What mods are you using in Vicky 3?
There's this Discord server I've been looking through for mod recommendations, but I'm curious if you guys have had any good experiences modding Victoria 3.
So far, the only one I've tried out adds a bunch of formable nations, and I had a great game unifying the Caribbean
Who hasn't completely blocked our instance?
I've only been here for a few days, so I don't know the "history" of lemmygrad and its relationship with the other instances. Do we have a running count of the instances that have blocked us?
I know they're ignorant liberals, and obviously as a principled Marxist I'm ready to respond to their pre-programmed, anti-Marxist rhetoric, but there's communities on Reddit in which I'd never had a single interaction with someone spewing anti-ML bullshit.
For example, I'm very interested in NBA basketball. I like to be involved in the drama around the game. If a large group of NBA enthusiasts start a community on an instance that has us blocked, I'm locked out because the administrators of that instance shit their little britches seeing a passionate Marxist speak their mind on lemmygrad. I was thinking about starting a community here for the NBA, hopefully we gather enough members to facilitate content creation in smaller communities, despite the rampant blocking.
Edit: Now that I think about it, honestly I think I'm fine just making communities for shit I'm interested in here, regardless of our connection to those other instances. Looking through the ones I know have blocked us made me cringe off the face of the planet. Wouldn't even want to talk basketball with them.
It is a shame. I was trying to help OP out, but I think they might have blocked me individually, maybe through a mass ban of individuals in a thread they found on lemmygrad. As for the instances that have already blocked us, it's unlikely they will ever federate with us again.
Perhaps the devs could implement a "soft" ban as an alternative to outright removal from federation. Censoring a comment or thread created by a user from the targeted instance with a confirmation click to view. I'm sure a lot of these QoL features will be added when the devs get through the enormous backlog, which has only been growing larger due to the influx of new users.
The vulnerable and the deprogrammable
In my experience, the only people who are open to radicalization and aren't going to turn and run from a Marxist speaking about communism are people who are currently politically apathetic. When someone develops an interest in politics, they have a lot of questions that need to be answered.
This is why our rhetoric is so important and so valuable, we have to be the voices these people hear first when capitalism fails them. For me personally, my interest in politics began in my teenage years. Unfortunately, the rhetoric that found me first was fascist rhetoric, and it took years of deprogramming, reading literature, and having a Marxist family member be there to guide me to where I am now.
So, clearly it's possible to deprogram, but it's a personal choice someone has to make to want to be deprogrammed. Our efforts are better spent on those in our lives who have yet to develop their political identity.
Let's talk about radicalization!
I made this community because I wanted to discuss my experiences speaking about communist ideas in my personal life.
I haven't seen a community like this on Lemmygrad, I think it'll be nice to have a spot to talk about this very vital aspect of living in a capitalist society as a Marxist.
Do liberals feel some kind of indescribable euphoria from taking what they believe to be the moral high ground? They're always on their high horse, must be a side-effect of the brain rot.
Why are Ultras anti-LGBT?
This doesn't make any sense to me. I know they aren't Marxists, but the goals of communism are people-centric. We're trying to achieve a better society for all people, so why exclude certain groups from that?
Unfortunately my Arabic has decayed significantly due to my years outside of the classroom, but recently I've been doing some of my own studying online in preparation for returning to Arabic class.
A few months back, I went to a small Mediterranean restaurant nearby and chatted with the owner in Arabic. He recommended I come see him at his mosque where he teaches children Arabic, he said he'd love to have me there for classes. I've been putting it off, but maybe I should give his number a ring soon.
Beehaw is blocking lemmygrad, they're federated with lemmy.ml which is federated with lemmygrad, though.
I'm a member of the lemmygrad instance and I don't think I've see any content from beehaw, so you should be good over there.
Edit: Okay, I can confirm you cannot see any content from users in a blocked instance. I just looked at this thread from slrpnk.net and you cannot see my comment. And I also just read that you didn't want to join beehaw. What's wrong with beehaw?
Dual-boot or Wine for gaming?
Do you guys recommend dual-booting a Linux distro on a secondary drive, or running Linux as a main OS, using Wine for Windows applications?
I've wanted to make the switch for a very long time, just worried about compatibility issues or even performance loss in gaming using Wine.
Capitalism in games
I have experience with all of the PDX grand strategy games, and despite their monetization policy, I’ve enjoyed my time in all of them.
