And even if we did get together and tried to so stuff, the average Joe is just going to call the cops on us, or shoot at us or drive a truck into us

in my experience that just isn't true in a lot of places/situations tbh

I've been threatened with a gun (that was never produced and probably didn't exist) and yelled at (ironically the guy thought we were anarchists and shouted about how stalin was right and we should all be shot) and cops called (if you have a large enough group, they won't be able to coordinate a response on short notice very well and may well just leave you alone or come and impotently complain at you before going home), and it's never worked to stop the action (not to say it never will, these were low stakes actions, relatively speaking, but still)

major support for just doing stuff and seeing what happens, you can achieve more than you think before the repression really kicks in, and you'll learn a lot very fast.

I forget what I read that convinced me of it initially but I don't think cornel west is a good faith actor at all. Wrecker/grifter shit all around, and I don't have much more faith in any of the people that promoted him

yessssss

more trans linux enjoyers

I 100% though estradiol was just the british pronunciation, since I heard it said out loud by some british person first I think

In my head I pronounce it like you suggest. Out loud irl I pretty much just say "E" lol

probably because nobody enjoys creating such a giant shitshow that people start going all conspiracy mode. it's very stressful, and this place has always been a bit of a pain to admin even in good times I feel like, so this may have just been the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of burning out.

idk, we will see, I also had no interest in seeing them resign over this, but I think we're probably not going back if I had to guess. We should have more than 1 active admin at any given time, its too much burden for one person to shoulder and its been a while since I've seen more than the occasional peep from anyone but carcosa

Edit: nope guess they're back in some capacity. fuck yeah https://hexbear.net/post/3868611

The problem I have is that we already did this struggle sesh back when rule 8 went in and ultimately reached a compromise and the dredge tank was created. I don't think there's an ulterior motive, but we saw then that a lot of people really wanted this content, why go to ban it again without like, really detailed and transparent reasons to win people over? (though some % ofc will hate any change) That's why people are assigning some amount of ulterior motive, I feel.

I think there is a certain amount of smug self-satisfiedness on the comm, and better guardrails against that would probably be appreciated (by me at the very least), but frankly to me, dunking on elon musk and other known quantities gets stale and pointless in a way the more dredgey content usually isn't, since it can come from anywhere. Randos with no PR department say the quiet part out loud more, about what liberalism really is (and other topics).

IMO, the line that should have been drawn based on your rationale is more "how people are engaging with the comm/content" and not "what type of people we're allowed to make fun of on the comm", I just don't feel like the latter rule solves the stated problem... We can be unnecessarily smug and shitty towards public figures too!

The actual problem is a very sticky one and ultimately a judgement call on the part of mods... but so is deciding what is notable enough for c/gossip now or c/the_dunk_tank before, that process is almost completely arbitrary and it doesn't even prevent people from being unthinking smuglords, so what's the point? At that point just let mods delete things for "everyone is stupid but me" smugness, it'd be equally arbitrary and more effective

lying to and fucking with the other instance admins would be based in most contexts but I don't see an upside here

I still value the trickle of new users it brought but this did cross my mind :(

yeah this is where I'm at. This community thrived and built culture on treating dumbshit liberals with the respect they deserved. If they come in with some tired-ass arguments we've all seen a thousand times we laugh them out of the room. If they come with something novel or any genuine curiosity then they might get engaged with on a more serious level.

That's the sort of dynamic that creates our in-group and brings in disillusioned liberals. Or at least one part of it. Considering where it's gotten me politically, I think that is a good dynamic to foster, even if it brings along occasional shitheads that need to be purged.

I think it was more "the things being posted in that thread are conspiracy theories", not the post itself, but idk. Even so, most of the comments were pretty reasonable guesses IMO

could also be ✨ vibes ✨

But yeah I mean I got ma'amd every so often pre-everything just because I had long hair

therapist: Long biden isn't real he can't hurt you

Long biden:

vague or confusing memes end up getting upvoted on here all the time. there's usually several different interpretations.

In this case though, I think its pretty clear that neither of these people depicted have any power to decide which track the trolley goes down, they're... physically disconnected. It reads to me as making fun of electoralism in general. Liberals fit just as easily into the "I will achieve greatness (slightly better conditions at home) by allowing the death of others (genocide abroad)" role as conservatives do, if not more.

What it lacks is depicting an alternative that actually works to stop the trolley, but it still makes the point that electoralism is fuckin pointless

edit: I see the OP popped into the thread further down. It makes more sense if understood as a leftist response to the unedited version where the lever actually does anything.

The real story here is that Trump won the popular vote. That signals an enormous shift in sentiment and culture, and should be the subject of any serious analysis here.

Yes! And we should emphasize early and often that the shift in the popular vote is not because the populace got 10% more fascister since 2020, it's because (as you explain), of a total collapse in the faith in liberalism's ability to address or keep in check more reactionary elements, or really offer anything of worth

it does seem like britain is closer to like, some major metros in the us, or japan, in terms of number of people just not cooking at home, basically ever. the other stuff I don't have an explanation for tho

US food affordability is pretty bad so its less common here but you still see it sometimes, especially in urban populations that are either sufficiently monied to eat takeout/junk food a lot, or their apartments literally just don't have proper kitchens

yeah I tapped out during... idk 2022? and haven't looked back. more obscure forums and chatrooms I still stick around in, and I'll read reddit threads when they show up in google searches, but I don't have an account and won't engage at all

I've been engaging gently. Well except with my one russiagate/verging on blueanon lib, I was more forceful with him. I haven't been addressing trump, mostly focusing on the failures of dems and the importance of abandoning electoralism as a primary strategy

2028: "The politics of failure have failed! We need to make them work again. "

Nah, I'm having so much luck with talking to squishy left-libs rn its crazy. Even some blueanon russiagate types seem to be understanding how much of a dead end the dems are. off to c/doomer with this sentiment.