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Notes -
Where can I find a (much more) left-wing community similar to The Motte? /r/slatestarcodex is close but obviously intentionally tries to avoid Culture War topics (spurring the creation of this place in the first place).
By left-wing, I solely mean on social issues ("progressive liberalism"), like immigration, race, sex, gender, gender identity, democracy, rule of law (which I guess is now a pro-left position in 2026 or something). On economics stuff a range of views would be fine. I'm a pro-free market pro-capitalist person, myself rather than a socialist. There's /leftypol/ but those are essentially all communists who are pro-authoritarianism and all of that and who are often even right-wing on social issues.
There are tons of Twitter clusters full of very smart center-left people who agree with me on everything but it's not quite what I'm looking for.
Community-wise? No idea. I tried Lemmy once and initially they loved me because I argued effectively on their behalf on points we mutually agreed on. Once they found me on the opposite side of them on social issues, I was swiftly banned from that place.
Only on ‘very’ few issues would I be considered left-wing. Years ago I took the political compass test and it placed me on the “authoritarian left-wing,” spectrum. On some issues sure. It’s survey of my views I felt weren’t asking me the right questions though. A single [and slight] word difference would’ve placed me from a moderate to the far right end of the spectrum.
If you’re a lefty though, why object to socialism? The core of socialism is just workers control of production (i.e. industrial democracy). Authoritarianism was always a reluctant ideological instrument of the early communists, when faced with external pressure and mounting enemies against their revolutionary attempts. These regimes of course were authoritarian. They unfortunately had to be. Otherwise counter-revolutionaries come in and undo all the progress you’ve made. These systems weren’t regularly allowed to fail or succeed on their own merits but were always being fucked with by outside actors.
What? Maybe you
Take your pick. I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons why a reasonable leftist would think socialism isn’t actually a good thing.
Leftists are the ones who are most gung-ho about “the system,” which is why it’s a little confusing to me that he refers to himself as a leftist but isn’t against capitalism. That’s the whole crux of all the herp derp about “conservatives not knowing the difference between a liberal and a leftist.” Liberals want to reform capitalism. Leftists want to abolish it for another system.
Your fourth point is more about the harmony that social democracy’s try to achieve by having a mixed system that accomplishes both ends to some extent and mitigates the excesses of the other.
Marx himself is actually a real pain in the ass to read unless you’re familiar with the labor context of the international economy at the time he was writing. And his obtuse writing style makes it all the worse when you’re trying to adapt his observations to the system today. I’ve only read the Communist Manifesto, volume 1 of Capital and the Grundrisse of his directly. I’ve read much more exegesis on his work than him. Personally I’m Catholic so we’re obviously ideological enemies but that doesn’t mean everything he wrote was nonsense. He had many interesting and I’d say correct observations.
I’ve never bought into the post-scarcity argument. Unless you can outsource economic production into space and you’re talking about things on a cosmic scale.
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