I’ve been playing Victoria 3 and I’m really enjoying it. I do still prefer Victoria 2, but I’m sure with more content eventually 3 will overtake 2 for me. I love looking at spreadsheets in general, so the sheer amount of information presented in Victoria 3 is fun to poke through. I find it very fun and satisfying to try to make my country as rich as possible and become my region’s economy capital.
But that’s the thing, capitalism as a concept literally only makes sense in video games. If there were no stakes in real life, it would be fun to compete against my friends to see who could make the most money. Almost like a high score on a leaderboard.
For the bourgeoisie, capitalism in real life is a game. There are no stakes for them, just like there aren’t any for anyone in Victoria 3. The proletariat are not players in the game, the proletariat are the pieces with which the game is played through the exploitation of their labor.
I know this isn’t a new concept, but I just found it funny to recognize how much I enjoy the competitive aspect of capitalism as a Marxist and wanted to share.
I just checked out that thread you made here, and that’s some amazing content. I’ve literally been here for a day and I’m already dreading a potential drop in the quality of our discussions. Fingers crossed we continue to contribute and expect such quality.
I was curious to see the Hexbear responses as well, and as they aren’t federated yet, would you mind sharing a link here, please?
I have noticed the ridiculous amount of libs while poking around other instances. Lemmygrad is a shining beacon of hope. When I first discovered Lemmy and the Fediverse, my first thought was I had to find a Marxist instance to call home. Hopefully most comrades go through the same thought process when making the switch.
Nice to meet you as well, redtea! I'm a year out from finishing my physics undergrad, and I'm hoping to get in the aerospace engineering graduate program at my university after I walk. I couldn't be more excited to return to classes this August. I miss being in the classroom.
Liberal outrage on social media
Whenever there’s some issue that rustles liberal feathers, I’ll see post upon post about how frustrated people are with <insert issue here> on Instagram stories. I’ve actually had some success sliding up on their Instagram stories and sharing my communist perspective on whatever pissed them off. Success being, they are receptive to these ideas and are willing to learn more after their first exposure.
I’m not saying I’ve seen this here, I’m new here of course, but I find online leftists always seem to immediately point to literature when a liberal asks in good faith to be educated on communism. And of course any self respecting Marxist would recommend reading literature, and anyone who genuinely wants to learn more absolutely should read literature; but I believe it’s extremely important to put effort into our initial explanations before referring an interested liberal to literature.
Does anyone else have a similar experience radicalizing people through social media?
For some reason I was under the impression I could make a post to my own profile, whoops! I’ll do my intro here!
Hi, I’m suggs. I’m a college student at a large public university, and I’ve been involved in a few leftist groups here at my university, but I’m still trying to find one that is actually Marxist. I’d like to share my story of how I was radicalized.
I should also preface this by stating my father is a small business owner, so I have been extremely privileged in my petty bourgeoise upbringing. Despite my mother being a minority in my country, I am cis and white passing, and I recognize the privilege that comes with that.
In high school I fell deep into the alt-right pipeline online, and I crawled through the dankest, most disturbing chan boards as I consumed redpill after redpill. In college, I took Arabic language courses because I thought it would be fun to learn a difficult language. I ended up falling in love with the language and eventually traveled to Jordan in a study abroad program to further my study of the language. On this trip, my reactionary views clashed with my classmates, and I was ostracized throughout the entire trip. I’d experienced moments like this in the past, but this trip is what truly started my reflection on my worldview.
Over the next few years as I struggled in an identity crisis, I fell into a deep depression. After a few years of blowing in the wind and dropping out of college, I reconnected with my cousin. My cousin introduced me to Marxist ideas, and as someone involved in local politics in our city, he introduced me to our local communist party. From there, I consumed literature he recommended, and I branched out and continued studying on my own. I’ve since radicalized many of my family members and most of my friends, and I continue to share what I’ve learned and encourage others to consume literature.
I can’t wait to learn more with the community here. See you all around.
Thanks! Been browsing all night. I plan to make an introduction post for myself soon, I can’t wait to meet everyone whose content I’ve been absolutely loving.
Quick question, as someone entirely new to federation: Is there a similar ML community to this one for video sharing? Almost like YouTube?
Additionally, to any other new people like myself that may have had trouble logging in: Try typing your username and password out manually, rather than using an auto-filler for your login credentials. Auto-filling did not seem to work for me.