Not that the normal (but still un-official) subreddit, /r/SocialistRA, is much better, but this is /r/SRAWeekend, a meme-heavy, politics-lite subreddit.
If you want to get a picture for what the actual Socialist Rifle Association is like, then join:
We have our own official forum. It’s a “big tent” organization, but with a relatively narrow focus (in comparison to other so-called “big tent” organizations):
The Socialist Rifle Association is an education and advocacy organization dedicated to providing marginalized communities and the working class with the education, the skills, and the advocates necessary to be effectively armed for self and community defense. We recognize all aspects of self and community defense to include topics such as firearms, disaster relief, medicine, logistics, agriculture, general survival skills, and other pursuits necessary to unify and strengthen communities against the hardships of life under capitalism. We seek, advocate for, and advance an inclusive, safe, and healthy firearms culture in America to combat the toxic, right-wing, and exclusionary firearm culture in place today. We work to create a platform, environment, and community of members and like-minded individuals that are free of reactionary influences and prejudices, such as racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and other discriminatory ideologies. We maintain the necessity of and work towards the implementation of an anti-capitalist platform for protecting and promoting the inherent human right to defend oneself and one’s community.
From my experience, the membership leans more on the anarchist/libertarian socialist side of things. But ultimately --in my chapter at least-- we’ve been more focused on the mission of the organization than on in-fighting.
The community in both subreddits used to be cool when one of the founders actually used to participate in it. Some posts they made had pretty significant effects on people and are still getting referenced, I still refer people to this post on “cringe” for example.
The modteam and org really dropped the ball letting their communities get like this. They have progressed well beyond being spaces that turn people into leftists and have turned into sectarian shitholes full of the same fake anarchists that populate other sections of sectarian reddit who aren’t in any orgs and do absolutely nothing except sectarian infighting all the time. It actively harms the org because serious people see that shit and see the org as completely unserious.
This is really fucking easy to solve. It’s been solved in dozens of other subreddits since it reared its head. Just ban sectarianism, purge vaushites and drop bait every now and then to identify the people that need to be purged.
In my experience, it was the sectarianism of gun worship that exactly mimics NRA talking points. These people aren’t socialists, they’re anarchist gun nuts.
They chose mass-growth of the subreddit as a tool for advertising SRA over ideology and that worked for a good while but it became detrimental and they did nothing.
In their defence I suspect they don’t really have anyone on board the knows how to conduct a proper purge either. Ideally it would occur over several months and be conducted as silently as possible so as to not attract the neoliberal wrecker crowds who will pose as socialists and attempt to cause exoduses and drama in the community. The org membership touches grass whereas keeping this shit out requires people that completely immerse themselves in very-online reddit rubbish.
This is the exact same thing I was told when the mods on r/SocialistRA refused to address weird ass bullshit the community was doing regarding folks in Appalachia (notably after nationals rejected us organizing our own chapter in WV for no provided reason and just never established further contact). No one is going to pay to go to an official forum for discussion. They shouldn’t have to to establish interest. It’s just an awful marketing strategy. I’m kind of disappointed to see that talking point has worked its way over here.
Respectfully, and I mean this as constructively as possible: the community is still yours. Y’all have to own that nonsense in any part of the org (including the subs associated with it) and address it. It’s not attracting or conducive for some of us.
I’m not sure I understand the “talking point” you’re referring to. Organizations have official spaces. The SRA has made it clear that the subreddit is not one of them. And as such, drawing conclusions about the organization from a space that is not its own is… not going to be particularly constructive. It’d be like judging LemmyGrad based off of what users on Lemmy think about it. Sure, they sound similar, their audiences might overlap, but you’re not interacting with the source.
It might make it clear that it’s not an official space, but that doesn’t stop the community there from being bad for the image of the organisation and making people consider the org itself unserious.
Even the fact that most of these people aren’t org members is not relevant. Rick and Morty fans are not representative of the show but they affect it. The sympathisers and “fans” of the org participating in these spaces are affecting perception of the org in a very negative way.
This was visibly a problem over a year ago, but it was the Ukraine war situation that caused it all to get much much worse.
