this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Just wanted to prove that political diversity ain't dead. Remember, don't downvote for disagreements.

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[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 116 points 1 week ago (3 children)

There can be too much political correctness at times.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Related: I believe it's ok, given certain contexts, to speak broadly and crassly to people who expect that. It's ultimately ineffective and therefore bad to come off as an pretenscious arrogant know-it-all, correcting everyone's grammar and word choices and any ignorance they have. I see some students in the labor movement and wonder if they're capable of expressing their knowledge to typical joe worker, without injecting French, German or Russian, or losing their temper at some unintentionally offensive ignorance. We're speaking broadly to regular people, don't alienate them with your academic knowledge.

That doesn't mean never correct crappy things people say, you can and should, but pick your battles. A climate scientist once told me, being correct isn't enough.

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[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's less 'too much pc' and more 'purity politics' imo

There's a great post on tumblr that really fuckin' nailed it:

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

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[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 78 points 1 week ago (36 children)

I think we need to figure out how to make leftism more appealing to centrists, and particularly to the cis/straight/white/male demographic.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That is a controversial opinion here.

(And I agree with it. I don't know what the way is, but I hope it can be found)

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[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The white nationalist movement preys on alienated young white men (more than other groups). Creating avenues for including these people in our movement means less people we have to fight.

I'm not saying everyone is able to fit into our movement, or they may require so much education that we just don't have the resources to depropagandize them, but as a mass movement, more is generally better.

[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 week ago (8 children)

100% agree. I honestly think that in ~2015, the left's failure to appeal to young white men caused them to turn to the alt right. I think we scared them off with things like "check your privilege" etc., and should have focused more on getting them amped about class warfare.

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[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As a person in that demographic it’s wild to me that leftism isn’t appealing… we’re supposed to just blame everything on everyone but ourselves I suppose?

[–] invertedspear@lemm.ee 20 points 1 week ago

The person on my left whispers about equality, and the benefits of social safety nets. The person on my right yells lies that equality means I have to give up things, and that social safety nets will be abused by people who want to steal the fruits of my labor. The person behind me (financially) says nothing, they’re too busy just trying to live. The person ahead of me points to the person behind getting food stamps and screams “how dare they take your taxes” while they quietly steal the actual fruit of my labor.

Any time leftism gets loud enough to get enough attention to appeal to anyone, rightism is already loudly complaining about the noise. If one doesn’t think about it too much, all they’ve heard is negativity about the left and positivity about the right. Call it brainwashing, gaslighting, or indoctrination, but rarely do the facts of both sides come to play. You have to work to find the truth of leftism while also working to ignore the bullshit being screamed from the right.

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[–] Terevos@lemm.ee 69 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That Trump is neither conservative (in any way) nor cares at all about any traditional Republican values

[–] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Trump and MAGA are regressive. They are hell-bent on taking this country back to the first half of the 20th century, in all the worst possible ways.

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[–] socsa@piefed.social 55 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (42 children)

Abortion is not a moral hazard at all. Most people who might exist don't. The whole "everyone agrees abortion is awful..." shit is obnoxious. I legitimately do not care. I am far more concerned about the lives of actual children. Once we seriously tackle that issue, we can move upstream, and this should be viewed as both incentive and a purity test for those who pretend to care about the "unborn."

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (21 children)

As someone who was in a supportive relationship with a transgender person for 3 years and who personally struggles associating with my own gender (masculinity was never my thing lol), I never really got into the stating my gender pronouns.

I get why it's done for the times it matters and can do so in a sensitive space, but I get the sense it's usually done as public compliance (like a cis neolib as an email sig), which can lead to shallow support or worse, resentment. What we ultimately need is more genuine contact with people different from ourselves because that helps reduce "othering" a group.

Oh, but I do tend to default to "they" out of old internet habits. Always disliked the assumption all gamers are men.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (10 children)

That progressive people should prioritize economic equality ahead of social issues.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 week ago (4 children)

They go hand-in-hand, though, and moreover "true economic equality" isn't possible when humans vary wildly in needs and abilities, hence Marx's whole attack on the so-called "equalitarians."

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[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 35 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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

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[–] pet1t@lemm.ee 32 points 1 week 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...

