I was just perusing the modlog when I noticed something interesting. Apparently posting news about Gaza/Palestine is not allowed on !worldnews@sh.itjust.works. I decided to check the side bar and didn’t see anything. The only pinned post also does not indicate that this is not allowed
edit: the mod in question is @Eyekaytee@aussie.zone . sorry for not originally tagging. i hadn’t realized it was a rule that this must be done. i thought it seemed inappropriate since i was trying to initiate a conversation about a community’s rules and culture rather than start drama about an individual
I like to comfort myself by imagining that both of you are paid actors who make a living sowing discontent on Lemmy to prevent any chance of mainstream success for the platform.
Sadly, my rational assessment of the human condition compels me to believe that you are both entirely genuine, and just extremely confused and solipsistic. If you are indeed engaging in good faith, then I would pose the question of what you hope to accomplish by engaging in these idiotic, endless faux-debates.
Realistically, there is no arbitrator here; you are both entirely able to move the goalposts, recruit spurious evidence, ignore counterpoints, and generally make a mockery of a legitimate debate. Furthermore, you have a miniscule audience on this platform, greatly limiting the possibility of influencing third parties. Therefore, the only possible outcome of this interaction would be the outcome which has already been repeated ad infinitum on Lemmy and social media in general, namely the mutual exchange of insults, poorly constructed arguments, and badly sourced data.
What an interesting way to spend one’s life. As I said initially, it would be less painful to witness if I believed that you were accomplishing something such as the general suppression of Lemmy as a social media platform by creating a climate of negativity and conflict (even though I oppose that goal).
But realistically you are probably like the vast majority of people in that you are hopelessly incapable of judging the impact of your actions on the world and/or yourself, and you simply prefer to follow your baser instincts rather than take a step back and consider if there might be a more efficacious method of achieving your purported goals. Gives major punching a brick wall energy.
It’s much simpler, I’m a communist, and I try to do what I can to create more comrades. Many people have thanked me for helping change their minds, so I know it isn’t worthless.
Communism isn’t a deus ex machina that would make all human beings instantaneously happy if they were to simply accept it unquestioningly. For that matter, communism isn’t a comprehensive ideology at all, it’s more of a collection of theorems regarding the socioeconomic development and structure of society, many of which contradict one another.
It’s like a Christian who thinks they are inherently doing good by converting others to Christianity. You are taking a handful of decent theoretical ideas and imbuing them with the significance of divine revelation. Furthermore, you are arrogantly presuming that your flawed understanding of communism is the real communism, and discounting the possibility that other “communists” can easily interpret the ideology in such a way as to justify killing you due to your flawed understanding of communism. It’s an incredibly naive position that doesn’t withstand the most basic scrutiny.
Think about it like liberalism. The American and French revolutionaries claimed moral authority because they were overthrowing the hierarchical structures of feudalism and replacing them with republicanism, democracy, free trade, etc.
In retrospect, we can easily observe that these ideas and political movements, despite nominally being constructed to protect and enhance the freedom and equitability of human beings, have in reality created conditions which have massively infringed on the self-declared natural rights of human beings in ways that a feudal hierarchy could never have dreamed of accomplishing.
Likewise, even if society were to globally transition to communism, that would simply raise new problems and abuses of power that would need to be combated. In conclusion, “creating more comrades” is a futile and naive goal.
Additionally, there is a very convincing argument to be made that you have potentially pushed more people away from communism than drawn people towards communism, and you would obviously have no way of knowing whether or not that is true. From where I’m sitting, I see a lot more users who have blocked you and your ilk than those who have joined you, and my personal opinion of communism has grown significantly less favorable since I began encountering you people on Lemmy a few years back. But what do I know, I’m a dirty non-communist so therefore all of my thoughts and actions are clearly incorrect and evil in comparison to the enlightened and ethical behaviors of any individual who happens to adopt the moniker of communist.
God, ignorance really is bliss. What I would give to be simple-minded enough that I could ascribe a positive ethical value to something as utterly meaningless as “creating more comrades”.
I never once said that communism is something magical that fixes all problems, nor have I placed religious significance on it. This giant wall of text is just you going on and on in flowery language without actually explaining how I fit the strawman you’ve made of me.
Communism, the ideology, is just the general organization towards collectivizing production and distribution. The process isn’t magical, it isn’t religious, but it has useful benefits and consistent practical knowledge developed by past communists and socialists to aid in reaching this end. That’s what communism is. There’s no magic utopia, and I have never said as such, nor have you explained how I misunderstand communism.
