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submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by duderium@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net

This makes me angry. I encounter it online and in the wild all the time. People have a problem with billionaires and corporations owning everything. They don't have a problem with mom-and-pop landlords living in the neighborhood (whatever's left of it) and renting out a few AirBnBs. People feel this way because they can't see a way out of capitalism except saving up some money and getting their own AirBnbs to exploit the land and proletariat, even though small landlords are neither happy nor interesting people, and they are still trapped inside capitalism.

People with an anti-corporate and anti-billionaire mindset are moving in the right direction, but they're still beholden to capitalist individualism. It's the same with local small businesses, even though these businesses are buying all their products from big businesses, selling them for a massive markup, and (in my experience) cheating their employees far more often than big business. Government jobs are the only ones I've had where I didn't feel like I was going to be fired or screwed every single day I was there.

I saw a Sysco truck a few days ago outside the only restaurant in my very small town. This place was my first job (as a bus boy) a loooooong time ago. They stiffed me on my first paycheck (I had been working an unpaid training period without knowing it, I was also supposed to be a psychic at this place) and I walked out. In the second or third year of the pandemic I saw a girl who couldn't have been more than eight years old working in an apron there (she was related to the family that owns the place). I've lived here off-and-on for decades and almost no one ever went to that restaurant; everyone knew you'd get sick if you ate their food. We suspected that it was a mafia money-laundering operation, since the owners drive red corvettes and seem to be rolling in dough. Tourists do eat there more regularly now even though the place has noticeably bad yelp reviews.

In a colonial context, big or small bourgeoisie can be revolutionary. In an imperialist context like in the USA, they are almost never revolutionary.

Also, the phrase "during the pandemic" makes me angry! A friend living overseas just told me yesterday that they had gotten sick and lost their sense of taste. Look up recent online reviews for scented candles.

Using "childish" as an insult. Bruh, have you talked with kids? Literally any kids. Easiest group of people on Earth to radicalize.

"Israel" is to blame for everything but somehow the USA is still good. This is thanks to Hollywood and the fact that the USA is a far bigger and more successful "Israel." Very few people know that Columbus was a Zionist. People around the world still dream of living here and making it big because of Hollywood movies and friends or relatives who immigrated here and somehow made it work.

In my experience, Arabic speakers are ready for a revolution, as long as it excludes women's liberation / queer liberation. Spanish speakers have profound levels of liberal brainworms. Portuguese speakers are typically pretty aligned with hexbear without knowing it. White leftists seem uninterested in returning the USA to indigenous sovereignty and paying full reparations to slaves / the descendants of slaves, and this is one major reason why their movements always go nowhere. (I hate the term "leftist" but I don't know what else to call these people since they aren't communists and yet they're still a bit more radical than the average democrat.)

What are some of your left-ish peeves you regularly encounter online?

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[-] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 23 points 3 weeks ago

Knee-jerk kink negativity that involves armchair diagnosing people they barely know and calling for them to be locked up/institutionalized over private consensual sexual practices.

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 11 points 2 weeks ago

It is genuinely frustrating to see people embracing right wing christian talking points in the year of our lord 2026 about sex but from the left. Like when we see people basically word for word quite the mormon campaigns against porn or talking points about how BDSM is the product of a deviant mind.

[-] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 7 points 2 weeks ago

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it comes down to the widespread tendency for right-wingers to be creeps about their fetishes toward women online and taking up the attitude of "this is associated with my enemy so I hate it." What that overlooks, of course, is that there's no shortage of completely vanilla right-wing creeps.

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 9 points 2 weeks ago

And it also ignores the presence of left wing very overt perverts (Affectionate)

I think you have a point, but I also think some of it is just basic cultural conservatism sneaking its way into people's ideology without being properly examined.

[-] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago

I wonder how many of those pushing those talking points either come from right-wing Christian backgrounds (who maybe haven't gone back and examined those ideas) versus completely secular ones (who maybe aren't aware of their source).

[-] Keld@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I think the second is more prominent than the first on websites like this. Cultural alienation to some extent is pretty common when you get to the political fringes like this website. But that idea is pulled entirely from the aether. Sprung from my brow like Athena.

[-] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

Could be right. At the end of the day, I think it all comes down to buying into idealist morals either way.

this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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