you deserve it.

you’ve also convinced me that giving lemmy.ml a pass was a mistake. just no point talking to Leftists.

jesus christ you’re an unbelievable twat

how nice for you and “the cause.” you can stop replying to me now.

yep.

well, you didn’t here.

no, it doesn’t seem like that at all. the fact that you, and person above you, think that, is exactly why you’re so far up your own butts that you can’t reach anyone.

they would be able to engage me, the human in front of them, without all the baggage of the movement establishing preconceptions.

ok buddy. good luck with that.

that’s good. don’t lie, have standards.

i wouldn’t say it’s for “optics,” but you have to know your interlocutor. if the person is nervous about legitimate abuses in AES, acknowledging failures openly is more honest and real than dancing about to make excuses for them. owning failings is human, and would be a distinct departure from capitalism, that’s for sure.

but i get you, capitalism as a system is unironically constantly using force to extinguish you. i get it. it’s not an enviable position.

“You uncritically accept the bourgeois narrative”

you don’t know anything about me to make such claims.

citizenry can feel nostalgia for lots of reasons, and i’m not defending capitalism here. but that doesn’t erase the real lived trauma of the ppl in my life who have fled both the USSR and Venezuela.

cool bro. you do you. you’re just not the guy i’m looking for, i guess. maybe the next one.

no, i’m not implying that. it would also be fine if you did. depends on the day and topic.

“To be truly critical in an honest manner (which Marxists are, all the time, among ourselves)”

lol XD it’s saying shit like this that tells me you’re not connected to reality.

even so, i hear what you’re saying. my feedback, as an outsider, is you’re overcompensating. imo, it would go a long way to start with presenting a fair view of a couple pros and cons, acknowledging the concern of your interlocutor. what i see instead, almost universally, is kneejerk defense of AES and leaders, and just telling non-Leftists that they’re wrong, stupid, propagandized.

i get, but it’s not a NECESSARY component of communism. the DPRK is shit for a lot of reasons, mostly due to the consolidation of power in the hands single insane family. trying to rehabilitate their image or reclaim them is fucking insane. XD and just not helpful to the cause, imo. i certainly makes me care less about everything you’re trying to say, and i’m really giving you the benefit of the doubt here.

i hear what you’re saying.

what i’m saying is, for myself, and at least a few “Left-curious” neo/libs/progs, we don’t want to trade one shit tyranny for another. and it’s obvious, documented history of some pretty glaring failures in AES. if you like, think of ppl like us as trauma victims. it’s probably true anyway.

it can go a long way to offer the olive branch and reassurance that, yes, you don’t want to just “red-wash” that all away, or that you aren’t just enamoured with Red aesthetic and lip-service while being YET ANOTHER group of mastubatory elitists who will trample the out-group-du-jour given the opportunity.

you need to know who you are talking to. you’re already assuming a position of hostility and conflict at base.

mate, i know ppl who literally risked their lives to flee from the USSR. your talking points are just academic. the reality is otherwise. trying to paint legitimate observation of tyranny in AES as some kind of capitalist conspiracy only makes you look more insane offputting.

i’m literally TRYING to reach you, and all Leftists can do is bend over backward to defend tyrants.

i read your Marketing Socialism post. It just seems beside the point and is looking for a way to justify itself when all you have to do is admit that tyranny and gulags bad. It’s not a big ask. The fact that it is TAKEN to be a big ask, is a massive, if you will, red flag. XD

“Far from paradise” seems pretty generous for what i perceive as a dystopian nightmare state. they are cut off from outside information. there is retribution on families if ppl try to leave. also, you can’t leave. this is insanity. outside forces don’t make them behave that way.

Xi: whether that popularity is real or not is a question, though, when he can push for the suppression of dissent or critique in the social sphere. one CAN’T challenge him. that doesn’t seem legitimately representative.

i’m looking over your reading list. we can add that to the list. but there’s a reason i block hexbear and lemmygrad but not .ml. tankies fucking suck and i Socialism will never be taken seriously as long as it’s important to ppl to defend fucking Stalin.

@Cowbee@lemmy.ml i feel like you’re dancing around the issue of authoritarian abuse and centralization of power.

you can’t seriously defend the DPRK Il regime as being good for the workers.

do you think it’s good that Xi has made himself president for life? Is that the mark of a functioning democratic system of the people?

my biggest issue with Leftists is their seeming need to defend totalitarians instead of just writing them off and admitting, “ok, yeah, they suck, but communism could still work!”

well, if you insist, we will grant it to the Dutch.