It’s nice that you top off your comment with an ableist attack by calling me “simple-minded.”
It’s not a strawman, it’s a realistic appraisal of your position based on the evidence of your actions. Just because you prefer to deny it verbally when it’s laid out in front of you like that doesn’t make it any less true.
If you don’t believe communism is anything special or noteworthy, then you wouldn’t spend your entire life on a fringe online forum attempting to convert a few dozen edgy teenagers.
You have a remarkable capacity for doublethink, which partially explains why you find communism so attractive as an ideology.
Thank you for calling my language flowery though, it’s nice to be appreciated 🙃
You didn’t lay out anything, though, you waxxed poetic about a strawman. You’re even doing it now, just because communism isn’t magical doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s important and necessary. You’re outright stating in this doublespeak that if something isn’t religious or magical, that it isn’t worth anything at all, then you call what I do “doublethink.”
Secondly, I have a busy life outside of Lemmy. I like to spend my online time talking about theory and geopolitics, but I don’t even moderate any comms except Hexbear’s c/theory which I only use to pin and unpin reading threads. You’re speaking like a Marvel villian right now without stating anything of substance.
You haven’t even responded to my point that you’re actively pushing more people away from communism than vice versa.
How can you think it’s important and necessary if you can’t even define what it is?
Does it? Can you give some examples of these benefits and this practical knowledge?
I’ll go first. It is necessary to eliminate opposing political parties and ideologies to ensure the viability of any communist state.
You didn’t back up that claim with anything other than vibes, though. Further, politics isn’t a tug-of-war, if people firmly disagree with communism, a communist explaining the communist viewpoint with (generally) a level-head isn’t pushing them away, it’s the communism, full-stop. The fact that the absolute number of comrades has risen due to my interactions means it’s a net positive.
Secondly, I can define communism, it’s a stateless, classless, moneyless society where production and distribution is collectivized and based on satisfying the needs of everyone.
Edit: to respond to your edit:
Communists have learned good party structure, how to democratize the economy, and the usefulness of implementing controlled market forces in underdeveloped countries as a means to rapidly increase the productive forces. China, for example, is massively improving quality of life year over year, and was one of the poorest countries on the planet only a century ago.
I don’t need to, I’m not the one focusing all my energy on converting people to communism without having any evidence of whether my methods are actually effective, or indeed, whether communism itself is effective.
Hahaha it’s like when the CCP exterminated all the sparrows in China to protect the crops. It wasn’t until millions of people started dying from starvation that they realized sparrows actually play a major role in controlling insect populations, and their idiotic extermination campaign had the opposite effect of what they intended. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree I guess. Shoot first ask questions later mindset.
Oh, or it’s also like when the CCP instituted the one-child policy, only to belatedly realize decades later that they had inadvertently created a massive demographic crisis that has only begun to unfold recently. It’s almost like blind adherence to ideology to the exclusion of one’s ability to dispassionately examine the available evidence causes one to make bad, self-destructive decisions. Who knew? Certainly not communists.
Citation needed
So what’s your end goal here? What’s the communist endgame?
Communism, globally.
That does sound attractive, very utopian, I like that. I’m unfortunately more of a realist and believe that human greed is just too inherent in our biology, not to say we shouldn’t try, of course.
But the question is how? Through a stateless society?
Once all of production is collectivized, the basis of class ceases to exist, and thus the basis of the state erodes.
Communism isn’t utopian, and greed isn’t a matter of biology, but expressed to greater or lesser degrees depending on the mode of production.
And how would you prevent a state from forming in a stateless society? We are pack animals after all.
Marxists define states and governments as two separate things, you should look into this before you ask this question
Communists as a whole use the original meanings of the terms and not the modern ones.
The basis of the state is class society. Once class is abolished through collectivized production, the oppressive elements of society that form the state, ie police, millitaries, etc erode. Administration will continue to exist, as will collective decision making organs, etc, but this is not what Marxists recognize as the state.
What do you expect instead? You can’t have a discussion with extremists.
I would just block and move on if I were you. Although I don’t hold myself to that same standard because sometimes I can’t resist interacting either, so I guess I can’t really criticize you too much.
Usually I try to just speak my piece and dip though, whereas you tend to get fully drawn into discussions with extremists much more frequently and extensively than myself, and indeed seem to seek such interactions out. Just seems like a waste of energy and not particularly beneficial for your mental well-being.