Thanks, your answer was really good too, and you mentioned some important things I shouldn’t have left out!

Like you talked about the ACP’s disgusting bigotry (misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, general anti LGBTQ statements and activity, especially anti-trans) which is a very important aspect that should never be left out when talking about them. Even though a lot of them would probably deny their bigotry, that’s just part of how slimy and untruthful they are. It depends a bit on which of them you talk to, but some openly admit it, but they all still follow bigoted lines simply because it is a reactionary org. You gave actual examples of some of the shit they say and do which I didn’t get into at all. You also mentioned the term Patsoc (for other readers who don’t know, that’s short for “patriotic socialist”) which I forgot to do, and how that is a fundamentally chauvinistic stance to take about a settler colony and a stark contradiction with the Leninist concept of imperialism.

All of that needed to be said too. The only thing I might disagree with you about is that it may be ok to join them if there are no other orgs around. If you’re in an area that bad off, you would do better to start your own chapter of an actual communist org. I would say to never give them any kind of validation let alone financial support through joining them. It’s too inherently rotten to try to “change it from within.”

This is a great question and asked in a considerate, respectful way, so thank you! I think I can speak for most lefties when I say that it’s never an intrusion to ask a question you genuinely want to understand the answer to and only impolite when it also comes with baggage like derision or judgmental preconceptions. But yours didn’t carry that baggage at all, and it’s appreciated. I am no expert in this, but here is what I would say to answer:

One thing you will quickly learn about communism if you don’t know already, is that, particularly in the anticommunist US, any organizing around it quickly faces infiltration, co-option, and plain dismantlement to a ludicrous extent, mostly by the alphabet soup agencies, but also even by private reactionaries. The red scare shit never went away, and so western communist organizing now exists in an extremely hostile environment where it is easy for anticommunists to spread misinformation about what communism is, and that misinformation is largely accepted at face value, as if it’s common knowledge. The degree of infiltration and smearing of communist organizing, and the lengths the feds go to to accomplish it is one of those things where it would sound absurd were it not for the open admissions of anti-communist state actors like the CIA outright listing the tactics they have used to undermine and derail communist organizing.

I mention all that just because I think it’s necessary context that has to be taken into account here. Because the ACP, despite what it claims to be, is an anti-communist group whose purpose is to undermine class struggle not fight for it. It is funded and run by feds, with it’s membership either being feds, aware of and accepting of the feds, or simply naive and duped. To outsiders who have no knowledge of the history of working class organizing in the US, this may just seem like an excuse, like it’s just “leftist infighting,” where some groups just want to claim that the other ones aren’t “true” communists. To be fair, leftist infighting and splintering is a real thing unfortunately. But that is not what is going on here in what I’m telling you about the ACP which really, truly is a wholly reactionary organization that exists for the sake of undermining communism and actual leftist organizing, and it does so through co-option and smearing (among other tactics).

By co-opting, I mostly mean that it tries to scoop up people who are curious about communism and whose politics may be showing signs of leftward radicalizing and then steer them down an anticommunist, reactionary path instead. But by co-opting, I also mean showing up at events (protests, sit-ins, etc) and trying to shout loudest as being “THEE” voices of communism even though all other real communists see the ACP as the charlatans they are. That leads to what I mean by smearing: they try to make it look like the things they espouse are simply what communism is about, but they are lying, as they go on to say and push for the most reactionary bullshit imaginable - like being very pro-Trump and pro-MAGA. This makes outsiders believe that is what communists believe, it gives liberals the excuse to say “look at those right wing commies, horseshoe theory is real!” Well “right wing communist” is an oxymoron, but that is exactly the contradiction the ACP tries to straddle. They use Marxist terminology and claim to advocate for the working class, attempt to drape themselves in radical left symbolism (like Hammer and Sickles, red flags) while adhering to chauvinism, nationalism, and imperialist ideology and dogma. This is why the ACP, the Nazbols, and the Larouchites - who are all roughly the same nebulous ball of shit and lies - aren’t real communists and why I say that their surreptitious but actual reason for existing (though they would deny it) is to undermine communism, not advance it.

