Submitted by BlackFlagged in Anarchism (edited )

Supporting capitalist spaces when anarchist alternatives exist is supporting capitalism. As anarchists, we shouldn't be propping up an awful corporation that has allowed stuff like r/cutefemalecorpses, r/publichealthwatch, r/altright, r/fascism, r/fatpeoplehate, r/the_donald, r/incels, r/coontown and r/jailbait to prosper for years.

Especially when maintaining a sanitized, controlled-opposition 'anarchist' sub on reddit ensures the actual anarchist alternatives like raddle and 0chan will stagnate without a mass migration. Ensures that anarchism will be dilluted and liberalized for a generation of people that think r/anarchism is a representation of what we stand for.

Comrades that cling to reddit are harming the movement. Reddit is a reactionary safe space and it harms people. Kills people.

If the community there really give a shit about anarchism, they would close the sub and have it display a message of protest over reddit's targetting of anti-fascists, and links to better sites that don't forbid anarchists from organizing against fascism or sharing anarchist literature.

It can also link to r/Anarchy101 so newcomers can still get radicalized. Make that the new primary anarchist sub on reddit, so people get started there, and move on to a real anarchist space once they pick up the basics.

Doing something like this would likely get media coverage. Would get new people interested in anarchism when they see we're sticking it to reddit and boycotting it for propping up reactionaries that incite violence against minorities.

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SleeperCylon wrote

Hi! I am new here and this is my first comment, I actually found this site via a link from reddit ;)

I am looking to move away from reddit, facebook and all the other corporate social media sites. But what kind of alternative sites (besides raddle) actually exist for leftists of all different flavours?

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[deleted] wrote

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SleeperCylon wrote (edited )

Thanks for the reply! I actually already knew about Gnu social as I've been using Quitter (a twitter replacement) for some time (tbh I've mostly been lurking there) which is built around that platform.

What about more forum-like websites?

I'm asking because I want to join and interact with more like-minded people, but also for inspiration as I am working on creating an online community for leftists myself.

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boringskip wrote

Mastodon seems more popular than gnu social right now, and they're compatible with each other. i use anticapitalist.party but they might have closed reg right now.

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SleeperCylon wrote (edited )

Mastodon seems fresh and modern! But all these different instances makes it feel overwhelming. How do I know I'll join the "right" instance? What happens if my instance gets taken down? Can my friends join my instance or could they suddenly close registrations for my instance?

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boringskip wrote (edited )

If your instance is taken down, it just sorta sucks. Not sure if they support exporting accounts yet.

You can choose an instance with a cool URL and a usage policy you like, for example, no hate speech or commercial content. Some of them are more themed. mastodon.social is the largest so it should stay up with open reg.

You can find some here https://instances.social/

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__deleted_____ wrote

Would be great, but the mods there would never be willing to give up their ranks on the mod list and they'd need to be on board to set this up - we've seen time and time again that the slightest bit of power corrupts people. They'd prolly rather maintain their positions on the hierarchy than burn the whole thing down.

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BabyCroc wrote (edited )

But it's ironic since their inaction is just going to ensure they'll lose all control of the message when reddit's admins inevitably shut r/@ down. Then everyone will just see "this sub has been suspended for violating our rules by advocating violence" instead of a message crafted by anarchists. That message that can allow the sub to live on elsewhere, and make a righteous political statement about no-platforming fascism and rejecting liberal horseshoe bullshit.

If the community take a stand and close it down themselves, it'll forever remain a monument to freedom, and a giant fuck you to reddit for persecuting antifa.

They could even have the message call out the actual violent rhetoric ingrained in subs like r/neoliberalism and r/politics, where wealthy Americans normalize and glorify brutal imperialism and genocide for their gain.

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AlexanderReidRoss wrote (edited )

The notice could also mention that using reddit is horrible security culture because it's proprietary and they cooperate with the feds giving them our private data.

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Westfield wrote

It has always struck me as ironic that anyone who calls themselves an anarchist would voluntarily take a position of power over a community of other anarchists. Feels like they missed the point a bit

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ziq wrote (edited )

The new 'don't incite violence' rules have only been used to ban itty bitty subs that I've never heard of - all the big fashy subs like the_donald aren't getting touched.

The_donald has actually recruited countless white men into fascism and led to murders, beatings, etc. It's a big moneymaker for them so they won't touch it.

But you can bet they'll be using the rules to shut down big leftist subs, because there's no profit in keeping anti-capitalists around. We're not going to guild anything or buy reddit gold and we're savvy enough to block their ads.

They've already given r/anarchism multiple warnings for bullshit reasons, so I don't expect it to be around for much longer. I hope they at least link to us in a sticky before it's too late.

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Defasher wrote

They did the same thing with lwse, suspended mods, warned us, made us comply with their hypocritical demands that none of the fash subs had forced on them, then banned the place anyway.

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________deleted wrote

Just the fact that everyone on the r/antifa mod list is a fascist is reason enough to stay the fuck away from that site.

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J7383 wrote

They should shutter it for 30 days, at least until the latest crackdown blows over. Trumpers have been mass reporting every little remark to the admins.

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zombie_berkman wrote

Meta is a fucking joke too.

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Defasher wrote (edited )

I think it's the most hilarious experiment in how to turn anarchists into shitty bureaucrats ever.

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bmrgould01 wrote

Then we would never get any posts noticed by people who weren't interested in anarchism already. Having posts reach all and new are useful for reaching people.

What does not utilizing the sub actually accomplish?

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Defasher wrote (edited )

It's a pre-emptive strike. Instead of waiting for the admins to close it down, we do it so that we can maintain control over it (by having it link to other sites, reddit subs, etc.).

You can keep it alive indefinitely this way because there's no way the admins can say we broke any rules. And if they close down the reddit subs its linking to, we can just make new ones and link to them instead.

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bmrgould01 wrote

If it's not being used, and is just linking to other things, no one will see it except people already interested. This makes us lose a lot of reach on Reddit, doesn't it? It we want something linking to everything we might use, we need something off Reddit to do that so we have better control of it.

You can keep it alive indefinitely this way because there's no way the admins can say we broke any rules. And if they close down the reddit subs its linking to, we can just make new ones and link to them instead.

Why not have the sub be less "violent" and link to other spaces. Keeps the reach and still links where we want to.

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Defasher wrote

But wouldn't the subs being linked get enough visilibilty from regular r/@ users to start appearing on /all themselves?

If it's a choice between risking losing the r/anarchism name altogether and keeping it alive through replaceable off-shoot subs that it links to, then I think it's the best option.

Why not have the sub be less "violent" and link to other spaces. Keeps the reach and still links where we want to.

Because you know as well as I do that the admins will keep making more and more bullshit demands to stifle us. Every few months they have some other nonsensical orders. Don't forget your fellow mods got banned for approving a harmless pdf or 'bash the fash' memeing. They've already gone way beyond policing actually-violent content and are just fucking with us. It's not going to get better, only worse.

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Westfield wrote (edited )

I tried to post something on that sub telling people about Raddle, but it got removed because my account is too young.

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ziq wrote (edited )

They know about raddle, don't bother. Go with twitter, facebook, tumblr instead. We don't have any promotion on those sites but we get linked on reddit all the time.

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elyersio wrote

Would it be worth my bandwidth to link to Raddle over there?

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