Some people don’t believe me when I try to warn them about the content creator grift. I don’t care, I’m coming for all of them if they start spouting shit like this to their audience. They have a responsibility towards their viewers.

Second time I see him tweet shit like this.

At this point he should just stop pretending he’s any sort of leftist. His mental health will thank him.

archive link so he can’t scrub it off the internet: https://archive.ph/XWZD6 (still loading as of posting but should be ready eventually)

  • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
    21·
    4 days ago

    It really depends on the criticism. I remember when I used to hang out on “left” twitter, on occasion I’d see stuff where it was like telephone game style personal spats that were impossible for an observer to follow and understand, and so it was more just the kind of conflict that might have been resolved with a proper sit-down and mediator, or at least clarified better what the problem was.

    This case is pretty clear though just from reading the one tweet itself. It’s a problem of ideological line and that’s something we do need to crit in each other. Otherwise, we’re just doing the liberal thing of going along to get along:

    To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is one type of liberalism.

    https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_03.htm

    Self-criticism is common practice among MLs:

    Wells: Unfortunately, I have various engagements to fulfil and I can stay in the USSR only for a week. I came to see you and I am very satisfied by our talk. But I intend to discuss with such Soviet writers as I can meet the possibility of their affiliating to the PEN Club. The organisation is still weak, but it has branches in many countries, and what is more important, the speeches of its members are widely reported in the press. It insists upon this, free expression of opinion – even of opposition opinion. I hope to discuss this point with Gorki. I do not know if you are prepared yet for that much freedom . . .

    Stalin: We Bolsheviks call it “self-criticism”. It is widely used in the USSR. If there is anything I can do to help you I shall be glad to do so.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20240425185930/https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/1934/10/h-g-wells-it-seems-me-i-am-more-left-you-mr-stalin

    Unprincipled criticism, backbiting, etc., can be a problem:

    To indulge in irresponsible criticism in private instead of actively putting forward one’s suggestions to the organization. To say nothing to people to their faces but to gossip behind their backs, or to say nothing at a meeting but to gossip afterwards. To show no regard at all for the principles of collective life but to follow one’s own inclination. This is a second type.

    But strong unity of the ML kind is forged by working through problems, not paving over them with social niceties in public while holding onto resentments in private (that’s liberalism).

    • sousmerde_rtrdataire@lemmygrad.mlBanned
      211·
      4 days ago

      If people don’t denigrate him, but criticize him in a friendly manner then i have no problem. It’s just the all too common “character assassination” i have a problem with(, especially for such little things, and even more among leftists).
      If it’s just an occasion to discuss about the influence of genetics on behavior then i have zero problem with this, i just hope that people here won’t suddenly hate yugopnik just for that, which is probably unlikely to happen, so i shouldn’t have concerned myself with it.

      I suppose that i just didn’t want to resist posting that quote from C.Johnstone.

      That quote was what i was alluding to(, while remembering one time when many people on Lemmy falsely accused Nutomic himself of being transphobic, with people exciting themselves over nothing and calling for his resignation, so stupid, the same thing happened for Linus Torvalds because he wrote a harsh email to someone working for him, let’s just focus our anger on more productive things than bringing down people on our side) :

      To indulge in irresponsible criticism in private instead of actively putting forward one’s suggestions to the organization. To say nothing to people to their faces but to gossip behind their backs, or to say nothing at a meeting but to gossip afterwards. To show no regard at all for the principles of collective life but to follow one’s own inclination. This is a second type.

      • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
        121·
        4 days ago

        I don’t generally try to operate on hate, myself. Except maybe for the most obvious exploiters of the world, but then it’s more incidental hate as a result of finding out what horrific shit they’ve done, than an active preoccupied effort to hate. Hating someone takes energy. I’d rather put my energy into working out how to dismantle systems of oppression.

        I am suspicious of people who purport to be on the left and say stuff like he did though. I feel I have good reason to be, given the history of internet-based “leftists” who are bad at sticking to a clear ideological line. It’s possible he can be corrected on this and change his ways, but his position as e-celeb (however small the level of celebrity may be) makes it harder to directly engage in criticism with him, as peers. So we have to correct and warn people as we can.

        • sousmerde_rtrdataire@lemmygrad.mlBanned
          212·
          4 days ago

          As i said in another comment, he most likely doesn’t really believe that people are born to be far-right, it’s more of an insult saying that they were born with some innate cerebral deficiency, and that otherwise they couldn’t possibly develop such p.o.v.
          If i’m not mistaken he’s often shitposting, it’s an insult, that’s all, not that deep, nor someone calling covertly for eugenics.

          Anyway, if you don’t suddenly hate him now, then ok, i probably overreacted and should have ignored that post.

          • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
            111·
            4 days ago

            This sounds a lot like the “schrodinger’s douchebag” excuse:

            One who makes douchebag statements, particularly sexist, racist or otherwise bigoted ones, then decides whether they were “just joking” or dead serious based on whether other people in the group approve or not.

            A person who decides if they were being ironic or not base on how people react to it

            https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=schrodinger’s+douchebag

            Anyway, insults are not just insults. They carry ideology with them. If I were to use a slur against you, it would be carrying water for the ideology of that slur, even if I don’t actively believe in it myself.

              • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
                12·
                4 days ago

                Yep, that would be a problem. Directing it at rightists doesn’t give it the characteristics of leftism. It’s still got the rightist stench clinging to it. This is why it’s so important to interrogate reflexes even long after conscious beliefs change. Our habits do not change overnight based on what we believe in.

                • sousmerde_rtrdataire@lemmygrad.mlBanned
                  19·
                  4 days ago

                  Yeah, ok, we’re different from the right because we’re differing on some goals AND on some means.
                  Furthermore, the far-right is just mistaken, everyone makes mistakes, obviously, it’s not a genetic problem.

                  But i find it funny when he says that they’re innately ret*rded, 🤷

                  W/e, i won’t take more of your time

                  • amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
                    8·
                    4 days ago

                    Why is it funny to you though? Keep in mind that the connotations of that word are tied to marginalization and caricature. It’s possible you find a caricature funny without realizing that it’s a harmful and hurtful representation of people who have never actually existed in the caricature form, in order to justify marginalizing them. In other words, it may be the joke is on you for thinking you’re looking down on someone and you’re laughing at a specter that was created to justify oppression.

                    We don’t need to be ableist in order to laugh at the right sometimes. I’ll tell you something I think is funny, when the consequences of their bullshit come back to bite them, like alluded to here: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10509392

                • sousmerde_rtrdataire@lemmygrad.mlBanned
                  114·
                  4 days ago

                  Do they really care though if i use the word stupid instead of ret*arded ?
                  Is r*tard some kind of official name to designate them unlike stupid, like jew, dwarf, or n*gger, hence why it shouldn’t be used in the context of an insult ?

                  Well, w/e, ok then, it’s not as if i had any problem with the “mentally challenged” minority.

                  • Perplexed@lemmy.ml
                    91·
                    4 days ago

                    That slur is used against people who are disabled. It was historically created for that purpose, too, in a medical setting by doctors.