this takes a myopic view IMO, rhetoric like this absolutely does damage class consciousness in the US. just the other day on hexbear, a bunch of active DSA-left folk were saying their primary task right now is tearing down decades of anti-communist programming with the American proletariat - if that’s true, having the two most popular faces of American (ostensible) socialism saying shit like “Israel has the right to defend itself from the horrific Hamas” (Bernie) and “Cuba and Venezuela are brutal dictatorships” (Zohran) points them in the absolute wrong direction. It creates a public perception that socialism = capitalism with all the same chauvinism and global exploitation, but with the balm of economic reforms internally ameliorating its most obvious contradictions and harms. it worsens what is and has been arguably the central contradiction of socialist organizing in the imperial core (the bribes of imperialism kneecapping these movements).

really speedrunning the succdem coward pipeline huh…

do you mean by state actors? i feel like hexbear is too low impact for that personally. (letting disgruntled people who use the site in bad faith into positions of power, that i do think has happened.)

tbh i think it’s mostly underlying contradictions and negative tendencies in the site culture/administration that have always been there, but came to a head in the last year or so. admins have always seen themselves as Vanguard of Posts (rather than what they should be, which is peacekeepers of a chill, cozy community whose focus and culture should be directed by the users). my impression is that that undercurrent kind of erupted after a year or two of relative peace & chill vibes.

I think the refusal to have a burning zionist flag emoji did cause a lot of non-white users to leave.

okay I know I wanted to not stoke internet drama (and this is mostly separate from electoralism stuff) but I will say: that struggle session and the big one late last year really showcased the core issues with the site IMO. culture of administration has always had an undercurrent of bogus Poster’s Vanguardism, but admins seem to have radlib politics with chauvinist tendencies (in a majority ML instance, so a user base that’s broadly more politically developed than its leadership) and the site has no real democratic input. these contradictions came to a head at various points in the last year, after a year or two of peace & relatively chill vibes.

that’s not to mention the impression many have of contempt for the userbase from site management, or the impression that you can get away with a lot of hostility (or tbh outright bullying) if management likes you enough and/or you have enough clout, but that’s a discussion for another time.

just a lot more DSA posting since Zohran, a few users over there are active members.

huh, didn’t realize there were still so many electoralist holdouts on hexbear until the last half year or so. not making a judgment one way or another or trying to feed internet drama, just an observation. it had seemed for a while that the space had turned pretty firmly against that theory of change post-Bernie.

TY Cowbee!! 🫂 i hope your own journey into grasstouching organizing has been going well (we spoke about it for a bit on one of my many short-lived, follow-up hexbear accounts lol). once you get past the social anxiety hump, i’m sure your genuine, sincere kindness and comradely nature will be not just an organizational asset, but a real source of joy for your IRL comrades <3

should all go as planned, i’m going to be a full member of PSL in the very foreseeable future! it’s not much in the grand scheme of the struggle, but working with and connecting with a community of beautiful souls who are genuinely committed to building this thing right here in the backyard of my smallish city has really been something 🥲