GucciMane [none/use name]
Some points:
I’m Indian, and part of me sometimes doesn’t mind the “reddit” feel of this place, since I’ve been using reddit for more than 10 years and was radicalized online, but hexbear does have this white online leftist veneer. And it does make me feel like I should be more of an observer rather than a participator, sometimes. I think another poster hit the nail on the head about trying to recruit from online spaces that aren’t reddit. I disagree with that poster about twitter tho, since I think there’s plenty of PoC communists using twitter.
The site’s culture and choice of memes (especially the wojacks, even tho I enjoy them lmao) is very white. Might be an unpopular idea but I think injecting some seriousness, education, and effortposting, and cutting back on the shitposts and chan lite culture is a good idea. I say this, because, while there’s nothing wrong with having unserious/casual culture (I personally enjoy it), we should contend with the fact that hexbear’s culture appeals to and is created predominantly by white people. So if hexbear’s point is to have like a lighthearted place to hang out, of course PoC comrades aren’t going to want to hang out since it’s not their culture! But don’t get me wrong I def don’t think the solution is to just remove or transplant hexbear’s culture.
Posting stuff from hoodcommunist.org. It’s a big communist Black/African blog and their writing has never been posted here lol (tbh I don’t mind posting them). Reposting blogs/writing/poetry from comrades in the 3rd world. Also repost PoC orgs like Black Alliance for Peace. Get real organizers and revolutionaries, or revolutionary orgs in the streets to do AMA’s here, and/or feature them in posts (while still maintaining hexbear’s independence of course).
I think it’s fine that a lot of site users are Americans and post about America, maybe because I am american as well lol, but there should be more posting and education about 3rd world liberation struggles. More emphasis, nuance, care about and for the Black and Brown world. What’s that, you don’t know anything about that? All the more reason to educate ourselves.
Sometimes it feels like when Black and Brown revolutionaries are discussed here, they are treated by people here as either just A) static tokens, where white leftists will like worship them without being able to appraise them critically or see them for their flaws and nuance or B) completely unknown, and just disregarded. An example of A is like you might have a thread about Thomas Sankara or Fred Hampton, where someone will be able to list all their accomplishments and how cool they were, but no one is really interested in, or able to criticize and see their faults. When you treat groups and people like this, it’s kinda tokenizing. there were very serious faults and flaws with these revolutionaries, and a lot of these other movements that we need to take seriously and criticize openly, not just bask in victories from decades ago. As for B, one of the largest and most advanced revolutions taking place rn is the Naxalite revolution of India. As far as Ik there’s never been any discussion on it. Here’s an hour long video covering it from Marxist Paul: https://youtu.be/exd74uNJaeQ?si=cCkpB9odCHHsGsLc There’s seriously plenty for white people to learn, study, and discuss from 3rd world liberation movements.
My only point is that many people have name-dropped communism in history, and many of these people were counterrevolutionaries, reactionaries, utopians, liberals, social-democrats etc.
I don’t care that Lula thinks a communist is cool. I care whether Lula is communist, whether Lula belongs to a revolutionary communist party, whether the party is firmly linked with the masses and is actively fighting for the concerns of the masses — I could keep going but these things are not true. But yes it is true that Lula praised a communist. So did Pol Pot.
You’re seeing the opinions of the western left, and in our countries our movements have only just been rebounding after decades of very harsh repression and propaganda, so it’ll take more time, struggle, and political development for people to see the difference between social democracy and revolutionary society. It is unfortunate, but for now, many will be captivated by the former.
