Cowbee

Huh, interesting. Probably weird fediverse shenanigans!

You've given me a lot to think about but I do want to clarify my personal views a bit. I'm not anti-Marxist, I don't believe authoritarianism is inherent to marxism, just that those tendencies are present.

For context, Marx and Engels were constantly referred to as authoritarian, to the point that Engels wrote On Authority to counter the notion entirely. Authoritarianism is typically ill-defined, or used to simply refer to any use of the state apparatus, it's a moving goalpost. I recommend reading Why do Marxists Fail to Bring the "Worker's Paradise?" because judgement of AES states is usually done in an idealist manner, rather than actually looking at the structures. It's a 21 minute article, I highly suggest reading it, if nothing else.

From my perspective authoritarian communism is to my right, so I don't see it as left-punching, but I think the left-right metaphor is reaching the limits of its' usefulness here.

It isn't about direction, you're correct that left/right reaches its limits here. Marxism is on the left, period. If you are punching left-wingers yet giving liberal right-wingers a pass, then you're running into issues, hence why I suggested just making it an explicit and exclusive Anarchist community. Grad punches Anarchists, but also punches liberals, it's strictly Marxist so it doesn't run into issues with cooption or confusion.

Vladimir Lenin referring to "left-wing" communism as an infantile disorder is more in the ballpark of what I mean when I refer to authoritarian communism.

Have you read it? Lenin isn't just saying leftism is wrong, Lenin was one of the most radical Leftists in history. Lenin is specifically referring to Ultraleftism, which is idealist in nature, and not Materialist. It's a failure in understanding the Material Conditions of society and trying to achieve Communism through fiat, without developing the productive forces to be able to achieve it, which has historically run into massive issues. Lenin is correct here, you can't pray Communism into existence.

It's important to note that the USSR didn't build into Capitalism, but collapsed into it. The USSR was dissolved from the top-down, not due to structural failures and instability, but due to opportunism.

There was a lot that went into the "murder" of the USSR, and numerous mistakes along the way of its development that were inevitable as history's first Socialist State, but the idea that Capitalism grew out of Socialism is not correct. When I say "supercede," I quite literally mean that Capitalism's mechanisms naturally lead to Socialism over time.

I mean, that sounds like your referring to anarchists criticizing authoritarian communism, which is certainly not something slrpnk admins and mods would have any interest in "cleaning up" given they are anarchists themselves. If you meant liberals then I did say that we tolerate them there, at least on the memes community. We believe in outreach.

Being anti-Marxist is definitely a big negative, especially since you tolerate liberalism. Believing in "outreach" by allowing liberals yet rejecting Marxism is where you get "left" antileftism. It would be better to be an enforced anarchist community intolerant of liberalism, which would help y'all avoid the problems I see with slrpnk.net. Grad has a strict Marxism-only platform, and it has no issues, Hexbear has strict left-unity and has no issues, but solarpunk isn't defined by anything other than the aesthetic, so it becomes a source of "left" antileftism rather than just an Anarchist community.

That's fair. Solarpunk is primarily an artistic movement, so it is vulnerable to co-optation in the same way that any artistic movement is. IMO socialists are in desperate need of a strong modern artistic movement and if we don't want it to be co-opted we should be embracing it.

As a Marxist, I want to point out that this is more Utopianism, ie trying to come up with a formula and enforce it, rather than trying to steer development. The Superstructure, ie art, culture, laws, etc, comes from the Base, ie the Mode of Production. Art naturally follows and supports the Base. Trying to force an aesthetic onto a utopia, ie a better form of society you wish to implement directly, is difficult and prone to coopting.

Perhaps it was an overreaction, I can't say for sure because I think most of that drama played out before I joined lemmy. I have also never personally experienced right-wing anti-leftism on slrpnk.net so I might assume that we have cleaned that up.

To be clear, calling Marxism "authoritarian Communism" is a form of left-punching. You may not believe anti-Marxism is anti-leftism, but the fact that you allow liberalism but not Marxism is where the issues come in. It would be better, again, to be a strictly Anarchist community, or to allow both liberals and Marxists, blocking out left-wingers in favor of right-wingers is where the cooption comes from.

Therefore, I would say you have 3 good solutions:

1. Unblock leftist instances like Hexbear and Grad, while retaining liberals as well. This way, outreach balances itself out

2. Block liberalism, this keeps Anarchism as the focus

3. Add lots of resources for theory and discussions for theory that go beyond how this "utopia" may function, ie how do we actually get there? I see lots of "what we stand fors" on the sidebar but very little in the way of actual praxis, which adds further to the cooption process. Hexbear has anarchist and marxist theory linked everywhere, even in the sidebars and taglines, same with Grad (which even maintains a wiki and beginner reading list). Solarpunk kinda just has the manifesto. Even a simple theory reading list can do wonders for the theory levels of your userbase.

Of course, you're free to continue as you see fit, I'm just going to have the same issues with slrpnk.net. You don't have to appease this random Marxist-Leninist, you don't owe me anything, but I do think you're harming your server by being more tolerant of right-wingers than Left-wingers you disagree with on practice.

That's not what Socialism and Communism are, though. Democratic Socialism itself is a nebulous and meaningless term.

Ah, okay! Had no idea what to make of that, haha

What on Earth are you talking about?

I wondered if it was a limitation in the code, or if it was out of a desire to limit pronouns to 2 sets, I guess. I am not at all familiar with the history of this

Huh, is that a technical problem?

Never redefined any of it. Liberalism is the ideology supporting Capitalism, Progressivism is the left side of liberalism and conservativism is the right side. Progressives still support Capitalism, same with conservatives.

It's an utter failure in understanding Marxism, trans liberation is a firmly Marxist position. Communist Parties in the Imperial Core tend to have the worst takes imaginable because they are largely detached from the International Movement as they are made up of Labor Aristocracy.

The UK in general is TERF island, so it's not hard to see why their views suck.

Not to be mean or anything but I've seen right-wing and "left" anti-leftism from slrpnk.net, hopefully y'all have cleaned that up more. I think an issue with Solarpunk is that ultimately it's an aesthetic, not an actual strain of Socialism or anything, so it's easy to coopt.

Again, typically blocking Hexbear and Grad is a negative when it comes to the ideas held by the userbase of an instance in my personal experience.