Cowbee

@Cowbee@lemmy.ml

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it morally wrong for an immigrant or naturalized citizen to "keep a low profile" and avoid speaking up against the government in order to minimize the risks of denaturalization/deportation?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re extremely confused, I’m not blaming “low information voters” of any sort. Electoralism is not a valid path for leftism. I’m not using a money excuse, either, though your erasure of money’s influence on media is also oversimplified. You haven’t taken any steps back, you’ve invented a caricature of “the left” in your head and are acting like you’re the only one to see things as they really are. It’s very silly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it morally wrong for an immigrant or naturalized citizen to "keep a low profile" and avoid speaking up against the government in order to minimize the risks of denaturalization/deportation?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  There have never been left presidents in the US. Mamdani is not the leader of the revolution. You’re very confused about what’s going on, and you’re out of touch with why Trump won. It wasn’t “memes,” it isn’t some masterful play, nor are liberals left wing.

  You need to take a step back and familiarize yourself more with what’s going on. Try to take a materialist outlook, not an idealist outlook.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it morally wrong for an immigrant or naturalized citizen to "keep a low profile" and avoid speaking up against the government in order to minimize the risks of denaturalization/deportation?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  No, lol. The Left is fine on the internet. You can touch grass and organize, and do online agitprop. Mamdani won because people are being radicalized.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it morally wrong for an immigrant or naturalized citizen to "keep a low profile" and avoid speaking up against the government in order to minimize the risks of denaturalization/deportation?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The Left is fighting an uphill battle. Capitalism is the status quo, and the US relies on imperialism using its vast financial capital and massive number of millitary bases to keep goods relatively cheap, but this is crumbling. Change works as quantitative buildup until significant, qualitative change. Orgs like PSL are growing rapidly. They are still small, but the rate of growth is large. Time is on the Left’s side.

  Just look at Palestine, as an example. 5 years ago, the vast majority of the US was Zionist. Now, the majority oppose the genocide. Mamdani winning the primary in NYC shows that more overtly left-leaning individuals are valued over right-wingers like Cuomo. Change works on trends. History doesn’t reset every day, eventually water droplets bore through stone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it morally wrong for an immigrant or naturalized citizen to "keep a low profile" and avoid speaking up against the government in order to minimize the risks of denaturalization/deportation?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The Left does both. The purpose of real life stikes and protests is because its proof that Leftist organizations have the logistical capacity to plan, demonstrate, and act in a cohesive and unified manner. Organizing is more important than meme sharing. Memes, agitprop, etc are very useful recruitment tools, so they should not be ignored, but it’s more important to actually put in the work of organizing effectively once recruited.

  Sharing memes without actually organizing is just an outlet for people to express frustration, but organizing is an actual necessary and important step in toppling the existing system and replacing it with a better one, as the hard work on organizing has already been laid out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a bit of an idealistic look at things, rather than a materialist outlook. Socialist countries, past and present, have been faced with real problems. Their issues weren’t about “finding the right leader” or “picking the right recipe,” but largely real struggles that any country tasked with needing rapid industrialization while defending against foreign invasion and subversion would need to.

  Socialism isn’t about deciding on the right recipe, but analyzing historical progression and its laws so as to master them and wield them in our favor. No socialist country has been an outright “failure,” not even the ones that no longee exist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is Lemmy attempting to radicalise people to enforce class wars?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  1. The devs are communists.

  2. Using Lemmy over Reddit is already an ideological choice for many of us, ergo you will find people with a stronger ideological backbone here.

  3. Conditions in the English-Speaking world are getting more dire. The US Empire is struggling to prop itself up, billionaires control more and more of the wealth while working class folks control less and less, and more people are getting involved in reading theory and organizing.

  4. Many leftist subreddits were shut down and fled to Lemmy, the same has not happened to the same degree for right-wing subreddits.

  It’s as simple as that, really. I suggest you start reading some leftist theory, I made a Marxism-Leninism Beginner Reading List to help people who want to start doing that (comes with audiobook versions, too).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I do many things, I have hobbies, a full-time job, friends, a partner, and other responsibilities. If you have to invent a version of me that has no bearing in reality, I guess I just don’t understand the point of what you’re doing. It’s much better to be attached to reality.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I have never said I’m a “leftist theory guru.” I do read a good deal of theory, but there are many here who have read a lot more than I have. I have read enough to know when I see something wrong, though, so I try to help correct it.

  I have no idea what you mean by saying I “don’t have anything to offer when engaged.” Further, if you think I read what I read for clout on a tiny, fringe website, then that’s absurd. If I wanted clout for reading, I’d go to Twitter or Bluesky, or even YouTube, where the audience is far larger.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I said it elsewhere, but a space where the dominant opinion is fringe among the general population is not really an echo chamber, while one where the space aligns with the dominant views and bans dissenting views is. You can’t avoid engaging with the dominant ideas of society.

