A lot of the socialists on Lemmy.ml are MLs (hence the domain) and many of them are authoritarian leftist or at least sympathetic to the authoritarian reformism of that of Stalin. I personally prefer the Beehaw socialism community as it is inherently anti-authoritarian. Lemmygrad is a tankie infested cesspit with brainrotten propaganda regurgitators who have never read theory and struggle to fit the definitions of Leftists.
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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@ivereadalltheory @CharmingOwl yes MLs are authoritarian, im not sure why this surprises you. Engels wrote about authority quite a lot and id reccomend giving his work 'on authority' a look; its at most a ten minute read
tho i have seen my fare share of poor takes coming out of lemmy
I've read On Authority. There's good reason for my identifying as a socialist rather than a ML. I don't necessarily have a fundamental disagreement with the use of authoritarianism, however the way in which it has ever been implemented has been abominable and the defense of that by most MLs I've interacted with leads me to detest them when they're aware of what they're doing or assume they're an idiot who's fallen to the USSR billboard propaganda aesthetic if they're not.
I am an authoritarian ML who upholds Stalin, Mao and the modern DPRK. I have noticed though a lot of people seem anti-authoritarian here compared to Lemmygrad where I used to host my communities.
im so glad that people here dislike that tankie hellhole, because i tried to join and had a terrible experience.
I joined them back when I was a lib because I wanted to learn more about communism and I was met with genocide denial or even support and all the authoritarian sucking up you can imagine. Now I'm a communist and I still think there's not even a single positive attribute of lemmygrad except as an example of how even people with lobotomies can regurgitate authoritarian and totalitarian propaganda.
What is the general vibe on here towards actually existing socialism as well as the ideas towards reformism?
I can only speak for myself but so-called AES is just capitalism. It can be capitalism that is far far better than the U.S or other imperialist countries, but I'm not a communist that cheers for improvements to Capitalism. And what is there to speak of with "reformism"? It's a dead end that doesn't lead to Socialism and is the norm.
As an aside, both Lemmy.ml and Lemmygrad are largely full of what I'd called revisionists, meaning simply the refusal to acknowledge that Socialism has been defeated and supplanted by state capitalism where it once briefly existed. The actual communists (i.e they at least agree with Leninism) in imperialist countries are largely revisionists so it's not surprising that's what you see online among English speakers. However, Lemmygrad is a dogmatic echo chamber. If you want to hear nothing but pro-AES sentiment and walk on dogmatic egg shells, that's the instance you want. Lemmy.ml is ran by good people (the developers) and seems to have decent moderators despite my political differences. I at least come across a variety of positions and whatnot.
glad to see sane people here, unlike the people on reddits r/socialism.
I like Marx and am iffy about Lenin. I also consider myself a libertarian regarding most issues and dislike hedonism. That doesn't put me somewhere specific regarding ideology but that's that.
I'm iffy about Lenin too. Marx and Engels wrote about bottom up socialism but Lenin came along and basically said the working class is too stupid for a socialist revolution and opted for top down socialism which led to authoritarian socialism and state capitalism.
Our neolib capitalist society is top down governance which is why I highly oppose everything that isn't bottom up socialism
yeah, i agree, lenin is mid.
Just curious, why do you dislike hedonism? How does that fit into a political/social ideology? This is in no way a challenge.
I dislike hedonism in the case it antagonizes discipline. There are many cases where our desires overcome our sense of self and end up as addictions. I guess what I dislike is formless desire unrestricted by rationality. Self-discipline = sense of self = good.
It is my view that everything is political, how could a way of thinking about desire not be? Hedonism in particular is perfectly suited for the current consumer culture which claims to satisfy our every want, which treats desire as the ultimate drive in the world and monetizes it. Participation in market economy is addictive and erodes our sense of self. It weakens us as individuals and prepares us for its hierarchies.
Not all hedonistic philosophies are pro-consumer. Epicureanism, for example, still keeps personal happiness as the overarching goal, but considers following pleasure and desire to be reckless and counterproductive.
The way to personal happiness isn't through following desires, it's through eliminating needs and pains. The only way to reach sustainable, long lasting happiness is through a healthy body and an unburdened mind. It promotes simple living and imo is one of the better fits for a socialist world.
Overindulgence is anathema to Epicureanism, since it creates more pain for the person in the long term. Sure, drug abuse could make you incredibly happy for a few hours, but it ruins your body and your mind, so it's really not worth it.
It stands to reason, then, that any self interested person following Epicureanism would turn towards community and friends, since it's pleasant to know people are doing well and unpleasant to know people are feeling miserable. Try as you might, deep down you won't be truly happy as long as you know there's something you could be doing to help, but aren't.
Well, I have nothing against old Epicurus, just unrestricted hedonism.
im quite eclectic myself, never fit well into catagories.
What kind of difference in posts perception you noticed between lemmygrad and lemmy.ml?
I've noticed opposite reaction to the same content across both communities.
idk hostely, didn't noticed. Maybe there is more discourse about how socialist china is on lemmygrad though
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