When did the lemmygrad defederation happen?
Chris Remington mod
A couple of days ago. alyaza
about aug 10, mostly motivated by their lack of moderation/lack of compatibility with our values but also because we’re trying to figure out why our server is using so much more space than it should be (because if we don’t figure it out soon our hosting costs will need to double). one of the presumptions is who we federate with has something to do with it and lemmygrad was the biggest place we federated with, but we don’t really have overlap with their userbase so it doesn’t make very much sense to assume any additional load they might be adding.
Be careful with this line of thought. It’s called Horseshoe theory and is usually parroted by right wing authoritarians to falsely discredit leftist points of view. Ironic that they are using some of their own beliefs to do it, isn’t it?
More information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
That being said, there surely are authoritarian leftists and they do not deserve any of your time. However, their authoritarianism usually is not born out of hatred like right wingers but out of impotence against the hierarchies that dominate our lives. Of course, as in everything, YMMV.
Edit to add: it’s important to mention that a lot of pro China and pro Russia discourse is astroturfing so it’s not really people declaring earnest beliefs.
Interesting post, thanks for sharing it. I hadn’t heard of horseshoe theory.
I don’t have a lot of empathy for hardcore right-wingers generally, but when I do try to think about them empathetically, I actually think their worldview and hatred comes from the same thing you described about Tankies - a feeling of impotence against the powers that be and an inability to change an unjust world.
A lot of the Trumpers I meet are just so scared of everything. They look back nostalgically on America’s more successful and comfortable years. In their minds, it was the hippies and liberals who changed everything for the worse. In their mind, the liberals are the ones destroying the family unit, moving jobs overseas, etc. They look at their dead towns and see evidence of a place that used to be thriving. I think they just feel hopeless and angry.
Obviously they are misguided, but I can at least follow the train of thought.