  Secondly, I have never seen anyone say the PRC is a socialist “utopia.” It’s socialist, yes, but not a utopia. Marxism is anti-utopian.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I guess, but I don’t see how that’s relevant. Who reads for “clout?”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It happens, lol. Karma doesn’t really get tracked on Lemmy so it doesn’t even really matter much, but some people get personal grudges if you dare speak positively about communism.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolutely. There are *real" problems with socialist societies of all kinds, but on the whole they are positive. You can find positive anecdotes in the worst societies and negative in the best, what’s important is doing the due dilligence to study what went right and what went wrong truthfully. Thanks for your anecdote!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Unironically repeating an emotional anecdote with no facts or statistics from a Miami-based Cuban Exile group, you know the slavers and fascists, as a point against Cuba is very silly. Those who flef Cuna just want their plantations and slaves back, even if you find LGBTQ descendents of slavers that doesn’t make their cause just. Cuba is better than Miami for gay rights, lmao.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  No, he said it was a horrible crime, Cuba decriminalized homosexuality in 1979, then went on to become one of the most progressive countries in the world for queer people today. Cuba didn’t execute masses of gay people, nor did the USSR, you’ve made shit up on both accounts. That’s all anti-communists do, really, your little gesture at the end I mean.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The capitalist farmers, little more than slave drivers, decided to resist collectivization by setting fire to their crops, murdering workers, fighting the Red Army, and killing their livestock, which ended up creating famine conditions. There wasn’t a widespread order to “kill all kulaks,” but there was widespread killing of kulaks that decided to violently resist having their mechanisms of slave-driving taken away.

  As for Cuba, they didn’t have a widespread execution campaign of gay people, either. Gay people were fined, imprisoned, and sent to re-education camps, a fact Castro himself has apologized for and maintains that it was a great injustice committed by the revolution. Homosexuality was de-criminalized in 1979 in Cuba, and today Cuba’s Family Code is among the most progressive in the world, far surpassing the US.

  You really have no clue what you’re talking about, otherwise you wouldn’t be praising the Russian equivalent of the US confederacy nor would you be speaking of Cuba as though it still persecutes gay people like the US does today. As a queer person myself, this “rainbow imperialism” nonsense coming from you only serves to support the US Empire. Without the Cuban Revolution, gay people would likely still be persecuted just as they were under the fascist slaver Batista regime, a practice ended by the revolution and the dramatic equality it stood for.

  I am not going to shed any tears for slavers, nazis, fascists, or the bourgeoisie as their property gets redistributed. There’s no “mask” there, that’s standard leftism of all stripes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, it includes Nazis, the White Army, capitalists, etc. Gay people weren’t executed, the punishment was 5 years imprisonment, which is still awful but was better than other countries at the time. Calling me “murderous” for supporting socialist countries is laughable when you make shit up, lmao.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve read dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and continue to read. The overwhelming majority of those who lived in the USSR want it back, this is a well-known phenomenon. Over 7 million people died due to the dissolution of socialism in the USSR, prostitution, drug abuse, poverty, disparity, all skyrocketed while life expectancy plumeted thanks to the utter destruction of the economy and the elimination of social safety nets.

  Well over 90% of Chinese citizens support their government, even from western survey. Socialism in China lifted 800 million people out of poverty, and is combatting climate change and regularly improving conditions for its people, without relying on imperialism like western countries do. This is charting a genuine alternative to the naked plundering of the west towards the global south.

  I am not going to trust one person’s anecdotal experience vs the legitimate and long-term study I’ve done, the people who lived in the USSR, PRC, etc that I’ve spoken to and spoke positively of them, and the ongoing process of decay capitalist countries are in while socialist countries are steadily developing and improving. Go ahead, rely on the assumption that I must be stupid or ill-read to support a worker-centric economy rather than the absolute system of plunder that is crumbling. Keep doing Nazi apologia by equating a system of industrialized mass murder with a system that doubled life expectancy, democratized the economy, provided free and high quality healthcare and education, over tripled literacy rates to 99.9%, and more. Stay in your right-wing echo chamber formed by anecdotes and refuse to read anything.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Saying the world would have been better off without communists directly states that the ones who killed 90% of the Nazis in World War II and took Berlin should’ve never existed, the Tsar never overthrown, Cuba to remain a fascist slaver colony under Batista, China to remain under the feudal Kuomintang dictatorship, Vietnam to remain a colony of France, South Africa to remain an Apartheid regime, etc.

  It isn’t a strawman, it’s the direct consequences of what you said.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah, gotcha, that makes sense. Federation is interesting.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh wow! I always wondered if my comments actually get people to check out the pages and books I link, I’ve tried to focus more on explaining things in my own words unless a book or article is extremely relevant and quotes necessary (people sometimes saw my older style of quoting Marx, Lenin, Engels, etc as book worship, which is fair critique IMO).

