Reddit and its form (/r/ultraleft)

It's a cliche (I know) to criticize Reddit on this platform, yet I'd like to move the locus a bit further, onto structural criticism (instead of individual blame). I just started a discussion thread on /r/ultraleft/ (the leftcom meme-space on Reddit that I liked and followed from its very beginning, even though I was not aligned with their ideology).

I did this because I was interested with the most lively leftcom community on Reddit. I started a thread about Paul Cockshott's Towards a New Socialism, asking this subreddit community if they had any responses to his main arguments.

I was, of course, immediately banned. I received two kinds of responses:
1) from the community: "ask these questions of yours in /r/Marxism101" (to which I responded that I wasn't new to Marxism.)
2) from the MOD team: you are banned …
And immediately after: "you are muted for 72 hours in messaging the mods."

I'll copy paste the response I got from the mod team after the ban and mute:
I can guarantee to you that I'm not an "academic." I'm a wage slave, without any institutional background…

Anyway. I'm a fierce believer of structuralist critique of any and all platforms so my question is this: what makes /r/FULLCOMMUNISM; /r/socialism; /r/communism/; /r/ultraleft, etc. behave in a similar fashion? My instinctive response would be to point to the platform itself, yet I'm not able to make explicit its specificities, neither to connect them to the broader whole.

Sorry if this was long-winded.

Other urls found in this thread:

innovate.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Winner-Do-Artifacts-Have-Politics-1980.pdf
reddit.com/r/shitleftistssay/comments/6l4llf/stupid_and_pretentious_academic_gets_banned_from/djr2v01/?context=3
reddit.com/r/shitleftistssay/comments/6l4llf/stupid_and_pretentious_academic_gets_banned_from/djr8puw/
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

ugh

something something upboats

aside from that, it's just what happens when you give someone the chance to moderate a space on the internet without the chance to make them gain money from it. they just start banning anything resembling a dissenting opinion. internet discussion is based on hatred because you don't actually see the other person while talking, you don't see their face, you construct some sort of caricature in your head of the guy and he talks in a loud, condescending tone and you hate him. at some point you just wanna ban them.

people like to say this is not the case with imageboards but i think you can see with your eyes this isn't true. it's just harder to identify people who don't post with a nickname.

The community's right in that /r/ultraleft is a meme sub, I'm pretty sure.

But you're right that the structure does impose certain restrictions upon actions. Reddit has board moderators who are forced into the role of guardians of what should and shouldn't be in a particular sub, Because we're dealing with political ideology, the sub becomes representative of what the moderators believe their form of leftism should be like rather than one closer to what it is. That leads to endless lists of qualifiers for being considered a Marxist/communist/leftist and ban threats for political deviation from the line that the moderators themselves invented, often without any democratic participation (or after having banned anyone who would have disagreed in the first place). Thus, "communism" within the boards becomes not an objective representation of the left as a community but competing subjective representations between different members of the moderation team.

Whether this had anything to do with your case specifically, though, I'm not sure. /r/Marxism101 may be somewhat mislabeled if it's for both education and argument, though.

I was a bit sloppy. I meant "communist left as a community" there, although the same is also true of "anarchism" and the anarchist left Reddit communities.

good lord mate it's a meme sub you dense bellend. the only thing that happened was that you were rightly told to take your question to an appropriate sub, which apparently, unbeknownst to any single one of god's creatures, you were somehow offended by.

This is actually kind of your fault. Go post in a place for that kind of thing, you were posting somewhere where it's off-topic. I mean shit man, /leftytrash/ exists for this exact reason.
Reddit is still gay but you're an idiot.

I don't think this covers (their reasons in totality).

At least here I'm banned here for a period and not for eternity…


Which is extra-ironic in a leftcom community…

Which is sad as fuck, since the so called "leftcoms" are supposedly the manifestations of unapologetic Marxism…


It's almost as if these mods were unaware of the broader picture of reality itself…

So it comes down to this? Moderator A) is buttblasted by comment X and thus he band it, while moderator B) (from a different time-region) is neutral towards it?

Trust me, I'm not new to Marxism, and I've made several contributions to /r/Marxism101…


One of my main problems with Reddit's platform: utilization. "This sub is for discussing prostitution; this other one: for menial work…"

Fuck this shit. Capitalism is all-encompassing, and if you run a fragmented "subreddit" you are on the side of the ruling class, not being able to connect these issues into one.


No, it is not. Even as a wage-slave, if I can express myself "academically" I am not to be bothered by your shit-tier criticism. I express myself as I can, and I'm proud of my state-of-expression.

