chat

I think spending your time dunking and bullying says, to me, that you in some way get enjoyment out of doing those things. I think that doing those things on the regular doesn't make you a pleasant person to be around. Its akin to always gossiping or always venting, always having something negative to say.

i'm mostly here because you guys dont whine about tankies every other post

ngl i think in the end the opponents of federation on here have been vindicated, though most of them have left or been banned by now. I'm not saying its the only cause or even the main, but before federation it felt like the overly dunk hungry people on here were a minority that had just been a bit brainrotted by twitter + still engaging with reddit and everyone else had gradually tamed over time after like 4 years of not being hit with "go back to r/chapotraphouse" everytime they commented anymore. Post-federation though everyone got brainblasted with liberals coming back in here arguing + the fun of going out to argue with liberals on their hometurf + constant posts celebrating people outside crashing out after they got dunked on too much and tricked into looking at a picture of a shit covered pig + an influx of users who see us just as the "communist dunk instance" and now we're mostly isolated again that culture's turned inwards on itself again. I know I've definitely been too snarky on here, and I've had people be unreasonably aggresive at me on here over very minor disagreements.

Good-faith dialogue is a way to share information and enhance mutual understanding. Responding to these people with insults and dunks just pisses them off and discourages them or anyone watching from engaging with the site except to post their own insults and dunks. The site becomes more toxic and hostile.

I agree. There will always be exceptions but you gotta take other hexbears in good faith and, imo, err on the side of humility.

In turn, if a hexbear is having a bad day and they snap back at something you felt was warranted criticism, also try to remind yourself to be patient and humble.

its too easy to be a jerkass.

I can understand why a lot of leftists are prone to losing their patience in the current climate especially but yeah, it’s pretty counterproductive.

I have been working a lot on my anger for this reason.

~~Some~~ people on this site ~~get way too caught up in scoring dunks and it can~~ get annoying

a comrade who's been on this site for years.

Can I ask why is eldership favored over new blood? Both have their strengths and weaknesses.

If I am really trying to build socialism then that inherently means new recruits will learn faster than I did. Otherwise I'm doing something wrong. The pitfalls is immediately promoting new potential into leadership position, rather they should be given work tasks to demonstrate their capabilities, through practice. Incidentally, this is also the only correct way to do a "purity test" through practical application of socialism.

If they're a socialist they're doing good. If they're not then they're self destructing, also good. Once they see you've realized this they'll try to get rid of you so that kind of sucks.

I don't think I'm really in a state to give the full proper argument right now, but while your title is right I don't think your account really helps, for several reasons depending on what one believes the purpose of the site is. Sticking to more popular ones, part of the issue with your framing is that it basically question-begs the knowledge of someone's status as a "chud" versus a "comrade" (and also ignores that most people are neither), when that is something people have different opinions on and the designated status might change from a single comment. Fundamentally, I think that if you are serious about having a less absurd community, the only thing to do is dismiss the notion that "bullying works" or is even particularly relevant in terms of the internal affairs of a forum where admins can simply ban people, and the rules should be oriented around users either engaging with each other in good faith or, if someone cannot do that or is otherwise judged to not be worth the effort, to simply ban them. The idea of "driving off" is almost completely irrelevant in a space where we have admins with basically absolute control, unlike in a real space or even an online space where the admins aren't part of our ranks.

By this I don't mean to say that we should be nice to whichever fascist pops in tomorrow, but that we should regard any participant as either someone we need to treat in good faith or someone who the mods need to ban at their earliest convenience, rather than have people kept around as punching bags or given abusive motivation in order to "do better," because that's just not a good model for improving people's outlooks.

I should mention that I don't think my criticism of the assessment is very particular to you because I see it almost every time that this problem gets mentioned and it has barely helped at all in all the time this site has existed.

Counterpoint: I dont want to share community with anyone who doesnt think that Tsars getting mineshafted was good and cathartic.

This is the biggest problem with Hexbear and probably always will be

Agreed! Well-said, comrade. People often try to go for cheap wins, while we need to better adhere to Unity-Struggle-Unity.

😤

I hope you don't mind the double-comment but I thought you and others might appreciate this text, whose author was also inspired by Mao:

https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-3/constructive-criticism.html

Dunking is a viable alternative to purges given the current material conditions.

Antidunkism is juvenile and reactionary.

No. Hexbear users made their bed and now they have to lie in it.

People dunk because it's a way for powerless losers to feel like they made a difference in the world. We can't actually achieve any political goals so we bully the chud who dislikes the WOKE game. Then Hexbear became insular and the fangs turned inwards. So many fucking good users banned or bullied off this site for minor deviations from the party line. If they spoke up about the aggressive response, they were just confirming that they were a secret chud/transphobe/racist all along.

There are no white people misunderstanding elements of black culture, just white supremacists. There are no men with complaints about patriarchal elements perpetuated by some women, just incel woman-haters. There are no humans here, just potential enemies. Hexbear is one long game of Secret Hitler except everyone is a liberal. Our paranoia driving us to ban and harass our allies over the slightest suspicion.

If you stick around long enough and pay attention, you'll see it too. Hexbear's end will be a good thing for everyone.