For me the easiest tell is the up front, unprompted, and unsolicited declaration of nonpoliticalness. When someone takes the time and expends the breath to announce how nonpolitical they are, what follows is almost always a rant about how everything/everyone else is too political these days, and that of course leads into something between status quo advocacy and outright reactionary/regressive sentiments for some fabled time before those wicked politics were visible to the nonpolitical ranter. centrist

People that are hostile to service workers. Some just want to take some ideological stand against tipping when the service worker doesn't really have a choice and needs those tips to survive in the current unjust system in a way where ideological purity gestures toward that service worker just look like being a greedy and sanctimonious asshole. The worst of such people will actually declare, shamelessly, that they believe that service workers don't deserve a living wage. The implications of that are gulag worthy.

I may get shit for this, but I'll say it anyway: this hair and beard combo, seen on living people. yes-chad I have yet to meet anyone in person with that look that wasn't a chud.

(If one of you is a comrade with that look, I am sorry in advance for the prejudice and if I ever meet you in person I will atone by buying you a drink or something.)

  • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
    hexbear
    50
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    "jesus was black"

    "king tut was black"

    "you need to embrace your divine femininity"

    "I dont eat gmos, msg, or processed milk"

    a white person who says "im not religious im spiritual" actually i know shitty black people who say that

    if you hear this you are going to meet the most reactionary person i swear to god.

    • Mardoniush [she/her]
      hexbear
      38
      10 months ago

      Particularly annoying since the entire 25th Dynasty of Egypt was actually black.

      • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
        hexbear
        47
        10 months ago

        RIGHT??? THATS WHATS GET ME THE MOST!!!!there were black Egyptians but WE DONT TALK ABOUT THEM (partially because the Roman defaced their art)!!! its all Cleopatra, neffertiti,and king tut. no mention of all of the amazing black kings and queens who were SO COOL and sometimes bisexual that no one EVER cares about. I feel crazy. And i know it comes from a valid place of wanting to see yourself in history but real history will ALWAYS be more amazing and beautiful then what youre uncle is posting on Facebook.

        • Sinister [none/use name, comrade/them]B
          hexbear
          19
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          Apparently to them the advanced metallurgy of benin, the kingdom of nri, great fulo, mali, ghana, songhai, alodia, great zimbabwe, kongo, the sand houses of zanj sea, kanem-bornu, etc… are somehow not-worthy or like not “advanced enough”?

            • iie [they/them, he/him]
              hexbear
              5
              10 months ago

              do you have any favorite sources for African history? or is it mainly like wiki-walking, forums, and googling, and just like ambient absorption from the internet?

              like, I've been listening to Blowback and I keep thinking about how long it would take me to gather all that information without the podcast.

              also @Sinister@hexbear.net because you mentioned a bunch of cool-sounding stuff

              I know a little bit but I really wish I knew more.

              • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
                hexbear
                12
                10 months ago

                i would love a podcast but most of my knowledge comes from googling binges at 3 am. I start with something like "precolonial africa gay" or "real african queens" and let god take me. I read this really great book about african kingdoms from the library a few years ago but i cant remember the name.

                • iie [they/them, he/him]
                  hexbear
                  10
                  10 months ago

                  googling "precolonial africa gay" is already really illuminating and i've only just started.

                  i'm looking at this and there are so many promising terms to google in it https://daily.jstor.org/the-deviant-african-genders-that-colonialism-condemned/

                  anyway thanks for pointing me in this direction, it's fascinating

                  • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
                    hexbear
                    7
                    10 months ago

                    that was a beautiful article! im glad i now know about victoria especially and will be looking more into her. I also really love when historians dont ascribe modern eurocentric terms like transgender to non white history.

    • CloutAtlas [he/him]
      hexbear
      28
      10 months ago

      I don't mean to disagree but

      "Jesus was black

      Ronald Reagan was the devil

      and the government is lying about 9/11"

      is a based take because Huey Freeman is probably the most based character in mainstream animation.

      • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
        hexbear
        34
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        I think black peoples obsession with needing white approval and to be at the center of whiteness (in this case Christianity) is the worst thing about the black community. i mean i love the boondocks but yeah its a red flag irl. and its just antisemitic, jesus was jewish, he was persecuted for being an Jewish ethnic minority, pretending he was black to make you feel better takes away from his history. also its just anti intellectualism, another scourge of the black community. also the people who say this are that same people who couldn't name a single actual black pre colonial historical figure, not fucking one, MAYBE MANSA MUSA IF YOURE LUCKY. if youre not black you dont have to deal with these people on a daily basis. the amount of antisemitic ignorant shit I have to hear every time I go to any pro black space is insane, i cant take it anymore.

        • Black AOC@lemmygrad.ml
          hexbear
          2
          9 months ago

          I kinda figured the whole joke about Huey was that while he's going in the sorta-right direction with regard to his age, he always goes about it in over-the-top and ultimately futile ways that really makes him no different from homeboy him and Riley were shading with the awful poetry at Mo's funeral.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      24
      10 months ago

      "im not religious im spiritual"

      In my experience near the Bay Area, there's enough spillover of Silicon Valley tech cult bullshit for "spiritual" to mean a number of terrible things from eugenics-fixated "Secular Calvinism" to prophecies of nerd rapture or escape from The Simulation(tm). And a lot of them have MLM-style grifts to sell you.

      • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
        hexbear
        21
        10 months ago

        yeah it can mean anything, and you dont have to be held accountable for anything your peers/leaders do, but you can claim credit. "yeah man read this book it changed everything for me. yeah the author is in a sex scandal but its about the practice its not a religion we dont obey him, we just buy all his books and do what he says."

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          hexbear
          18
          10 months ago

          That reminds me of another sus flag: "(grifter) is nonpolitical and is just a lifestyle coach that wants you to practice self-improvement!" up-yours-woke-moralists

    • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      21
      10 months ago

      I dont eat gmos

      I'm curious about your experience with people who say that. Its it anything other than the fact that the statement is fundamentally classist because buying GMO-free or non-processed foods is materially impossible for most working-class people?

      I have pretty big criticisms to GMOs because I think their use has and will lead to the further precarization of food systems, the erasure of indigenous foodways and untold amounts of stress on soils and ecosystems. People who oppose GMOs on a "health" basis are a bit silly, in my opinion.

      • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
        hexbear
        27
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        yeah you got it. its the classism and anti intellectualism for me. also these are the kinds of rich white brats who go to poor brown countries and spread misinformation that gmos harm people and stop research into things like golden rice (which under capitalism has limited potential but its a noble endeavor) that could save millions of lives.these assholes wont even let scientist RESEARCH it. they also lobby the local governments, purely to enforce their insane fringe belief that natural equals good. also monsanto and these companies are evil and are destroying the planet but the technology itself is fine, and even under the current system gmos still often use less pesticides which ARE harmful to people. also almost no one ive met criticizes gmos for good reasons like you laid out its all ignorant rich people. most dont even know what gmos mean.

        • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
          hexbear
          13
          10 months ago

          I see, thanks for explaining!

          If you're interested, I'd like to talk more some other time (I'm ungodly busy and tired all the time right now) on the "being anti-GMOs is anti-intellectualism/science" bit, because as I've said before, food scholarship, and food activism are my chosen field of struggle, and I think there are good conversations to be had there.

          I think many parts of movements for/about food have had the misfortune of getting started by privileged white people, and putting their concerns over basic humanity. But there are plenty of food-related movements like La Via Campesina who oppose GMOs on a political and ideological level, so we shouldn't be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

          • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
            hexbear
            14
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            i would love to learn more some other time! and i understand that there are real reasons for opposing gmos especially for indigenous people. I think the original Luddites were based as well. I still think anyone who says the words "I dont eat GMOs" instead of "i dont support gmos" is privileged as hell. like even if youre farming all your own food thats still very privileged, and theres really no other way (other then deluding yourself or paying an insane amount of money) to live "gmo free". i still think most people are anti intellectual poc included, and this is for good reason gestures to history but its our job to empower people with factually accurate information, (im thinking long term here). I would even agree the gmos currently are puting more harm into the world than good but anyone who claims they are inherently unsafe is just factually wrong. and the potential for gmos under socialism could do more than just end world hunger, we could end full illness and diseases, we could eliminate the need for pesticides one day, very importantly we could counter the effects of climate change (that genie is not going back in that bottle). lets chat later!