It's true of all internet fora to some degree, but it's less true of imageboards compared to le leddit. You still get trolls, shitposters and bad moderators, but at least the imageboard format mitigates the worst personality drama that you get on forums where people can build up "reputations" that they have to "defend" against their Internet Enemies.

If reddit has taught us anything, it's that hotpockets are shit and will destroy their community eventually. Jim Profit was right.

Reddit promotes unchecked censoring of descending opinions and grants unlimited power to the mods. Any opinions that go against the beliefs of the majority are downvoted and automatically hidden (if not removed entirely) and any confirmation of preexisting beliefs get voted to the top.

This is in contrast to chans, where any opinion that is disagreed with gets responses telling them they are retarded, which boosts them back to the top of the catalogue. Opinions that are disagreed with are not hidden, but actually stick out due to getting lots of replies. Bans are public too.

Lastly, the mods of all the "left" subs are buddies of each other and approved by the corporate reddit admins. All leftist subs have an overlap of moderation. Conclude from that what you want.

a meager consolation. a permaban from reddit is a boon on your life btw.

Sounds like you're the cancer OP. Nobody sane would want to post on a leftcom reddit sub.

Despite being ``a meme sub'' it's trash, just like /r/completeliberalism and /r/fullcapitalism. When I think

Also bans here are temporary, not permanent.

I forgot to talk about user profiles. Due to having profiles, anything you say will follow you. Reddit and especially the leftist subs have a habit of analysing and spitting through your history to try and smear you. This leads to character assassination and fear of expression your opinion because you might make a mistake or do a thoughtcrime. A ban from a communism will also quickly result in a ban from other subs, and posting in one of the "forbidden subreddits" gets you a preemptive ban, even if you have never posted on a leftist subreddit before.
And anyone who disagrees with you, no matter how shit their reasoning, will feel justified because the downvote score is negative, thereby playing on their need for affirmation.
Lastly, due to the message system it is near impossible to get away from something. All relies send you info when someone replies by default. Anyone who replies will get you a message, and people will often harrass people they disagree with through the private message system, including moderation who will go as far as sending deaththreads to users.

Reddit is a cancerous platform that is designed entirely to be an echochamber.

It's not a fragmentation of politics and economics or anything along those lines, it's a differentiation between shitposting and serious discussion you dense fuck.

Wow how did I fuck that up

Here on Holla Forums mods delete posts quite often for bullshit. Just look at the banlog. Reddit is certainly worse, but faggot mods could potentially make these image boards close.

Somewhat. What you tend to have in the rules is an agglomeration of the animosities of a small set of personal leftisms which regard themselves as the true form. That leads to competition between them within the moderation team and, eventually, either attrition of the dissenters and agreement among the mod team on what the left at least shouldn't be (thus the rules), or a tension barely held back by a set of rules and the banning of dissent.

It's not that I thought you were new. It's that I wasn't sure whether /r/Marxism101 was for just education, or both debate and education. If for both, then it's mislabeled.

Sounds like something an imperialist would say.

Well I'm a white guy who fucks latinas, so I guess I'm a sexual imperialist.

as has been pointed out, this doesn't make any sense. meme subs aren't even for adressing any "issues". you take yourself and the internet too seriously, m8

Still, the system in which said hotpockets participate in determine the whole community-modding.


I agree. Still: why?

Yeah, yeah, no. I don't think I should be banned for eternity for an opinion (in this context: for a question)…


I post on x numbers of different subreddits… Why is it that my so called "own personal "failure?" More specifically: why would anyone take the so called error in assuming their larger communitarian [whatever]?

It's just a joke!!


Yes, and I thank you, yet this form is a way to disregard the underlying impossibility: "the community as such."

Worse than that: the platform is designed to be the echo-chamber of a minority. This brings us to our pseudo-connection: the fuck is your relation to me?


Sadly, it is!


wut


It doesn't matter, really. If you have a community backing you up, then the whole of criticisms should be weighed against shitty representational practices.


I disagree. If we take a hundred, a thousand, a million, etc. persons that constitute a collectivity, then your so called "personal asshurt" is meaningless. We, the people, are many, you, and your asshurt is non-inclusive and irrelevant.


Then so called "meme subs" are objectively are ways of perpetuating the hegemonic "interwebs-drive"…

fuck me

WHAT THE FUCK, WHY AM I NOT ALLOWED TO POST OFF-TOPIC? REEEE CENSORSHIP

lmao i'm crying here

eggsplain, plodx

Comrade Leninhat, have you ever seriously looked into anarchist but non-anprim critiques of technological rationality (Langdon Winner, David Watson, Jacques Ellul)? Seems like it might be up your alley given the critique you're developing here.

