chapotraphouse

The "dunking on libs" rhetoric made me think some instance had been taken over by crazy far right assholes or something. It honestly read like a truth social-type thread. Without context phrases like maga and fjb wouldn't have been out of place.

I'm going to repaste a comment I've made a couple times already, just because I keep seeing this (understandable) issue come up:

Just so it's clear, OP isn't drawing a distinction here between amerikkkan liberals and conservatives. A lot of times when leftists complain about liberals or liberalism, people who aren't exposed to leftism will mistakenly take this to mean that we're pro-conservative. We are NOT pro-conservative.

When we talk about liberals, we mean in the broader sense of people who subscribe to the philosophical tenants of liberalism, or in other words, people who think that capitalism is a good and/or natural thing. To us, conservatives are pretty much just a subset of liberals who have even more reactionary opinions about certain social issues than the standard liberal. This misunderstanding isn't the fault of the people who misunderstand, mainstream media depicts all politics as being a binary battle between the dems and the GOP, a sport where two teams face off and that's it. But in much of the world, "liberal" is actually synonymous with right wing and that's how we use it. In the US, liberal tends to mean "left wing" but only because the overton window is so grotesquely far to the right, and anticapitalism isn't even a consideration in US politics.

Forgive me if you already know all this, but because we're seeing new people around here due to federation, I think it's a good idea to point this out and avoid the possibility of conflating our utter contempt for liberalism with any sort of positive view of conservatism.

I really appreciate that you came here and talked to us in good faith and gave us some valid criticism. That's always a good thing, even when it can be hard to hear, so thank you. Personally, I loathe the thought of being mistaken for a right wing asshole, and I do feel that if we're coming across that way, then we need to work on fixing our rhetoric.

I do hope you stick around, or come back every now and then. Our community is dedicated to fostering "left unity," so we really want to be inclusive to everyone who is, as you said, headed in the same direction, even if the wavelengths are different. If there's something you feel we do or believe that doesn't sync up with your own wavelength, ask us about it! It possibly might turn out we're more in sync than it at first seemed. But over all, I think I can speak for most of us here when I say that we strive to be kind, compassionate, and supportive to anyone else who also genuinely strives to be kind, compassionate, and supportive, especially to those who are the most vulnerable in this capitalist society.

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.” ― Che Guevara