Even though federation has led to racists and/or NATO defenders showing up, I’ve also encountered a number if very cool people from other instances posting things like helpful advice on federation stuff, vivid descriptions of getting vored by a pack of anthro-hyenas, interesting insights and opinions on Star Trek lore, etc. I still haven’t found much in the way of active hobby communities, but it’s pretty cool to see more Star Trek and furry stuff in the timeline, and I feel it makes having to deal with the occasional deranged lib worth it.

Anyways, to all the genuinely cool people who wander into Hexbear threads, I’m very glad you’ve showed up to bless us with your wonderful posts and I hope you stick around.

meow-hug

  • sicklemode [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I noticed you consistently capitalized Ukraine and consistently used lowercase for Russia here. This kind of stuff was started by the far-right reactionary regime in Ukraine to further dehumanize Russians by refusing to recognize them as a legitimate people. You would do well to abandon this trend and properly capitalize Russia, acknowledging that Russians are in-fact human. Some people are lazy in their typing, but this seems to be deliberate in this case.

    Edit: Checking your post history, there’s another instance of this from 7 days ago as of the time of this post. Russians are as human as anybody else, and shouldn’t be demoted to sub-human levels by refusing to capitalize the words “Russia” and “Russians”. Regardless of how you may personally feel about the Russian government’s actions, it’s not okay to deny recognizing an entire people’s fundamental humanity.

    Edit Edit: Checking your post history from other instances reveals far more instances of this, all consistent. Point stands.

    • bloopernova@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      This is true. I don’t apologize for it (yet?), but I don’t intend to deny their humanity and I’m kind of shaken that it’s interpreted that way. Which is entirely on me, and I wanted to thank you for the shock because it’s a blind spot I don’t like to have. I obviously have some thinking to do.

      Not capitalizing certain names is my personal choice to show that by their actions they no longer have my respect. For instance I do the same for the billionaires that are constantly in the news, and the ex president who has tried to steal the election.

      My reasoning/feeling for applying it to russia is that their state TV shows constantly dehumanize Ukraine. Regardless of history and how the point was reached, russia invaded Ukraine and have stated clearly that they consider the state of Ukraine to simply not exist. Ukrainians have been tortured, raped, and systematically genocided by russia.

      Respectfully, I understand that you or many here may not agree with those statements, but I’m not sure how to progress from there

      • sicklemode [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        How about you watch this video about what’s actually been going on in Ukraine, that Western media (including all their big tech proxies) has basically censored with a conspiracy of silence on reporting: Ukraine Targets Elon Musk, US Aid Dwindles, Ukraine’s Offensive Increasingly Depleted

        What ever lack of respect you have for Russia (or anybody, for that matter), you should take that up in the form of airing your grievances in a precise and targeted approach to what exactly you don’t like about them or their actions. It is unnecessary to use lowercase when referring to a person or a people’s proper identity, as it suggests they are of a lesser or illegitimate race/status. There’s acceptable processes for showing you have a dispute with a person or entity (Russian government, for instance), and refusing to capitalize someone’s name or race isn’t one of them. You’ve been manipulated into a practice that is against people’s fundamental right of having their humanity recognized.

        You seriously have to ask yourself if this is worth it, continuing down this path. Do you really want to be remembered this way?

        • bloopernova@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          I don’t have a lot of respect for the democratic party really. Which is outright adoration compared to what I think of the republicans!

          Not a libertarian either. I dunno, I don’t really fit in. Which isn’t some dumb “I’m not like the other girls voters” crap, I just don’t agree with much…

          Lol I can’t stay away today it seems. Oh well, I’m a sucker for punishment I guess.

          • I think that nobody needs to own more than a few million dollars.
          • I wish guns were strictly controlled with stringent testing requirements, but seeing Ukraine stand against russia makes me wonder about that. And people need to be able to defend themselves against fascists in their neighbourhood, the police, and government. No idea how to solve that gordian knot.
          • Any large group of people needs tough oversight to prevent the banal corporate evil of “somebody else’s problem” and passing the buck.
          • Everyone has a right to shelter, food, education, healthcare.
          • Women are the only ones who should make decisions about their bodies.
          • Religion should be taxed and audited by people to make sure kids aren’t being abused, people aren’t being grifted, etc.
          • Police must be professional public servants not paramilitary groups.
          • Elected officials must conduct their affairs under a microscope of public scrutiny, including all bank accounts, travel, contacts, etc. Shit slap an ankle monitor on them and a bodycam.
          • We should be a 2 planet species.
          • But we should have to keep the planet pristine for the next 7 generations.
          • Everyone should have the same rights.
          • Justice must not be pay to win.
          • Freedom of expression is great but social media should be adult-only and regulated. Skinner-box social media like tiktok should be illegal. We should protect our information space against foreign manipulation.
          • Laws should be kept updated as new exploits are discovered. Laws should follow the country as it grows, not wallow in inequality.

