this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
141 points (94.3% liked)

Asklemmy

45342 readers
822 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Just wanted to prove that political diversity ain't dead. Remember, don't downvote for disagreements.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (17 children)

I'm mostly an anarchist. But.

I think that there needs to be some degree of authoritarian, arbitrary power. Mostly because I've been in anarchist groups in the past, and when everyone has input into a decision, shit gets bogged down really fast. Not everyone understands a given issue and will be able to make an informed choice, and letting opinionated-and-ignorant people make choices that affect the whole group is... Not good.

The problem is, I don't know how to balance these competing interests, or exactly where authoritarian power should stop. It's easy to say, well, I should get to make choices about myself, but what about when those individual choices end up impacting other people? For instance, I eat meat, and yet I'm also aware that the cattle industry is a significant source of CO2; my choice, in that case, contributes to climate change, which affects everyone. ...And once you start going down that path, it's really easy to arrive at totalitarianism as the solution.

I also don't know how to handle the issue of trade and commerce, and at what point it crosses the line into capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You might be interested in the essay The Tyranny of Structurelessness, which goes over the same concept you speak of with requiring some degree of formalization of structure in order to prevent unaccountable structure from forming. I'm not an Anarchist, though.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I help with a social group. We jokingly refer to it as anarchism under a lazy iron fist.

Day to day decisions are made in a fairly ad-hoc manner, by those involved. If there is a disagreement that can't be resolved, or if it will have large repercussions (e.g. changing the fabric of the building) it gets raised to the committee and chairman.

The chairman is the sort who is only there because no one better wanted the role. He has no interest in micromanaging, but will resolve issues to get them to go away.

It's a remarkably effective system. Unfortunately it's a bit unstable in large groups. Those who want the role are also those you REALLY don't want with that power. No one has yet solved the issue however. How the f@#£ do you keep the troublemakers out, when they are also the ones most willing to work towards getting the role?

The other problem with anarchism is that the natural self policing systems break down by the Dunbar limit. Parasitical or cancerous behaviours tend to become crippling, forcing people to adopt other unofficial power structures.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (15 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Im left leaning on many social issues but pronouns was never a necessary social construct hill we needed to die on.

I think that useless fight got us the full hard swing to the right.

Especially because you shouldn't give a fuck about how people perceive you. You should be whoever you are and not care about labels.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think that we just didn't fight the fight very smartly, and in the end it's been weaponized against us.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

It could have been as simple as "its okay to express yourself however you want or be whatever you want. You should feel safe to do so and we all have your back."

People transitioning to either gender expression has always been a thing. Changing a language seems unnecessary. However, I think respect is just the core message here. Respect all if they do no harm.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Especially because you shouldn’t give a fuck about how people perceive you. You should be whoever you are and not care about labels.

Unfortunately we are social creatures with a need for acceptance and belonging. We can survive without those things, but it isn't really living. Take it from someone who spent most of their life living like a hermit.

Having someone recognize your gender is one of the most basic kinds of acceptance. Social interactions tend to feel pretty hollow and superficial when you know that the other person doesn't know/care who you really are. (Again, ask me how I know 🙂)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 20 hours ago

Im sorry but as someone with mental illness or sensitivities myself I dont expect the world around me to bend for them.

Gender dysmorphia is similar no? Feeling deeply something internal that changes that affects a minority of the populace.

Just like my history with my mental illness affects a small populace. Why should the world have to bend to my problems?

And acceptance and integration in society has always been there, especially with the left and especially since before pronouns.

I would never expect the intolerable, ignorant, racist, or cruel people to bend their beliefs for me. Its a waste of my energy to want that.

All I can do is surround myself with people who respect me and create my own little tribe in this sometimes cruel world.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Y'all don't need to keep adding things to lgbtq or lgbt+. The q or + takes care of everything

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

I think this is a better argument that "queer" is the best catch-all phrase. Honestly, come to think of it, if we can phase out LGBT in favour of "queer" entirely, then that gives republicans a harder time to separate the T.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I'm aro/ace and honestly same. I refuse to use any longer acronym because to me it sounds silly.

