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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   33047 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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I mean, I agree with you in that sense; but I still think that both the absolute and the relative number of people who are legitimately, unironically tankies in the left is still greater than bona fide Hitler-did-nothing-wrong neonazi types in the right. That the establishment doesn’t feel threatened by them doesn’t affect the sincerity of the belief.

That the establishment doesn’t feel threatened by them doesn’t affect the sincerity of the belief.

How can you measure sincerity of belief? Only imperfect measure we have is willingness to sacrifice for the belief.

So, what are these "unironic" tankies doing? Do they spend their lives agitating and organizing workers IRL, while facing danger of harrassment, persecution, prison, torture and death, or are they shitposting on the internet?

Honestly, that raises a good question - they were in the normal riots in the last few years (some even went overseas to try to export BLM!), and do some sort of community organisation/support. A few are union organisers; the rest live a pretty bohemian lifestyle. I don‘t think they actually risk anything, given how limp-wristed state response to riots have been, and honestly it‘s difficult to consider the recent riots as being in service of classical Marxism.

But that applies even more to the Hitler-did-nothing-wrong Nazis — really, how many of the far-right are endangering themselves to spread the gospel of (neo-)Nazism, versus the ones who are in it because they think it‘s edgy, or because they have some vague grievance towards progressive politics and it was the easiest thing to latch on to? The lack of mind-reading goes both ways.

And that raises another point — isn‘t it pretty telling that people can get to say shit like “Mao is just misunderstood” and “the Great Leap Forward was the US’s fault for starving China” without getting overwhelming pushback (like someone would if they tried to justify the Holocaust, say) and making them reconsider?

But that applies even more to the Hitler-did-nothing-wrong Nazis — really, how many of the far-right are endangering themselves to spread the gospel of (neo-)Nazism, versus the ones who are in it because they think it‘s edgy, or because they have some vague grievance towards progressive politics and it was the easiest thing to latch on to? The lack of mind-reading goes both ways.

Even anonymous edgy neonazi posting can be dangerous thing. If you are doxxed as someone whose hobby is to shitpost as "Werwolf1488", your life is fucked (while not much will happen to "RedGuard1917", except friends laughing at him behind his back).

And that raises another point — isn‘t it pretty telling that people can get to say shit like “Mao is just misunderstood” and “the Great Leap Forward was the US’s fault for starving China” without getting overwhelming pushback (like someone would if they tried to justify the Holocaust, say) and making them reconsider?

Yes, it is pretty that communism is so completely dead that it can be treated as old unfunny joke and nothing else.

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