          Of course I’m forgetting a bunch of stuff.

          Maybe I should just be Monster Raving Loony party instead?

          • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Not a libertarian either. I dunno, I don’t really fit in. Which isn’t some dumb “I’m not like the other girls voters” crap, I just don’t agree with much…

            Remember that you’re speaking mainly to communists. I hate the Republicans, the Democrats, the Libertarians, the Greens, and basically any party that you’ve likely heard of besides the larger communist parties (which are meh). Rejecting all the neoliberal parties is not in itself even slightly incoherent, and it seems that a rejection of the domestic aspects of neoliberalism are your strongest throughline here.

            I agree with almost every bullet point as-presented, discounting the second one because you express ambivalence there anyway.

            I think the “two planet” thing is silly because terraforming Mars is much more expensive, wasteful, and difficult than terraforming Earth, but I don’t think you’d split the party over that one. I also disagree about taxing churches, but I think there should be better standards for establishing a church and they should, as you say, be subject to regular auditing.

            I furthermore think minors should be allowed on social media but that’s kind of a difficult question and there should be more serious age-gating. China has some interesting laws in this respect, actually, with accounts that are tied on the back end to your real-life identity but with that information not displayed to others. It makes it much easier to track down when someone says something alarming (e.g. a bomb threat, talk of being abused, etc.) while letting them have anonymity to their peers and avoid stalking.

            But beyond that (and what I said are my personal opinions anyway), everything you said is consistent with common socialist platforms. I think, so long as you’re reserved in your communication style, you’d have a good time over on hexbear.net and people would send you reading/videos that you might find interesting and informative.

            Here is a video that comes to mind as being relevant to matters that you discuss:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nPVkpWMH9k

            And here’s a letter written by Lenin that I think you’d like (when Lenin says “liberal” he essentially means “capitalist” and “social democrat” is “communist”):

            https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/mar/11.htm

          • sicklemode [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Laws should be kept updated as new exploits are discovered. Laws should follow the country as it grows, not wallow in inequality.

            China by Numbers: Improvements to legal system over the past decade
            A look at the country’s (China’s) progress in improving rule of law

            Freedom of expression is great but social media should be adult-only and regulated. Skinner-box social media like tiktok should be illegal. We should protect our information space against foreign manipulation.

            Facebook Targets Cambodia’s Prime Minister: A Lesson in Securing Information Space

            This myth of other countries salivating for opportunities to penetrate and manipulate the US’ information space is complete projection. The US itself leverages its big tech companies’ de-facto monopoly on much (if not most) of the world’s information space, as Facebook and other US-based big tech firms operate globally and are used for what you’ve basically parroted about TikTok.

            US media/social media platforms have always been used for war-like purposes, even domestically within the US. Every election they strong-arm dissenting views that contradict the narratives the capitalist class finds threatening to their legitimacy and the legitimacy of their system of liberal democracy. You don’t have to take my word for it, you’ll see it yourself as election season heats up again in the US.

            If anything, TikTok has offered people (especially marginalized groups) an alternative that isn’t as vulnerable to direct US manipulation via the national security state. That’s why the US has hysteria over TikTok; because they can’t control it the same way that they can other firms like Facebook which are directly integrated into the various three-letter agencies (most notoriously the CIA and FBI, but also the NSA in terms of data collection and storage). Tiktok offers a place where working class people can more effectively dissent against the US’ tyranny without being censored, de-platformed or otherwise sabotaged so easily.

            Edit: Your policy positions trend positively overall, so that’s comforting.

      • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Not capitalizing certain names is my personal choice to show that by their actions they no longer have my respect. For instance I do the same for the billionaires that are constantly in the news, and the ex president who has tried to steal the election.

        Nobody’s convinced by this weak excuse. You might as well just go all the way by saying “ruZZian” like all the NAFO fellas are doing.

        • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          I don’t find it very persuasive, but it’s a hill absolutely not worth dying on to argue against it compared to looking at the actual content of claims.