Watch out for :fedposting: obviously.
My spouse works in medicine. A lib boomer doctor coworker of hers has been a family friend for decades. He and I would debate sometimes on Facebook. It never got too rowdy until about six months ago, maybe earlier. I can't remember what it was about, but I was probably going on and on about Biden sux, death to amerikkka, etc., etc. I think almost all of my Facebook friends, the vast majority of whom I had not spoken with in at least ten years, had muted me by then. But this guy came onto my wall and was just much more tenacious than usual. It sucked because I've known him forever, I genuinely like him, and I was literally in love with one of his kids for many years in school. The debate went on for several days. We never called each other names or insulted each other, but it was still pretty intense. My spouse's coworkers commented about it to her at work. I don't remember what they said, but I want to believe it was something like: "your unemployed commie husband is repeatedly bodying [respected doctor] on Facebook." She asked me to get off Facebook because she said it was endangering her job. I agreed to go, and actually I'm very happy that I did, since Facebook is a cesspit and echo chamber. Later we found out that the doctor was in the hospital with covid, and some nurses had seen him angrily typing a lot on his phone when we were debating. He recovered from covid AFAIK, while I have been off Facebook since then.
Can't answer this without being doxxed. National newspaper stories occurred.
Delete this post and use a throwaway with extremely vague terms. I didn’t know I was in the presence of a CELEBRITY!
Lmao I can't. Maybe one day I'll do a throwaway about it when unexpected. Maybe.
I don't know what happened or what you did, but you're very cool and I hope you made a lot of reactionaries pissed off
I mean, calling that thing with the Mooninite Lite Brite signs in Boston a shitpost is a bit of a stretch, but :rat-salute: regardless
Not really shitposting, but about 10 years ago I decided I'd always be honest with my commie inclinations to anyone who asks. I was tired of beating around the bush or simply holding my tongue, like I had for years prior. I will literally tell anyone that I'm a communist who admires Fidel Castro if they sincerely ask.
This has resulted in near complete estrangement from my family, a very strained relationship with friends I once had, and I suspect it makes me difficult to employ. More than once I've directly told an employer I was going to unionize the business, and I actually did achieve some success there. Never unionized a place, but I was able to get more PTO and pay for some workers, but I also got fired from those jobs, so I guess that's also a real world consequence I've had.
The one I feel the most though is more emotional. Maybe it's just capitalist alienation or that I'm simply a weird person, but I don't seem to see eye-to-eye with most people in real life unless I know they're a leftist. Too many people concerned with how to become landlords or managers or small business owners. Makes it hard to keep up and makes me feel like a weirdo in social situations.
I'm so glad that in my field the acceptable range of opinion seems to range from Elizabeth Warren to Lenin. I have rainbow hammer and sickle stickers on my computer and water bottle, and my coworkers came up with the idea for my tattoo of a rat holding up a hammer and sickle. A random stranger in the elevator complimented my visible tattoo the other day so I showed her the hammer and sickle one and she thought it ruled.
Neuroscience, and IME biology in general (outside of a couple specific places, agriculture has a lot of conservatives), although my experience is limited to a couple departments at one university.
None of this makes any money and everyone including the professors are incredibly mentally ill so it tends to encourage openness and cooperation.
When conservatives talk about universities being left wing strongholds there is a kernel of truth to it
I thought most academia was pretty left-leaning outside of things like business and economics. I wonder what makes agriculture chuddy---is it because it's farmer adjacent?
Edit: it's probably the money, isn't it.
Nah it’s not the money, farmer adjacent is exactly it. There is noooo money in ag science*. My boss had a PhD and made like $45,000 a year, and was against universal healthcare. But she grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, and since going to school her goal has been to get a position at some sort of outpost to get away from universities.
*In academia, there is more in private industry but then you’re working for fucking Monsanto and it’s still not great.
Still not great compared to what you could be doing with that level of education in a similar field, but definitely more than in academia. Monsanto makes a lot of money, but that money goes to capitalists, not researchers.
And again I’m far from an expert on this, this is what I gathered from working in that field for a couple years and looking at potential future jobs.
My husband's experience in neuroscience was the polar opposite, very standard conservative academia, it might be down to the universities, then again this was 10 years ago.
Damn, I hope it’s been a systemic change and not just my school. It would be weird if we were a leftist bastion though seeing as what school it is.
Like I said, my experience is very limited and I’m just going on what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard from the people I work with.
