Analytical Unity - Lemmygrad
lemmygrad.ml
A community dedicated to critical left unity and the synthesis of ideas. Everyone is welcome here, but, please avoid uncritical or unproductive sectarianism. Rules Rule 1: No unproductive sectarianism. Sectarianism that is not based in a coherent critique, or which assumes bad faith of another user, is not welcome. This includes insults like “tankie” or “anarkiddie” when by themselves, but also includes any insults or unnecessarily inflammatory behavior, even if the rest of a comment or post is backed up by a solid critique. We are here to discuss, not put down the character of others. Rule 2: No bigotry of any kind. This community might be for open and non-sectarian discussion, but anyone who is bigoted or socially reactionary isn’t going to be inclined to actual analysis. That behavior will get you banned. Rule 3: Do not take arguments outside of the community If you and another user (or users) disagree on something, even greatly, please do not use this as an excuse to harass or harm them in other communities. If it’s especially bad, and you think the other user is reactionary to the point of needing to be banned or otherwise, please just contact me through the DMs.

A community dedicated to critical left unity and the synthesis of ideas. Everyone is welcome here, but, please avoid uncritical or unproductive sectarianism.

(Please read the rest of their sidebar as well to get a feel)

We as Marxists (regardless of whether ML, trot, Maoist, etc) I believe tend to universally uphold the notion that left-unity is not Marxist. That we practice only Marxist-unity (and with plenty of criticism amongst ourselves at that for non-ML’s especially that often goes as far as exclusion for those who don’t support AES at least critically).

To put it bluntly: I do not want people who practice left-unity to get a beachhead or toehold here with a dedicated community.

There is an anarchist alternative (raddle), at least one anarchist instance to my recollections on lemmy itself and most liberal and left leaning instances on lemmy allow anarchists but explicitly ban Marxists.

In other words, this is our one, singular space which these people are now pushing into. We should not cede an inch of it to allowing non-Marxists and those who discourage vicious criticism and yes even venting and sneering and meming on of the compatible-left, the CIA-left, the synthetic-left and other such names.

I’ll note that hexbear is basically a left unity platform and will be federating with us shortly. They tolerate and allow anarchists and discussion between them and ML’s so such content would be better there.

I believe at any rate that anarchists are not disallowed from here if they’re here to ask honest questions and not just spew imperialist propaganda and anti-communist, anti-AES dogma. Thus the community serves as nothing more than an attempted safe-space for anarchists and other deviations (left, right, etc), a safe harbor from site rules and standards.

      • invalidusernamelol@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        75·
        1 year ago

        I can understand that, but my experience (mainly on Hexbear) has been that as long as we take a hardline on aggressive spammers and people starting shitfights, we can mostly reach agreements and in many cases convert baby anarchists from their more liberal positions with minimal effort.

        Either converting them to Marxists, or at the very least forcing them to actually read anarchist theory to try and “debunk” us which usually leads them to a greater understanding of their own ideological biases and mellows them out, or starts them down a path where they see that their idea of “anarchism” is actually just street politics and is compatible with Marxist/Leninist political theory.

          • invalidusernamelol@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
            6·
            1 year ago

            Definitely understand that, just sharing my experiences with this situation. If lemmygrad is meant to be a primarily ML space that’s also cool. Aggressive purging will always be necessary, but allowing some controlled discourse can be helpful for education. It also creates an environment where younger MLs can see and participate in those sorts of debates in good faith.

            I don’t want to step on any toes though because I’m just from Hexbear and am not super familiar with the Grad’s site etiquette and community vibes. Was just trying to give some input is all.

            • ☭ Comrade Pup Ivy 🇨🇺@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
              10·
              1 year ago

              Generally in my experience, younger MLs are welcomed, and questions are answered usually in the manner they are asked. I have seen liberals and anarchists ask questions and or poke around, and so long as no rules are violated, and they are not being disrespectful, they are usually allowed to do so. However we are a marxist, predominantly ML instance, and I find it unwise to make a community that is explicitly for generic left unity, inviting in anarchists and more to the point, disallowing criticism of them as sectarianism.

              • invalidusernamelol@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
                5·
                1 year ago

                That’s good, allowing discourse on some level is good because otherwise you’ll just run into constant witchunts and name-calling over who’s saying anarchist things. As long as we’re all on the same page and are able to both identify people who are coming here to wreck while also allowing for some fair amount of discourse that’s good.

                Not that debate is necessarily a good thing, but preventing a “hunt” for wrong think is good at maintaining community cohesion. The trick is finding the balance between what’s considered acceptable and what’s a sign that someone’s acting in bad faith.

                This was hexbears approach and for the most part just acting this way led to the site being predominantly ML and the response to vagrant anarchists was usually scaring them away with 40 paragraphs of text.