Comradeship // Freechat

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Talk about whatever, respecting the rules established by Lemmygrad. Failing to comply with the rules will grant you a few warnings, insisting on breaking them will grant you a beautiful shiny banwall.

A community for comrades to chat and talk about whatever doesn't fit other communities

founded 4 years ago
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Hello,

I am using Voyager as a client for Lemmygrad and I would like to start posting videos on my Community named pigeon. I have only the option to post pictures. Do I need to use some other site where I have to upload it or is maybe my client missing the option.

Thank you in advance for your help

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Self-promotion is seen on the internet as underhanded and suspicious but I really don't mind it when it comes to creating links between communists. What's the difference between self-promotion and other promotion? Submitting a link to your own work is bad, but asking your friend to do it is good? That doesn't make any sense.

This is why I've been pro-self-promotion for years, and allow it in every community I've moderated as far back as antifastonetoss on Reddit. There we even worked with antifascist artists to promote their work on the subreddit.

The only limitation I would put on it is that you have to interact with the questions and comments to some extent. But that's about it. This creates trust and is the basis of social media: interaction (it it only went one way then you'd act more like a TV or radio channel).

Stamping down on self-promotion only shows that you're scared of being one-upped or eclipsed as a mod. We rarely have had issues with self-promotion, and if it helps other comrades boost their work, then that's great.

Reddit is terrible for this. Most subreddits hate self-promotion of any kind and will remove your posts over it, or even ban you from the start. Why? Your community doesn't care that someone posted their own work. They will open the post, comment and vote on it by themselves. Why do you need to be so controlling? It's ludicrous to remove a post that has say 15 upvotes, signalling people like it, just because you want to control the flow of information in your subreddit.

I've honestly rarely had excesses. Excesses are hard to define but like I said, I do expect you interact at least a little bit with the community. This lets us know a little bit more about you and vet you organically. I've had on Discord a person who only wanted to recruit for their party and never interacted with anything outside of that. They would only talk about their party and post links to their newspaper, ignoring any question pinged to them that wasn't about their party. That was fine for a long time and we didn't really moderate on it either, but eventually other members started feeling like they were just using us and weren't interested in the work we were doing. When we brought this up to them they simply stopped using the server but remained in it.

In this case yes it can feel suspicious, like you're just using an existing community. But it also allowed us to learn more about their party and their work.

And we've had self-promoters who didn't really interact on Lemmygrad too, but eventually the community organized to discuss what to do with them, forcing them to reply. Like I said the only limitation I would put on self-promotion is that you at least show you're not just spamming everywhere.

But even then people will end up discussing your posts regardless of mod involvement. They will ask questions under the post and others will reply. So what's the actual problem? That the OP is posting and not interacting? Why does that matter?

Really the only thing that should matter is why they are posting and where to. We had someone here who posted to a sort of incel blog if you remember and eventually took action against that. If it's a website I don't know then I might ask questions and need an answer from OP, but if it's a source I know then what's the harm?

Basically think of it this way. In lib spaces people willfully and readily post to the New York Times, Wikipedia, CNN, etc. We don't ask them if they're self-promoting. These organizations have a huge contingent of fans ready to post their links everywhere at a moment's notice. When you don't have that, you have to do it yourself. The first one is apparently not a problem, the second is almost always seen as one.

This is the contradiction most places, especially Reddit, find themselves in. They create large communities and it's super easy to get noticed on Reddit because the work of creating a following has already been done. But they are able to create this community because people post in it and interact with it, leading to more people joining it. Without these members posting, they would have nothing to moderate. It then leads to another contradiction between moderatorship and community as they have opposite interests.

This is also why we rely on community self-management on Lemmygrad and often take time to respond to controversies on the platform, to soften that contradiction. We can't make it disappear, but we can soften its effects.

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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by vehicom@lemmygrad.ml to c/comradeship@lemmygrad.ml
 
 

I will be a bit vague with parts of this but hopefully this will be of interest to some of you. Apologies in advance that this might be more a list of disjointed thoughts than really a chronological recount.