No he has not.

Which books?

They're getting off on the power.

Dear green-anarcho friend, no, I didn't read your said authors, but I'd like to critique your position nevertheless. The fuck do you want, honestly? A total disintegration of what we call current civilizational standards?

No? Then what else?


So maybe instead of shilling for anarcho-[whatevers] you should accept the current reality, and maybe reflect upon it?

The current reality where leninism is relevant?

But even further: why do you think that the only proper POVs are due to your ideological lenses?

ffs

leftcoms are pretentious assholes, that's my opinion.

As far as reddit goes, the fragmentation of subjects and the attitude, especially on leftist subs, of "It's not my responsibility to teach you" is especially harmful. If we want to be an effective movement, we have to reach out to people, we have to debate, this is a fact no matter what you think of "freeze speech" or how "woke" the person you're talking to is.

fuck you man. What if he was an actual newfag? What if no one actually explained to him deeper concepts or debated shit so he just assumed the left was full of shit and looked elsewhere for answers. We need to make it easier for people to get into theory, not harder! The fact that leftists subs like r/ultraleft and r/socialism are what people find when they google socialism is a fucking travesty, destroying our mass appeal when it's needed most.

Easy there leninfriend, I said "anarchist but non-anprim" for a reason. There's a long tradition of analyses (some from overt anarchists and anarchy-adjacent thinkers like Watson or le mustache hat commuties man, some from other political traditions) that recognize a place for the criticism of the structures created/enabled by certain forms of modern tech without going full WE MUST ALL GO BACK TO HUNTING-GATHERING like hardline anprims.

Langdon Winner's essay "Do Artifacts Have Politics" is a good place to start:
innovate.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Winner-Do-Artifacts-Have-Politics-1980.pdf

Also:
Jacques Ellul, Man & Technics
David Watson, The Myth of the Megamachine
Lewis Mumford, Man & Technics
Jacques Camatte

the only good thing about Reddit mods is that they would have banned black flag shitposter long ago

Reddit in general is shit. For what it's worth I think it's good that people on Holla Forums respond to bait and break down ideas because newfags can actually learn something from seeing it.

Luckily unlike everyone here, I don't post on reddit.

because they're walking vaginas who can't handle their positions. its reddit, not the chan.

believe me, I got banned from r/FULLCOMMUNISM for calling a bunch Maoists "Trotskyist agents"

I just meant insofar as current Reddit moderation is concerned. I didn't mean in general or for every case of groups.

he was redirected to a learning subreddit, what else could the mods have done? Sat there and explained to him every singe aspect of leftcomism in a fucking meme subreddit?

I'd assure that if you went to any other meme sub and posted about critique for a book vaguely related to the meme they're spouting you'd get banned there too. It's not just jewish CIA KGB mods banning genuine leftists this time.

Why you posted that pic as op? That's like totally not cool

Leftcom reddit is absolute shite after Rooster left because of tankie / trot doxx threat.

Pretty much all the rest of the leftcoms that knew shit or posted content beyond facebook tier memes left after that.

Notaflyingpotato is and has always been a stupid cunt who only got his position on the mod team by suck-arseing the mods, he never posts about anything regarding politics unless its dumping on some 13yo tankie larper or reposting shit memes.

YourNitmar is another cancerous janitor who really doesn't do or know shit but just clings to reddit power because they are a bored unemployed Greek with delusions of grandeur.

These two as far as I can tell run leftcom reddit now despite them being two boring arse fucking morons that nobody ever really gave a shit about.

The only person on leftcom reddit worth talking too ( and I barely use reddit anymore so their maybe others) is an aussie named Vormanv (sp?) but he seemingly spends his time posting about mental health issues in subreddits dedicated too that.

Anyway go to /r/Communists to post this stuff but it is dead af.

The puritarian principle present in all those who are leftists beyond the nominal afterthought.

Anyone who gets this upset over being banned from an internet forum is a cuck

its less pathetic than an internet jaintor scouring the web for criticism of his shit little subforum tbqftvym.

reddit.com/r/shitleftistssay/comments/6l4llf/stupid_and_pretentious_academic_gets_banned_from/djr2v01/?context=3

Someone sent one of the mods a PM of this thread, no-one scoured anything

true

Its a meme sub, and he literally posted a meme. OP dindu nuffins

they've gone straight to the BROCIALISTSS! charge now if anyone requires further proof that leftcom plebbitors are anything other than the gormless stockstandard radlib

>reddit.com/r/shitleftistssay/comments/6l4llf/stupid_and_pretentious_academic_gets_banned_from/djr8puw/

The leftcom/ultraleft run reddit is more than those two, and some of them are quite knowledgeable on communism. I'm an anarchist with sympathies for left communism and while I disagree on how harsh they are on anarchism, I still respect them.

