Should Hexbear MLs tone down their admiration for AES so we’re not scaring potential leftists away?
Should Hexbear MLs tone down their admiration for AES so we’re not scaring potential leftists away?
Inspired by recent discussions, I think Hexbear has a lot of good information about socialism but I wonder if the relentless defense of AES on Hexbear means shooting ourselves in the foot, since many potential leftists have been thoroughly primed to react negatively to AES states?
We’re not getting our messages out when progressive instances have already pre-emptively blocked us and calling us “tankies”.
People are being turned away without even taking the opportunity to read some of the stuff here, because they already have a pre-conceived notion about Hexbear being filled with “crazy tankies who defend totalitarianism”.
I know there have been a lot of propaganda and fabrication being perpetuated about socialist countries, and it feels “right” to defend them against these false accusations, but I wonder if this is doing more harm than good for the present day nascent socialist movement, at least in the Western countries?
We can remain on the current course and feel indignant about the tankie accusations, but will forever remain as a niche “tankie” community.
Or, we can open ourselves up, by toning down the admiration for the socialist states so we are not being treated as hostile by the other instances, and thus opening up the opportunities to have productive interactions with users (and potential leftists) from other instances?
(I do have my own position, you probably know which one it is, but I’m willing to hear from others and reevaluate my own opinions if needed).
EDIT: Thanks to everyone who responded. All points are well taken. Thank you.
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Hot take: yes, depending on who you're talking to, where, and why. Here on Hexbear we've pretty thoroughly decided that we're not trying to impress libs. I think that's a good thing. That said, I think if anyone is genuinely concerned about converting a lib, particularly if you're venturing on to other instances, I've had much better experiences trying to pull people to the left one step at a time. If you open with "Stalin was good actually", you have burned the bridge 100% of the way, you will not get a single thing through to them, they will dig in their heels and double down, and they think you're a genocide denier and you want to gas Ukrainians or something. Pull them one step leftwards and then let the next person pull them one more step than that.
I don't do this for the purpose of winning the mindwar though, I think you and OP are mistaken. It's just about being able to be taken to dinner.
Oh for sure I can literally talk to Ukrainians irl about Putler. Against hardliners you can just stick to internal inconsistencies. That's the whole point of following nerds like Naked Capitalism and Wall St on Parade and doing media critism of NYT/WAPO shit