In a similar fashion, I'm also not a major fan of the pride flags with more than the rainbow. It's fine for special occasions in order to draw attention to a cause that needs it, but not as the default. Adding black stripes, the trans flag, and intersex flag all at the same time seems ridiculous to me, and it only invites other groups to feel left out. Adding the black stripes, the trans flag, the intersex flag, or whatever to the flag for some event, protest, or personal reason is great but imo we shouldn't permanently muddy the flag like that.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] PerogiBoi 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

You can be Jewish and even support the idea of a Jewish homeland while also being fervently appalled by the actions of the state of Israel (Netanyahu, West Bank settlements, unarmed Palestinians shot/killed, houses being bulldozed, mass displacements).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Liberal zionists are still zionists

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

There's countless invaluable Jewish voices in the anti-zionist movement of course, but what Jewish homeland could you support that wouldn't be an ethno-state? /g

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Agreed. Antisemitism != antizionism.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I believe that the stance against nuclear power (specifically, nuclear fission, as opposed to radioisotope power used by spacecraft) by greens undermines the fight to stop global warming, and that many of the purported issues with nuclear power have been solved or were never really issues in the first place.

For instance: the nuclear waste produced by old-gen reactors can be used by newer generations.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I believe that the vast majority of people are inherently good, and that tribalism and political divisiveness are some of the biggest issues we have to face.

Political differences arise mostly from different values, fears, education (or lack thereof), etc, but most people if you get to know them believe what they do because they believe it is genuinely good. But increasingly politics is focused on vilifying others, instead of trying to understand each other.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

How do we tackle those problems you mentioned?

The reason I ask is I support your view here, but recently I’ve been downvoted a lot for having the opinion that I don’t blame people still using Twitter as I believe, like you, that most people are good people and can be reasoned out of what we believe are the wrong beliefs and that staying in those places to converse with them is better than Twitter becoming a right wing place and us chilling here in left wing ideology but at the end of that nobody learns anything they didn’t already know.

The hardest challenge in changing someone’s beliefs is that people don’t want to admit they were wrong or lied to or used or whatever and this makes it challenging if we can’t take our ego out of the equation.

Anecdotal proof that people can change is a YouTuber called JimmyTheGiant and he has mentioned several times how he went down the alt right pipeline but started to question things and now makes left leaning content.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

Genuine question, why do you need to change peoples beliefs? Idk I find that 95% of people are pleasant to talk to and share your views with if you just speak with them nicely and try to understand their POV. And that applies to people who I vehemently disagree with.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Freedom of speech for absolutely everyone, especially people I disagree with and that disagree with me

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I’m surprised you’re not getting downvoted and harassed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago

Honestly what I'm saying shouldn't be a hot take. Freedom of speech has long been a classical liberal position.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Yep. Lemme isn't really a fan if free speech and they usually say it leads to nazi things. But I'm all for free speech even if bad guys use it too.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 days ago (14 children)

I am very very very left wing, BUT I can get really annoyed with a lot of those "on my side" advocating for the most idealist of all idealism, as if it's a contest. Feels like a competition of "who's the bestest and mostest leftist of all". You scare people away and - not justifying it - but I get why some people get upset with "the left" because of this...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm anarchist left, but I do think every human should have the right to defend themself and thereforce should be able to bear arms

I'm not american if anyone's gonna ask

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Is that an uncommon stance among Anarchists?

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Stop out-woking one another, it's okay to be right silently in order to bring in fence sitters.

If someone says, "my spirit animal told me late-stage capitalism is evil" welcome them to the club with open arms, focus on how you're alike and trust them to work out their faux pas over time spent among like-minded peers.

Also cultural appropriation ≠ exploitation, we can stop clutching our collective pearls over these faux pas.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I'm far left, but I believe that any citizen should be allowed to own any gun.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

That's the far-left stance, generally.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›