstanding isn't the fault of the people who misunderstand, mainstream media depicts all politics as being a binary battle between the dems and the GOP, a sport where two teams face off and that's it. But in much of the world, "liberal" is actually synonymous with right wing and that's how we use it. In the US, liberal tends to mean "left wing" but only because the overton window is so grotesquely far to the right, and anticapitalism isn't even a consideration in US politics.

Forgive me if you already know all this, but because we're seeing new people around here due to federation, I think it's a good idea to point this out and avoid the possibility of conflating our utter contempt for liberalism with any sort of positive view of conservatism.

Saying "all X nationality is Nazi" is some Nazi shit. Yes, even when you excuse one tenth of one percent. Something like 20% of Germany's population are minorities. Sure, that includes minorities like Poles who can still be Nazi, but African Germans are alone over 1 percent (a lot more than 0.1%), are they all Nazis too? Even that 80% German majority is not all fucking Nazis though. I normally really like your comments comrade but this take is shit.

Im not liberal, im a socialist.

A "socialist" who believes capitalist propaganda and refers to the largest and most successful actually existing socialist state's functionality as "antics"? Sounds pretty liberal to me.

And im not American either :)

The person you're replying to wasn't suggesting that you were. He signs all his comments with that phrase at the end, and strangely enough, it's almost always fitting.

Anyway, yes, this instance does tend to try to talk about China accurately, and it does so in the face of overwhelming torrents of western propaganda cultivated by the capitalist's/imperialist's demonization of the state that poses the largest contemporary threat to their hegemony.

I just edited my comment to fix my use of "they/their" into "he/him" as per the other commenter's pronouns. I mention this specifically because you said in another comment for us to "stop being against lgbtq." This instance is the most lgbtq-positive space I've ever encountered on the internet. We frequently get hated on by transphobes because we include pronouns next to usernames. We were, and to my knowledge still are, the only instance to do so.

It's been a few years since I watched it, and it's not specifically about trans people, but I remember Shaun made (as usual) an excellent video about women and chess, dismantling the ridiculous arguments that because there are more higher-ranked male chess players, men's brainpans are better suited (than those of the emotional feeemale) for the kind of logical thinking that chess requires.

I'm curious what aspects of that comment you thought were fantastical. Will you elaborate and be specific?

There is no question that 72T is a major reason why the news mega is such an informative and entertaining resource, and the amount of work, care, and overall amazing posting power he puts into it can't be overstated. That said, there are a number of comrades here who consistently post not just important news and analysis but also hilarious commentary and this place would not be what it is without them, either. Don't sell them short! It's community effort that keeps it from collapsing.

To me, that sounds like good reason why they don't feel the need to do anything. Why lift a finger when they're guaranteed support there anyway? Pretty bleak and cynical, but that's the dems for you. Now if it were a "battleground state," then there would at least be incentive to make a show of helping out somehow. Even then, I'd be amazed if it were more than some token support they could use for soundbites.

The "dunking on libs" rhetoric made me think some instance had been taken over by crazy far right assholes or something. It honestly read like a truth social-type thread. Without context phrases like maga and fjb wouldn't have been out of place.

I'm going to repaste a comment I've made a couple times already, just because I keep seeing this (understandable) issue come up:

Just so it's clear, OP isn't drawing a distinction here between amerikkkan liberals and conservatives. A lot of times when leftists complain about liberals or liberalism, people who aren't exposed to leftism will mistakenly take this to mean that we're pro-conservative. We are NOT pro-conservative.

When we talk about liberals, we mean in the broader sense of people who subscribe to the philosophical tenants of liberalism, or in other words, people who think that capitalism is a good and/or natural thing. To us, conservatives are pretty much just a subset of liberals who have even more reactionary opinions about certain social issues than the standard liberal. This misunderstanding isn't the fault of the people who misunderstand, mainstream media depicts all politics as being a binary battle between the dems and the GOP, a sport where two teams face off and that's it. But in much of the world, "liberal" is actually synonymous with right wing and that's how we use it. In the US, liberal tends to mean "left wing" but only because the overton window is so grotesquely far to the right, and anticapitalism isn't even a consideration in US politics.

