Comment on Hexbear federation megathread
LinkedinLenin@hexbear.net 1 year agoI don’t really want to relitigate your experiences and these issues in this thread (especially because I’m a visitor on lemm.ee), so I’ll try to be succinct. But I’m happy to continue elsewhere if you want.
What we mean by “broad tent” or nonsectarian is that diverse opinions aren’t explicitly banned or removed (as long as they aren’t pro western imperialism or anti LGBTQ+). That means shitflinging and low effort sectarianism (ideally) isn’t allowed. It doesn’t mean people aren’t allowed to voice disagreement about ideologies and geopolitics. And since we don’t have downvotes, we aren’t afraid to voice disagreement, unlike Reddit where you just anonymously downvote and move on. This difference is certainly a culture shock at first, but I’ve come to prefer it. Even if everyone else disagrees with you, you still have a voice, rather than getting buried in downvotes and hidden.
As much as our users call people liberals derogatorily, in equal amounts we get called bots and shills and tankies (which is especially funny when directed at our anarchist users). I’d personally rather name calling be avoided in favor of good faith discussion, but it’s difficult to assume good faith on the internet.
LeateWonceslace@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I get the feeling that" pro-western imperialism" is a stand-in for any opinions that Leninists don’t like.
super_mario_69@hexbear.net 1 year ago
What does this even mean? Obviously Leninists are going to dislike opinions that are pro-imperialism, because Marxism-Leninism is inherently anti-imperialist. There are plenty of other opinions we dislike that are not related to imperialism at all. As principled communists we tend to be able and willing to explain why we disagree, though it’s tiring to have to explain the same things a million times to people who aren’t even really listening (thus the occasional pig-poop-balls). We’re only human. Try to keep an open mind and entertain the thought that our opinions might actually be sincere.
LinkedinLenin@hexbear.net 1 year ago
Our anarchist users are also vocally against western imperialism. Leninists will voice their opinions through their Leninist lens, or perhaps their experience of the world will lead them to preferring a Leninist analysis. But the same is true for our anarchists, trotskyists, syndicalists, whatever.
It’s more that people who are used to a small or different Overton window will group all anti-western-imperialism stances as “Leninist” (or more accurately, they’ll group and dismiss them all as “tankie”) because they don’t yet understand the nuances.