EDIT: Two responses from admins who dishonestly reframed the events of my ban and apparently refuse to explain it. Apparently "long time users" get different treatment.

EDIT2: The reason was finally given that "Have you stopped beating your wife?" in response to someone trying to put words in your mouth and ask loaded questions is a banworthy set of words. Incredible I know.

I would like explanation for the thinking that led to me being recently banned and branded a racist.

I was randomly attacked by a bad faith troll who later let slip that she was bearing a grudge based on some other encounter from 8 months ago. The attack consisted of an attempt to paint me as a racist for this simple and honest reading error.

I am a principled Marxist Leninist, active in real life and any reading of my contributions will support this and refute this slur on my character.

I can, at most, stretch to forgiving the ridiculous idea that I was the one being "toxic" here, and not simply holding up a mirror to the toxicity of the troll who attacked me for an innocent mistake, fantasised about me doing hypothetical racist things, asked me loaded questions and tried to put words in my mouth to fool credulous onlookers.

What I cannot ever accept is the allegation that I somehow engaged in "racism" anywhere in this interchange or in any of my other comments in the years I've participated on here. I deserve an explanation as to what you think you saw as racist in any of my comments.

I expect a complete apology, a clearing of my name and censure against my attacker and abuser. Those involved shamed themselves with their actions. You have an opportunity to make amends and undo that injustice you've inflicted.

I run a large ML forum with weekly views of tens of thousands and I recognise exactly the temptations you've allowed yourselves to succumb to of abusing your power for a false sense of righteousness based on petty bullying and unfair treatment. I know that I'm not the only one who's been a victim of this on lemmygrad.

The contributors to this forum deserve better moderation and better judgement from the admins in general. The current process of banning people without right of reply is abusive and dishonourable. That can be a separate discussion.

"Liberalism manifests itself in various ways. To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is one type of liberalism."

Coveney says he hasn’t heard any negative feedback from senior decision-makers in business relating to Ireland’s position on Gaza.

This line is unintentionally hilarious!

He and his right-hand man Ousmane Sonko have an anti-colonial stance and want to pull out of the CFA Franc.

France was recently expelled from Niger, and now there is a new blow coming.

I was especially taken by Ho Chi Minh's quote from On revolutionary morality and thought it would be great to have a comm for discussion on each of these. It's not something I'd like to run but is anyone else interested?

One theory I've heard about the accelerating of the worsening conditions of western proletariat is that the USSR used to provide a bulwark against things getting too bad. People would point at the USSR and the illusion that capitalism was better for individual prosperity would collapse in comparison. Then, with the USSR gone things have been deteriorating for the past ~30 years.

If that is true, even somewhat, why haven't we seen a similar effect from China's example? Is the theory simply wrong? Maybe western capitalism is just unable to even offer scraps from the table at this point. Maybe people are unaware of how things are in China? Could we dare to expect that China's example will force a lifting of the boot from our necks?