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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.
At some point you gotta stop blaming outside actors for internal failures, right? The Soviets were large enough to stand their own and engaged in international trade. Still ended up collapsing.
Even China had to adapt to capitalism in the end. Worker control of the means of production simply doesn't work if you get rid of the market signals that influence the means of production -- and if you're adopting a market economy then you're not doing classical socialism anymore anyways.
To add to this, everyone and everything is always being influenced by outside actors. That's part of living in the world, you are not alone. Being able to deal with the rest of the world is simply a requirement.
It's actually quite remarkable how much the Soviets and their satellite states found it necessary to close off their societies. In the modern day, only North Korea does it to that extent.
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