In this case, the significance of the ACP taking over the r/TankieTheDeprogram subreddit is that that sub is somehow one of the last real Marxist-Leninist subs on reddit. I am not a regular there, though I peek in sometimes, and I don’t know how they were able to stick around when most others were banned. But I was glad there was still some foothold, if small one, still on reddit. ACP taking it over is effectively killing that last foothold, which is very much an ACP thing to do.

So, believe it or not, that wall of text is the very brief, quick overview just to explain the role of the ACP. It would take more paragraphs to get into the actual history of the ACP (and I am by no means an expert) not to mention the other groups I mentioned, Nazbols, Larouchites, all of whom have history that’s inextricably related, but it would take another several paragraphs to get into exactly what they are. At the very least you have some terms to search for to start with if you’re curious about all that. But as always, be very mindful of whose perspective you’re reading and what agenda they might possibly have.

I expect to be able to read my morning NewsMega.

It’s like a coffee drinker having to go without their morning stimulant ritual. If coffee were a mix of rage, despair, and hope.

Which? How? And in this case, Saymaz was using Summit, which I checked and Summit does not show mod names for mod actions (unless the user is an admin or a moderator of that specific comm the action happened on).

I tried looking a little more into it, and so far as I can tell, Saymaz should not be able to see who performed the mod actions. You’re right that them being a mod on lemmygrad should have no impact on their ability to see the mod name for a mod action on hexbear. Only admins and other mods for that comm should be able to see who performed the mod action. But it doesn’t appear to be something having to do with the app Summit either, which does abide by the lemmy protocol for not sharing the names of mods on mod actions. Which is the default setting, though instance admins can choose to share that information if they want, but almost none do, and hexbear certainly doesn’t. So I still really don’t get why Saymaz was able to see that it was Alaskaball. It’s weird.

I just downloaded the app Saymaz uses, Summit, but I still can’t see mod names with it. I’m almost positive it’s because Saymaz is a moderator too, which gives them privileges that non-mod users don’t have.

Are you using an app? Is the screenshot from a moderator-only view of the modlog? Because yeah, as regular users, not moderators, using the website, we can see the actions in the modlog, but we can’t see what mod performed them. In fact I remember that being an issue of contention on hexbear, some people wanting to be able to see which mod did what, but the response was that it would create too much drama if users got to see which mod removed their comments or banned them.

I saw that in the hexbear modlog and was wondering what happened too.

It looks like someone (Alaskaball apparently) was doing some house cleaning because a bunch of older posts and comments were recently removed. One of them included one of your posts from a month ago: https://hexbear.net/post/7232184 which had a variation on a misogynistic slur in the title. That would be my guess as to the reasoning, anyway. And Alaskaball has been around as a hexbear mod for a very long time, I think since the founding and later became an admin.

Also I’m just curious about the screenshot you posted. Is that a view of something only mods can see? Because as far as I knew, it wasn’t possible to see which mod performed which action.

If the people with the power and authority to mandate vaccines, distancing, “lockdowns,” and public mask wearing but who instead ensured those measures could never be seriously implemented had themselves all gotten fatal cases of covid and died slow, horrble deaths from it, then the world would be a much better place now. Who knows how many decent real people who did die of covid would still be alive, if common sense and normal community response had not been thwarted by those in power? Even belatedly, if the people most responsible for the scale of death from covid somehow got it now and died as a result, it would be a good thing worth celebrating.

It’s very hard to take seriously any so-called ML who thinks that billionaires dying of the same disease they condemned millions of others die of is such a bad thing that no one should even be able to wish it would happen.

Who do they spread it too?

This isn’t about spreading it. You said you wouldn’t “wish it on” your worst enemies, which is pretty unambiguous in its meaning that you think that even your enemies don’t deserve to suffer as one does with covid. If you read my other comment in this thread, you’d know that I always mask and always will because I care about the well-being of people in my community, immunocompromised comrades, and all people of the working class in general. Preventing the spread of covid is deeply important to me, more so than to those who make excuses for their failure to mask. Don’t be disingenuous and try to imply I am not concerned about the spread of covid simply because I recognize that it would be nothing short of cosmic (if coincidental) justice if the people most responsible for its continued spread and resulting mass death covid caused were themselves to suffer and die from it.

