I’ve been trying to find a good Marxist instance, but Lemmygrad and Hexbear are widely hated. Why is that? Are there any good leftist instances?

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    Lemmygrad and Hexbear aren’t “leftist” in the confused sense that Americans usually mean “leftist.” They’re actually leftist in the original sense, meaning that they want to abolish private ownership of the means of production. To the extent they’re “widely hated,” it’s largely because the Anglosphere has been indoctrinated against real, actual socialism their entire lives.

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      More often than not, when Americans say leftist they really mean left-liberalism a la Bernie Sanders, which is really center-left at most, and not actually leftist in the original sense, a sense which Americans have forgotten thanks to two Red Scares and the first Cold War.

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      That’s not the part people have an issue with, the part where their users deny genocides, call everyone that has a less extreme left opinion of politics Nazis, end up being so “anti-racism” that they’re racists themselves and take all critics as personal attacks, that’s what people have an issue with.

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        Wild how much footage is coming out of Gaza right now showing an actual ongoing genocide, yet Zionists and their water-carriers will harp on and on about how Israel is merely defending itself.

        Nothing of the sort from Xinjiang. At all.

        I’d like to see ONE verifiable image or video depicting this supposed Uyghur genocide we’re denying. ONE. Apparently it’s one of the worst human atrocities occuring right now. One of the worst in HISTORY.

        So… show me a single picture. Fetish porn doesn’t count. Where are the dead bodies? Where are these supposed mass graves?

        Love to break it to ya, they don’t fucking exist and they never did. You’ve been lied to.

        • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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          The US state department lawyers and the British House of Lords have evidence. That’s why they’re pursuing convictions of the Chinese leaders involved. No, wait— sorry, I misremembered. They both concluded there is insufficient evidence.

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          So you agree that there is a strong argument for Russia seeking genocide in Ukraine as well, right?

          • Camarada Forte@lemmygrad.ml
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            Israel has killed more civilians (mostly children and women) in a month of war than Russia has killed in almost two years. The Russians actually target almost exclusively military infrastructure, they have preserved electrical grids, water stations, communications infrastructure, etc… Not because they are “good guys”, obviously, but it’s a part of their strategy. But it shows genocide is not a part of this strategy.

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                The article was written by Timofei Sergeitsev, a Russian “philosopher” with no direct link to the government. The article in the website you linked was written in early April 2022, very early after the war, when no one knew what to expect. It was claimed it was “proof” the Russians was intending to genocide Ukrainians.

                More than a year later, have we seen anything like it? Have we seen active actions from the Russians to consistently destroy civilian buildings and systematically cause civilian casualties on purpose? I at least haven’t, unless we are talking about a completely different war which I’m not aware. I don’t excuse the Russians of anything, I’m sticking with the facts. The Russians have been very careful not to cause non-military casualties, which is extremely odd for a genocidal regime.

                So, in short, it’s your article written by a guy with no links to the government vs. what the actual war itself shows in practice. I prefer to see what practice shows us.

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                  Feels like ad hominem. The point is that you are unwilling to even engage with the idea that Russia seeks to eliminate Ukrainian identity, an idea which is reported by a number of primary Russian sources in a variety of media. Putin himself expresses frequent open skepticism of Ukrainian nationality. Not to even mention the internationally recognized mass deportation of children.

                  I won’t argue that Israel isn’t an apartheid state engaging in collective punishment. Meanwhile you will turn yourself in circles to defend Russian aggression, and for the life of me I can figure out what that has to do with liberating workers. It just feels less like intellectual honesty and more like campism. But then somehow I’m the brainwashed goon for actually attempting to maintain something resembling ideological consistency.

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                    unwilling to even engage with the idea that Russia seeks to eliminate Ukrainian identity

                    Camarada Forte did engage with this argument. The person who created this supposed dossier dictating Russia’s desire to destroy the Ukrainian identity has no direct link to the Russian government.

                    You need evidence we can engage with. We cannot meaningfully engage with empty platitudes.

                    Meanwhile you will turn yourself in circles to defend Russian aggression

                    Do you know what was going on in eastern Ukraine, beginning in 2014? Pretty similar to what’s going on in Gaza right now. Hint: it was not Russian artillery leveling homes, schools, and hospitals.

                    But then somehow I’m the brainwashed goon for actually attempting to maintain something resembling ideological consistency.

