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[deleted] wrote

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celebratedrecluse wrote

Almost every single person from /f/chapotraphouse ended up leaving after some blow up arguments between genocide apologists who supported the government of mainland China and those who weren't comfortable with that being unchallenged. The few that stayed, have no substantial ideological distinction from the older users, in any way that I can discern.

I feel your self-flagellation over what is, from your articulated perspective, a hypothetical problem you haven't even observed... is indicative of the actual problem with Raddle as a community, which is the incessant pressure to moralize everyone into good/bad binaries. It's a liberal and hierarchical way of looking at the world, regardless of intent, and results in authoritarian interactions between users on this forum that stifle people's ability to communicate honestly or believe they have something worth saying when it doesn't conform to these discursive expectations.

It's one thing to critique someone's words or actions, it's another to start categorizing others, ourselves, as "insider/outsider", "good/bad" in some deterministic way. That sort of behavior is rarely useful for a discursive community based on disembodied discussion, like a forum. Except, for sure, in cases of entryism or abuse, perhaps certain others. I don't extrapolate this opinion into material, real-world relationships, where there is a lot more risk than simply having conversations on the internet.

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GlangSnorrisson wrote

What kind of discourse/variety of discourse would you like to see more of on raddle, if you don’t mind my asking?

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celebratedrecluse wrote

I actually don't have any prescriptions, only a critique of the common narrativity and positionality I see, and the results which seem to stem from it.

It's not like there's no reason for it to be in place, people are responding to conditions on the internet and culturally which have toxic norms of their own. But in order to find out what those alternatives or futurities to Raddle discourse might be, I was assuming it would be helpful to identify the internal contradictions and ways in which it can be maladaptive, even psychologically harmful for those who embody it without having a critical lense.

I guess I want to be part of a process, of finding out how things can move from a place where people just feel guilty all the time. Guilt actually does not spur a lot of helpful actions, and can make people afraid to speak their mind or feel they aren't worthwhile to bother expressing themselves. So, too, do other factors, like dominant narratives which seep into radical spaces like this thread was originally about, and that's clearly another valid line of conversation to pursue.

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GlangSnorrisson wrote (edited )

That’s a very interesting insight. I can’t say I personally relate to the guilt part of what you said, but if people are scared to voice their opinions, that could be an issue (within reason/terms of service).

When you say dominant narratives being the source of this thread, are you referring to misogyny, or calling it out? Or trying to categorize spaces in a binaristic “safe/unsafe” manner? I’m sorry, I couldn’t quite make sense of that bit.

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