My example was from around college with a Disney adult (I know) who was adamant that Pocahontas shouldn't be counted in the Disney princess line up.

That fixation set an alarm bell in my liberal brain, but I didn't want to think it was racism at the time. But the fixation on using technicalities (not technically a princess in the western monarchy sense) like in this case was just reaching to exclude a category of people in a way that was socially acceptable.

I can see that unbending view of rules and technicalities to be a red flag. The lack of willingness to take a personal stake in a topic and couching your real thoughts in arbitrary rules has been a clear sign for me to watch out. I see it with boardgames too. The excessive rule-following clues me in to a lot of reactionary behavior.

What about the rest of you? What things turned out to be red flags like that?

Edit - Fast forward to present day and this person is no longer a friend and is big into Q, Trump, and covid denialism.

  • buh [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Hating liberal places like California, NYC, Seattle, etc.

    98% of the time if someone hates those places it's not because they're leftists who recognize that they're neoloberal hellholes, but are instead chuds who think they're communist hellholes

    • fuckwit [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Go told to go back to california at the denver airport the other day. I’ve literally never been on the west coast. I’ll let you guess why they thought I was from California lol

      • duderium [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        In the glorious pre-covid days I remember overhearing a bunch of normie dudes talking over some shitty local newspapers. For some reason the state of California came up in their conversation, and one of them said: "Oh yeah, they'll tax anything there!" I mean, it's actually true, but fuck those guys.

        • fuckwit [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          People talk about California like it’s an entirely different world with commies walking around forcing you to be queer. Like no you fucking chumps, they do capitalism way better than your sorry ass.

          • duderium [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Yeah, in California there are a large number of people who are literally trying to like enslave the entire planet. Gotta respect their ambition even if they're a bunch of shitheads. Where I live the people with big ideas are either selling essential oils out of their living rooms or obsessing over buying houses to rent out. If you put two m*iners together you are guaranteed to hear one of these subjects come up within one or two minutes. If I had a nickle for every time I've heard people say the word "drywall"...

            • chadhominem [comrade/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              lolol for real. Been living in CA for 11 years but lived in MN for 18 years prior and love hearing even some of my leftist friends shit on CA as some uniquely neoliberal hellhole in our godforsaken neoliberal hellscape of a country. As if Minneapolis isn't essentially a more racist San Francisco without the diversity, weather, architecture, proximity to world class nature, and ocean views.

              • duderium [he/him]
                ·
                3 years ago

                I’ve heard people call Boston “San Francisco, but colder and more racist.”

          • LoudMuffin [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            bruh

            holy shit we just have high taxes in the US then, I make below the poverty line and I get like 400+ taken out of my check

            • chadhominem [comrade/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Technically we have lower taxes than most of the developed world - but its just even more painful because it's only by like 5% and we get fuckin 0% of the social benefits. Like if you lived in France you'd prolly make even less $$, still get that $400 taken from your check, but you'd have healthcare/housing/university/etc.

              • keepcarrot [she/her]
                ·
                3 years ago

                I find it weird that the US doesn't have a tax-free level of income. In Australia , it's below AUD18000 a year, you only really have sales taxes.

                • spectre [he/him]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  I think it's similar here tbh, but I don't feel like googling it

                  • keepcarrot [she/her]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    I vaguely remember looking it up and there was a Federal minimum 5% tax rate, with each state doing something with taxes also

        • buh [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Even Bloomberg acknowledges that California's tax rate isn't that high unless you making at least $140k annually https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-19/wait-california-has-lower-middle-class-taxes-than-texas

      • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Like making fun of tankies and anarkiddies: nobody picks on my little brother except me

        • LeninWeave [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          :left-unity-4: in the streets

          :anarchy-a-white: :the-gunman: :stalin-gun-1: :hammer-sickle: in the sheets - we need a flipped version of :stalin-gun-1:

    • asaharyev [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      What if I hate California for being a hotbed of conservatism?

