An open source project the size of Lemmy needs constant work to manage the project, implement new features and fix bugs. Dessalines and I work full-time on these tasks and more. As there is no advertising or tracking, all of our work is funded through donations. Unfortunately the amount of donations has decreased to only 2000€ per month. This leaves only 1000€ per developer, which is not enough to pay my bills. With the current level of donations I will be forced to find another job, and drastically reduce my contributions to Lemmy. To avoid this outcome and keep Lemmy growing, I ask you to please make a recurring donation:
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If you want more information before donating, consider the comparison with Reddit. It began as startup funded by rich investors. The site is managed by corporate executives who over time have become more and more disconnected from normal users. Their main goal is to make investors happy and to make a profit. This leads to user-hostile decisions like firing the employee responsible for AMAs, blocking third-party apps and more. As Reddit is a single website under a single authority, it means all users need to follow the same rules, including ridiculous ones like censoring the name "Luigi".
Lemmy represents a new type of social media which is the complete opposite of Reddit. It is split across many different websites, each with its own rules, and managed by normal people who actually care about the users. There is no company and no profit motive. Much of the work is carried out by volunteer admins, mods and posters, who contribute out of enthusiasm and not for money. For users this is great as there is no advertising nor tracking, and no chance of takeover by a billionaire. Additionally there are no builtin political or ideological restrictions. You can use the software for any purpose you like, add your own restrictions or scrutinize its inner workings. Lemmy truly belongs to everyone.
Dessalines and I work fulltime on Lemmy to keep up with all the feature requests, bug reports and development work. Even so there is barely enough time in the day, and no time for a second job. Previously I sometimes had to rely on my personal savings to keep developing Lemmy for you, but that can't go on forever. We partly rely on NLnet for funding, but they only pay for development of new features, and not for mandatory maintenance work. The only available option are user donations. To keep it viable donations need to reach a minimum of 5000€ per month, resulting in a modest salary of 2500€ per developer. If that goal is reached Dessalines and I can stop worrying about money, and fully focus on improving the software for the benefit of all users and instances. Please use the link below to see current donation stats and make your contribution! We especially rely on recurring donations to secure the long-term development and make Lemmy the best it can be.
This motherfucker actually fell for rainbow capitalism
I realize that it was a mistake to post that. The transgender topic is much more complex and more controversial than I knew at the time. So I will refrain from commenting on it in the future. In any case I'm happy that there are so many transgender people on Lemmy.
This response itself belies a chauvanism which is not befitting of a communist. Socialism requires the liberation of all, and queer workers face super-oppression due to their status as being queer or trans.
A solid stance on queer liberation is critical for socialists to have because queer people are one of the many groups in society that due to their super-oppression can act as lightning rods for conflict against the bourgeois state.
I recommend this article on Leslie Feinberg and hir life. It's critical as communists to have the right stance on this much in the same way as supporting AES and National Liberation, and dismissive attitudes such as your initial reaction here betray a chauvanism that other revolutionaries or oppressed people will likely find sickening. I don't say this to demean the possibility of your growth, but instead to say that I want to see your growth on this issue and to take the right stance.
I'm gonna be candid with you this is what your comment reads like (to me):
But not to think it.
The controversy is between the oppressed and oppressors. It's "complex" because you don't stand in solidarity with the oppressed.
But continue to think like that and act accordingly in silent
Since it keeps them out of sports?
Okay the last one was a joke because it feels like such an empty phrase after the non-apology preceding it. I've been putting off reading this for a long time, but will pledge to do so now starting today. Join me.
From "Combat liberalism":
Edit: Tomorrow is the anniversary of the attack on the Institute for Sexual Sciences which got famous as the nazi's book burnings. There will not be a better time to start reading Feinberg than now.
I just found out about this and honestly this is a disappointing response. Apparently this happened a while ago from what I gather, but your response right now is to say it is a complex and controversial topic? No one is born knowing, but this is something you as communist should be well informed about. The fact that Hexbear has a ton of transgender users alone should be enough to reevaluate such position. Please go about doing proper research and asking trans people for resources they can provide for debunking your transphobic views. Do not refrain from talking about in the future, you need to genuinely engage in this to be able to change such views. If you're truly willing to learn and change, you need to demonstrate that. I doubt any trans communist, specially on Hexbear, wouldn't be willing to help you come around on your views.
Do you also think that eg when corporations celebrate Black History Month that the bourgeoisie is also pro-Black? Capitalism has a vested interest in neutering and subsuming liberation movements so that they cannot pose a threat to capital itself, and also of course, as groups such as LGBTQ+ people become less socially stigmatised, it becomes worth it profit-wise to market towards these demographics specifically as the financial hit from bigots becomes less. We can see this reverse in real time in the US as it becomes more profitable to appeal to social reactionaries, showing that any appeals to "pride" were, as queer people have been saying all along, a marketing campaign and nothing deeper.
I don't think this comment at all suffices. If you're going to be a communist, then you need to put the effort in to engaging with all struggles for emancipation, and that includes trans people's struggles. You shouldn't "refrain from commenting on" liberation struggles; you should be supporting them.
You make some good points. But keep in mind that I dont live in the United States, and I have never even met a transgender person irl. For me this is something which is only discussed online, so Im missing a lot of context and information. Case in point, I had no idea what "Black History Month" is and had to look that up. Anyway if I discuss this topic further it will be through an anonymous alt account, to avoid any further drama.
