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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[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 0 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

You got called out because instead of providing a good faith argument in favor of your belief you just posted some snide remark. I pressed you to provide any sort of substance and you accuse me of being unworthy of your time?

This is an anonymous forum for the sharing of ideas and conversation. Anyone can post a laundry list claiming radical actions, but there’s no proof. Nobody knows who you really are, nobody knows if what you say is true, and there’s no way to prove it because unless you’re going to post a lot of irrefutable personal information online it’s just talk. Personally, I give you the benefit of the doubt and take you at your word that you do engage in those actions, but I could claim I’ve aided and abetted arson at a fur warehouse, doxxed an animal researcher and harassed them to the point they’ve had to move to a different state (then did it again), lived in an Occupy encampment for months through the winter, and beat a bonehead with a lock and chain outside a punk venue while getting a knife to the abdomen in response. Could be true, could be bullshit; it’s the internet.

Anyone can organize. The Proud Boys organize. I wasn’t asking for your organizational resume, I was asking for what the philosophical goals of your organization are. Why is what you seek to achieve not what OP accused you of authoritarianism? And now, additionally, why is it that so often when pressed to provide an explanation of those beliefs do people resort to “troll post”, “bad faith”, “not worth my time”, and non-sequitur replies? You are probably correct in the assumption that your reply won’t change my belief, but that doesn’t mean it won’t provide insight into how another person thinks that may influence future interactions or contemplation from myself or one of the many people on this forum that read it.

[–] silentjohn@lemmy.ml 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I ain't reading all that. Free Palestine.

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Is this why they call you silentjohn, because when pressed for a defense of your beliefs you refuse to answer and instead drop hashtag grade slogans? No wonder we’re losing to the fascists, the commies can’t even defend the philosophy they stand for.

[–] silentjohn@lemmy.ml -2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

No wonder we’re losing to the fascists

I repeat: What organizing have you accomplished?

Blocked.

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I repeat, anyone online can claim organizing because it’s anonymous. You’ve been challenged to explain the philosophy behind what you’re organizing for.

[–] Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

they did reply to the "challenge" though, by saying this is a baitpost and not written in good faith, nothing of consequence will happen in this thread, just more dividing of the working class.

idk i tried to write more, but op was right, this thread is not a good faith discussion, i hope you can find solidarity with working class peoples around you.

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Always with the anthropocentrism. Hit me up when you feel like fighting for the rights of all the victims of capitalism and human greed. You might get some assistance now and then, but you’ll never get solidarity until the pretense of human exceptionalism is dropped.

[–] Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

yeah, i shouldnt have even tried :(

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 1 points 6 hours ago

Environmentalism and animals rights is a helluva no sell for you guys, isn’t it? The rejection of that value as fundamental to what needs to change caught me off guard, and is why I push back so hard to keep your flavor of leftism from becoming the dominant voice. I went rounds over in ML about this the other day, the idea that accepting non-human suffering/environmental destruction as a sad but acceptable consequence of human advancement so long as there’s “pledges and goals” for reducing it in the future is tolerable.

If we’re going to fight this fight let’s actually start fresh, not just make excuses for retaining the ugly parts of the system we destroyed because “humans are more important, we’ll get to that later”. Later never comes, there’s always a reason that can be found. Humans are important, but they’re not the only things living on this planet, most of them get a few decades of life, and there’s a lot more humans as well as other living things left to come after those of us here not are dead.

This is why I push people for their deeply held convictions about why they want the system they want. Slogans, laundry lists of unverifiable accomplishments, rehearsed talking points, the words of dead philosophers; none of that means shit. What’s it mean to them, the individual.