I want to agree, especially without a large enough community like chapo where there is enough positive re-enforcement, updoots, and bullying to actually create a shift in thought patterns. I was very much helped out of reactionary and anti-communist brain by that sub, enough to get me to a place where I now engage with theory and have started using dialectics to put a critical lens on, well, everything.

I think a lot of us here were moved further left by using reddit, but I also know a lot of people probably stayed on reddit and via the psychology of groupthink, no longer view communism in a favorable light, likely believe all the lies about China and the USSR etc, because that is what is popular. I know a lot has changed in the last 3 years, and reddit has always had a lot more potential toward reactionary beliefs. How do people find this site or lemmy though if everyone ceases to engage?

The mid 2010's it was basically an incel alt-right recruitment site. I can only speak to my own experience, but I don't think it's uncommon. I consumed a lot of reactionary content in that time-period, because it was thrown in my face, and I had no critical lens to apply, I was basically just like oh new ideas I haven't heard I will look at them. I hadn't begun to confront my shit brain, and I was heavily propagandized for my entire life to be anti-communist. It was only through remaining open minded to seeking all information I could that I began to engage with leftist subs, and because of the more patient users, they helped me start to deprogram and see communism as an acceptable ideology. I basically found those ideas by seeing something well written in a main sub, going to a profile, and following users to the "good" subs.

chapo sub was also full of wreckers and people who were just assholes and offered no constructive criticism "it's not my job to educate you" types, so I don't have completely rose colored glasses

I think no-one at all should use reddit, or any social media especially how it is now. I think people should engage in real life, share reading materials, organize the workplace etc. At this time, sharing communist literature irl mostly alienates someone further. We live in increasingly online and socially isolated times, and increasingly hostile toward AES countries and historic socialist projects. Tiktok is also full of AI generated and reactionary content, so is game streaming, but you could argue those platforms have increased leftist thought. Those platforms require a good personality, charisma, good lighting etc, and it's not as easy to form a critical mass as reddit has been in the past.

If you have ideas about how potential leftists can be reached, online, I'm open to discussion.