this post was submitted on 04 May 2026
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Many people on lemmy.ml deeply respect and admire authoritarian governments and organizations.

Iran, China, North Korea, Soviet Union...

The West has many flaws. But our flaws are nothing compared to these guys.

Iran hangs homosexuals. Iran shot 30,000 people in less than than 2 weeks. The Soviet Union had to build a fucking Iron wall to prevent people from escaping. The Soviets lied about the Chernobyl nuclear explosion. China censors the internet. China wants to eliminate Islam. North Korea is a totalitarian hellscape. Watching anime is a crime.

Why is lemmy.ml so fascinated with authoritarians?

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[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (4 children)

They are not communists or socialists. They are campists.

The mistake is assuming they care about the political idealogy they ascribe to. They exist exclusively as an oppositional force to whatever the West represents. The reality is that if the Western hegemony disappeared tomorrow, they would lose their entire raison d'etre. They dont care at all about the principles of communism. It's an esthetic that they can bury themselves in order to criticize the West.

Because engaging with the reality of effecting the goals of communism would entail coming to face with the brutal process of realizing effective change. You know, being politically effective. That would undermine the entire movement and modus operandi.

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"SO here's the thing I'm imagining, to get grumpy and condescending about..."

[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

Hmm... Show me one post one ml with a call to action in the last 7 days

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Do you have anything to back this up? The fact that socialists recognize western imperialism as the primary obstacle to world socialism and eventually communism doesn't mean that our efforts are over once it falls. Once imperialism has ended, you have to begin constructing socialism, which itself is an enormously difficult task. I find the idea that communists don't care about being politically effective extraordinarily off-base.

[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world -5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Communists are absolutely interested in being politically effective.

Tankies and online lefties are only interested in the esthetic of communism. They are not interested in platforming the mechanisms to promote the change needed. It's a fun game to toy and muse with but it has no direction or real world benefits. The discourse never branches out beyond the evils of western hegemony, because that would require concrete thinking and real world politicking, and we can't have that, can we? That would mean an end to the fun little circus that is Lemmy.ml

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

You were specifically asked if you had any evidence to back up your claims, if you had any that would be a great opportunity to share it and prove yourself right. Unfortunately you have none because you're completely full of shit.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

Are you confusing communists shitposting online with communists organizing? Do you think the communists on Lemmy.ml only engage online and not in-person?

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

an end to the fun little circus that is Lemmy.ml

Gotta love it when 🤡-level commenting calls somewhere else a circus lmao. Embarrassing level of effort here bucko.

[–] Tolc@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

"I oppose imperialism, but I also oppose everyone who resists imperialism practically" - avg western liberal

[–] StopTech@lemmy.today -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

But they don't oppose everything the west represents. Like technology, LGBTQ, "democracy", common law, federalism, etc. It seems to me they only dislike the aspects they've been told to dislike by mainstream media and education, which focuses on things like the Atlantic slave trade (rather than slavery in Africa, the middle east, eastern Europe, pre-Columbian America or literally anywhere else in all of world history) and Nazi Germany (rather than Communist Russia, China, North Korea or Cuba).

[–] frisbird@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

rather than slavery in Africa, the middle east, eastern Europe, pre-Columbian America or literally anywhere else in all of world history

That's because the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was fundamentally one of the most brutal forms of slavery in the history of humanity. The French colonists in Haiti killed about 40k slaves every year, which was 10% of the slave population there. That's fucking crazy. The French also invented the first gas chamber during the Haitian slave rebellion to mass kill captured rebels by putting them in the hull of ships and burning sulfur to suffocate them. There is nothing really comparable to the systematized atrocities of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and more to the point, NONE of those other histories of slavery actually have present day effects. Meanwhile, in the US, private slavery was outlawed and replaced with prison slavery IMMEDIATELY, with many of the former slaves imprisoned for violating laws specifically written to imprison them, and then leased right back to the plantations they were formerly slaves at. We're STILL dealing with that carceral system today, no matter how much reform there is, and it produces over $11B in profits from prison slave labor annually.

and Nazi Germany (rather than Communist Russia, China, North Korea or Cuba)

Holy fucking shit. Imagine comparing Cuba and Nazi Germany. Are you serious right now?