                    Awfully defensive there, bud. Speaking of ad hominem. 🙄

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                    The point is that you are unwilling to even engage with the idea that Russia seeks to eliminate Ukrainian identity

                    Is that like a litmus test? Next time I’m ordering pizza I’ll ask the restaurant if they are willing to engage with the idea that Russia seeks to eliminate Ukrainian identity.

                    Literally no idea why you brought that up again lol

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                Written by Timofei Sergeitsev in RIA Novosti, the rhetoric in the editorial…

                Oh so it’s not a “Kremlin paper”, it’s just what some guy thinks. If there are “no more Nazis in Ukraine than anywhere else” then there are no more nazis in Russia than anywhere else 🙃

      • Camarada Forte@lemmygrad.ml
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        their users deny genocides

        If you are referring to the Xinjiang issue, then it just reaffirms what @davel@lemmy.ml just said:

        it’s largely because the Anglosphere has been indoctrinated against real, actual socialism their entire lives

        Because the “Uyghur genocide” in Xinjiang is another example of propaganda. Or do you really think the West cares about Muslims and want to protect their “freedom”?

        call everyone that has a less extreme left opinion of politics Nazis

        I don’t see anyone in Lemmygrad calling other people “Nazis” because they disagree with someone in a discussion. I usually see them criticizing others as “liberals.” This is either a misrepresentation of leftists in general, very common among conservatives, or you are frequently being called a Nazi. I don’t know, maybe that’s on you? 🤔

        end up being so “anti-racism” that they’re racists themselves and take all critics as personal attacks

        That’s so specific you should give at least one example of this. We have very strict moderation against any bigotry, so I challenge you to link any “racist” attitude or comment you have seen in Lemmygrad. I will give you 24 hours, and if you don’t reply with an example, I will edit this comment saying you chickened out.

        EDIT: They chickened out, as expected.

        • redballooon@lemm.ee
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          Another repeating problem is the vast generalizations. Treating “the West” as if they’re all Bush Jr. or Reagan.

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            If “the west” isn’t voting for Bush or Reagan then they’re hailing people like Obama, who destroyed Libya and brought back open air slave markets - or Clinton who destroyed Belgrade and undermined social protections for workers. To think you are somehow better because you support(ed?) Genocide Joe is just delusion.

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            The West ≠ Western citizens

            North Atlantic imperialist countries is what we refer as “the West”. They have shared interests and in terms of foreign policy act almost in unison, so much so that a single term to describe North American and Western European countries is not a generalization, it’s quite appropriate actually.

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        end up being so “anti-racism” that they’re racists themselves

        lmao shut up ; settler tears are abundant in supply and abysmally low in both demand and quality

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              Oh there certainly is. You gotta read those comment threads yourself.

              It’s popped up in this one, too. It’s really curious how you can read and write enough to answer here, but not see that.

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                I’m not asking to see the comments for myself, I’m asking if you can point to evidence of this happening; it’s not the same question.

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                  I understand. You refuse to accept something that is fairly obvious for many Lemmy users and want to put a burden of proof on me, and because I don’t want to take on additional work for someone I neither know nor agree with, you are happy to keep your opinion, as am I to keep mine.

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        end up being so “anti-racism” that they’re racists themselves

        anyone complaining about “reverse racism” or “anti white racism” is a complete joke. like boo fucking hoo, someone called you a cracker on the internet, get over it.

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          That isn’t what they are talking about, hopefully. But if it is, I agree, a hearty “lol” is in order.

          • Garfield@lemm.ee
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            they replied confirming to me that what they were complaining about was in fact racism against white people, given that it seems to be a pretty common bit on lemmygrad to call people crackers and compare them to that kid who went onto fox news to complain about his face being photoshopped onto a picture of a ritz cracker by left wing students at his university that seems to be what they were complaining about

            edit: i found a picture of the guy

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          Racism has a definition that’s fairly easy to understand and yes people of all colors can be victims and even people of the same skin colour can be racists against one another because racism isn’t necessarily about the color of your skin, it can be about your ethnicity.

          Racism:

          prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

          Ethnicity:

          the quality or fact of belonging to a population group or subgroup made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent.

          If you had taken a crowd of anonymous Germans all dressed the same in 1935, how would you have told who was a Jew and who wasn’t? You wouldn’t have been able to because they were all just white people.

          What do you call it when 100 years ago in a first world white country the population that speaks one official language has an infant mortality rate comparable to that of colonial Africa while the population that speaks the other official language and lives in the same cities has an infant mortality rate comparable to any other first world nation?