I don’t seem to see eye-to-eye with most people in real life unless I know they’re a leftist
relatable
I'm really sorry to hear that comrade and I'm not at all surprised to hear that when you've had such harsh treatment in the past. I definitely feel a more subtle version of what you mean about not seeing the world in a similar way to other people, especially since I work in a pretty hypercapitalist industry. But if it's any comfort, you probably worry about it more than other people. I've been a very matter of factly out communist for at least a decade, almost two, and I usually get slight confusion or perplexed interest rather than shock and horror.
This is why I have given up on friendship and relationships :rust-darkness:
your unemployed commie husband is repeatedly bodying [respected doctor] on Facebook
:gigachad-hd:
Me and the boys leaving Haha reacts
:gigachad: :gigachad: :gigachad: :gigachad:
Later we found out that the doctor was in the hospital with covid, and some nurses had seen him angrily typing a lot on his phone when we were debating. He recovered from covid AFAIK, while I have been off Facebook since then.
You should claim credit for saving his life by making him so angry he wouldnt die before he could own your commie ass in the marketplace of ideals lmao
nothing bad, but some shitpost of mine got cited as inspiration for a deep dive science and pop culture article on an actual news website.
I posted something about how my apartment's new key fob system for the gym was stupid since the keypad system had been working fine for years, and got an email the next day saying they would not be renewing my lease. Thankfully I was already planning on moving, but it fucking sucked and also should not be legal.
Unemployed commie husband reminds me a bit of my wife (prior to marriage) telling me that her friend called me "your communist boyfriend" and honestly I always kept it very, I thought, subtle, around that friend, because she was a very idealistic lib but I didn't want to create friction.
Things were tense for a while with a couple of my buddies at work when I told them that the Xi/Winnie the Pooh joke they shared in our group chat was racist and to knock it off. Eventually they said they understood why I felt that way but they disagreed, but they haven't done it again since then so idk, maybe they internally felt a little ashamed of it.
That's a win in my book. Like so many other things, you don't have to get it, you just have to not be a shithead about it.
One time in the 2nd grade I loudly said that someone should assassinate George Bush because my teacher told us she couldn't bring tamales into class because of new government rules.
It would make for great foreshadowing in the early life section
Not really but I don't get into fights online.
I've definitely posted concise demonstrations or evidence that contradicts reactionary narratives on Twitter in the past though, including one in which a clearly drunk Tory MP responded about a dozen times over five hours in which I didn't reply once, winding themselves up enough that they eventually posted a tweet that their staff made them pull and apologise for the next day for the 'insulting and foul names' it used. It wasn't a major scandal or anything, but it was nice to have inspired a little humiliation. I won't share the specifics as it was under my real name though.
I've had one close encounter, where a client who used to comment that I always tweeted about 'really interesting news' (meaning not what's on the front page of international section of your standard broadsheet) had a sudden revelation that there was an underlying theme (I wasn't hiding it) of left-wing movements, organised labour, China, Vietnam, South American anti-fascist action etc etc and asked me at our next work lunch whether I "was a communist or something." He definitely wasn't a raging chud, probably a centre-right British liberal, but I wasn't sure at all how it would go. But I just said, "no or something. I'm just a communist." There was a moment of silence where it looked like his brain had broken and I wondered where it was going, but then he just seemed really fascinated by the novelty of it; the idea of doing business with a business person at a business lunch who also happened to be a communist.
I've definitely known people, in particular a freelance web designer and graphic artist, who posted some pretty mild context and criticism of the early Ukraine war narrative and lost a decent amount of work from it after a chud client started reaching out to a lot of other clients sending emails that totally misconstrued what he'd said and claimed he was a pro-Putin racist who was cheering on the war. Most ignored it but they definitely lost a few projects and it was a tough time for them.
Not sure if this counts, but on some older accounts, I've found comments and posts copied/pasted elsewhere.
So far, that's the worst but I'm probably not going to test it.
I think my last facebook post that was more substantive than "happy birthday" was me shit posting about cops, and then having my cop cousin's wife get mad at me. At that point I decided it wasn't worth it if all I was accomplishing was making holiday gatherings weird.
First and only time I ever used Facebook was to comment on the video Two Girls One Cup. At that point I had seen a lot of other shock content so my comment was something like "didn't live up to the hype", but either I didn't realize or didn't care that that comment and that video were now on my FB feed going out to my whole family.
Next day my mom asked me what the video was, but I'm like 90% sure she watched it. My response was something like "uh, don't look it up, trust me" and i deleted my Facebook account that day never to return.
Next day my mom asked me what the video was, but I’m like 90% sure she watched it. My response was something like “uh, don’t look it up, trust me”
I mean it starts out with the girls just making out and stuff right? Probably she just got to the point where there were four titties on her screen and went "ok yeah id rather not continue watching"
Fingers crossed I suppose, but this was almost twenty years ago now so whether she did or not I bet she doesn't remember.
