What brought me here:
When breadtube became a thing around 2016 it was my refuge from the horrible reactionary shitshow the internet was at the time. It opened me to things further left than Obummer.
I lurked on Reddits sorry excuses for leftist subs and heard them whisper about the CTH sub as being "bad leftists" but they never explained what was bad about them so I checked for myself and checked out the podcast and was like "They aren't bad they're just a bit obnoxious." I didn't really hang out on r/CTH, only saw the occasional post, and I listened to the podcast every now and again (and not at all anymore, stopped listening after the 2020 primaries) and that was about it. Then r/CTH was banned, this place was mentioned and I got curious.
It felt like I had finally found a place that wasn't going to demand I be civil towards Nazis. I wasn't going to be banned for saying "kill all slave owners." I also thought you guys were really funny. So yeah, Ironally r/CTH made you guys more appealing lmao. It also helped that you retained the "fuck being civil to horrible people" energy while at the same time attempting to make sure marginalised groups weren't thrown under the bus.
What made me stay:
A community of weirdos that genuinely
want to make the world a better place and stand up for their marginalised comrades. Whether it's the mutual aid comm helping people the best it can, the news comm shining a light on events the world tries to bury, or simply the movie comm providing a safe fun area to chill, I feel like this place provides something other places on the internet don't. It also is a place I feel like I can ask any questions about leftism and not be called an idiot. You guys taught me things ranging from practical stuff how to take part in my local org, to mundane things how to make a rad bean recipe. I think that's worth something. Also I still think you guys are hilarious.
EDIT: added some more context because I was reminded of stuff I had forgotten.
I was here since the beginning but this is not my original account. What made HB unique to me is it was that time where this is the only place that had a concretly reasonable and different view about China and other AES countries. There were some other places like Genzedong(only a lurker there) but it was banned and it since died.
I've seen a lot of struggle sessions about that, first it was China, I particularly remember some random person willing to die on a hill that China's handling of terrorism in Xinjiang was just like the state police apparatus resembling post 9/11 America.
But 2022 was realy funny, the epic struggle session over why would Putin suddenly do this to smol bean innocent Ukraine. Again this was the only place I knew which we were even discussing about having a different opinion from the western consensus.
I think the way which we handled the Gaza genocide, again one of the few places that isn't scared of the MSM narrative or afraid to fight Zionism.
I think when it comes to the real world issues we mostly eventualy found the correct majority opinion on things that matter. If at any point I felt these positions would've been different from mine I would've probably left already.
When it comes to China I think the near constant unironic Xi posting was a bit too much for me personaly specialy. 2020-22 were great years and I would be right there 100% agreeing with this as Xi is definitely a great leader, will be remembered as a key and historically important figure, undeniably.
But the decision making that led to that horrible stupid meeting with Hitler in the middle of the genocide and their similar timid stance against Israel is the closest I've come to a serious disagreement with some people here that obviously love unironic shallow pro-CPC-Xi meme posting. As such 2023-24 are horrible years imo.
But otherwise I don't see a reason why I'd ever leave. We'll see how this community handles China in the future, for both ourselves and the future of socialism I hope the CPC wont continue with this shitty timid conciliatory stance towards the west as the world continues to burn and the ropes tighten.