I'm seeing some dumb-ass takes about how "online isn't real" and how it's "a drop in the bucket." But seriously, how did you all become aware of leftist ideas? How does anyone in nations such as the US become politically literate? How many of you were former atheist edgelords or shitposters on reddit?

Seriously, online does matter. It wasn't Fox News that created the alt-right Charlottesville rally. It was the fucking Sargon/skeptic/manosphere pipeline, which was primarily a youtube phenomenon. Or how about the comrades that listened to Chapo, and were inspired to travel to Iowa to help Bernie win the Iowa caucus? For Christ's sake just look at how much of an influence Facebook has had on the CHUDs. To ignore that we live in a neoliberal hellscape where the vast majority of us only find some kind of solace or connection in the online world is to ironically ignore material conditions. Something can be "not real" but still have a HUGE affect on the "real world" (e.g. money, gender). Have the recent voices of trans comrades and POC comrades about their issues here not taught anyone anything? Doesn't take a genius to see this.

For those that scream "rEaD tHeOry" take a step back and think, what the hell were many those "classic Marxist texts?" A lot of them were political pamplets or, as others have pointed out before, literally debate-bro replies to others. How is that any different than online shit now? Honestly, if Marx et. al were alive today, wouldn't they use podcasts, tweets, and youtube vids to spread their messages?

TL;DR: online does matter. Seriously, how did any of you become politically aware, be honest.

  • Mouhamed_McYggdrasil [they/them,any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    So? One time Mao tried to murder every single pigeon in China. Along with rats, flies, and mosquitos.

    He even went so far as to declare:

    birds are public animals of capitalism

    Eventually China even had to start importing the bird from the USSR in order to keep the food chain afloat.

    • No_Values [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Mao tried to murder every single pigeon in China

      Come on everyone knows it was sparrows

      The four pests to be eliminated were rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The extermination of sparrows is also known as Smash Sparrows Campaign (Chinese: 打麻雀运动; pinyin: Dǎ Máquè Yùndòng) or Eliminate Sparrows Campaign (Chinese: 消灭麻雀运动; pinyin: Xiāomiè Máquè Yùndòng),

        • read_freire [they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          idk about the translation but sparrows & pigeons are very different birds

          like, different orders (5th tier in biological taxonomy)

          • JayTwo [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            As someone who is a scientist who studies sparrows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls sparrows pigeons. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.

          • Janked [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Wow you really made me remember that, huh?