          Was the Rwanda genocide not racism because it was two groups with the same skin colour? What about what happened in Yugoslavia?

          My white friend who went to China to study had to sit through multiple explanations by many Chinese student of the levels of intelligence being affected by skin colour and ethnicity and guess what, whites weren’t at the top! “All white people are dumber than Indians who are dumber than Koreans who are dumber than Chinese.” Are you telling me that isn’t racism against white people (and anyone that isn’t Chinese)? Because I sure would hope someone would call me a racist if I was saying the same thing about people of another skin colour or ethnicity!

          • ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml
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            you see i have pulled out the dictionary definition of racism and also an annecdote about how a country colonized by white people for centuries can actually be racist against my white friend for calling him a ‘cracker’, defeating your arguement

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            Racism is not easy to understand and you’re definitely not going to get a clear understanding of it from reading a definition especially if you’re white. I suggest you read some books. Good heavens maybe your racist Chinese friend is right.

            Edit I hear this is a good book

            White fragility by Robin diangelo

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              So you’re saying that what the Jews were victim of during WW2 wasn’t racism? Because they certainly were white!

              How about the Irish? The deportation of Acadians? French Canadians seeing their language becoming illegal to teach in Manitoba? The Yugoslav wars?

              By your logic it’s also impossible to be racist towards Chinese and Japanese because man, let me tell you, they can be racist as fuck towards everyone else and they were the ones in power on their side of the world for centuries!

              Racism has a definition and it’s a bad thing no matter who the victim is.

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                European Jews were not considered white before and during WW2. Whiteness has always changed with whatever we needed it to be for political reasons. The Irish were not considered white. In South Africa during Apartheid, a Japanese national was forbidden by a bus driver from entering a whites-only bus because the driver thought he was Chinese. The man sued and won against the driver as the Japanese were considered white and allowed to board segregated buses.

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                  It’s funny how it’s always the same whenever you’re confronted to arguments. You just insult the other party and leave the scene like you were a hero.

                  Also very funny you should call me a cracker when you don’t know what’s my origin, you just assume I’m white because you would be unable to accept that someone not white could realize that racism goes all ways.

      • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        Extremely accurate

        I literally netted a 2 week sitewide-ban on one of my alts in this thread for a softer worded take than this

      • deur@feddit.nl
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        Holy shit you got them to brigade your comment. They might as well be bots, I think Chat GPT’s “intelligence” outpaces them.

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          I believe it says far more about your own reading comprehension skills if you can’t tell us - human beings sick and tired of Empire apologia - apart from the usually incomprehensible shit salad that language models currently like to present as coherent.

          Maybe if you actually read more, you’d be able to discern the difference. 🤷‍♂️

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          As is tradition! What’s funny is that they’re supposed to be defederated from my instance so I don’t know why they even see my comments… Their admin even called my instance “sh.itsfullof.nazis” in their defederation message because they were angry that they were confronted to people who disagreed with them when they brigaded our administration communities…

        • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          They have a community dedicated to organizing brigades so it’s no surprise that they are brigading their comment

          !the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

          The rules in the side bar are very telling

          Of course the last time I mentioned it’s existence with one of my alts I got a 2 week sitewide-ban so this comment probably won’t last long

          Edit: Spleling

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        The “Uyghur genocide” is bullshit Atlanticist propaganda, and English-language Wikipedia is basically NATOpedia in its slant on the topic, so yes we will deny it. It’s a product of the new Cold War propaganda campaign against China.

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          I get why people would believe it like a decade ago when the facts were still kind of up in the air, but now even west media is like “yeaaah we looked into it and all of it is complete and utter bullshit” and yet you still have people confidently going on like it’s still a thing.

          Eventually you have to come to the grips with the fact that the only reason you believe in the Uyghur genocide is because you’re racist.

        • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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          Atlanticist crackers are exactly why I’m a third-worldist; I genuinely care more about my community’s diaspora than I’d ever care about these genocidal neocolonist crackers

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          Here are some properties of any conspiracy theory worth it’s name:

          • Closed Ideological Systems: They provide an all-encompassing explanation for various events or states, with everything fitting into their worldview.
          • Immunity to Facts: Any contrary evidence is dismissed as false or considered part of the conspiracy.
          • Enemy Construction: They tend to draw a clear line between “us” (those who “know the truth”) and “them” (the supposed conspirators).
          • Adaptability: Conspiracy narratives can change and incorporate new “evidence” or events to maintain their credibility.

