I’m not sure what’s going on over there, but half the time I see a post from there or go into a comment section and it’s just…bad. Like old reddit the_donald bad. Constant trolling, etc. You TS just really bad vibes. I’ve been blocking the communities as they come up, but I’m not sure what else I can do.
I had never heard of that instance before opening this thread and ooh boy do I wish I hadn't. I have known these kinds of people for a long time, I've been these kinds of people (for a thankfully brief period). Just in this thread there are hexbear users doing the usual tank schtick of goading people into political discussions and calling them neolibs. I can see why some might view them as a neutral or even positive place to have around given their apparent progressivism towards queer people and their mod team being largely trans, but I really don't think that really makes any difference. You can slap some pride flags on it all but ultimately if you drill down deep enough into the beliefs of any group that proudly calls themselves Marxist Leninist you're going to find some truly ugly shit. And it's not just the obvious stuff like having to hear how progressive Cuba is, the stances they take on oppressive regimes always leads to some kind of war crimes/genocide/ethnic cleansing denial, and where they're self aware enough to not outright deny they will deflect. I can see why from the perspective of queer western people this might all seem a bit esoteric because a lot of them will attempt to dance around the issues but they are there and a lot of people with familial connections to this stuff that do see it for what it is. And before any of their users get excited I'm not going to engage with your shit, I've seen you, I've been you, I know your shit and I don't fuck with it. If you just scroll through here you can see the neolib name-calling and tankie memeing/totally ironic (probably) propaganda, they have zero self control. The blue and pink ain't fooling me.
this is a very vague post, and frankly i strongly doubt you were ever a communist given your basic lack of understanding of marxist principles, there is zero reason to lie about such things.
also im trans and am a czech communist so... it is incorrect to assume that everyone from formerly communist countries hate communism. and i obviously have strong 'familial connections' to communism, many of my relatives were partisans that directly killed nazis that invaded our home. it is my experience, at least in czechia, that the communists are the most likely to be LGBT friendly out of any political grouping, and i strongly believe that eastern europe would not be the homophobic cesspit it is now if it remained communist.
Gotta second that, I have similar 'familial connections' to partisans in Greece, the UK/US directly helped the monarchofascists back into power after the war. I often wonder what it would have been like for LGBT people in Greece if tens of thousands of communists hadn't been killed on desert islands thanks to US foreign policy.
the blind support of US imperialism and colonialism and anti-left sentiment from users of my instance in this thread is really disappointing to see, i expected better.
Hexbear is an explicitly left unity platform, MLs included.