sean

Admin
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Everything posted by sean

  1. Welcome to everybody!)

    Welcome @Power Of Will13
  2. Hi

    Welcome @Omiiran 👋
  3. Here

    Welcome @TheBuddha&TheBum 👋
  4. Greetings

    Welcome @taoxingzhi 👋
  5. Hi, mi name is Tim

    Welcome @Timery 👋
  6. Hello World

    Welcome @InfiniteNature 👋
  7. New Here

    Welcome @connor 👋
  8. Hello

    Welcome @CozySpace 👋
  9. Hello, I'm a New Comer

    Welcome @returntothewomb 👋
  10. NOTE: This is not going to be a debate topic. I stopped debating right-wing dipshits many years ago for literally the same reason I don't argue with small children. Don't post right-wing bullshit in this topic. I'm in a mood and you've been warned. I'm curious if there are any actual leftists on this forum? To be clear, I don't mean neoliberal or "progressive" Democrats. I mean bonafide anti-fascists, left-anarchists, left-libertarians, Marxists, socialists or communists. I haven't been active on here in years. (Short story: I fell in love, crisscrossed the country twice, leveled-up my engineering career, got married, bought a house in a new town, adopted an enormous dog.) It's been incredibly disheartening to see that many of the loudest, most active voices here are right-wing reactionaries and conspiracy theory bros. Frankly, it makes the entire forum feel juvenile and toxic to me. I can barely imagine wanting to share anything in this environment, let alone intimate, personal details of my spiritual practice. Is this just what happens to online communities post-Trump now? The vulnerable aliveness slinks away slowly from the boorish spectacle, slipping quietly out the back door? Trying times y'all. I remember often hearing this trope when I was young that I would eventually "grow out of" being a lefty. At 43 now it appears the prophecies were mistaken. I've only grown from Chomsky to Kropotkin to Marx. (With a cringe laissez-faire libertarian phase in there somewhere.) Hi, my name is Sean. I'm a leftist. 👋 I read a ton but also (hopefully) avoid retreating into purely theoretical astronautics. "If it's not accessible to the poor, then it's neither revolutionary nor is it radical." My perspective continually evolves, but "anarcho-communist" is a shoe that fits well enough. I'm active in community politics and not ideologically opposed to involvement in electoral politics. I vote for the least garbage candidates both nationally and locally. I don't shame people who conscientiously abstain from voting. I think pressuring the generally shitty, center-right led Democratic party leftward is worthwhile even if only as an exercise in shifting the Overton window and organizing solidarity. On a national scale, I believe universal healthcare is a medium-term fight worth focusing on given its populist support and massive capacity to reduce human suffering and death. So, that's a bit about my politics. Any other leftist comrades hiding out here? I'd love to hear from you. Also, feel free to PM me if you're not yet ready to come out as a commie infidel. 😆 Sean
  11. checking back

    @old3bob did you lose access to @3bob? I can help you get back in if you'd like.
  12. @Limahong I'd also like to apologize for the misunderstanding and for cursing at you. Just FWIW I say shit like "oh, will you go fuck yourself?" to close friends in a cheeky manner, as odd as that might sound. And even though I've been more severe here lately I never intend anyone real harm (except literal fascists I guess). I'm a weird human, but I think the loss of my tone of voice in text, combined with my "authority" here (still a strange role for me), can make me seem harsher than my actual personality which I believe is quite easygoing and loving. 🙏
  13. Yesssss, I love hugs, hugs all around please. 🥰 I do hope Marblehead is somewhere pleased with the somewhat turbulent but also IMO never not-loving emotional arc of this thread. Rest in natural great peace Marblehead, you're a good one.
  14. The worldview of a lazy centrist: The world is just fine for me so I know there can't be that much wrong with it. So I am justified in never cultivating the kind of moral clarity that would lead me to actually help anyone less fortunate, especially if it would rock the boat. Furthermore those who disagree with me must be stupid, mentally ill or fanatical for not seeing, as I do, that the truth is relative and certainly never clear enough to motivate action, especially if impolite. Therefore I care much more about perceived civility than those who dare oppose the current status quo. I will never stop being firmly planted in a lazy, false compromise of centrism defined entirely by the poles of the situation I happen to find myself in. I will never be bothered to fight, god forbid, for so-called "justice". Left, right or religious - what does it matter, I'm doing pretty OK ... ... Anyway, I appreciate everyone's feedback. Not an excuse , but I'm having a very rough month to be honest. I've unsuspended Limahong and I'm sorry if I've disrespected the memorial topic. Sean
  15. I'll concede that I'm setting a potentially confusing precedent when, based on my own ethical framework, I swoop in as admin and mock, insult and ban members. Where I'm coming from, for what it's worth, is basically reaching a breaking point in my life with the disparity between supposedly "well meaning" folks who've never examined the enormous privilege of their socially acceptable identity (e.g., class, race, sexuality, gender), never really tried to imagine and empathize with the lived experience of what it feels like to be marginalized, discriminated against, at risk of literal physical violence and murder on a daily basis for your entire life just because you're black or are cool enough to enjoy gay sex, etc. These are folks who express basically zero outrage for the colossal inequalities woven into all of our communities. Everything is fine because that's how it's been, and all this so-called "oppression", oh come on, they're only exceptions, and also I'm doing relatively fine. But HOLY FUCKING SHIT EVERYONE. Someone on the internet said a curse word and called me a dipshit and told me to stop being homophobic. This is an outrageous violation of free speech and tolerance. This is clearly a slippery slope to gulags. When oh when can we go back to facilitating people with 10x more power being politely bigoted to victims of oppression who must also smile civilly, remain calm and polite? So yeah, I'm an asshole and I'm not even trying to justify my behavior on some high moral ground. Frankly I just don't lose sleep being angry for people who can't afford to, or for making thin-skinned bigots who've never been challenged feel like shit for two minutes before they close a browser tab and microwave their dinner in a warm home. I also maybe have a different "theory of change" and think social shaming and ostracisation may sometimes do more to shake things up and facilitate enlightenment on certain issues. So call it skillful means if you want, I dunno, I'm not "wise", I'm just a computer idiot trying to provide a forum. LOL. (Edit: I should clarify that none of what I wrote above is specifically directed at Limahong and I do have empathy for generational and cultural gaps in understanding.)
  16. New member, in search of teacher

    Welcome @asavakkhaya 👋
  17. Welcome

    Welcome @dMaMu 👋
  18. Hello there!

    Welcome @Rbruch23 👋
  19. Obligatory New Member Post

    Welcome @higurashi 👋