Forgive me if you already know all this, but because we're seeing new people around here due to federation, I think it's a good idea to point this out and avoid the possibility of conflating our utter contempt for liberalism with any sort of positive view of conservatism.

I really appreciate that you came here and talked to us in good faith and gave us some valid criticism. That's always a good thing, even when it can be hard to hear, so thank you. Personally, I loathe the thought of being mistaken for a right wing asshole, and I do feel that if we're coming across that way, then we need to work on fixing our rhetoric.

I do hope you stick around, or come back every now and then. Our community is dedicated to fostering "left unity," so we really want to be inclusive to everyone who is, as you said, headed in the same direction, even if the wavelengths are different. If there's something you feel we do or believe that doesn't sync up with your own wavelength, ask us about it! It possibly might turn out we're more in sync than it at first seemed. But over all, I think I can speak for most of us here when I say that we strive to be kind, compassionate, and supportive to anyone else who also genuinely strives to be kind, compassionate, and supportive, especially to those who are the most vulnerable in this capitalist society.

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.” ― Che Guevara

I think that informed debate does more than dunking, and spreads the message better.

Not to be an enlightened centrist, but we need both tactics. Informed debate is definitely important, but so is hardcore dunking. Different tactics click with different people. But I agree, there needs to be a balance and right now it feels like it's weighted too much towards repeated PPB (which imo should be reserved only for the more egregious bad faith arguments).

It is true that there are plenty of people who use reddit that are not racist (setting aside the idea that everyone who lives in a racist society, which we in the west do, has at least some internalized racism). Some people on reddit even actively fight against it, to their credit. That said, as a platform, both in terms of the people who run and administrate it, as well as the larger majority mass of users, definitely tends towards racism. This can be seen in all kinds of ways, from admins always siding with of racists over bipoc to the frothing-at-the-mouth hatred of the "orcish hordes" that dominates in every popular subreddit (and the silencing of those who offer even the mildest criticism of it), to the understandable yet very telling rabid defense of the privilege so many of them insist they earned when it is nothing more than old fashioned white privilege. You seem to agree that reddit is bad for its corporatist bullshit and its laser focus on profit at the expense of people. We agree. But that alone is inherently systemically racist for sociological reasons that I'm assuming you're aware of, given some of your other comments. For all these reasons, it is hardly an overreaction or unfair to refer to reddit as "a racist website."

As for "authoritarian" communists, all I'll say here is that I hope you can learn to seriously, genuinely question a lot of what you have learned from what amounts to an ocean of propaganda deliberately spread for decades (even over a century) to demonize any successful socialist revolution. I'd encourage you to ask some of us "tankies" in good faith about some of that propaganda in other appropriate threads.

Just so it's clear, OP isn't drawing a distinction here between amerikkkan liberals and conservatives. A lot of times when leftists complain about liberals or liberalism, people who aren't exposed to leftism will mistakenly take this to mean that we're pro-conservative. We are NOT pro-conservative.

When we talk about liberals, we mean in the broader sense of people who subscribe to the philosophical tenants of liberalism, or in other words, people who think that capitalism is a good and/or natural thing. To us, conservatives are pretty much just a subset of liberals who have even more reactionary opinions about certain social issues than the standard liberal. This misunderstanding isn't the fault of the people who misunderstand, mainstream media depicts all politics as being a binary battle between the dems and the GOP, a sport where two teams face off and that's it. But in much of the world, "liberal" is actually synonymous with right wing and that's how we use it. In the US, liberal tends to mean "left wing" but only because the overton window is so grotesquely far to the right, and anticapitalism isn't even a consideration in US politics.

Forgive me if you already know all this, but because we're seeing new people around here due to federation, I think it's a good idea to point this out and avoid the possibility of conflating our utter contempt for liberalism with any sort of positive view of conservatism.