I’ve been trying to make people aware of Lemmy on discord and Mastodon, but it’s always met with resistance citing “the devs are pro authoritarianism tankies.” Kbin seems to be picking up steam because of the developer baggage.
Do you feel like this negative perception will hamstring Lemmy’s growth?
I admit, it was a dodge. I do lack the knowledge of these countries or regions to actually give an honest answer. But IMHO your question was not in good faith as the answer was already given:
If any of the regimes ruling the countries you provided fall in that category, OP is against it. And it leaves me with the opinion you are just trying to put OP in a bad spot and fish for a ‘gotcha’ moment in their answers, as they (and I) do not know all the details you apparently have.
But you want to know ‘what’ I am. First, I am human. Second, this is my personal opinion and I do not speak for any group: I don’t like autocratic, totalitarian, fascistic, oppressive ways of ruling.
If people chose a ‘red’ government, and they are chosen through continued fair elections with no disingenuous means or force, all the power to them. And even if your chosen way of ruling doesn’t do elections. If people want change, and you deny them that change through force and oppression. You are wrong in my eyes.
And this isn’t just for communism, this is for all flavors of government:
I always voted ‘left’ and ‘green’, which might not be the ‘red’ you wave on your flag. I am not religious, but I am hoping, wishing, and praying for any power that is willing to listen, that the people of my country would vote for a different party besides the VVD (conservative liberal) and the PVV (populist) when we will vote for our next ‘2de kamer’.
But allow me to explain my hostility: I have only been a member for a very short time. And every time I see a post come up from lemmygrad.ml the comments are filled with just degenerative and reductive comments about ‘the others’, the ‘not enlightened us at lemmygrad’. I see comments being celebrated for being banned for posting shitty pig balls as replies. I see people talking down on people for having a less ‘red’ view. I see open hostility being upvoted, while voices of temperance are being downvoted. All I see is us versus them. And them are allowed to be ridiculed and made lesser of.
Maybe it is the selective behavior of the ‘all communities’ overview: that it prefers to show the controversial topics and charged comments. But it is painting any interaction that I see on or from the lemmygrad.ml instance with in that bad light. Just like I explained my view on your question asked in the first place, and you asking ‘what’ I am like I am an object.
In conclusion: I am a human. I have my biases. These biases are fed by what I see. And I have the same bias to other instances if I see them do the same shit I have seen rise out of lemmygrad.ml.
Only one of the countries you listed is a socialist country that “tankies” defend.
I listed countries that the people who accuse of being “tankies” defend. So-called tankies do not defend any of the countries you listed barring China, although we have plenty of criticisms of China as well. The only defence of Russia that we put up is that the conflict that is currently ongoing was caused by nato, and that no amount of pouring weapons into the country will save any lives, on the contrary it will in fact kill many more people. This is spun into “you support russia” by many but is an unfair characterisations of what those on the left actually believe. Yes you can probably find Z people to refute this but they are a minority. Russia is a capitalist shithole and we want to change that in the longterm just as we want to change it in every capitalist country.
It’s weird how hating Russia is considered reflectively justified, but questioning anything about America requires all this hemming and hawing.
Like, you can’t just say that America has serious problems. You have to argue with a bunch of nationalists who might have hurt feelings and coddle the fence sitters because they don’t like your tone of voice.
Can’t help but think this is because we’re more reticent of people we’re neighbors with, while foreigners just don’t matter.
What would that look like? Specifically, let us imagine a world where it is true that Cuba or the DPRK or wherever does indeed hold free and fair elections on a regular basis, but that everything else about the world was exactly as you, I assume, admit it is (such as the vicious sanctioning and libel by western powers). From where you are sitting, what would the difference be? What sort of information would you be aware of, would you receive from where you are in the world and the media you consume, that was in any way different?