    • MaxOS [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      and "woke". It's pretty much a chud term now.

      • buh [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Another one is "virtue signalling"

      • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Was it ever not?

        Actually asking, because I don't think I've ever heard it used with a positive intent.

        • LoudMuffin [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I remember it being used unironically on tumblr way back in the day

  • zeal0telite [he/him,they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Really hating The Last Jedi.

    I'm not just talking about not liking it or whatever. I mean it's now a part of your personality and still talking about how bad it is in 2021.

    • fuckwit [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      oh come on, since when did this site decide last jedi was a litmus test for leftist thought?

      It’s a garbage tier movie, it’s straight up sucks even compared to most star wars movies, pls cope

      • Alex_Jones [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        3 years ago

        I think the really suggests the intensity isn't directed at the quality of the movie, but the 'sjw' choices.

        I'll admit the movie isn't good, but people here can describe that in terms of worldbuilding and theme instead of calling Rey a Mary Sue.

      • Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        You ever been on /r/saltierthancrait? I was a pretty frequent user on that sub for the year or so after TLJ came out, because I didn't like the movie (or, frankly, most of the creative decisions Disney made with the franchise). But when I was there I spent at least a quarter of my time arguing with chuds who had elaborate conspiracy theories that proved feminism ruined Star Wars, or that Rian Johnson was some sort of freak who derived sick pleasure out of ruining Star Wars, or that Kathleen Kennedy/Rian Johnson/the Lucasfilm Story group all conspired together to ruin Star Wars because they hate white people.

        That sub is still active. There are still people who post there all the time. I did the sensible thing and wrote Star Wars off. I liked it for a long time, I have a lot of fond memories of Star Wars, but I don't think the new management are going to make the sort of creative decisions that would result in stuff I would enjoy. I liked the grand, sweeping tragedy. I feel like, underneath all the kid stuff and the Jungian bullshit, Star Wars was genuinely trying to say something. Even the prequels, as dogshit as those were, felt like a genuine artistic expression. And I just don't feel that in the post-Disney era. They feel like bland corporate products, like all major blockbuster franchises today. Maybe that's just me getting older, maybe movies were always bad and it's only my nostalgia that makes them seem meaningful. But it feels true.

        • duderium [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          A self-published writer I follow(ed) spent a lot of time there. I thought it was basically a place to hate Star Wars for libs. I enjoyed the first two sequel movies in the theaters but then came to understand that they weren’t really good. The last sequel movie I didn’t even enjoy in the theater. As problematic as they are, Solo and the one about the death star plans were actually probably better. Solo might have been the best if Disney hadn’t fired the directors.

      • zeal0telite [he/him,they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I'm not talking about not liking it. I mean where it's a part of your personality.

        As mentioned the /r/saltierthancrait subreddit and shit like that.

      • DickFuckarelli [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        TFW you know RotJ is kind of not great and it blows everything that came after it out of the water.

        Also, Rey's arc is horseshit and while there are things to like in TLJ, it's generally kind of fucking stupid - only to be topped by Rise of the Skywalker which was full blown WTF mixed with "I'm just going to turn off my brain" for 2 hours.

        Kathleen Kennedy should be fired just out of pure incompetence. It drives me nuts that she's so bad at her job, she makes chuds on youtube sound almost sane when they shit on her "wokeness" or whatever they go on about.

        TFA was alright.

        I've been drinking.

      • thoro [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It's Citizen Kane compared to The Phantom Menace/Attack of the Clones. It's still better than Revenge of the Sith for me too because whatever issues I have with TLJ, it still has competent dialogue, camerawork, editing, and pacing.

        ROS was the only prequel-level bad one for me. Atrocious pacing + bad video game/comic book tier plot.

        But I agree it's not some litmus test. I think it's fine and the hate is an overreaction, but I'm not a fan, personally.