I was born in the US and I am part of the Chinese diaspora. I haven't been back since before covid.

I've mentioned this on a couple other parts of lemmygrad but I went on a trip that was funded by the chinese government, essentially a group tour around china. My one complaint is that 13+ museums in a 10 day span is... a bit much.

One thing I found interesting was the amount of communist imagery present. You'll find it if you're out and about on the city, or in the entrance of museums/parks if you're looking for it. Especially the "Socialism Core Values" sign, I saw a ton of those signs. I know that because I was visiting I saw a ton more than I would in day to day life, and I don't think it would feel too intrusive in day to day life, but it maybe felt slightly excessive to a visitor? I definitely prefer them than advertisements, like on Line 5 of the Chongqing Metro.

As for the cities, they were really nice. Really interestingly, though, because the second tier cities I was at developed later than for example Nanjing, the environment was a lot cleaner and modern than Nanjing actually. The cities are decently walkable, tons of metro/bus, didi(chinese uber) is incredibly cheap, and there are tons of public bikes/e-bikes to rent. Streets were clean of trash, tho the older places didn't have trash per se, but rather gave a dirty vibe. The new parts of china are better than the US, and the old parts are worse. China is still definitely a developing country, which is sometimes easy to forget with how fast it's developing.

On another note, the common sentiment i've heard is that 发展, development, has been really fast. This is obvious to even us from the west, but it's really hard to think that there are people living from pre-解放(pre-1949, pre-liberation, pre-cpc? idk the best term to translate this), serfs, essentially, who have seen the country develop to this extent. For example, a taxi driver I was talking to on the way to a HSR station, mentioned that the district we were driving through was just barren dirt when he was a child.

The superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of those forces than under the capitalist system. As they develop, the people’s material and cultural life will constantly improve. One of our shortcomings after the founding of the People’s Republic was that we didn’t pay enough attention to developing the productive forces. Socialism means eliminating poverty. Pauperism is not socialism, still less communism …

- Deng Xiaoping

It was also really interesting to see things i've read about like, 绿水青山就是金山银山(i think it translates to lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets?, it works a bit more poetically in chinese i swear). However seeing it in like the really pretty parks they've constructed is a lot different than just reading about it i think.

There still are definitely contradictions within china. One thing i've heard is the pressures of having to provide a house and car from the son's family(tho the tradition varies by province and is better in some), housing prices, and not great state of the economy.

as for food - really good. i typically eat chinese food at home anyways so it was so great coming back to china eating-wise. Also there is this mountain in chongqing that is literally full of just hotpot restraints.

As for traditions, i think it can be a bit overbearing at times. 面子, face, and like gift culture is much too roundabout for my tastes. However, I do get a pass for when i don't follow them because i'm a foreigner(it'd be even more if you were like white), but still I feel like it's a bit much... mandatory gifts at every occasion makes it almost like less special to give gifts and also genuinely a burden to get gifts for everyone...

Prices - oh my god everything felt so cheap. Some of the best milk tea i've had for 20 yuan(3 bucks). didi(ubers) for like 10-20 yuan for like even a (10+) min ride. My friend got meituan(chinese doordash?) delivery for neck pillows right before his flight and it came same hour. Everyone uses QR codes here(!!), and there are portable chargers for rent everywhere. I'm not joking when i say everything is so much more convenient here. FRUIT IS SO CHEAP, my heart can't take $6 watermelons at sams club after the prices in china... I don't think people in china understand how bad it is in the west like living/convenience wise. I mentioned to a massage lady that the wage for a service worker is like 40k+ and they got so excited about that prospect because in china that would be a very large wage. However, because they're considering china prices they don't understand how hard it would be to live on that much because of how insane housing and cost of living prices are in america.

TO ADD ON, hotels are so cheap. Genuine 5 star hotel for $100, luxury chinese hotel for like $50 too. Like for rent you can actually star for multiple months in a nice chinese hotel.

