this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 35 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Lemmy.world really can be maddening sometimes. It seems like any vaguely political post develops some intense strawman "tankie" action. I've pointed it out a few times and it doesn't go well.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (3 children)

The tankies that they keep complaining about are just your traditional Marxist-Leninists saying Marxist-Leninist things.

I think some Lemmy users like the image of being communist without actually subscribing to orthodox communist viewpoints. Just accept that you're not one, there's no shame in it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I agree, you should see how mad the liberals got when I told them that the term leftist means someone who is against capitalism, not just people more left than elected representatives. Had a whole fight with me about the word not meaning that and that you could totally be a capitalist supporter and a leftist.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It really depends who you're talking to. That's the big problem with political buzz words. If Jordan Peterson called me a leftist it basically means that I don't think dominating others is good. If someone on lemmy.ml called me a leftist, they're probably assuming I agree with a bunch of theory I've never even heard of.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Words have meaning and we dont let people arguing in bad faith determine that meaning. Most republicans would call Biden socialist, but is he by any measure?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I agree. Thanks to conservatism worldwide, leftist has become not a set definition but a term denoting relative ideological standing. Anything other than far-right is proclaimed as "extremist Communist socialism", which is on its face hilarious but also letting idiots dictate the manner in which we communicate.

We really have to wrench these terms back and I believe holding fast to and explaining their actual definitions is the foundation of accomplishing this.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Full agreement, if we describe positions as vibe-based and not based on what they attempt to accomplish and how, nothing can be reasonably discussed without first defining terms.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Sure, but the point is that you don't know how your audience is going to interpret the word leftist when you use it on the internet. Better to use words that have clear meaning or to clarify what you mean when using words that have multiple understandings.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Nah. There are cases where it stops being about upholding their values and more cheering on one side over another even if what they support is against their values.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

They craft an image of Marx in their heads because they agree that Capitalism has issues, otherwise they would be on Reddit, but never actually read Marx. That's the crux of these liberals complaining about Marxists and Anarchists.

Lemmy.world is allergic to reading theory, basically

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In a lot of cases, while I am frustrated by them, I don't entirely fault them.

Theory is dense and written in an antiquated way since the base of it is over 200 years old. Folks often try to find a summary, which can lead to a whole slew of rightwing disinfo. On top of that, anarchism has been actively maligned in the US since the dismantling of unions in the 1920s and communism has been since the cold war, so people often have to overcome their initial misconceptions before they can even begin to learn.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

You're absolutely correct. It's why I have a Lemmy.ml account in the first place, I want to reach out and feed them theory, or challenge their pre-existing worldviews in a manner that might lead to good discussion. It doesn't work most of the time, but it has worked in other instances, and that makes it more worth it to me.

That, or I'm a masochist, lol

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They think everyone to their left is a tankie and everyone to their right is maga and they alone posses the singular correct opinion.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

It's even worse sometimes, they think the left is a portal that is actually secretly MAGA. It's what happens when your political opinions are purely vibes based and not founded on any material analysis or reality.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Same here. It's always Lemmy.world and their echo chamber. They are especially idealistic liberals, they can't stay on Reddit but they also can't stand leftists, everything is vibes and nothing is material.

They, right now, are comparing Marxists to Evangelical Christians and are circlejerking about it, lol.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They, right now, are comparing Marxists to Evangelical Christians and are circlejerking about it, lol.

In what way are they comparing the two? Doing a comparison of Marxists against Evangelical Christians could be valid depending on the context of the comparison. Marx had a bit to say on religion's role in the class struggle.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Here is the post in question.

The crux of the argument is that both Marxism and Christianity see problems in the world, and both Marxists and Christians see a future event "fixing" these problems, and finally that people who don't agree with these takes are uneducated, equating immaterial religious fervor with historical materialism and class struggle.