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[–] SuluBeddu@feddit.it 31 points 1 week ago (4 children)

That intellectual property, both copyright or patents, doesn't serve its theoretical purpose and just acts as a legal shield for the monopolies of big corporations, at least in our capitalistic system, and it limits the spread of information

In theory, a musician should be protected against abuse of their music. In practice, all musicians need to be on Spotify through one of the few main publishers to make any decent money, and their music will be used for unintended purposes (intended for their contract at least) like AI training

In theory, patents should allow a small company with an idea to sell its progressive product to many big corporations. In practice, one big corporation will either buy the small company or copy the product and have the money to legally support its case against all evidence, lobbying to change laws too. Not to mention that big corporations are the ones that can do enough research to have relevant patents, it's much harder for universities and SMEs, not to mention big corporations can lobby to reduce public funding to R&D programs in universities and for SMEs.

And, last but not least important, access to content, think of politically relevant movies or book, depends on your income. If you are from a poorer country, chances are you cannot enjoy as much information and content as one born in a richer country.

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[–] breadcat@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 week ago (2 children)

the anti-work movement has been a blight on communism

[–] ajmaxwell@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

I feel like it has the wrong name. But it is a baby step for many toward anticapitalist ideals.

Work is good, and can be beneficial. Working a job you hate because if you don't you'd starve is awful and should be done away with.

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[–] ziproot@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 week 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.

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[–] bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The DNC is the primary obstacle to progress and no progress is possible between now and when they go the way of the Whigs because of the rigged duopoly system.

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[–] EsmereldaFritzmonster@lemmings.world 25 points 1 week 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.

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[–] superkret@feddit.org 24 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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

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[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm really appreciating how much restraint y'all guys are showing with the downvotes. Thanks everyone.

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[–] KeenFlame@feddit.nu 23 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Immigration is universally a roaring net positive in all of history ; economically, socially, everything. It's more than disinformation when they spew talking points. It's hate. And most people complicit are just fully ignorant. USA lost their empire due to lack of education. Every other first world nations have their success in lockstep with the level of education they give their kids. A heist of all wealth has been conducted and you are viewing the aftermath. Elon will find your coffers empty. The real treasure, turns out, was the people.

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[–] Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (24 children)

I think if we eliminated money, we would just invent it again and call it something else.

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[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (19 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.

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[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 20 points 1 week ago
  • Religion can be a force for good. For social cohesion and a feeling of belonging. That it often isn't speaks more to the samesuch cultural and emotional rot that has affected literally everything than to religion unto itself.

  • It actually makes perfect sense for a country to want to limit or tariff importation of goods. This, if done right, can bring industrialisation into the country. You can't have a nation that is all middle-managers, despite the First World's best attempts to become that, it's just fundamentally unsustainable. And while you can have a nation that just produces/exports raw materials, this is ultimately bad for the people in that nation.

[–] Ragdoll_X@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I don't like racism against white people or sexism against men. Do I think they're less urgent or worrying than bigotry directed at other groups? Sure. There's less hate against men and whites compared to other groups, and bigotry against them doesn't have the same social or political impact due to current systemic racism and sexism being directed at others. But bigotry is still bigotry, and I don't like bigotry against anyone.

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[–] manicdave@feddit.uk 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It seems like the atmosphere is changing now but I've been saying this for years.

The language of privilege is backwards and counter productive.

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[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 19 points 1 week 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.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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.

[–] ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I wouldn’t say I need to, but more I would like to.

If people are voting against their own interests because they have been lied to then don’t we owe it people to try and get them to see how the world works?

If people are hating on immigrants and poor people rather than the class system that is extracting all the wealth from areas then surely having more people onside makes it easier to change the system.

I agree that most people are good people and maybe just misinformed or have had their frustrations weaponised against them.

[–] ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Have you heard of Daryl Davis? Black dude who convicted KKK members to quit just by being friends with them. I think empathy might be the key, I.e. its hard to be homophobic if your friend is gay.

That's the energy I like to approach discourse with. Its harder online but it is possible.

I have heard of him actually, well I didn’t know his name but I’ve heard about him.

Exactly my point. You can’t expect people to change on their own and it’s on us to try and make the world a better place, as per our morals.

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[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Mental health focused communities exascerbate their members' issues

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