I mean no, it’s not. The main anti-colonial group left in Gaza, which is massively popular, is an organization whose primary driving force is Islam. Religion is an incredibly important cultural force that is a key driving factor for Gazans and other Palestinian people in this fight. That is a materialist analysis of the situation lol because that is what the Palestinians themselves are saying. Just look at the wording used by the people there: the dead aren’t the dead but ‘martyrs’, and this isn’t just a conflict but a ‘jihad’ (righteous fight).

Hakim is very correctly noting the obvious here in that a vast majority of the Palestinians are Muslim and that their faith is a primary driver of this conflict for them. Painting in broad strokes isn’t denying that there aren’t any secular Palestinians, but talking about how Palestinians are fighting back and resisting in aggregate / at a zoomed out level.

Seconding Blowback, I’m six episodes in and went from “Hmm I feel icky about Cuba” to “Holy fucking shit I can’t believe we would do that to them, I unequivocally support Cuba”

Trying to think this through out loud. I cannot forgive Biden for the way he treated the rail workers. But at the same time the shift left with the NLRB is something I feel like is worth protecting at the minimum? Idk I’m not going to put any effort into campaigning for anyone or doing anything really beyond the primary vote, but if it’s down to Trump vs Biden I feel like I’d vote Biden, just for the NLRB. Thoughts?

Why do you argue so fucking far past the point it’s obvious you’re wrong? You’re an entire branching comment tree in this post. You never give up on a single point but you’re getting bodied left and right.

I’m laughing so hard I almost shat my pants reading this thread

“All the they/thems in this thread are bigots, they’re actually right-wingers!” - WTF is this take

To be clear in the dunking threads folks are not usually engaging in good faith with us. When I was on another server and replied with actual questions to stuff everyone was incredibly nice to me and explained stuff super well. Can agree though that folks can see dunking as alientating. I promise though if you can get past that it’s one of the friendliest communities I’ve found on the web.

took public transportation to get there

We have /c/urbanism so this is doubly true lol

I mean that’s fair, but what you’re doing is like going into a public library and throwing a rave party.

Have you read any of the threads on here? Y’all are absolutely vitriolic against Hexbear users. That is not a ‘public library’ lmfao

No, you are like a cookie in a jar, im a observer.

Genuinely what the fuck does this mean

Blowback has done more for my understanding of Cuba and North Korea than any other piece of media I’ve ever consumed

Lord I’m still listening to Season 2 of Blowback and haven’t gotten to Season 3 yet but I had no clue about this, that’s genuinely fucked up

Is this written by ChatGPT

Hi, I’m new to the community and just wanted to say I fucking love it here so far. Everyone is so fucking nice and understanding while being honest and authentic, I genuinely have learned so much and love coming back to this site. This thread is the perfect example lol.

Doing pretty great. Starting a new job in two weeks I’m excited for! Questioning whether I have autism. Went out and had a good night socializing and shit. Life is doing pretty good rn.

I don’t think this is a bad thing though. Books like the bread book or The Dispossessed can help open people up to a leftist POV by showing them that there are very realistic alternatives to a capitalist system that, while utopian, would be so cool to live under. I feel like we should push people less towards “gloom and doom” books as their first book.

Listen to Teach Me Communism! It’s the podcast that turned me into a leftist.

It’s a nonbinary person and their brother basically doing a book club every week and explaining a different piece of socialist literature or socialist history. They start from square zero (the manifesto), work their way through stuff like The State and Revolution, and do a toooon of history. Also they’ve done the podcast for the past 3 years, do it entirely for free, and donate all of the money from their Patreon to a local Dallas mutual aid fund. I have such an unhealthy parasocial relationship with them but I’m an ML now and love them (though they do a lot of anarchist stuff too).

Really wish more people would suggest them more!!

What I was trying to ask though was what’s hexbear’s thoughts on Democratic socialism as a concept

I’m new here, but from my understanding we’re a leftist unity instance! So folks will have opinions across the spectrum. Communists and anarchists generally do not like democratic socialism, or think that it isn’t a viable way to achieve socialism. Most Hexbear users from my understanding and experience seem to fall into one of those two camps, but you’re still welcome :)

that the rich and powerful are like the Jurassic Park T. Rex, they can’t see you if you move slowly enough

LMAO I fucking love this comparison

I hate to be this person, but I would highly highly highly recommend listening to Season 2 of the Blowback podcast if you haven’t yet. It goes over the Cuban revolution and explains some of the ‘bloodshed’ that was necessary. It also gives you an idea of what a real revolution looks like (hint: it’s more boring and tame than you’d think). I just started listening to it and it’s literally blowing my mind. Making me feel like a lot of this is more achievable.

One of the things that pushed me into leftism about seven years ago was the realization that there even WAS something to the left of me.

Yeah the same is true for me being anti-car. When I first heard of European congestion taxes when I was car-brained I was like “that is literally insane, how are you going to restrict poor people’s right to get into the city”. But after learning about other forms of transit and the fact that it’s affordable and cheap and objectively better than private vehicles, I realized that just realizing that other transit options exist makes me move further ‘left’ lol.