Putting this in Chapo bc I don't know where else to put it.

I think we leftists are pretty much always on the defensive because we are surrounded by a lot of ignorant or just straight up shitty people. And so we take to hiding here, which I think is perfectly OK, since there aren't many alternatives for leftist news sources or leftist chats anywhere else.

But I get the feeling that a lot of us bring that defensiveness and fear here, and by virtue of tone and mood being pretty much impossible to decipher over text, I've noticed that people kind of put their shields up. We want to defend our leftistness as if it were some government-issued ID that could be taken away at any minute, and when someone challenges that (whether rightfully or not), we get upset and decide to argue.

Look, fellas. I'm not going to say that you can't think anarchists have the wrong idea, or that statists are kinda dumb, that non-vegans are gluttonous savages, or that vegans know a suspicious amount about beans. But we haven't even fucking built socialism in the west yet, and all of this is just pointless posting and when we have Vegan Struggle Session #69420 it usually gets pretty ugly. So maybe just keeping it to yourself is sometimes the better thing to do, especially if you're going to straight up call them a murderer because they disagree with you.*

I'd rather have an empathetic, friendly anarchist at my side in the revolution than a die-hard Maoist (or insert some other Marxist ideology here) who gives everyone a hard time because they aren't familiar with :mao-aggro-shining: and his based as fuck policies. I won't necessarily agree with them, but at least I know that they're not going to be repellent to me and I also know that they genuinely want to get along. Fuck, some of my friends are dorky radlibs who call themselves anarchists, and you know what, to me, they're still leftists. I think they have a lot to learn, but I will not deny them the title of leftist, because doing so is small-minded and gatekeepy.

I get it! We are fiercely attached to our little ideologies within socialism- we each think it is the way forward- and it also is difficult to have our own beliefs challenged! But also like, we all are just here to meme and commiserate, not to one-up one another, you know?

Furthermore, there may be quite a few people here who are just beginning to learn about leftism and want to claim that title, and I don't mean some guy who hangs out on :reddit-logo: calling themselves an anarchist while posting about their love for NATO, or some dickweed who can't wrap their head around respecting pronouns. So far, we've done a fantastic job making new comrades feel welcome and giving them the space and support they need to do self-crit and grow as leftists. But I don't feel it's always been that way, especially when r/ChapoTrapHouse was still a thing.

I guess what I'm saying here is, no one here is The Perfect Leftist, especially because what being a socialist is, in some ways, is different to everyone, at least beyond the basics. Some of us organize strikes and fight union-busters. Some of us show our leftism by supporting our trans comrades. Some of us are noble-hearted ascetics who denounce cruelty to animals. Some of us display it by just doing acts of kindness or by enlightening friends and family; all of these are no less valuable if we believe that a socialist world is one driven by love and acceptance as much as material needs. Making the title of leftist and comrade more available regardless of what we do (within reason) does not cheapen the title, it makes it larger, and stronger.

With that being said, then, let's not try to strip anyone of their feeling of belonging in this community.*

*Unless they actually deserve it because they're a wrecker, a fascist, or a trot. Then you can call them losers.