svelteciderWhat is your least favourite thing about the fediverse or lemmy?
mechoman444People keep supporting socialism when it is painfully obvious they don’t know what the word even means.
Not every positive thing the government does is “socialism”
Social programs instituted by the government are not “socialism”
What you’re actually supporting is democratic socialism and has nothing to do with communism or socialism as a philosophy.
Aka the most useless argument that gets repeated on lemmy over and over. It has about as much use as “I’ll join the revolution as soon as some other people start it.”
Without others you’re just a lone gunman fighting for your own opinions and values, like Ted Kaczynski mailing bombs. Some were for his “cause”, some were for personal revenge. If you publish your manifesto ahead of time you’ll probably get caught, if you publish after and it turns out you’re a selfish nut-job there’s no movement (except for maybe a handful of other nut-jobs). Even if you do succeed, realistically your targets are easily replaceable cogs, not the clockmakers. And the clockmakers are a bureaucracy, even the masters are replaceable, the entire factory has to be torn down. Is it that difficult to understand why we’re not yet at the tipping point where people are ready to abandon their jobs, family and social stability, and possibly lives to fight in the streets? It currently risks everything and gains nothing. Some of it is keyboard warrior talk, but I’d wager there’s a steadily increasing populace slowly preparing themselves for drastic action, they just want it to have real purpose and hopefully achieve something if it’s going to potentially cost them everything.
THANK. YOU. You put it more succinctly where I struggle to.
Right now most even-keeled folks can agree we’re all very upset, but it’s the same with trying to start a union and march up to the boss’s office: Oh sure, everybody enjoys a good grumble in the breakroom but are they gonna back you up? Worse, are they gonna rat you out?
Whether out of ignorance, desperation, hopelessness, or all three, we have a large proportion of people that just wanna “keep their head down.” and “stay out of trouble.” Even if it means suffering.
Our culture is also pathetically fractured sometimes. Once we get over the “should we do something” hurdle, the question becomes what, who, and how. And everybody’s seemingly got a morally-superior position to everyone else, and budging is not an option. Unfortunately while we’re all scoring zings on each other, organizing and running roughshod over everyone else comes much more easily for those with an authoritarian bent.
Ignore the people trying to stir up dissent among the factions of the resistance. The ability to make edgelord extremist memes is either a luxury of the poster, ignorance, or a deliberate attempt to stoke division.
The left does struggle to put aside differences of opinion on what the ideal future looks like, how to achieve it, and which fires need to be dealt with first. Extreme purity tests are also strangling us. We shouldn’t abandon our values but we also shouldn’t march to extinction patting ourselves on the back saying “well at least I never compromised”. We’re not just damning ourselves, we’re damning our families, our communities, and future generations.
Americans still have one shot at changing course; midterms. There’s a sliver of hope that elections still matter. It won’t instantaneously undo the damage done, but it would be a step. If that’s taken from us, either through cheating, interference, or flat out ignored… welp, fuck it, the America we knew, its pros and cons, is gone. Then every leftist and lib is in the same boat and we’ll be forced to join or die.
In the real world we are talking. While I think protesting is a lost cause under this regime it is a great place to network. When shit hits the fan it’s going to be your community that you need to rely on. Mutual aid networks, food growing/sharing, first aid, gun safety, plans on how to care for the most vulnerable, all that kind of stuff is getting discussed. That kind of stuff ignores purity politics because it’s not political, it’s just the values of the people involved.
You’ve seen it yourself, even the most peaceable of people are contemplating what a worst case scenario might look like and recognizing that a fight might mean shoulder to shoulder with those we don’t 100% align with. The French Resistance didn’t have singular political goal, “fuck these fucking Nazis” was good enough.
No shit, but bringing people together does not start with “You idiots think you’re socialist? I’ll show you what socialism really is!”
Are you encountering these kinds of people when you organize in person in your community or in the vast sea of internet anonymity? If they’re in the real world and so obtuse that your group cannot find any common ground to build on and they’re a liability, show ‘em the door. If they’re online you can attempt a discussion but when it’s obvious from their trolling or lack of response, fuck ‘em. They’re not in it for real change and their only effort towards it is to cause dissension among those willing to put in the work. Eventually this will boil over and leaders will emerge, some might be libs, some anarchists, some socialists, some tankies. Their broad views might differ but the short term goal of confronting fascism will force cooperation and survival. The dipshit playing “more leftist than thou” in their basement will continue to do nothing and will continue to post contrarian content even if the world shifts in their favor because their sense of self depends on being unique in their dissension. There’s also a very real possibility the loudest voices have no dog in the fight because they’re not even what they present themselves to be.
The internet can connect and foster discussion, but not everyone here is worth connecting with or talking to.