Speaking of prices, qinghua(tsinghua uni), beida(peking uni), and other schools are less than 1k a year in tuition. what the hell. I'm going my state uni and i'm still having to pay 20k in tuition.

I swear the malls here are so much better. a random mall i went to in a second tier city was better than literally any mall i've been to in america. And look at this mall in chongqing(the pastries were so good, not too sweet)

And a mall in Xiamen had rock climbing, an art studio, indoor skiing(which idk how that works), a rentable kitchen space, and such good milk tea.

And finally, the HSR and metro experience.

Honestly, I don't have many comments on the HSR, and I think that's the biggest compliment I can give it. You go through security that's really quick, wait for your train(unfortunately it was so jam packed i didn't get a seat some of the time i've ridden it) then get on and you really don't feel much when riding it. It's quite quiet and not much vibration at all. The fact that it was so non-memorable makes it all the more impressive. Big cool station and trains and good smooth experience.

As for the metro, it was very nice a lot cleaner and more modern than the NY and toronto metros. The fare ranges from 1-7 yuan depending on how far you go, (0.15 cents to 1 dollar), and you can just scan a QR code on wechat to pay. ALSO they have different air conditioning depending on the car which is really cool. Full platform screen doors too(and not screen doors, but other barriers at elevated stations).

ya'll should ever go back to china if you get the chance. The most unforunate part is that there are a lot less flights and they're a lot more expensive post-covid. Your flight will probably be the most expensive part of your trip...

anyways that was a lot of yapping, i'm still a bit jet-lagged so i'll end it here. feel free to ask any questions

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I feel like I could do a big write up on this - I could if I wanted to.

Which incidentally is the theme here. As a point of focus, there is a song by that name, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUuU99c_9mY

It appears to be parodying the kind of person who has apathy, or even aversion, toward participating in "normal social standards" and insists that they could do it if they wanted to, but don't want to.

What I find interesting about this, as it relates to a forum like here and the stuff we're able to recognize and talk about, is that I suspect there's some connection in that mindset to hyper individualism. Notably, the mindset in question is not "I can't do it," or "the system is stopping me," or "I am revolted by what it wants me to do" on their own.

The mindset appears to be more like: "I kind of want to be normal, but something is in the way; however, because I can't accuse the system of being at fault, it has to be something wrong with me. Therefore, what it comes down to is that I could do it if I wanted to, but I don't want to. I maintain my self-esteem by making it a purposeful choice of mine to 'fail' rather than anything systemic."

Thoughts?

Edit: little tweaks to wording

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i'm sure you've all been hearing about the recent moves in the stock market. almost every stock in the US is overvalued almost all the time and stock prices basically never reflect material reality.

the basics of what happened are this:

  1. Japan had really now interest rates. So you could borrow money in Yen at like 0.5%
  2. To fight inflation, the US raised interest rates very high very fast. So the US would pay you maybe 5% if you bought treasury bills
  3. Investment banks would borrow Yen at 0.5%, convert it to US Dollars, then buy treasury bills which paid 5%. When the treasury bills matured, they would then convert the money back to Yen and pay off the interest and be left with 4.5% returns.
  4. Japan recently raised interest rates and this made the exchange rate between Yen and US Dollars change. Now the last step of converting back from US Dollars to Yen might not give you enough money to pay back the loan.
  5. Investment banks start selling other assets to try and get cash to pay their loans. Tons of stocks are put up for sale so their prices get lower and lower.
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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by peco@lemmygrad.ml to c/comradeship@lemmygrad.ml
 
 

I'm a longtime PSL member in my city and have been its defacto photographer, and have really made a name for myself locally with the attention around the Palestinian liberation struggle. I've been growing and learning a lot as a photographer (at least I hope) and was wondering if there's anyone else here on lemmygrad who'd be interested in a community on photojournalism and documenting the revolutionary struggle? Looked into Pixelfed but it seems too much like screaming into the void, and I'd love to grow a community where we can visually highlight the power of the working class

Edit: for anyone that is, feel free to share /c/photojournalism!

