I thought that wanker looked familiar :p

Weird take.

Those eyes are definitely saying, “How could you do this to me?”

This dude is getting legitimately downvoted for JAQing off. Also, his home instance is explicitly anti-corporate and anarchist, so defending right wing billionaires is against our rules. You are correct that Lemmy is generally left of centre, depending on the instance, so JAQing in defense of billionaire assholes is never gonna go down well.

I guess the thought was it’d be much harder for low paid workers to live for 4 weeks on savings, before their first paycheck came in. But yeah, I get your point.

It also varies by profession and/or position in some countries. Managers and “professionals” on higher salaries will often be paid monthly, whereas “ordinary” employees would usually get paid weekly or bi-weekly. Personally, I think it’s a tacit acknowledgement that it’s much harder to budget for a whole month on lower rates of pay.

The mod log reason for removing this comment thread is “Toxic and pointless off-topic comment thread about grammar in a meme.” That’s not mod abuse, it’s just moderation. Mod abuse would be telling you to fuck off.

I completely agree with you on ACAB in capitalist countries, for the same reasons you mentioned, but cops in “actually existing socialist” countries like Russian and China are no better. They still use authoritarian violence to oppress anyone who steps out of line with the will of the State. There are many, many historic and more contemporary examples of socialist countries using the [secret] police and/or troops to quell dissent from unions, anarchists, and other leftist groups, because anyone who protests the actions of the State, no matter how legitimately, is considered to be an enemy of the State, whether that State is capitalist or not.

Those imperialist western dogs! Imagine providing a deterence and actual consequences for Xi’s planned invasionreunification of Taiwan. What were they thinking? That countries have the right to choose their own form of government and who their allies are? If they are allied with Western liberal democracies, then it stands to reason they are Nazis, anyway. Xi should really send in the tanks asap to kill anyone doesn’t agree with uskill all the Nazis and re-educateliberate the people!

– [email protected]

I don’t know what to tell ya, I don’t find the word that rhymes with “hanky” offensive at all, especially when it’s applied to someone who seems to fit the bill. I think the main difference between MLs and liberals is that liberals are well aware their governments are flawed and are willing and able to criticize them and protest against bad policies, whereas the MLs are dedicated to the idea that it’s wrong to criticize non-Western governments, because “left unity”, “critical support” etc. This, despite the fact (or maybe because of it) that most of the governments they defend are totalitarian states where government criticism lands you in jail, in a re-education camp, or falling out of a window. This quote sums it up nicely:

Authoritarians, having argued so doggedly for the domination of a paternalistic state and having therefore turned themselves into ideological infants, then develop a hyper-reductive view of geopolitics; precisely the one, in fact, that a state would like for them to have. “Socialism” becomes pathologically confused with “opposing capitalist nations” or more appropriately, “opposing all states aligned with the United States.” They attempt to simplify the struggles of the entire planet down into two camps, the “bad guy imperialist states” and the “good guy anti-imperialist states.” In doing so, worker emancipation is simplified into a single question: “do you support the imperialists or the anti-imperialists?” Woe be to those who do not submit to their reductive understanding. The statists who advocate this position are completely incapable of even understanding what an “anti-imperialist” entity might look like. They, in fact, simply support one imperialist bloc over the other in a battle of two power-hoarders.

Daniel Baryon

@[email protected] #GoldenRetreiverJesus = false idolidog?? :p

Bearskin bug? Happy pride month!

Their mod actions usually do federate out, but their outgoing federation is a bit borked right now with some instances, perhaps due to the recent upgrade to Lemmy 0.19.4-rc.6. I believe they are at least aware of it now, though they have been basically non-responsive to the issue so far.

To be clear, I would definitely prefer your particular version of a Socialist State with worker co-ops compared to working for a neoliberal free market capitalist business. And thanks for taking the time to engage with me in good faith. I’ve enjoyed our discussion.

As a moderator, I might encounter more tankies than you. Daily, I see posts justifying Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, for example. We can likely agree that this stance is indefensible, both historically and otherwise. Unfortunately, tankies tend to stand out because they actively troll on other instances. I acknowledge my perspective towards MLs generally might be skewed by this experience.

Simultaneously, China is showing assertiveness towards Taiwan, seemingly preparing for an eventual invasion. The Belt and Road Initiative is another manifestation of China’s subtle imperialistic goals. They have adopted the same sort of strategy as the IMF and World Bank, offering loans to impoverished nations for development, which leads to a debt trap, control over crucial foreign infrastructure, and increased political and economic influence. To be fair, it’s a case of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, but it’s unsettling to see China going down that road.

I guess I’m just not convinced by the argument that supporting Russia and China equates to opposing imperialism. On the contrary, it seems more like an attempt to replace Western imperialism with a similar form led by China and Russia. To me, leftist authoritarianism is just as unappealing as Western authoritarianism, and shouldn’t be endorsed or excused. And no government should be defended from valid criticisms just because it’s notionally socialist.

That last 6% (which seems very arbitrary tbh) includes such concepts as “anti-authoritarianism” though, which is a core concept of anarchism. M-Ls on Lemmy generally endorse a centrally planned economy and state ownership of capital and resources, which inevitably leads to state authoritarianism (or so history tells us). Most M-L leftists here are happy to defend that kind of authoritarianism, so long as it’s in opposition to the Western liberal democracy. I think that’s why anarchists argue so much with M-Ls, because it’s a core and arguably irreconcilable difference in ideology.

I agree with you that in an ideal world, anarchists and M-Ls would have little to argue about, but given the sheer number of tankies arguing that China and Russia are basically faultless (even while admiting they are no longer truly communist or socialist) and throwing their support behind the most despicable theocratic and/or authoritarian regimes, like Iran, Yemen, North Korea and Russia, just because they see it as a way to diminish Western liberal democracies, there seems to be a lot to argue about nowadays. Replacing a one authoritarian state with just another authoritarian state does not seem like progress.

That’s cool, sounds lke you are a based leftist, not a tankie.

The litmus test for me is whether you support/apologise for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

They won’t say it’s socialist, but they still defend anything Russia does because it’s anti-western, which is more important for the current generation of tankies.

TBH, I just noticed the typo in your name. If I’d thought for more than 5 seconds about it, I’d have kept it to myself instead of correcting it though. Apologies.