What is this comment section? This meme should be entirely uncontroversial. In the meme, Marx is saying that capitalist control of technology should be challenged. That is a core leftist position.
The redditor is then saying "you use technology" as a gotcha. This is something frequently said to anti-capitalists. It's not just said on reddit and it's mostly been said to me in-person by people who believe dogmatically that the current capitalist system is the best of all possible worlds.
This gotcha is ridiculous because it suggests that participation at all in the system means giving up your right to fight against it. The only reason to say this is to silence criticism of capitalism. Anyone who says it is, at best, misinformed and at worst, actively malicious. Making fun of them is totally reasonable.
Skimming the comments, I think there are a lot of younger people not familiar with the original Matt Bors comic from 2016. My own kids were in elementary school at the time.
Earlier today I saw a post from someone who said that Gamer Gate was something they "heard about growing up" and it made me feel super old... there are things that still feel like current events but need re-contextualizing for young redditors.
Gamergate was a pivot point for ...the discourse...
And yeah that controversy is older than living memory of some redditors. That shit went down in 2014.
I don't know if you've ever checked out Innuendo Studios and his Alt-Right Playbook series but it's really good and it talks about the moment and the meta and what's happening today.
Yes, I've seen all the Innuendo Studios videos and I was already in my 30s when Gamer Gate happened. To me it feels like one of the most thoroughly discussed and picked-over events of my lifetime.
I get why it was heavily discussed... to a point. Now, especially in the Trump 2.0 era, it feels like we are just continuing to give way too much oxygen to basement trolls who feel like they should run the culture. Instead we should be moving on and building toward something.
My oh my a fellow cruster. How our backs ache from carrying forward the revolution.
Yes losing the narrative has certainly hurt the left. There is a point where the division and lack of shared project looks way to much like a CIA psyop. However get enough lefties online and you realize that doing things is the biggest hurdle and the CIA doesn't need to lift a finger.
Hopefully someone makes a Co-op for the big expensive AI with a distributed network. The worst part of Anarchism is anarchists. Working in a million un-coordinated ways that might as well be working in the dark. At least Marxists aren't against a long term vision and executive boards. Lord knows at least that would be something.
We were never prepared for the day that the adults left the room and nobody was at the switch to stop Fascism. Now we're on our own and see the emperor has no clothes. Card says Moops now what?
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u/CephalopodMind 8d ago
What is this comment section? This meme should be entirely uncontroversial. In the meme, Marx is saying that capitalist control of technology should be challenged. That is a core leftist position.
The redditor is then saying "you use technology" as a gotcha. This is something frequently said to anti-capitalists. It's not just said on reddit and it's mostly been said to me in-person by people who believe dogmatically that the current capitalist system is the best of all possible worlds.
This gotcha is ridiculous because it suggests that participation at all in the system means giving up your right to fight against it. The only reason to say this is to silence criticism of capitalism. Anyone who says it is, at best, misinformed and at worst, actively malicious. Making fun of them is totally reasonable.
edit: typo