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Went on there and found an article called "Fascism and The New Deal", and I actually think that title is pretty fucking based. Of course the website explains that FDR was a fascist because of Big Gommunist Government and him being a

🚨LOONY LEFTIE🚨.

I just think it's funny whenever communist and conservative language seems to align because of how completely delusional conservatives are. Makes me understand the liberal delusion of Horseshoe Theory just a little bit. I wonder if there's any other examples of language lining up like this.

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Not sure when I'll be back, probably a month or two. I want to focus on other stuff besides politics and economics.

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I just had one tell me Lenin was a liberal lmao. Like, sorry he prioritized moving out of semi-feudalism over ending currency and commodity production, I guess he should’ve just left life expectancy at 30 as long as everyone was equally poor, right?

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Self explanatory, but it's do describe westerners and global northern liberals discrediting the efforts of global south nations developing economically or progressively and sometimes going beyond some western countries. this is obviously about China and all the articles ending with "but at what cost?" after saying something good about it. another one is whenever Cuba gets mentioned in how good it is at LGBTQ+ rights they discredit it by saying some nonsense about dictatorship.

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I was watching Jurassic Park 3 today and I was reminded that all 3 of those movies had the black guy die. Horribly. It can only happen so many times before you start to think something's up. It happened all over, action films, horror, thrillers. The worst is when the black guy goes to get himself killed and then none of the other characters even comments on it after he disappears.

The word "representation" gets a lot of flack, but when I was growing up it was really demoralizing to watch film after film where the black dude was either a clown or was horribly killed a few minutes into the movie. Unless it was a hood movie anyway, but there's an obvious problem there.

Anyway, this isn't one of my more thoughtful rants, but just something I actually do like about modern film.

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I’ve heard this sentiment before a while back from a person on Tiktok (unfortunately I cannot remember their name) and it has stuck with me since I first saw it because it is undeniably true.

People’s unchecked empathy will end up getting us hurt. I say this because of what is happening in Venezuela. I see a lot of people, many I followed until now, who are very pro-Palestine now spreading misinformation about Venezuela and its election as a show of solidarity and empathy. This is not right and is incredibly frustrating. Not every “Free [insert country]” movement needs support. Yes, your empathy and want for justice for Palestine and Palestinians is well placed but do not extend that to every movement you see because it might end up backfiring big time. The same people you oppose for the genocide being inflicted on Palestine are the people you are supporting in Venezuela, how do they not make this connection? It’s the lack of critical thinking alongside their empathy that really gets me. These people claim to be anti-imperialist, and I truly believe that they are in their hearts, but at the end of the day they are also supporting a very imperialist coup attempt in Venezuela because their government tells them Maduro is a dictator.

There is also a call to “listen to Venezuelans” but fail to listen to Venezuelans who are actively opposing the coup on the streets. If they let their empathy run wild without critical thought they end up supporting globally detrimental movements that will end up causing so much fucking damage, and when the deed is done I hope they’re happy.

Sorry for this rant but seeing people I liked and respected, many of them artists, falling for this crap and spreading misinformation and propaganda to their large audiences is incredibly frustrating and disheartening. Pro-Palestine and yet you support Maria Machado? Give me a fucking break…

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I just noticed I haven't visited Lemmygrad in a month, cause I was afraid of opening the site. Same reason I ignore important emails, don't respond to friends and sometimes "ghost" people. If someone calls me on the phone, I answer, if someone wants to hang out I go and hang out, but it is so easy to shut out the digital world. Kind of unfortunate everything is moving to the digital realm... or is it by design? Is it a feature of the digital system that those of us with anxiety won't be able to participate fully? People ask me if I have instagram, nope. I don't post about my life on social media, yet that is what is expected to be a participating member of today's society.

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Love too have a trash ISP

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Just learned from the movies.

@muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml

May read the books later.

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3100074

What do we know about this group?

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i was working on my ebike today, and i realised, hey, i bet a bunch of my comrades around the world also have cool bikes :33 if y'all wanna post ur bikes in the comments that'd be fun :3

because i live in shitty burgerland, i can't completely rely on public transit, but this bike bridges the gap between the metro and places i need to go :3 i love it!

selling my car to get medically necessary surgery! Freedomland™ rocks! :3

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"To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is one type of liberalism." -Mao Zedong.

I'm tired. I'm tired and I'm sad. I lost a friend because I was advocating against telling people to vote for those who have slaughtered and terrorized their friends and families.

I used to vote blue. I could see where they were coming from, the feeling as though you're contributing to saving lives. The desire for reprieve from the Republicans. If the democrats were truly the lesser evil then I'd vote for them. I'd encourage activism, yes, but I'd vote. It's not as hard for me as it is for less privileged people.

But... https://thebaffler.com/latest/democrats-are-the-real-party-of-war

Time after time, I've given them my vote, and they terrorize other countries. The terror is only redirected. It isn't gone, it isn't even mitigated. By voting for the democrats, I stab the global south in the back. Another friend of mine tried to frame this as a trolley problem. But here's the problem.

These politicians are fucking liars. I can't tell how many people there are on either track. Or even if there are different tracks. Even if the DNC was more proactive about fighting the GOP, then the lever merely determines the trolley's speed. So there I was, seen as a traitor to queer people. And I'm really, really sad. All because I refused to encourage people to vote for the aesthetics of a better USA.

There are so many variables involved that there's objectively a lesser evil among the two, I'd argue. The problem is they're liars. I don't know which it is. And either way I'd still be voting for the slaughter of innocent lives, domestically and abroad. They're too evil. And I'm too sad.

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I went to a small meeting for my party, and at the end, one of us went on an anti-Russia and anti-Soviet rant (He's a Trotskyist). He started with saying that Russia buys gold from Sudanese rebels in exchange for Russian weapns for those rebels. I don't know if that is true although I don't necessarily doubt it, and another one of us said it's probably not only Russia giving weapons to Sudan, but US as well. He said that this proves that Russia is imperialist and that he doesn't understand why communist parties in the global south support Russia. I said to him that even though Russia has imperial ambitions and capitalist nations always move towards imperialism, I can see why global south countries want to work more with Russia since cooperation with Russia is less harmful that cooperation with the USA. I specifically said that it is choosing for a lesser evil, in order to convince him better.

Then he started talking about how Putin uses Siberian native soldiers as cannon folder to protect ethnic Russians. He then said that this is a holdover from Stalin who kept the colonial system from the Tsar were and that Central Asian and Siberian Native soldiers were sent to the front first in order to protect Russians. He said that Soviet Union was a colonial nation as well for the Russians and Belarussians and that the Soviet Union fell because of this colonisation and that Gorbachov was the first one who tried to correct it.

After that the other member said that it's hard to convince others when there are not many examples of actually socialism. She then named Cuba as a dictatorship, and I called her out and said it was not. Luckily she was receptive. The trotskyist defended me as well saying that Cuba 'is not as bad' and he mentioned that Cuba has a lot of international solidarity because they for example sent doctors to Northern Italy during covid. But he didn't mention that international solidarity for Cuba also means that they support Russia lol. Then we started talking about Che, and he said that Che wanted to become a minister in Cuba but was forced to leave Cuba by the Soviet Union, because they didn't like him. I said that it was hard to believe and that I didn't hear about it. He forgot where he got that from and said that not many people know about it.

I definitely held back a lot, and should've gone harder sometimes, but it's harder when the other person brings up so much random wild stuff that you don't know how to start to refute it.

What are some strategies for the next time?

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I get that they're probably always been pedos but what baffles me is why so many of them are to begin with. Does it have something to do with the objectification of young girls?

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Not the perfect phone for me but close enough

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