It is not like a nuclear weapon; or any weapon of mass devastation even chemical. It is actual, ultimate desolation that will kill far, far more than you want to.

… You do realize almost everyone has been infected with covid now, right? You’re saying it’s cool to wish that capitalists get nuked (or suffer other weapons of mass devastation), but wishing covid upon them is a step too far because it is ultimate desolation? What are you even talking about? This is nonsensical.

No, you have it completely backwards. I’m the one saying “in a communist country, the death penalty is not always a bad thing, but may be commensurate justice to be used against those responsible for the exploitation of an entire society and the torture and murder of thousands of working class people,” when a lib, in their usual cringe idealism, draws a blanket assessment like “noooo, killing is always bad and there are no exceptions!” Saying “it’s not cool to wish covid on anyone no matter how evil they are” is sheer idealism. “Wishing” alone will never make any material difference in the first place, but there’s nothing wrong with desiring the death of people who absolutely deserve death, which is fine, normal, in some cases even positive.

Your analogy is what’s absolutely bizarre and asinine because you either totally misunderstand what’s happening here or, like I said, you got it very obviously ass backwards. Funny enough, your reading of what I said is far more uncharitable than anything in my response to -6-6-6-.

I don’t wish COVID or any disease on my worst enemies.

You wouldn’t wish covid even on our billionaire overlords who intentionally sabotaged any chance we had of containing it and thus condemned millions of people to death by covid, and magnitudes more to a lifelong debilitation for the sake of profits? I would and I do. I wish that upon them and much much worse.

Even if we set aside the question of efficacy of masking in a society where few others do (and it is still efficacious to you and people you regularly interact with), any so-called communist who doesn’t mask is a communist who is utterly failing at even the bare minimum of solidarity with their immunocompromised comrades. Do you consider yourself someone who is mindful and compassionate of other working people in your community? Then you should be masking.

Trueanon also did an episode (or series?) on LaRouche and how the “movement” formed.

https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=pLbdG_ppvhg

Oh noes, some poverty still exists in the country well known for rapidly pulling over 800 million people out of abject poverty!

Look at photos of just about any Chinese cities 2-3 decades ago contrasted with photos of those same cities as they are now. And then compare that to say New Orleans, or even the liberal bastion of San Francisco (look at those tent cities of unhoused people stretching for miles) 2-3 decades ago vs those cities as they are now. What you’ll see is a very obvious trend of poverty reduction in China and the clear decay of increased poverty in the US.

It’s pretty hilarious how nearly everything you listed as if they’re contradictory points actually come together rather comprehensively to support the thesis that Russia is having to fight a belligerent NATO. And the one item that doesn’t fit wasn’t ever claimed by Russia to be a reason for the conflict.

I seem to have lost track of why he’s invading.

I don’t know what anyone can do for you to cure your confusion when you can’t even connect the dots between the very things you are linking.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed.

It always gets brought up as a book specifically about an anarchist society, but I think that’s mostly just because of the more negative connotations of the word “communist” and that most people don’t understand anarchism and communism share the same end goal.

Say what the original commenter said? Sure. In fact my grandmother, were she still alive, would say something like that comment herself, and we’d both laugh. Well, minus the self deprecation bit (which was also fine, but also not what you inappropriately called “disgusting”). I wouldn’t encourage my kids to have low self esteem, but I would honor and empathize with them if they did. I also wouldn’t hold back on a “revolutionary mass cumming” joke in front of kids any more than a silly fart or poop joke, all of which kids come up with on their own and is fine. You are just a disgusting anti-human-experience prude who would rather disparage a comrade who is clearly having a rough time in some ways than actually give them solidarity or understanding. All because they mentioned the word “cum.” Oh no! How disgusting! Nah, your lack of empathy is what’s disgusting.

It wasn’t disgusting.

what is “disgusting” to you, that a comrade has severe self esteem issues? Or the volcel joke?

You can have exceptionally good hygiene and still get a bedbug infestation. In fact the only good thing about this is that I know even some rich bourgsie fucks who can afford perfect hygiene are getting their blood sucked by these critters too (a taste of their own medicine, really).