Memes for sure help people radicalize in some ways, but the biggest problem was lack of professionalism. It’s a semi-anonymous internet forum so of course that would not be possible, but the lack of any sort of push for education meant people get stuck in a cycle of edgy memes and shitposting.
It was an easy access to “leftist” ideas, which is something sorely lacking online. The problem with subs like communism101 is the heavy handed modding. I get wanting to keep a clean line if thinking, but subs aren’t parties. There is no party line. They’re open forums for discussion and as such the learning subs need to be more welcoming to new communists. It’s a bit intimidating to potential comrades when you get banned or looked down on for asking a question; it just pushes them away to stay liberal or towards anarchism as they have no substantial theory and makes the barrier of entry to liberals easier
The second one I think it’s more a matter of striking the right balance. I certainly think some of them the mods perhaps have grown weary and trigger happy but you also don’t want the other end where the mods let the users run the sub until it turns into a hole of liberalism and then you’re faced with having to try and purge most of your userbase. It’s a delicate act of being open but not letting certain liberal sentiments or ideas take root and for that you also need users who downvote/upvote/engage with people to keep the liberal sentiments out and the unrepentant and unreformable liberals outside the sub.
Memes for sure help people radicalize in some ways, but the biggest problem was lack of professionalism. It’s a semi-anonymous internet forum so of course that would not be possible, but the lack of any sort of push for education meant people get stuck in a cycle of edgy memes and shitposting.
It was an easy access to “leftist” ideas, which is something sorely lacking online. The problem with subs like communism101 is the heavy handed modding. I get wanting to keep a clean line if thinking, but subs aren’t parties. There is no party line. They’re open forums for discussion and as such the learning subs need to be more welcoming to new communists. It’s a bit intimidating to potential comrades when you get banned or looked down on for asking a question; it just pushes them away to stay liberal or towards anarchism as they have no substantial theory and makes the barrier of entry to liberals easier
I agree with your first paragraph strongly.
The second one I think it’s more a matter of striking the right balance. I certainly think some of them the mods perhaps have grown weary and trigger happy but you also don’t want the other end where the mods let the users run the sub until it turns into a hole of liberalism and then you’re faced with having to try and purge most of your userbase. It’s a delicate act of being open but not letting certain liberal sentiments or ideas take root and for that you also need users who downvote/upvote/engage with people to keep the liberal sentiments out and the unrepentant and unreformable liberals outside the sub.