          • iie [they/them, he/him]
            hexbear
            3
            10 months ago

            it'd be cool if your future conversation was public because i'm interested too

      • CarbonScored [any]
        hexbear
        10
        10 months ago

        Couldn't have said it better, so this . I understand that GMOs aren't likely to be directly harmful to eat, but the longer-term effects on the wider ecosystem is the real (and thoroughly not studied nor understood) concern.

        • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
          hexbear
          9
          10 months ago

          I didn't want to go into "one health" or "ecosystemic health is human health" concepts because I felt it would derail the conversation, but I think they're important to take into account.

          I think it is fundamentally eurocentric to consider that the agricultural and food systems in which one lives aren't deeply linked to one's wellbeing, and that the indiscriminate use of GMOs couldn't have an effect on that.

          • Mardoniush [she/her]
            hexbear
            3
            10 months ago

            There's alot of specific ways specific GMOs suck and of course Monsanto gets the wall for shit like round up and the abuse of termination genes (great for research, terrible for farmers)

            But so often the protesters are out against something like a scientific research project on soil redmediation, or of course the Golden Rice debacle.

          • UlyssesT [he/him]
            hexagon
            hexbear
            9
            10 months ago

            reddit-logo was on an anti-"hippie" circlejerk for years stanning for Monsanto, and it probably started as astroturfing but the enlightened I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE(tm) bazingas made it their cause anyway. RoundUp was made of LE SCIENCE so it was objectively good! so-true

          • CarbonScored [any]
            hexbear
            9
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            Oof, that was the stuff they hilariously claimed you could safely drink by the gallon, then refused to drink. Very good point that I've not considered before!

          • iie [they/them, he/him]
            hexbear
            3
            10 months ago

            this is all pretty new to me tbh, are we getting harmful levels of exposure just from eating produce or is this more about acute exposure?

    • Mindfury [he/him]
      hexbear
      11
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      anyone who does keto

      I always knew I was getting the wall, but i didn't realise to would be so soon sadness

      (I did Keto with a pretty severe calorie deficit and lost 35kg, which I kept off for a year. I then went to America for a holiday/got married, got plantar fasciitis from social sport that stopped me from walking comfortably and COVID happened and I put 40kg back on lmao)

      • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
        hexbear
        14
        10 months ago

        im not capable of having a normal non trauma dumping convo about keto, like i am fucked in the head FORERVER, so I will just say please please please be safe and get your blood checked regularly when doing fad diets.

        • Mindfury [he/him]
          hexbear
          9
          10 months ago

          please please please be safe and get your blood checked regularly when doing fad diets

          yeah, I was and already was getting checkups and my bloods done decently regularly because my blood pressure and cholesterol were already shit before 2018 when i did it

          I am nowhere near it now because I am, to say it politely, a gourmand

          • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
            hexbear
            7
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            glad to hear it comrade, not enough people get their blood checked. sorry if i seem overly emotional, id rather have you heavier and here.

    • HamManBad [he/him]
      hexbear
      9
      10 months ago

      I did the version of keto where you just don't eat bread or sugary food. I think it was adequately sloppy enough to prevent any chudification

      • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
        hexbear
        13
        10 months ago

        good for you, the keto comments are really rolling in and i am super triggered so i shall delete that part of my comment, no hate just cant handle it, it was my mistake i didnt even think about it before commenting.

        cw death, mom, truama dumping, you dont need to read just explaining why im suddenly acting odd

        spoiler

        ___ my mom died from a lack of potassium and heavy exercise that made her heart stop while on keto, she followed it the way you are sopossed to ate enough calories ect, doctors said it looked like she was "living in a third world country" she died of malnutrition.

    • Judge_Jury [comrade/them, he/him]
      hexbear
      7
      9 months ago

      "jesus was black"

      I gotta say I'm disappointed to hear that one. It tracks, but I've always liked how much it upset my most racist relatives

      • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]
        hexbear
        10
        9 months ago

        its just racism! some white man made up a concept called "chinese food syndrome" after eating Chinese food and having his tummy hurt. and then non asian restaurant started promoting the idea to hurt local asian businesses so they dont have to compete with the yummyness.