I also don't live in the United States; do you think trans people only exist in the US? Transfemicide is an even bigger issue in the global south; for instance, Brazil, a global south country, is notorious for its high transfemicide rates, and has a strong transfeminist movement as a result. There will be trans people in all countries who face transphobia, and the countries lacking a particularly noticeable trans liberation movement will be because transphobia is so bad there that trans people feel the risk of speaking out is too great.
I do suggest that you put some effort into educating yourself and engaging with trans and LGBTQ+ struggles where you are, which will not just be "online". I don't know where you live, but at worst it will just be the case that the trans people where you are, are not inclined to become political militants because of both transphobia in general meaning they put an even bigger target on their heads, and transphobia on the left that is common across the world meaning that trans people feel unwelcome in organising spaces. This is not related to the original topic of donations, I mean this just for the sake of your politics. If you really can't find any kind of organised political activity around trans issues where you are, you could at least read transfeminist texts, and tbh feminist texts in general, since feminist theory (including Marxist feminist theory) has discussed the issue of gender, gender essentialism, and transphobia for decades now. For instance, in relation to your screenshotted dm above, it has been a feminist demand for decades (rescinded upon only because some feminists decided to jump on the anti-trans bandwagon) to desegregate sports, and I think anyone who knows anything about women's sports knows all the ways in which the gendered segregation of sports harms women athletes' careers.
Did you also unban and apologize to the person that posted that DM?
Also, transgender people are people, not a topic. Imagine for example describing some sort of debate surrounding black people as "the black topic".
beaver@lemmy.ca deleted their account so it can't be unbanned but have many, many unbanned alts like sunshine@lemmy.ca who is not banned
I think it's best that yes you are learning, but you shouldn't refrain, you should be continuing your discussion so you can learn your blindspots and aim better.
If you asked me like ~4 years ago about some stuff like DID, I was insensitive and I have learned better. The continued conversation is what enabled me to continue progress in understanding.
I do hope you are learning better and this isn't to brush it aside, but I always hope for betterment until proven wrong.
You're getting caught in bad faiths arguments from the right. MtF athletes do not retain any exceptional advantage against cisgender ones.
I believe you when you say you support the LGBT cause, but then please educate yourself on the topic and stop defending this position.
I’ll check. Maybe I’m wrong! Afaik no hormonal treatment was needed for some sports so inherently it made me question it (but I might be wrong).
I’m not talking about exceptional advantages, just any, but alright.
But having my comment removed is just dumb. If I’m wrong, let the comment be there, the downvotes will show that I am wrong, and people can learn and discuss this way. Being censored for being potentially and unwillingly wrong when I’m open to discussion is just dumb.
Thats not how moderation works. Misinformation and Disinformation, especially about oppressed minorities have no space on lemmy. It is okay to not know it and read up on it but just because you dont double down doesnt mean the initial point must stay. Additionally, feel free to host your own instance with all the "varied views" you want.
Agree to disagree then I guess
That’s your point of view, and I have my own
Came here to have less censorship and more freedom than on Reddit, found out that it’s worse, eh
Yeah. In that case I suggest truth social.
Freedom of speech is entirely different from the populist/fascist viewpoint of being allowed to say literally anything. Freedom of speech is supposed to prevent the government from silencing dissent. Dissent and discriminating against minorities is entirely different.
It’s about correcting facts, not hate speech.
The subject might even be up for debate.
Freedom of speech, in the context I’m talking about, is obviously not meant in the way of fighting a government
Well, facts dont need correction. We have science for facts. Hatespeech doesnt need correction, it needs deletion.
I think I know what "kind" of freedom of speech you're talking about and its not the intended one.
Yeah, no...
https://swimswam.com/ioc-releases-study-on-whether-trans-women-have-athletic-advantages/
Does that sound like an overall advantage?
No, this is transphobic. End of story.
Great arguments, thanks
Having separate women's teams at all was about access to organized sports activities because the existing men-only leagues banned them from participating. Rather than simply break down that barrier, legal and social compromises were made for women to participate but with the patriarchical addendum of only in separate leagues. Sometimes it was laws requiring women's leagues to exist where men's did. Sometimes it was women making their own leagues because they were excluded by men's leagues.
The idea that women have separate leagues for "fairness" because they simply all wanted to be separate from men when competing is historical revisionism and a talking point largely concocted for the sole purposes of misogyny and transphobic exclusion, such as your comment.
Bold of you to assume this of me, when you don’t know me in any way. That wasn’t the purpose of my comment, I assure you.
I’ll do my research. In the meantime, stop making assumptions :)
The rationale was concocted for those purposes. You may simply be repeating it because you weren't aware of the history or context.
You're a transphobe and you aren't allowed to disagree with trans people on whats transphobic and what isn't. I'm cis though you can disagree with me, but the fact that you are disagreeing with a trans person makes it moot.
That’s just stupid. That’s the argument from authority reinvented.
Sure, they are more apt to say what is and what isn’t transphobic, but the debate doesn’t end there, and one isn’t always right because they are concerned.
And apparently I’m transphobic. I guess you can see things that I can’t, because I didn’t know this myself.