I get that, and realize that the leaders of the org might not care about some reddit subs that have their name. But this kind of undisciplined / anarchist approach to social media really turns ppl off to the org as a whole. They should start caring about those spaces, because its their public image at stake.
I mean damn, you have SRA spaces, presumably filled with “socialists”, who overall support nato pedophiles like vaush, and state department anarchists like robert evans.
If these ppl are the dominant voices of the org online, it scares me for what they’re capable of doing irl. I can’t think of many things scarier for leftist organizers in the US than armed vaush supporters in our spaces.
As Lenins2ndcat said, the solution isn’t difficult: enforce social media discipline, educate members on these ppl, step up and purge the vaushites and fedanarchists, and do occasional bait posts to out them.
Not that the normal (but still un-official) subreddit, /r/SocialistRA, is much better, but this is /r/SRAWeekend, a meme-heavy, politics-lite subreddit.
If you want to get a picture for what the actual Socialist Rifle Association is like, then join:
https://socialistra.org/membership/
We have our own official forum. It’s a “big tent” organization, but with a relatively narrow focus (in comparison to other so-called “big tent” organizations):
From my experience, the membership leans more on the anarchist/libertarian socialist side of things. But ultimately --in my chapter at least-- we’ve been more focused on the mission of the organization than on in-fighting.
deleted by creator
The community in both subreddits used to be cool when one of the founders actually used to participate in it. Some posts they made had pretty significant effects on people and are still getting referenced, I still refer people to this post on “cringe” for example.
The modteam and org really dropped the ball letting their communities get like this. They have progressed well beyond being spaces that turn people into leftists and have turned into sectarian shitholes full of the same fake anarchists that populate other sections of sectarian reddit who aren’t in any orgs and do absolutely nothing except sectarian infighting all the time. It actively harms the org because serious people see that shit and see the org as completely unserious.
This is really fucking easy to solve. It’s been solved in dozens of other subreddits since it reared its head. Just ban sectarianism, purge vaushites and drop bait every now and then to identify the people that need to be purged.
What does sectarianism mean in this context? Like, no arguments about what is a Leftist ideology and what isn’t?
In my experience, it was the sectarianism of gun worship that exactly mimics NRA talking points. These people aren’t socialists, they’re anarchist gun nuts.
deleted by creator
They chose mass-growth of the subreddit as a tool for advertising SRA over ideology and that worked for a good while but it became detrimental and they did nothing.
In their defence I suspect they don’t really have anyone on board the knows how to conduct a proper purge either. Ideally it would occur over several months and be conducted as silently as possible so as to not attract the neoliberal wrecker crowds who will pose as socialists and attempt to cause exoduses and drama in the community. The org membership touches grass whereas keeping this shit out requires people that completely immerse themselves in very-online reddit rubbish.
I’m not sure I understand the “talking point” you’re referring to. Organizations have official spaces. The SRA has made it clear that the subreddit is not one of them. And as such, drawing conclusions about the organization from a space that is not its own is… not going to be particularly constructive. It’d be like judging LemmyGrad based off of what users on Lemmy think about it. Sure, they sound similar, their audiences might overlap, but you’re not interacting with the source.
It might make it clear that it’s not an official space, but that doesn’t stop the community there from being bad for the image of the organisation and making people consider the org itself unserious.
Even the fact that most of these people aren’t org members is not relevant. Rick and Morty fans are not representative of the show but they affect it. The sympathisers and “fans” of the org participating in these spaces are affecting perception of the org in a very negative way.
This was visibly a problem over a year ago, but it was the Ukraine war situation that caused it all to get much much worse.
I get that, and realize that the leaders of the org might not care about some reddit subs that have their name. But this kind of undisciplined / anarchist approach to social media really turns ppl off to the org as a whole. They should start caring about those spaces, because its their public image at stake.
I mean damn, you have SRA spaces, presumably filled with “socialists”, who overall support nato pedophiles like vaush, and state department anarchists like robert evans.
If these ppl are the dominant voices of the org online, it scares me for what they’re capable of doing irl. I can’t think of many things scarier for leftist organizers in the US than armed vaush supporters in our spaces.
As Lenins2ndcat said, the solution isn’t difficult: enforce social media discipline, educate members on these ppl, step up and purge the vaushites and fedanarchists, and do occasional bait posts to out them.