• autismdragon [he/him, comrade/them]
    hexbear
    14
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    They said elsewhere that they're autistic. The need to be exact and truthful when people generalize something like a community is something i identify with. Its why I dont really love the stormfront joke myself, just go along with it for community peace. This person to me is clearly well intentioned and is an example of the dunk impulse going too far because I think they're trying to do right.

    ETA: Actually I got them mixed up with another user they never said they were autistic. But I still think they are well intentioned.

    • @macabrett
      hexbear
      9
      11 months ago

      Their further response to me tells me they aren't well intentioned.

        • @macabrett
          hexbear
          13
          11 months ago

          its okay to believe the best in people, can't fault you there

          • @ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            hexbear
            1
            11 months ago

            We aren't going to tolerate intolerance in this instance. I personally don't have a problem with communists. But I do have a problem with authoritarian communists. If you think me making this distinction is acting in bad faith, then you might run into more issues than just me here.

            • GarbageShoot [he/him]
              hexbear
              14
              11 months ago

              You might run into more issues than just this thread by casually tossing out the "authoritarian" label like you did on Reddit where the groups in question couldn't defend themselves

                • GarbageShoot [he/him]
                  hexbear
                  13
                  11 months ago

                  Defend what? I don't think the parallel you want to draw works quite as well as you think. My point is that Redditors can cast stones in their ignorance at people who they would struggle to string a whole sentence together to describe without buzzwords because they know jack shit about what those people actually think. Western communists are typically quite familiar with the ideology of liberals.

                  • @ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                    hexbear
                    1
                    11 months ago

                    Defend what?

                    ourselves

                    they know jack shit about what those people actually think

                    I'm interested to learn more about what those people actually think.

                    Western communists are typically quite familiar with the ideology of liberals.

                    I'm not sure how they can be if they think everyone to the right of them is a liberal.

            • sharedburdens [she/her, comrade/them]
              hexbear
              14
              11 months ago

              I personally don't have a problem with communists. But

              Sounds like you have a problem with communists, or do you think that the country with the biggest army, police force, and imprisoned population (disproportionately of racial minorities) is somehow not authoritarian?

              • @ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                hexbear
                1
                11 months ago

                We have a federal presidential constitutional republic or FPCR in the US. It has three branches of government at the federal level that ideally work as checks and balances on each other. Then there are many subordinate state governments that act as a means of delegating responsibility for the federal government. Our representatives in federal, state, and local governments are democratically elected and ideally should represent the majority of the population. We the people rule in America. The US is not without its flaws, but we are a democracy.

                  • @ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                    hexbear
                    1
                    11 months ago

                    We are circling the fascist drain. A fascist take over could happen in the 2024 election cycle next year. It's not really surprising how low confidence is in our intuitions when Republicans are actively dismantling them for power.

                • sharedburdens [she/her, comrade/them]
                  hexbear
                  11
                  edit-2
                  11 months ago

                  The US is not without its flaws, but we are a democracy.

                  We literally had a bunch of unelected people in robes declare the president, just over 2 decades ago.

                  Our representatives in federal, state, and local governments are democratically elected and ideally should represent the majority of the population.

                  ideally should is doing a lot of lifting in that sentence- They don't. Local governments are often dominated by landlord interests, as well as homeowners- that's often accomplished by systematically disenfranchising renters.

                  Again, the unelected people in robes declared that money is speech, not only swaying elections but allowing influence to be bought directly. How is that a democracy?

                  You seem to be conflating the concept of 'democracy' with the freedom to spend money however it may hurt someone else structurally. That's pretty authoritarian if you're someone without money.

                  • @ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                    hexbear
                    3
                    edit-2
                    11 months ago

                    The Supreme Court has numerous issues. For starters, they aren't elected so they aren't beholden to the people. They have minimal ethics guidelines so they can accept bribes from billionaires. They don't have term limits, so they are effectively 9 kings and queens. The electoral college allowing two presidents to win their first term without the popular vote and the Senate giving conservative states over representation has allowed conservatives to capture the court. edit: typo

                    These compounding issues are destroying our democracy. If we don't fix these issues we will not have democracy. The Supreme Court is already stripping rights from people, it's only a matter of time before Republicans win back the Congress and the Presidency. If the Republicans are still controlled by fascists then and we haven't fixed these problems we are going to be trouble.

                    ideally should is doing a lot of lifting in that sentence- They don’t. Local governments are often dominated by landlord interests, as well as homeowners- that’s often accomplished by systematically disenfranchising renters.

                    Yeah, rent is way too expensive. Another reason for socialism to the pile. edit: spacing

                • GarbageShoot [he/him]
                  hexbear
                  11
                  11 months ago

                  The PRC has the same three branches of government, including a President at the head of the executive branch, and a constitution that lays out their roles (more thoroughly than the US does the power of the judiciary), and it also holds direct elections for municipal offices. Neither country directly elects its President, as the PRC has elected officials vote and the US has the Electoral College say "just trust me bro" before giving the election to the other guy half the time (based on elections this century).

                  • @ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                    hexbear
                    1
                    11 months ago

                    We can see how the electoral college votes, just as we can see that China's elections are a sham. Loyalty to Xi is the only thing that matters in Chinese politics now.

              • @ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                hexbear
                2
                11 months ago

                The cotton workers and the train workers should seize the means of production via their democracy. If they don't have a democracy, they should perform a revolution to establish one.

                Referring to a revolution by the people as authoritarian is like saying the oppression of a king is freedom. It doesn't make sense under closer observation. Using force to achieve freedom does not invalidate that freedom. Once the revolution has been won, the people rule themselves. Any authority over them is a temporary construct of their own making that can be removed and replaced.