• MerryChristmas [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yes, absolutely. I've been really disappointed with the response to the WSB episode. It's easy to dismiss them as a bunch of CHUDs, but the subreddit grew from one to ten million over the course of a month - whatever the board's culture was, it's not really relevant to the majority of the people who got involved.

        I think we missed a huge chance to radicalize people, to be honest, and I'm still a little resentful about it.

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I think we missed a huge chance to radicalize people, to be honest, and I’m still a little resentful about it.

          I disagree strongly. It's easy to dismiss them as a bunch of chuds when they go on to defend apartheid and make posts about doing a neo-colonialism that gets 40 000 upvotes. And this is after the massive influx of new people. Just look at this racist post. Do you see any radicalisation potential here? I don't. I see a bunch of racist and ableist redditors gambling their parents money on the stock market.

          • MerryChristmas [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            How hard have you actually looked? I get why you wouldn't want to wade through all of the garbage, but again, there are 10,000,000 users. The Chapo sub was significantly smaller and explicitly leftist, and racist shit still got posted fairly regularly. Don't forget that /r/stupidpol was birthed from this very community.

            Anyway, I'm not arguing that the potential is still there - I'm arguing that we squandered this opportunity, and if we continue to miss these moments then what are we even trying to accomplish? We need to keep an eye out for the next time something like this is bubbling up and be ready to offer a Marxist perspective from the start.

        • ElGosso [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Even before the GME thing, people there were more receptive to explicitly Marxist class analysis than they were on any mainstream political sub.

            • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              4 years ago

              Yeah the "let's try radicalise r/WSB" is by far the most cringe take this site has had. It's a sub filled with racists, ableists and sexists. Just look at this post. So much racism

              • ElGosso [he/him]
                ·
                4 years ago

                Ah yes, truly it is impossible to radicalize people who are racist or sexist or ableist and for them to grow past it, only the purest most noble souls may swear the holy oath and join our Chapo Dot Chat revolution

                There are some sound arguments against it but this isn't one of them

                  • ElGosso [he/him]
                    ·
                    4 years ago

                    Your point was that they're racist, sexist, and ableist, and thus will not convert to socialism, no?

                    My point is that people who held bad attitudes or engaged in bad behaviors in the past can change - not everyone who says this kinda shit is ready to jump up and join the KKK, for a lot of these people it's just a casual edgelord identifier. Obviously it doesn't make that okay, but those folks can still be radicalized, and a space where people stare into the contradictions of capitalism as a hobby are ripe for it.