• Cowbee [he/they]
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    47 months ago

    Not necessarily, I’m saying your hypothetical lacks necessary information.

    Presently, you’ve framed it in an Idealist manner, not a Materialist one. People’s views aren’t selected by a Random Number Generator in real life, they are the consequence of their Material Conditions. Matter creates thought, ideas do not create matter.

    Looking at our hypothetical, you have a Leftist with the currently unexplained ideal that I personally should die for no reason. This doesn’t make any practical sense, so we cannot apply this theory to practice.

    In the case of this entire meme, there exists a divide, generally, between Marxists and Anarchists. Using your example of a Stalin defender, which situation is more realistic?

    A: A Leftist believes everything the US state department has levied against Stalin is true, he killed 200 million people and murdered puppies, and believes that this is good, actually, and we should do more of it?

    B: A Leftist believes nothing the US state department has said is true, and believes Stalin to be the second coming of Jesus Christ and Marx himself, and believes this to be a good thing?

    Neither are realistic, but A makes far less internal sense, and cannot be reasoned with, as mass cruelty is the point. Person B, however, could be misled and instead worked with. Person B has good intentions with a faulty understanding, person A has bad intentions with a faulty understanding.

    Do you see my point? Without knowing the origin of views, how can we hope to address them and how to deal with them?

    • @[email protected]
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      77 months ago

      You left out C.

      Ostensible leftist that knows what horrific things Stalin did, but thinks they weren’t that bad or even good, somehow. It’s even more detached from reality than example A. Spend some time on lemmygrad and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

      • Cowbee [he/they]
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        37 months ago

        That didn’t really answer my question, did it? Do you agree that the why of views matters in many ways more than the views themselves when it comes to seeing if someone can be swayed or not?

        • @[email protected]
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          67 months ago

          So you’re saying if you think you can change my mind, you would ally with me? Or would you try to change my mind first?

          • Cowbee [he/they]
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            37 months ago

            If we both share the common goal of dismantling Capitalism in the short term, and your intentions come from a place that can be reasoned with, I would ally with you, rather than endanger the leftist movement overall and risk fascism.

            • @[email protected]
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              57 months ago

              I’m glad we reached an understanding here. Where leftists/progressives differ from your viewpoint is that we generally believe tankies cannot be allied with prior to changing their views. Authoritarian governments taking power just about always purge political dissidents. Since progressives are anti-authoritarian, that means them. Allying with authoritarians and hoping to convince them to not be authoritarian before taking power is a losing prospect.

              Again, spend some time on lemmygrad and maybe give some gentle pushback on their beliefs and see what happens.

                • @[email protected]
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                  37 months ago

                  That’s why I said generally lol. But I’ve heard many many more people saying “fuck tankies” than “Hey maybe we should hear them out.”

                  • Cowbee [he/they]
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                    27 months ago

                    I’m skeptical of anyone labeling anyone a tankie ever since an Anarchist labeled me a tankie for saying Marxism is a valid strain of Socialism.

    • @[email protected]
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      47 months ago

      So you’re basically saying that independent thought is a myth. What heinous material conditions forced you to come up with THAT turd? 🤦

      • Cowbee [he/they]
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        37 months ago

        I am not. I am saying that people are products of their environment. Someone raised with no concept of “Jupiter” wouldn’t think about Jupiter.

        • @[email protected]
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          47 months ago

          actually, “Jupiter” would not exist as a concept if not for someone raised without it inventing it in the first place.

          People are influenced by their environment for sure, but not only is the environment influenced by the people too, there are also myriad other determining factors at play.

          • Cowbee [he/they]
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            7 months ago

            Yes, so people’s environment shapes their ideas. Brains do not secrete thought like Bile.

            • @[email protected]
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              37 months ago

              People’s environment can INFLUENCE their ideas, sure, but it doesn’t DICTATE them regardless of all other factors.

              And fyi sometimes Brians DO secrete, but they’ll thank you not to draw attention to their embarrassing medical issue.

                  • Cowbee [he/they]
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                    37 months ago

                    So you’re ultimately uninterested in arguing anything meaningful and just want to loudly and proudly flip the table, got it.