What kind of socialist ideologies are popular on Lemmy.ml?
What kind of socialist ideologies are popular on Lemmy.ml?
I have noticed a huge difference between Lemmygrad and Lemmy.ml in terms of what kinds of theory gets upvoted and downvoted. What is the general vibe on here towards actually existing socialism as well as the ideas towards reformism?
A lot of the socialists on Lemmy.ml are MLs (hence the domain) and many of them are authoritarian leftist or at least sympathetic to the authoritarian reformism of that of Stalin. I personally prefer the Beehaw socialism community as it is inherently anti-authoritarian. Lemmygrad is a tankie infested cesspit with brainrotten propaganda regurgitators who have never read theory and struggle to fit the definitions of Leftists.
@ivereadalltheory @CharmingOwl yes MLs are authoritarian, im not sure why this surprises you. Engels wrote about authority quite a lot and id reccomend giving his work 'on authority' a look; its at most a ten minute read
tho i have seen my fare share of poor takes coming out of lemmy
I've read On Authority. There's good reason for my identifying as a socialist rather than a ML. I don't necessarily have a fundamental disagreement with the use of authoritarianism, however the way in which it has ever been implemented has been abominable and the defense of that by most MLs I've interacted with leads me to detest them when they're aware of what they're doing or assume they're an idiot who's fallen to the USSR billboard propaganda aesthetic if they're not.
I am an authoritarian ML who upholds Stalin, Mao and the modern DPRK. I have noticed though a lot of people seem anti-authoritarian here compared to Lemmygrad where I used to host my communities.
... in other words, Behaw socialism (lemmy.ml too) is Trotskyist, origin of many a Neocon: liberal socialism at the vanguard of Western imperialism against the array of global socialism ranging from Bolivarian in the Americas to Maoist in Asia. "Global" as in Global South, all authoritarian to a Trotskyite, in need of liberation.
im so glad that people here dislike that tankie hellhole, because i tried to join and had a terrible experience.
I joined them back when I was a lib because I wanted to learn more about communism and I was met with genocide denial or even support and all the authoritarian sucking up you can imagine. Now I'm a communist and I still think there's not even a single positive attribute of lemmygrad except as an example of how even people with lobotomies can regurgitate authoritarian and totalitarian propaganda.
I like Marx and am iffy about Lenin. I also consider myself a libertarian regarding most issues and dislike hedonism. That doesn't put me somewhere specific regarding ideology but that's that.
I'm iffy about Lenin too. Marx and Engels wrote about bottom up socialism but Lenin came along and basically said the working class is too stupid for a socialist revolution and opted for top down socialism which led to authoritarian socialism and state capitalism.
Our neolib capitalist society is top down governance which is why I highly oppose everything that isn't bottom up socialism
yeah, i agree, lenin is mid.
Just curious, why do you dislike hedonism? How does that fit into a political/social ideology? This is in no way a challenge.
I dislike hedonism in the case it antagonizes discipline. There are many cases where our desires overcome our sense of self and end up as addictions. I guess what I dislike is formless desire unrestricted by rationality. Self-discipline = sense of self = good.
It is my view that everything is political, how could a way of thinking about desire not be? Hedonism in particular is perfectly suited for the current consumer culture which claims to satisfy our every want, which treats desire as the ultimate drive in the world and monetizes it. Participation in market economy is addictive and erodes our sense of self. It weakens us as individuals and prepares us for its hierarchies.
That would make you a libertarian ideologically. Though sadly the term has been co-opted by false neo-libertarian cultists. Most would label themselves libertarian marxists today to differentiate themselves from the dishonest actors on the right. I myself fall on that range as well. Though I am decidedly anti-lenin, anti-authoritarian.
yeah, i have taught my friends and family the true meaning of libertarian, but they still sometimes assume it refers to "an"caps.
im quite eclectic myself, never fit well into catagories.
This is good discourse. I appreciate it and learned a lot.
What is the general vibe on here towards actually existing socialism as well as the ideas towards reformism?
I can only speak for myself but so-called AES is just capitalism. It can be capitalism that is far far better than the U.S or other imperialist countries, but I'm not a communist that cheers for improvements to Capitalism. And what is there to speak of with "reformism"? It's a dead end that doesn't lead to Socialism and is the norm.
As an aside, both Lemmy.ml and Lemmygrad are largely full of what I'd called revisionists, meaning simply the refusal to acknowledge that Socialism has been defeated and supplanted by state capitalism where it once briefly existed. The actual communists (i.e they at least agree with Leninism) in imperialist countries are largely revisionists so it's not surprising that's what you see online among English speakers. However, Lemmygrad is a dogmatic echo chamber. If you want to hear nothing but pro-AES sentiment and walk on dogmatic egg shells, that's the instance you want. Lemmy.ml is ran by good people (the developers) and seems to have decent moderators despite my political differences. I at least come across a variety of positions and whatnot.
glad to see sane people here, unlike the people on reddits r/socialism.
What kind of difference in posts perception you noticed between lemmygrad and lemmy.ml?
I've noticed opposite reaction to the same content across both communities.
idk hostely, didn't noticed. Maybe there is more discourse about how socialist china is on lemmygrad though
Being from a 3rd world country that lived under a dictatorship backed by the US in the 60s, I always found difficult to find international, english speaking socialist communities that saw the "US problem" and imperialism in the same light, because the internet is mostly american.
Yes, we can't blame the US for EVERY problem that happened under authoritarian socialist experiences, but holy shit, a lot of problems were and still are the US fault. And on more "mainstream" socialist comunities, people tend to have way more resistance in accepting this.