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Joining Lemmygrad (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/comradeship@lemmygrad.ml
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Hello all! I am moving here from Hexbear. I was user 'feelingyourselfdisintergrate'. I left after I discovered the mods support the sexual exploitation of Women. I was accused of being a SWERF and hating sex workers (despite the fact I do sex work myself). Anyway, I was told Lemmygrad might be a better fit, and it does seem to have a stronger idealogical core. Hopefully I fit in here!

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[–] 20 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Welcome comrade. Yes we definitely have a strong difference of opinion there. Many of them I think see women's bodies as kind of treats that they're entitled to access to, thus making up justifications for exploitation with intellectual pretensions. They also had a crypto-zionist on their admin team for a while so they've had some problems. Lot of good people there and generally good but definitely some spots that they really have problems in so hopefully you'll enjoy your time here.

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  • [–] 27 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Many of them I think see women’s bodies as kind of treats that they’re entitled to access to

    That's a very uncharitable interpretation, I don't believe that it's true at all. I will give them the benefit of the doubt, even if they did not afford us any.

    Ultimately, I think that their position aligns with the petty-bourgeois aspects of many Anarchist tendencies, which is predictable and expected when you have a "big tent" leftist community.

    Rather than the focus on the sex trade as a whole, and the conditions and relations of overwhelming majority of sex workers around the world, their analysis centres around petty-bourgeois sex workers, mainly in the global north, even if they don't realise it. The concept of "I'm free to do what I want with my body", and thus abolishing the concept of sex work, of having to sell sexual services for money, is infringing on individual freedom.
    They would argue that no one should have to sell sexual services for money, but they should be able to if they want to, and this is the part that shows their indifference to and detachment from the material reality of the sex trade in most of the world.

    I'm not going to rehash the entire argument, but this is a much more sober and charitable interpretation of their position. It still does not justify their slander against us in any way, and ironically, I can turn around and call them SWERFS and chauvinists since their position on the issue is harmful to the vast majority of people in the sex trade.
    It's not something I would do, because I don't believe having an incorrect analysis in good faith makes you a bigot, it just makes you incorrect.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    i agree with this take in a general sense but i think as regards that specific argument, the hostility demonstrates a certain lack of concern for the consequences of their positions at least. it's one thing to believe the sex trade is "identical to any other industry", whatever that means. it's another for established users and moderators of a left-wing website to be outright hostile to even the suggestion that some form of commodified labor might not be completely, entirely voluntary. it's difficult for me to assume good faith under such vitriol. i don't want to accuse the general hexbear of anything, or make a character judgement about anyone involved in that argument. but such hostility very much resembles the hostility of the western liberal to things that, on some level at least, they know are true:

    In short: Westerners aren’t helpless innocents whose minds are injected with atrocity propaganda, science fiction-style; they’re generally smug bourgeois proletarians who intelligently seek out as much racist propaganda as they can get their hands on. This is because it fundamentally makes them feel better about who they are and how they live.

    - Roderic Day, Masses, Elites, and Rebels

    1. They did not respect, or care about, the actual facts of the matter, except to the extent that they viewed such facts with hostility.
    1. Being told that the Bad Thing they were purportedly upset about wasn’t real only made them more upset. Proof that the 23rd largest corporation in America was not in league with the Devil made them defensive and very, very angry.

    - Fred Clark, False Witnesses

    idk how to end this other than to say i'm still very unsure why hexbears have chosen that as their hill to die on. but i know why the general western leftist (e.g. hasan piker) has.

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  • [–] [S] 20 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    Thanks. I did enjoy my time there, and most people in fact I found very pleasant, but it just left such a bad taste in my mind. I don't really understand where they were coming from since nobody really explained their position, but yeah, all I did was explain the Marxist-Leninist view, which I wouldn't think would be so controversial. From what I understand, Hexbear is federated with Lemmygrad, so I'd still be able to see Hexbear and communicate, just "from the other side" so to speak?

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    From what I understand, Hexbear is federated with Lemmygrad, so I’d still be able to see Hexbear and communicate, just “from the other side” so to speak?

    normally yes, but they have banned this account so you can't post there

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