this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
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Leftism

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[–] Alteon 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If everything you ever ate from a garden poisons you, would you still be eager to taste something new from it?

I've had enough interactions with socialists to understand the kind of it people it draws to it. I would love economic democracy and better socialized programs, but I'll explore it on my own. I have no desire to ask questions, or discuss anything with a socialist when I'm immediately put on blast because I don't pass their bullshit purity test. It's like either I'm 100% in support of all of their ideals, or I'm a jingoist, Imperialist bastard.

And instead of just, you know, asking questions or talking with me, your first response is " because people were mean to you, you don't believe in the right thing"? FFS, really? Wait to put words in my mouth, but hey, I guess I'm the bad guy here because I don't like you guys. Whatever.

I'm interested in the ideals, but goodness do I dislike the followers.

[–] rockSlayer 7 points 8 months ago

I was met with the most hostile, rabid, insufferable people I’ve ever met. Fuck no, I’m not going to become a socialist.

It certainly sounds like that's the reasoning behind why you don't want to be a socialist, but you're right. I should be asking questions instead of admonishing you for your reasoning. The comment came off as dismissive without watching the video and I responded in kind, which I shouldn't have done. Let's restart.

Being a socialist doesn't mean joining any groups or picking a particular leftist political ideology. Hell, you can avoid all other socialists if you think it's that bad. All it means to be a socialist is that you believe the means of production should be socially controlled. as opposed to capitalism where the means of production are privately controlled. Side note here, the means of production are basically the gears that spin the economy, and social control over those gears is where democracy comes into play.

I know that the purity testing and tearing each other down absolutely sucks, and it's all over the place online (and rarely in direct interactions). I'm sorry that that's been your sole experience, because there are a lot of us that want to educate and inform. I posted this video because I wanted to inform. Could you provide a specific example of something you asked about that received a poor response? For one, I want to genuinely answer the question to the best of my ability, but I also want to know where you're at with your education on these matters. Unfortunately there's a strong presence of "unless you already know everything, you're wrong" in online leftist spaces, and it's worth combating. It's why this community has the rules it does, especially the rule against sectarianism.