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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”
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!