9 ms·
Thank god we are done with accusing people of being communists
by themitigating 3y ago
Thank god we are done with accusing people of being communists
- thumbuddy 3y ago[flagged]
- eru 3y agoIt's more common these days (on the Internet) to accuse everyone you disagree with as being fascists. However, even during the red scare, communism/socialism was (and still is) fashionable with the elites. Compare https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-new-sultan https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-the-new-su... and see how McCarthyism might have been a reaction.
- themitigating 3y agoDoesn't matter if it was true or not.
- Dig1t 3y agofascist, racist, bigot, all pejoratives you can attach to someone to shut them up or tear them down.
- hiddencost 3y agoClaiming words with detailed and well documented meanings don't have meanings is specifically a key component of fascism.
- hulitu 3y agoThey don't claim that the words don't have a meaning. They just changed the meaning so that now they are "offending". And offence is a crime for which you can go to jail. So calling someone a nazi can land you in jail.
- themitigating 3y agoSo calling someone a nazi can land you in jail. Example
- Dig1t 3y agoThe definition of racism is a hotly debated topic actually, it can mean many different things. "Merriam-Webster has a new definition of “racism”" https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/6/10/21286656/merriam-webster-racism-definition https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/6/10/21286656/merriam-we... There are people who believe it's impossible to be racist against white people, others believe it's simply discriminating based on race. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/04/us/anti-defamation-league-racism-definition/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/04/us/anti-defamation-league-rac... >Since 2020, the ADL had described racism as “the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges White people.” It's a powerful word that can be used to shut people down, so it is liberally used to do so, and its definition is changing to suit the policies and objectives of politicians and organizations. One example: during the pandemic it was considered "racist" to suggest that the virus might have come from a lab, if you don't believe me I can find you a million reddit threads, Twitter threads, and articles saying as much. NOW it is openly talked about by government institutions and those same institutions that were writing articles decrying it as racist. I fail to see how talking about the definitions of words and their power makes me a fascist. If anything you are the fascist for misusing the power of certain words to stifle discussion and the free exchange of ideas.
- Gud 3y agoInteresting that this is getting downvoted! This has been especially common in my home country Sweden, where these labels were used by the political and media elite to put down the grass roots movement trying to stop mass migration from Africa and the Middle East.
- valval 3y agoSame is happening here in Finland now in full force. It’s scary and fascinating to watch, I hope it gets studied a bit deeper so we know what makes people act like that.
- staunton 3y agoHow about "people don't like foreigners and strangers"? Most societies in human history have been that way. Even chimpanzees kill members of other groups by default when they find them alone.
- themitigating 3y ago1. Chimps also kill to dominate, is that now an acceptable behavior for people? We aren't animals. 2. If you don't like foreigners you're a bigot and terrible person. Hating someone because of where they are from is illogical because not all people from a specific location act and think the same. Therefore your hatred has no specific valid target.
- staunton 3y agoYou misunderstood my comment. I'm not saying anything about what behavior is "acceptable" or endorsing anything. I'm saying that people and animals have been acting that way for a very long time. Tolerance for strangers is more in need of sociological explanation than the opposite. Certainly, the trend towards tolerance exists and is rising over the course of history, which I very much like. It's about asking what the default state is from which society makes "progress". Or are you disputing the historical claim that humans on average have never been more tolerant towards strangers than today?
- hackyhacky 3y agoThey are also pejoratives that, on occasion, can accurately describe a person's political position and social opinions.
- consumer451 3y agoYou seem to have accidentally omitted “socialist cuck,” and all of the other terms used by the other side of these lovely exchanges.
- roflyear 3y agoThis is very out of touch with the current zeitgeist. You have real politicians (not Randoms on the internet) in the US who are hinting that fascism is not bad or may even be the answer. Additionally, you have elected federal politicians in the US calling people communists.
- toiuo423i4324 3y ago[flagged]
- lolinder 3y ago> Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create accounts routinely. HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Using a throwaway account to make a needlessly incendiary comment is unproductive. If you're not willing to put your main identity behind a comment, maybe consider if it needs to be rephrased rather than hiding behind a throwaway.
- rtsil 3y agoVisceral violent hate of 'heretics' and 'pagans' has less to do with Western civilization and more to do with human nature's propension to identify with a tribe and consider everyone outside the tribe as a threat until proven otherwise. That propension didn't appear randomly either, it is the result of millenias of hard lessons learned where those outside tribes were indeed threats. That learned behavior still dictates our actions today, except for some of us, the notion of "tribe" has been enlarged to include a vast number of people, or, for the most idealistic, the entire planet.
- boondoggle16 3y ago> except for some of us, the notion of "tribe" has been enlarged to include a vast number of people By "some of us", do you mean people of European heritage? China, Russia, Israel, and most of Africa are incredibly xenophobic.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- leptons 3y agolol, you're joking? The right-wing loves to call liberals "communists" as well as "socialists", as if it's the worst possible thing in the world.
- valval 3y agoIt’s not the worst thing in the world, it’s just a way to dismiss someone as being naive and not understanding how the world works.
- hackyhacky 3y agoYou're aware that by American standards, Finland is a fully socialist state, right?
- bombolo 3y agoBoth Sweden and Finland joined NATO with the goal of increasing army spending and reducing it on the social programs. Better to give money to USA to buy one F22 and to complain about darkies being criminals, than to put money to education so that criminality isn't the only route out of poverty right? /s And of course in Sweden the schools where the residents are poor get less money, aren't as good, and it's much more difficult for their students to be accepted into a university.