I was on .ml for like a year so this account is new but it was what tipped me over the edge into really recognizing the lifetime of propaganda I was fed and how the people and politicians I thought were the ‘good guys’ do not care about people like me in the slightest. So you can say it was the final catalyst for my radical transformation.

Before I stopped using Reddit, chapo was “that one subreddit that got banned for wanting to kill people” but I started reading the posts people make here about North Korea and other countries that I made fun of and thought were just ‘bad’ and it made me start thinking about it.

My path was coming from being a very individualistic and selfish teenager, to a standard liberal cheering on the war on terror and several times at risk of falling into alt right ideologies, to a Bernie supporter, to a vegan, and finally ending up here. I don’t want to call myself a communist or a ML yet because I don’t know well enough how I’d respond if someone asked what that really meant, but I’m getting there and it feels right.

People make jokes about how posting isn’t praxis and most people’s time would probably be better off doing something else. But I don’t think I would have gone further beyond in my intellectual and personal development and really criticized my past self to figure out why I had those views, why I was so selfish and why I and other people who still think that way are wrong. Mainly because there was nobody in my physical space that would have introduced me to those ideas.

This site had been a pressure valve for me to rant and scream into a somewhat more comfortable void when I was otherwise surrounded by people I didn’t like socializing with that had political views that made it hard not to stare daggers at them day after day.

Even now, in a nicer place that I’m much happier in, I have a bit of sentimentality about it and it’s still a nice place to talk.

Habit-forming, unfortunately. I sometimes get so distracted being here that I put off stuff I really should have done first.

I am the posting.

this site made the world make sense. there’s so much doublespeak that i hadn’t wrapped my head around:

• the West is historically extremely awful & the West is amazing and civilised
• Western democracy is broken af & Western democracy is the only democracy
• racism is minimal and actively combated against & racism is endemic
• non-socialist anti-imperialist states actively free people & non-socialist anti-imperialist states actively oppress/colonise people

there are so many more examples, but being exposed to this site showed me there was a way out of the imperialist core. this site to me is a blessing

deleted by creator

you’re nothing more than insomnia feed to me. but please keep posting

Hexbear showed that what I was seeing and thinking wasn’t me being absurd, it was western society which is busted and horrific and there are frameworks through which to view about it, things to be done, and that there are soooo many leftists who aren’t fuckers about queer issues.

Also the caliber of person here is on average so much fucking higher than anywhere else I’ve been online. What cool comrades, what incredible posters.

this site is the only place on the internet where there are people with good opinions, even though there are some bad opinions as well, truly a land of contrasts

Or are they?

I’m a habitual lurker on forums, but the few times I’ve posted/commented here have 100% been better experiences than any other site I’ve used. It’s nice to use a site that doesn’t make me feel disconnected from reality for seeing the obvious and daily indignations millions-to-billions are forced to live through just because the currently dominant economic model insists this is justthewayitis. Its really validating knowing i can trust my own eyes. The only other place I’ve been that is similar is irl organizing, which I’ve not been able to do for some time now unfortunately (and, long story short, had locally become dominated with very electoral and liberal ideas, which was incredibly disheartening).

It’s great browsing a site that can both validate these frequent observations of systemic failure while continuing to challenge my own worldview. Before browsing here and lemmygrad I had felt like an “internationalist,” but in the last few years here I’ve started realizing how big the imperial core blinders really are. I don’t necessarily know what to do with that yet, but it’s something I’m working on and probably ought to just discuss on here at some point.

Plus, I always appreciate the way federated users are treated when they cruise by to spout bs imperial core takes (usually dressed up as if they’re subversive in some way lmao).

I’m trying to post and comment more because yall seem pretty cool, I just usually don’t have much to add.

i just like that i can post here and not worry about getting banned for criticizing israel, amerikka, capitalism, white supremacy, etc. i hate having to walk on eggshells on reddit and constantly getting banned/lectured to by the dumbest liberals on earth

i see you all as tools for the destruction of all cisgenderkind

Not part of hexbear but I think most of you are the coolest part of Lemmy especially [email protected]

its a fun little site

Hexbear helped me deal with my dad’s death. I probably don’t have anything I can say that’s going to be bigger than that.

What if you yelled into the void and the void yelled back “same tbh”? Pretty neat I think.

Some of the struggle sessions were actually helpful for me, eg DPRK or transsexuality.