For me it’s been like a splash of cold water to the face, remembering just how fucked up tier liberal takes were, are, and will likely continue to be.
I’m sure there’s downsides to complacency, but it was nice having some ground assumptions when going into a thread, like “society can and should be improved somewhat” or “the ruling class acts in its own immediate self interests and any other claims regarding their motivations are propagandized lies” or “climate change is real, it’s bad, and it’s getting worse,” or more trivial stuff like “Tesla cars aren’t good.”
I’m sure potential comrades are out there and while it really is necessary to reach out to more people at some point (offline too, orgs especially, but while we’re here, you know?), it’s been sobering to realize just how far rightward mainstream “progressive” liberal thought really is on average.
i saw someone call someone “good sir” unironically. i thought that was just one of our jokes and people stopped doing that in like 2014, but no redditors are still cringe as fuck
but it has been very nice seeing people ask in good(ish) faith about things i thought were obvious and seeing comrades answer with honest, accessible, well thought-out explanations of theory and its applications. sometimes looooong explanations lol.
I think its been fun tbh, dunking and educating, but then again i appreciate that i haven’t been on the front lines of the posting war the same way that some comrades have