Not trying to stir the pot, I’m just honestly answering the question. I’m also not trying to inspire a conversation with someone who disagrees if it’s going to get me banned.

Back when Caleb Maupin got exposé’d as a sex cult manipulator I was semi-frequently using the GenZedong Discord server. To paraphrase, I said something about how the average rank-and-file CPI member was “not unlike us” and should be reached out to to try and familiarize themselves with a wider range of comrades–IIRC I didn’t say this part but IMO seeing as one of the main exposé-ers essentially said “Caleb made me hate communism” I felt they were just in need of a fresh set of mouths.

A mod who I will not name disagreed with me, and I disagreed back. Frankly I was entirely polite the whole time while their tone was not exactly comraderly. After disagreeing in a back-and-forth for a third time, I got perma-banned with no warning, no appeal, for “holding water for nazbols.”

This was pretty stupid and injust IMO. I don’t see how saying “CPI members who purportedly believe in communism but were partially misled by a cult leader are not terribly different from us” is so terrible that I should essentially be called a fascist for what I see as general human empathy mixed with some logic that isn’t much of a stretch. I guess for context I would say the same things about Trots, Maoists, etc. Sure there is small but critical differences that would lead to, say, pro-AES and anti-American versus anti-AES pro-American conclusions in their MISLED ideology, but really, besides this small albeit critical issue, how different are we from them? Are we not one productive, good faith, fortunate conversation or two away from bringing such people aboard to our tendency? I don’t know if this is a convincing comparison, but I certainly didn’t get a chance to toss the idea out there.

I had a conversation with a pre-established Discord contact about the incident, and according to this person who claims to have been a part of Reddit GZD for many years, this particular mod was well-know for their power hunger, refusal to be challenged, refusal to be wrong, and in my own words general petulant, hyper-online behavior. This person’s telling, not mine. They had some pretty convincing sounding anecdotes. Still, it’s not like any of the dozen people who saw the conversation challenged the ban. A few seemed to even have a laugh about it.

It’s not crazy to imagine a Reddit mod with such characteristics, it’s quite common across all interests I gather. But it was upsetting because, naively I thought an organization of Marxist-Leninists, even primarily English-speaking online-only Marxist-Leninists, I thought such a space would be a little bit safer from the usual plagues of internet “community.” It was mildly upsetting for that bubble to pop, and I’m not going to lie, it’s made me very paranoid voicing opposition to pretty much any take. I’m not the “mysterious downvoter” but there has been a time or 3 that I chose to STFU rather than potentially risk getting banned from the only social media that I use anymore. I at least wish I knew I was allowed to disagree for any length even if the end of the conversation was “let’s just drop it” or even a warning. I also don’t want to be sitting here assuming the worst of our mods, to me they all seem fine and cool, but hey that’s the exact same I thought about the mod that banned me so who can really say. People switch fast, and don’t GAF if you were their proto-friend only an hour ago, that’s a lesson I learned not just from this incident but a whole host of IRL incidents over the last year or twenty.

Again, just to reaffirm, I’m not stirring the pot, I’m not naming names or pointing fingers, honestly I’ve only ever recognized one person who used both Lemmygrad and Discord GZD and I like them. I like our mods and I never EVER hold a grudge against someone I disagree with, I’m the type of person that we could be physically fighting one day and I would want to healthily move past it and be friends again ASAP, even willing to drop it without a word said. People disagree and that is healthy and normal. I would just hope that if I disagreed with the wrong person, I’d at least get a warning first, sheesh.