          It matches for QAnon and the MAGA crowd as well as the lemmygrad crowd.

          • ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml
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            not having the self awareness to realize this applies to anti-communists, not communists/MLs as they use scientific reasoning.

            • redballooon@lemm.ee
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              Just to understand what you are saying, do you say communists apply scientific reasoning?

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                  That’s very abstract and doesn’t mean much. With as many words you can say capitalism is based on scientific reasoning.

                  • ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml
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                    Its not abstract at all, ‘Marxism’ is an entire field in sociology and is recongised + fundemental to understanding sociology.

              • Camarada Forte@lemmygrad.ml
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                Yes, Marxism is based on a scientific methodology called historical materialism. It’s too complex to be explained in a single comment, but it has an internal logic and methodology which proposes to analyze social systems in general, but especially capitalist societies in particular.

                You can’t use the scientific method used in the natural sciences because you can’t put a society in a lab to study it. Social sciences require a methodology apart from the natural sciences, and Marxism has proposed historical materialism, which is very consistent and coherent approach, based on the Hegelian dialectical logic with materialism as a principle.

          • Camarada Forte@lemmygrad.ml
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            How ironic! Let’s see if it fits for the “genocide” position:

            • Closed Ideological Systems: Whether those who defend the idea of “genocide” in Xinjiang are aware or not, the sources used to claim there is a genocide in Xinjiang is usually Adrian Zenz, a German white supremacist and Christian fundamentalist who claimed in his book Worthy to Escape that “other belief systems are ultimately inspired by Satan” and justifies “eternal punishment” for those who refuse to believe in Jesus.

            • Immunity to Facts: Every time one tries to argue that Xinjiang faced a policy of de-radicalization of terrorists who led many attacks against the province, those who claim there is a genocide there say they are “genocide deniers.” I’ve even seen people saying those who don’t agree with the “genocide” position are paid by the Chinese.

            • Enemy Construction: I can’t even count the number of times people have called those who don’t promote the “genocide” propaganda “tankies” and dismissing them instead of engaging with arguments.

            • Adaptability: The “genocide” propaganda claims there is a genocide there, and then when presented with the fact that even those who were put in the re-education facilities were allowed to express their culture with dances and art on video, the “genocide” conspiracy theorists say that it was a fake, an act, that it was a spectacle organized by the Chinese to hide the genocide. Just to give you an example.

            It does match the “genocide” position very well. I’ve yet to see a genocide which preserves the language, the culture, the customs and the places of worship of a people. Another thing, notice the reaction of Muslim countries to the actual genocide being perpetrated by Israel. They are firmly condemning it through all channels. In contrast, the policies of de-radicalization by the Chinese were unanimously well-received by Muslim countries.

            • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
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              Another thing, notice the reaction of Muslim countries to the actual genocide being perpetrated by Israel. They are firmly condemning it through all channels. In contrast, the policies of de-radicalization by the Chinese were unanimously well-received by Muslim countries.

              Very generous of you to assume that many of these folk believe Muslims and Arabs are human beings capable of forming their own opinions and international policy. The opinions of actual Muslims are similarly handwaved akin to any communist’s opinion.

              These states’ international defense of China’s de-radicalization program is stated to merely be because they are money-hungry opportunists, buddying up with China while ignoring a politically and economically inconvenient genocide. 🙄 How… adaptable this narrative is.

              The seemingly unending wave of videos of Uyghurs in China recording themselves in their homes and making it clear they are not undergoing genocide have to be ignored. In fact, they have to be deleted by the platforms hosting them. How utterly immune to facts this narrative is.

              If these countries care about Palestine, oh… I don’t know. Russia is making them care. Iran, maybe? Maybe North Korea or China are forcing these Muslims to hate Israel. Who else are we being directed to hate right now? Afghanistan? Just throw a dart at the “Axis of Evil” board and pick an “uncivilized” nation. It’s their fault. Why not?

      • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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        That’s a liberal with no framework. No one denies genocides (pro-tip just because the western media says it’s a genocide doesn’t make it a genocide.) Being so anti-racist you are the real racist is the Liberal Democratic party who elected a hard-core segregationist as president, not a Marxist Leninist. No one except people like you give a fuck about personal attacks. lol.

    • Big P@feddit.uk
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      Any politically focused space on the Internet, left or right, is a cesspool of toxic lies and hatred of anyone outside their sphere