Fediverse vs Disinformation
Pointing out, debunking, and spreading awareness about state- and company-sponsored astroturfing on Lemmy and elsewhere. This includes social media manipulation, propaganda, and disinformation campaigns, among others.
Propaganda and disinformation are a big problem on the internet, and the Fediverse is no exception.
What's the difference between misinformation and disinformation? The inadvertent spread of false information is misinformation. Disinformation is the intentional spread of falsehoods.
By equipping yourself with knowledge of current disinformation campaigns by state actors, corporations and their cheerleaders, you will be better able to identify, report and (hopefully) remove content matching known disinformation campaigns.
Community rules
Same as instance rules, plus:
- No disinformation
- Posts must be relevant to the topic of astroturfing, propaganda and/or disinformation
Related websites
Matrix chat links
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Isn't it (at least notionally) communists who are currently busy conscripting immigrants and waging an illegal invasion and attempted genocide of Ukraine, while the US helps Israel to carry out genocide in Gaza? But I guess imperialism is ok when it's a communist state doing it?
I have zero problem with criticizing the US where I think it's deserved. I'm not American, and I don't live there. It's the double standards I don't like and MLs hiding behind "critical support" to ONLY criticize the US, or more broadly, the West. Complaining about the US supporting right wing states like Israel, while MLs give Russia a free pass for cozying up to Iran and North Korea in order to wage an imperialist war to re-vassalize Ukraine just seem like political partisanship to me. They all suck. None of them deserve a free pass, and we shouldn't buy Putin's pretexts for starting and continuing that war any more than we should accept Israel's pretexts for continuing their genocide. If all someone does is criticize the West while giving a free pass to everyone who hates the West, then they are simply propagandists as far as I'm concerned (and vice versa). Not accusing you of that specifically, but I see it all the time on some instances.
As an anarchist living in a liberal democracy, my observation is that replacing a Capitalist authoritarian State with a Communist authoritarian State in the vein of Russia or China is simply not something that I (or really any significant demographic living in the West) wants. You're never going to get a communist revolution in the US - it's nothing but a fantasy. All the failed Communist experiments around the world have destroyed its appeal as a viable alternative. Of course we could argue about why they failed, but that's really beside the point here.
Having said that, I have no doubt that Socialism is a better and more equitable economic model than Capitalism. And I think you are right, we probably do want the same end state, we are just arguing over the means to that end, and perhaps over some of the implementation details. But the question of how to get from the current state to some future anarcho-socialist state is unresolved, as you are no doubt well aware. I don't think anyone has written a convincing account of that might credibly happen in an advanced economy like the US, especially when the population is so brainwashed the working class routinely votes against their own interests.
My personal view is that the US would be well served by the creation of a third major political party that is unapologetically Socialist. I know Bernie was/is imperfect, but if he had started his own party instead of aligning with the Democrats, US politics might look very different right now. He was actually grass-roots popular, and some form of Democratic Socialism is likely the only type of Socialism that is likely to get over the line in the US as a first step back to the left. IMO it's going to be impossible to move the Democrats to the left, so we need to start over, before they assimilate and neutralize all the truly progressive candidates.
Ok so I feel it needs to be stated that Russia is very much a capitalist state these days. It should also be noted that the majority of communists have no love for putin or the Russian invasion of Ukraine. None of us want to see people die. We do however understand the material conditions that led to Putin's decision to invade Ukraine and rightfully criticize the western powers that purposefully pushed for this course of action and continue to prolong the war not to help the Ukrainian people but rather to harm Russia. I just want the war to be over, I don't give a shit about who owns what land. What will materially change for the Ukrainian working class should they be assimilated into Russia? They would still be proles no? Just subservient to a different ruling class. The people of Ukraine are dying to protect the interest of their bourgeoisie and western bourgeoisie. They are being used. Obviously I am not so naive as to believe the Ukrainian ruling class would just give up their capital to Russia without a fight but we must recognize that this is not our war and it is not in our interest to fight it.
Also you're right, there likely won't be communism here unfortunately. I recognize this but I will still do everything I can to protect my comrades. Best of luck building your movement where you are. May we both one day see change
Thanks brother, good luck in your activism.