  • LangdonAlger [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I can see that unbending view of rules and technicalities to be a red flag. The lack of willingness to take a personal stake in a topic and couching your real thoughts in arbitrary rules has been a clear sign for me to watch out

    Good point.

    Talking about the country falling apart and not being a :sicko-hair: about it.

    Not liking things from California or New York.

    Pronouncing antifa wrong.

    • buh [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Pronouncing antifa wrong.

      Or typing it all caps like it's an acronym

      • Alex_Jones [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        3 years ago

        Abusing

        Nazis

        Through

        Infinite

        Flammable

        Armaments

        :elmofire:

      • Alex_Jones [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        3 years ago

        To avoid that I just say the full 'anti-fascists' whenever the topic calls for it.

      • blobjim [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        They do this on NPR too. At least one of their reporters consistently says it an-TEEF-uh. I wonder if it's some kind of direct request from Koch or one of their other donors.

      • LangdonAlger [any]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        the wrong way is an-TEEF-uh.

        i mean, the origin is "antifascist" or "antiFascist-Action" depending on who you ask. People say "anti" like "ant-eye" or "ant-ee" then throw in a little "fuh" or "fah" at the end. but the idea that it's an-TEEF-uh, obliterating the "anti" portion of the word, is a giveaway to me that this person is a local news consuming deadhead and on the chud watchlist. when i say it, it sounds most like ant-if-uh and not particularly pronouncing any syllable harder than the others

        • The_Jewish_Cuban [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          ah since I live in a chud hell hole I wasn't sure if that had influenced the way I say it. Glad to know I'm still cool :fidel-cool:

        • happybadger [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          When they say it like they're calling a pig, somethin's amiss.

  • Rem [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    couching your real thoughts in arbitrary rules

    This is a big one I think

  • sandinista209 [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Cop worship. Usually accompanied with the argument that they’re putting their lives on the line every day despite many other jobs having a higher death rate.

  • Notcontenttobequiet [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I have one coworker who I have worked with for awhile and her opinions confound me. She is WOC in her 50s, definitely watches local news and listens to drive time radio. Trans people and issues live rent free in her mind. Often complaining about pronouns, cancel culture, and LGBT representation while simultaneously declaring "I don't care if they're LGBT, why make a big deal about it?" At the same time, she boycotts the NFL because of how Colin Kaepernick was treated and is supportive of BLM. It's very confusing to hear someone go back and forth between those two views.

    • TheFuckYouOnAbout [hy/hym]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Wtf do we have the same coworker? Is she also weirdly antivax? Mine told me to hold a magnet up to the injection site after I got covid shot she said it would stick lmao.

      • Notcontenttobequiet [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        In a way, I'm glad that you can relate. To her credit, she's been very good about COVID stuff. Vaxxed early on, masks at all times at work. She was in complete agreement with me that anti-Asian hate was a huge problem in the beginning of the pandemic.

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It actually makes sense, many people, I'd say the majority of people have incoherent ideology and conflicting beliefs. It's pretty common, like I know quite a few very pro union chuds that simply ignore much of what the GOP has done to weaken unions. This is becoming less and less of a separation of parties though as neoliberalism's banner is being raised by both. But there was a time when being pro union was essentially a pretty left only position I'd say.

      But since many people don't subscribe to a fairly structured sense of political ideology, the majority of people are just grab bags of different and conflicting beliefs. Matt Christman has said this much more eloquently than I can, and he definitely nailed it down better. Don't have anything to link but I remember him vividly discussing this on one of his vlogs in the past.

    • PeterTheAverage [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This sounds a bit like me back in my reactionary days. I held a lot of chud beliefs but I was pro-Kaepernick, maybe that's one of the reasons I was able to make the shift left though.

  • fishnwhistle420 [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Loudly whispering the term “African-American” to you when referring to a black person.

  • Teekeeus
    ·
    edit-2
    11 days ago

    deleted by creator

    • Alex_Jones [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      I think if they're unaware of it, yeah. Some people are seemingly chill until you find their button.