  That’s actually really interesting!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The world would have been better if the Nazis won WWII? If the Tsar had remained a brutal dictator with life expectancies and literacy rates both in the low 30s? Mask-off moment for you, holy shit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  They are less echo-chambery than Lemmy.world, in my opinion, as Lemmy.world largely aligns with the status quo and as such cutting out communists means you aren’t exposed to communist perspectives at all, while on Hexbear, which is less broadly federated than Lemmy.ml, you still can’t avoid engaging with liberalism when off of Hexbear.

  In other words, Hexbear is a place carved out for communists by communists, but Hexbear users can’t actually avoid interacting with liberals. Lemmy.world, on the other hand, aligns with the status quo, and cuts out viewpoints that go against that, meaning they can avoid engaging with communists to a far greater degree.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I have, actually, and I recommend you read up on how socialism actually works, including how it doubled the life expectancy of those in the USSR, tripled literacy rates to 99%, ended famine in countries where underdevelopment made famine common, brought free, universal healthcare, full free education, more vacation days and lower working hours, and more.

  The PRC today is Socialist, and is responsible for the largest reduction in poverty in history, as well as some of the most rapid levels of economic development in history.

  Communism is good, fascism is horrendous. Fascism was horrible for 99% of people, in countries like Germany there was industrialized mass murder, workers were kiloed en masse for organizing, and the rights of women and minorities were curbed. Socialism is good for the 99% and bad for the 1%. The Tsarists, capitalists, etc had their property confiscated and even were killed, while the 99% achieved great feats.

  You definitely should Blackshirts and Reds. Further still, equating communism and fascism is a form of Naxi apologia, it originated with Double Genocide Theory which attempts to trivialize the holocaust and demonize socialism to make Nazism seem not as bad as it actually was.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t really remember that, but reading is always good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Feeding people is good, actually.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Among communists, a popular saying is “no investigation, no right to speak.” If you have only surface-level knowledge of a subject, then anything you contribute to broader conversation on said subject just contributes to the miasma of misinfirmation and miscommunication. Personally restricting yourself from speaking authoritatively on subjects you don’t really know or understand greatly enhances the types of conversations you can have, and deepens understanding.

  I personally apply this principle as best I can to myself, and I suggest you do the same. Here’s a good resource compilation for studying Xinjiang and the situation the Uyghur people are actually in in China, including the background leading up to the correction programs, the allegations of genocide from the west, as well as the only evidence coming from one person named Adrian Zenz, a christian nationalist that hasn’t been to China and believes it is his duty from God to punish China. This Adrian Zenz is a member of the US-propaganda outlet “Victims of Communism.”

  Overall, I hope this helps a bit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Communism isn’t fascism, and to conflate the two is a serious miscalculation. Communism/socialism are historically worker-centric systems and ideologies, while fascism is best described as capitalism, only when the bourgeoisie needs to employ violent and extreme measures to protect their ownership of private property. As a consequence, communist-led violence is violence against the minority of society, the oppressor capitalist class, while fascist-led violence is against the majority, the working class, as well as the marginalized in society.

  I recommend reading Blackshirts and Reds.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just blocked hexbear⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t consider Hexbear to be an “echo chamber.” A true echo chamber, isolating oneself from views that go against someone’s current viewpoints, is only possible if your viewpoint aligns with the dominant views of the society you live in. Communism in the english-speaking internet and world is fringe. Nobody on Hexbear can truly avoid engaging with liberalism as a daily requirement for their existence, everyone has to exist in the outside world and touch grass at some point, be it for work, errands, engaging with friends, family, etc.

  What is possible to create an echo chamber around, is blocking off leftist viewpoints. Blocking Hexbear just reduces the chances of yourself running into views that challenge your existing viewpoints. The reason why Hexbear bans liberalism and anti-communist viewpoints is because you can find them anywhere on the English-speaking internet, it gets pushed heavily by mainstream media and permeates discussions even about social reforms like healthcare. Hexbear making a space safe to engage with other communists who just want to hang out doesn’t actually close off viewpoints.

  Looking into your comments you linked, you threw around words like “authoritarianism” and “technofeudalism,” without really describing or understanding each. It comes across as you trying to figure out a way to describe a Socialist system that restricts the rights of capital owners in a negative way, without trying to understand why the overwhelming majority of Chinese citizens support their system and believe it to be generally on the right track. I recommend glancing through this Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Study Guide to see how and why the Chinese system works, and why one would support it.

  All in all, I think blocking Hexbear if you don’t like echo chambers is actually counter-productive, as you cut yourself off of a large portion of the Leftist userbase on Lemmy, thus restricting what you see to a more narrow subset of generally “progressive liberalism.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨alternatives to lemm.ee?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You too!