My thought on why you see more communists, anarchists, and leftists in general in open source and federated platforms is that efforts centered around collaboration are likely to draw people who are more collaborative-minded.
this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Asklemmy
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Interesting. Thank you for the contribution. It is much appreciated.
I personally like it
Breath of fresh air for sure!
- lemmy's two main developers are marxist-leninists
- the largest and most active instance prior to the reddit exodus was hexbear, which is a "big tent" of revolutionary leftism, featuring mostly communists and some anarchists
- lemmygrad, an explicitly marxist-leninist instance, is also relatively large
And to speak to grad and hexbear, a large part of the reason there are commies here is because they were driven off other platforms. Hexbear and Grad are both decendent from active communities that reddit banned.
Seeing all the scaremongering about those communities here reminds me of the old comic. :
I've literally never seen a better fit for this comic
It's like it was made for this specific moment lol
This is fascinating to me. Thank you. Do you have some insight into how the leadership and centralisation of power dilemma of traditional leninist ideology is reconciled within the fed? I noticed many of my student groups running into issues with the concept.
The fediverse isn't a political organization that's going to enact change in the real world, so those concerns largely aren't relevant. Admins (and devs) generally speaking do hold a monopoly of power but that's the standard for the internet.
I see. Thank you for the clarification. Have a nice day my friend.
Honestly, the same reason you see more Linux users. Federation attracts a certain type of person. Other types of people use Reddit or other services like Twitter.
Imteresting, thank you. I will dwell on the topic further.
Dwell?
You know, like go for a long walk next to the ocean and throw some rocks, ponder life, then have an epiphany and run home.
Yes. In the phrasal verb meaning.
This software was made by commies. You are welcome :)
Because the internet is a place where people from the real world come to share their thoughts? I hate to break it to you, but their presence here means they exist in the real world too. So your question could just as well be "why are there so many commies in the world"?
Why so snarky? I just noticed that fed is way more communist than any other space I have ever been in and I am a lecturer at a very left leaning University, living in a very left leaning community.
I only replied with a snarky tone because you started the thread with snark in the title.
Guess it must be that they feel comfortable sharing their views here unlike in real life. I'm all for it, if that's the case. People should be able to express themselves.
Sorry if I came across that way my friend.
I am a neutral observer and was just surprised. Wish you all the best in your endeavours. Keep well.
Surprisingly wholesome conclusion to this thread. Not enough discourse like this online :)
I wonder if it's calling communists 'commies' that some may take offense to.
To my ear, this is sort of a slur in that I've only really ever heard it when some army guy is shouting 'god damn commies' or the like.
Just a disclaimer, I don't have particularly strong feelings for either a communist or capatalist structure. I think shitty people tend to gather power so most of us are just taken advantage of in either scenario.
I am sorry if my title was perceived in that manner. My first language is not English, therefore I have some difficulty expressing my thoughts at times.
Some of my students are communists and have referred to themselves as "commies". I was simply under the impression that this is a colloquium. Nonetheless, I thank you for your advice and trust that you keep well.
When a communist calls themselves a commie, it's a form of taking the insult's power away from those that use it as an insult, and gaining solidarity from it, much like how racial pejoratives often come to be claimed by those communities in defiance of the original dehumanizing intent of the aggressors.
A capitalist calling a communist a commie is insulting. Just like a communist or socialist calling a capitalist a bootlicker.
A communist calling another communist a commie is solidarity.
Yeah there is a lot of communists for some reason
Part of it is the fact that the more right-wing instances end up full of nasty hateful shit which results in everybody else defederating from them - just look at Exploding Heads where two of the posts on their front page are "I absolutely hate fat people" and "I support Trump because if he wins there will be mass suicides"; not exactly the kind of content most users want to engage with!
because we donβt take it in the ass from big tech here. One might say weβve seized the means of social media
Specific to Lemmy, perhaps because it was/is developed by communists in reaction to a perceived pro-western, America-centric bias on the rest of the web? See the History of Lemmy.
Yep, they absolutely hate we made c/politics centered on the West.
You say, on the original server which isn't .ml because of a connection to Mali (it's Marxist-Leninist).
I'm not sure if you're aware but "commie" is a derogatory term .. if you didn't know that it's fine. Now you do.
If you did know that and you're intending to be derogatory then go fuck yourself.
Takes one to know one.
A fox smells its own hole.
How do you know they're Communists/Marxists? I mean yeah, I noticed something might be the case, but I wouldn't assume it's because they're Communists/Marxists. Not that I would mind (even though I'm not a Communist/Marxist), just being a Communist/Marxist alone is not a big deal (as opposed to being someone who fits the stereotypes of one).
I will say though I do have a friend who identifies that way who I recommended to this place. She has been struggling and I thought it would be a good gesture.
Because the Fediverse is still small and they haven't been drown out yet.
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Tankies made the software.
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Conservatives left Reddit after The Donald got banned, and the bulk of the users on Lemmy came from Reddit.
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Libertarians are busy arguing over New Hampshire's twitter.
I don't really see the link between these three points.
Could you elaborate?
If there were a lot more conservatives or libertarians, the OP might not think there are a lot of communist posters here. Because there are a lot of left leaning people here who upvote anti-capitalist posts and comments, it is easy for the OP to reach the conclusion that there are a lot of communists. My three points explain 1) why the platform was already predisposed towards leftist thought in general, 2 and 3) why there are not a lot of right leaning ideas to balance out the ratio.
Another thing is that proprietary social media sites like Reddit and Twitter always follow the will of their (ruling class/parasitic) masters.
The control freaks at the very top are capitalists and thus their ideology is the dominant and unquestioned/unchallenged one.
The fediverse is the antithesis of this model, so that's why ideologies other than status quo capitalism take root and thrive.