But most of the mods have done terrible things. Fancytea tried doxxing a moderator of r/socialism. Notalfyingpotato posts on fash subreddits. Per_levy made transphobic comments. One time the mods all joined together to brigade our anarchist meme sub and make fun of anarchism. I'm fine with them having their beliefs but it is annoying that they keep targeting us, it gets so boring.

Go back.

There is literally nothing wrong with any of these. The first one is easily countered by not being a retard with your personal info, the second means literally nothing, and the last one is literally only imaginary internet points.Please, go back and stay back, and take the /r/ultraleft fags with you.

Those guys sound pretty rad, if they manage to nuke anarkiddie parts of reddit, then I'll learn Italian and read Bordiga's collected works.
also go back to reddit

Most leftcom redditors don't give a shit about idpol tho. Leftcom subreddits are usually the most pro-free speech and that's the reason /r/socialism is so hostile towards them, they are evil brocialist sinners.

Shoulda just dropped this discourse on one of the left communist discussion subs (/leftcommunism/ or /communists/) or even /marxism_101/ (despite its name and the fact that most posts there are indeed newbs, it's still a good spot for discussion). /ultraleft/ is a 100% meme sub.

For what it's worth the guy you had a run-in with, ehrnio, is really knowledgeable on Marx, Marxism, communism, et cetera. Shame this shit happened and that he can be a cunt like that sometimes.


Rooster "left" because he got a doxx threat from the tankie circle. They didn't want the left communist perspective to end up dominating left Reddit discourse over their Stalinoid fantasies like it did on RevLeft (before the left communists there got banned too, alongside of course the large exodus of tankies afterwards because they place also died through Democrap shilling).


What FancyTea tried to do, when they were still a part of the /socialism/ mod team, was coup the place and remove all mods and then install mods that won't power trip over absoulutely ridiculous matters (as to prevent autistic shit like catgirl persecution or considering the term "stupid" to be ableism).

Notaflyingpotato basically just ironically "associated" himself with anti-communists (read: made fun of "communists" (tankies) alongside fascists) on a few /drama/ or /subredditdrama/ threads. He also enjoyed the Trump victory and just how absolutely insane left Reddit went because of it, thinking Trump was the beginning of fascism in the USA (lol).

All Per_Levy did AFAIK was state that class is not an identity, and that class society (by extension the existence of the division of labour and today the capitalist mode of production) stands at the root and cause of all other types of discrimination, oppression, etc. This position is largely shared on leftcom reddit and it's mostly the anarchists they frequently clash with who had a problem with it (>muh intersectionality).


Honestly what mostly seems to happen is that left communism and other ultra positions are misidentified by anarchists as being similar to theirs based on vague political similarities (opposition to parliamentarism, possibilism, Stalinism, etc.), i.e. the general "libertarian Marxism" fiction. All the ultras do in response is make fun of the anarchists for it on their subs which attracts anarchist butthurt but that's it.

Jesus christ what a fucking shithole reddit is. I am however glad OP got banned for shilling Paul Cockshott

No you moron, not have banned him in the first place. And what's more, he wasn't new, where the he'll is the supposed to discuss these things to begin with! Certainly no where on reddit.

lol, I was never part of the /r/socialism mod team and didn't try to coup it, where did you get this idea?

I absolutely did not dox anyone or try doxxing. Lmao. Calling out someone's alt account isn't "doxxing"

...

Your kind is not wanted here

Samefag btw, don't know what dumb drama he's trying to stir up.

While we're on the subject of samefags, I'd be surprised if wasn't the OP.

It is not.

I thought it was a forced meme.

Whoever you all are, stop trying to stir up drama and stop talking about things you clearly don't know about. There was no doxxing to rooster, no doxxing or attempting to coup r/soc from any of us. It's embarrassing you think that.

Who the fuck are you?

We should all be Reddit leftcom community mods. I'll be Notaflyingpotato because he has the shittiest name.

What's with this? Last time it happened, there was an Uhrue thread with a samefag pretending to be 12 people, with over 50 posts.

Infantile shitters are showing trots how entryism is done

i am an ultra/communist. you really think we would take the time to shitpost and troll in this social democratic pit? its way easier to explain why you're wrong about everything

What? It's almost as if the internet is not taken seriously, if only someone had predicted power corrupts. :

Yes.