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Sleuthing feddit.org admin finds a tankie consipiracy
(hexbear.net)
I am just noticing that Unruffled proposed to refederate Lemmygrad to dbzer0. The people who upvoted aren't a surprise. What is sad is the db0 was one of the upvoters and this was nine months ago.
It loses the fun alliteration, but we’re gonna have to change it from the “Tankie Triad” to the “Tankie Quintad”
The vote didn't even pass, lmao. As cool as I think it would be for dbzer0 to decide to fed with Grad, they decided not to.
Why is dbzero cool with hexbear but not grad?
Hexbear is left-unity, dbzer0 is largely anarchist, Grad is 99% ML. Hex and dbzer0 have that anarchist overlap, but there's little ML overlap between Grad and dbzer0. That said, Hex seems to be mostly ML so I imagine in time Grad and dbzer0 may federate. Or, rather, dbzer0 may reciprocate, Grad doesn't really defed from anywhere serious.
Edit:
Lmao, they think Hex is manipulating dbzer0 into defederating from Zionists, and used this comment as evidence. Nah, being Zionists is what got you defederated, something anarchists and Marxists can 100% agree on is support for Palestine.
That makes sense and thanks for the lore. In practice I think Hexbear is 99% ML also, but the difference is that HB is less serious. Personally I prefer that because I don’t think anonymous forums can ever be leveraged to organize, due to being public and open. Hexbear does it right. It’s mostly for sharing information and building camaraderie/optimism and fighting that lonely feeling when everyone IRL is liberal or worse.
Honestly, as a user of Grad and Bear, Grad is often pretty goofy too. Rather than being "serious," I'd say it's quieter and more chill. Hexbear is more energetic and fun, but I find myself preferring Grad from time to time and have an account there. There's no party building or anything over on Grad. As for Hex, I'd say you're underestimating the number of Maoists, anarchists, etc. MLs may be the majority, but there's quite a bit of variety here.
Also I think there's at least a few of us who are more non-denominational leftists for lack of a better term
Personally I don't see labels as being all that useful beyond the fact that someone calling themselves a socialist or a communist proves that they aren't scared of being called one
Ya I think the same. Declaring a specific ideology makes sense for a party, less so for an individual. A party has to define its aims, strategy, etc. so there is a practical need to clarify an ideological basis. As an individual, I learn from Marx, Lenin, and Mao but wouldn’t say I’m MLM. Though in principle I could join an organization that calls itself that. Anyway all these “isms” start to feel utopian and dogmatic which I am allergic to as a Marxist (intentionally ironic)
Tbh I think its even cringe to call yourself a "communist" if you aren't an active member of a communist party
I disagree although I see why you feel that way. In my opinion being communist is not just what you do. It is a worldview. There can be a long span of time between someone avowing themselves as communist, and when they are ready or able to join a party. In the current stigmatized environment, it's good if people openly avow communism when they mean it
From my perspective, I would consider "Marxism" or "dialectical materialism" to be descriptors of the worldview that underlie communist political practice. It is also possible for this worldview to underlie other forms of political practice.
I was thinking about this for a few hours and I think you should consider a broader view of communism. Joining a communist party is a specific thing that does not encompass communism as practice. Many of the communist fighters in the 20th century belonged to no party. Many of them never read Marx. Yet they believed in the cause and fought and maybe died for it. The way you write it, it seems that all communists start from reading Marx and then graduating into official party membership. But that doesn’t follow logically or historically.
I guess to summarize a spiral of ideas, I’m fine with calling someone a communist if they are anticapitalist and put that belief into practice in whatever way applies to their own life. If someone lives in the countryside then their path of action is different from an urban worker who can directly engage with their peers for the archetypal “I’m a communist agitating with other communists” lifestyle.
Yeaahh honestly my original post was slinging a bit of snark at what I consider largely irrelevant sectarian self-labeling that happens online in the modern day. I also think that the word "communist/communism" means like 6 different things depending on the context and spans multiple sects.
I can respect where you're coming from, and having some respect for the concept of having some historical continuity with our comrades who made sacrifices in historical left-wing movements.
Yep, I know a lot of people here are the same way! I do value the consistency that comes from identifying myself as ML, but I also used to consider myself generally left.
Fair enough!
oh no, am i the 1%?
in my younger years i'd a lot of run-ins with 'ML' parties that were pretty shitty about being trans/gay; way too serious while simultaneously being deeply unserious. it's why i tended to stick to anarchist groups.
definitely a better balance here, plus where i'm currently at irl i've run into quite a lot of trans comrades that are ML/maoist such that it gives me hope that those issues aren't set in stone.
Db0 tends to skew anarchist, while grad doesn’t have our rules against sectarianism and is quite willing to throw shade
Don't remember this vote happening. Wish I could have contributed.
It was many months ago IIRC