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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: April 1st, 2022

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  • They are un-desired…ala undesirable.

    No, their politics are unwanted. That’s a huge difference, it’s absurd to treat them as equal.

    When I used the term ‘undesirables’, I didn’t mean literally ‘not desired’. I meant it in the context that reactionaries like NSDAP (Nazi Germany) and their modern fans use it - it referred to peoples like Slavs, Romani, Jews, black peoples, people with disabilities, homosexuals and ideological opponents, and more[1]. People, just because of their lineage, were considered subhuman (Untermensch) and sent to be deported or exterminated. And it’s absolutely applicable to the section of modern US conservatives (including their national leaders) who are currently embracing similar oppression of selected races and conditions. That’s the allusion I was making with the borrowed term ‘undersirables’, not just a person who is being offensive, starting fights and told to leave.

    Identifying politically is a choice. One can refine their political positions, or even just be diplomatic and respectful, at any time, by choice. It’s very easy.

    Being identified as a race, sex, or other similar category, is not a choice. So if you feel excluded because you named your account after two racist cunts and openly identify as ‘conservative’ in an anti-racist space, that’s something you can easily choose not to do if you actually want to be included. Don’t expect us to take you seriously when you compare that to the Republic party’s form of exclusion, oppressing people for how they were born, not how they choose to act in a society.


    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany, introduction, paragraph 3 and more ↩︎


  • Wouldn’t you be mad if suddenly conservatives came on and said that same thing about left-leaning people?!

    It’s less about whether I’d feel mad, and more about how that materially affects our community. Left-leaning people are trying to make communities which allow all peoples (but not all ideas, like exterminating races and objectifying sexes), while plenty of conservatives (I don’t think the word ‘conservative’ truly applies, but many identify as conservative) are trying to exclude peoples they consider undesirables. If you wanted, you can walk into an anarcho-communist or M-L organization and, as long as you don’t offend them with any provoking symbols or offensive ideas, be welcomed. Not everyone can do the same in a reactionary community. So I don’t think it’s fair to equivocate anti-rightism with anti-leftism. (and, as a side note, if we want to talk about the rare ultra-liberalist (‘Libertarian’) free-speech everyone-welcome scenario, Lemmy already went through that with Wolfballs a few years back - their admin shut it down when they eventually realized they’d created a Nazi bar and that the WNs weren’t just being dumb and offensive as a joke.)

    Furthermore, in the context of Lemmy overall, it was created by communists who were leaving reddit to avoid what you described:



  • For sure, it’s great to be in communities like ours and theirs where staff actually boot them all out, and it’s also useful to know tactics for treating those people if they’re in places which idealistically believe in free speech more than saving lives and stuff. Luckily I can’t think of any active instances which don’t have basic anti-bigotry rules, but it’s entirely possible for one to federate and not earn a full-instance ban, at least from the more liberal instances. I don’t think it’s enough to say ‘skill issue don’t use a bad instance’, for example Wolfballs remained in the scene for a while until they were finally considered too rabid for most instances to tolerate.



  • WN/neo-nazi communities are classic candidates for bad faith ““debating””. I recall a video interviewing former WNs, one was a WN forum moderator who openly said they didn’t believe half the things they were saying, like Great Replacement theory. Fascists (incl. Nazis) could not care less about democracy and liberalist ideology, they treat the liberalist expectation of free speech as a weakness to exploit - they’ll gladly hide behind cops and claim to be censored until they have the power to control cops and own social platforms.

    Jean-Paul Sartre hit the nail on the head in their 1946 essay criticizing the antisemites:

    “Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”

    See also: The Alt-Right Playbook: The Card Says Moops






  • comfy@lemmy.mltoMemes@lemmy.mlFuck Tankies
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    11 days ago

    fascist (might as well just call them what they are)

    Whether you hate them or not, the term ‘fascist’ just doesn’t apply to either of them. Fascism is a school of thought with specific ideas and behaviors which is borne out of specific conditions (consider WWI’s effect on Europe and the failure of liberalism in the Weimar Republic).

    Communists take ideological analysis seriously, fascism is a real and re-emerging trend, not just some namecalling buzzword.


  • comfy@lemmy.mltoAsklemmy@lemmy.mlAny tips for a new user?
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    12 days ago

    Good idea. I have seen some instances using mod-privileged bots for automating some tasks, like making weekly posts in communities, but I don’t think I’ve seen an auto-moderation bot yet.

    I personally think having pre-filled ban reasons is a great moderation tool which would be useful for Lemmy.


  • I agree with trying to find and support a local instance. I personally find it nice to have this account (made before my local was made) for a global feed and a local account for playing more into local culture and news which are too niche to get visibility on a regular instance’s feed.


  • comfy@lemmy.mltoAsklemmy@lemmy.mlAny tips for a new user?
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    14 days ago

    They often leave a dogmatic impression when someone says something which is completely normal to hear and say in (for example) the USA, but is unknowingly bigoted or ignorant misinformation. The .ml admins have no time for that and I think its unfortunate that there’s little attempt at linking them to resourced that explain why their post was prejudiced, because it’s usually not intentional or heartless.

    One can absolutely critisise China there and you’ll probably end up banned if you aren’t critical of the Russian Federation. I’ve made posts on Lemmygrad challenging their notion of China’s form of worker democracy. But certain popular critiques are just bigoted or unfounded propaganda which the admins will ban people for, so it comes off as just shutting down opposing viewpoints. And that’s really unfortunate.