I see many socialists on X and Instagram that are not on Mastodon, why is that? Is there a socialist argument as to why these organizations are still there, and should we join them?
For agitation and propaganda, mainstream websites are infinitely more effective than whatever we have on the fediverse. That is not on you as an individual but on your organisation as a platform for that agitation.
Now for individualist arguments, there’s the clear reason that sadly most people are still only on corporate social media.
The fediverse works as a safe space, and allows for deeper discussion and studies, but it’s definitely not a place for reaching an audience.
As Communists, it’s important to engage with even reactionary-controlled spaces in order to agitate. Lenin made this clear in “Left”-Wing Communism. That being said, we should also promote spaces like Lemmy and Mastodon while on more reactionary spaces, as we can create our own, Proletarian controlled spaces free from the censorship of corporate media.
Each plays a different role, but ultimately we should be where the working class is.
At least, that’s my belief.
I agree, and i think that is very consistent with what historically Marxist-Leninists have done.
Yep! It won’t always be the comfiest spaces for us, but without a strong attachment to the broader working class, it’s hard to actually build up those other spaces that are comfy.
Edit: revolution is not a tea party, I’m aware, I was using comfort as a stand-in for strength, power, stability, ease, etc.
Some anonymous stranger from either hexbear or twitter payed my rent for me as I have lost my job so that was cool.
Personally… Twitter (when it was still Twitter) helped get me to where I am now in knowledge and beliefs. Lemmygrad has helped me on some things as well, like the Russia-Ukraine situation. Reddit drove me more toward a “anyone could be a political bot” rabbithole of thinking in years prior to that. But also, the way it went on Twitter was helped a lot by people in the orbit of Bernie Sander’s campaign at the time, so some of it may have been pure timing.
So in my own experiences, Twitter was helpful at points, but Reddit was largely a cesspool. There are probably people here who were helped by Reddit though, cause if I understand right, this was born out of one of the only ML subs on Reddit?
Some people can be reached on the large platforms. But I tend to think you need to consider your own situation too. If you’re an org or style of “pundit” who is trying to grow and get messaging out, it makes sense to be on the big platforms to reach more people. If you’re an individual, you may struggle more with when and how much to post about what, and get burned out in irate arguments that lead nowhere. The kind of mainstays I remember from Twitter tended to come across as people who either had a lot of patience to keep at it regularly or were the fighting type and could give as good as they get without growing weary of it.
I just sometimes use bigger platforms because, well, the point of social media is to socialize. It’s not as fun if there’s not many people there.
The only purpose to be on the corporate social media platforms is to agitate. I know I was radicalized by posters and I know I have pushed a couple people left with my posting. If you think you do better work IRL that’s cool.
Nobody uses mastodon. Orgs use platforms where they can reach an audience
ineffective at best, orgs should focus instead on going outside and moving to decentralized platforms for information sharing.
host your own site, hand out leaflets, open stalls; posting on mainstream social media is a dead end and only drives engagement with fascists and people who dont go outside, neither of who are productive.
My org has our website, flyers on a weekly basis and does stalls at bigger events AND posts about it on mainstream social media. I don’t see a problem with it
AND posts about it on mainstream social media
And when the fascists are in power they will have every member on those social medias sites details, well done!
Why are we giving traffic and org details to the enemy again, do you understand who owns these websites?
i dont really understand how you propose promoting an org or doing mass communications. by that logic no org member should own a phone because it could be traced, or because its produced by capitalist businesses.
i dont really understand how you propose promoting an org or doing mass communications.
1 - going outside and distributing propaganda to the public
2 - engage with your local community through activism
3 - setup your own orgs website and direct people too it
you cant use the masters tools to break the masters home comrade, mainstream social media is designed to filter people like us out and at worst suppress/hunt down people like us; take lessons from the red scare or how twitter and facebook work to suppress the working class and inform fascist regimes all over the world, if you invest into the tools of the upper class you’re just honey potting yourself.
by that logic no org member should own a phone because it could be traced, or because its produced by capitalist businesses.
not what im saying at all, you can create your own risk profile suited to what you’re doing; as an induvidual you’re still driving engagement with social media but its not the biggest deal ever
if you’re out protesting and bring your phone though? terrible OPSEC, it can be used to geolocate and prosecute you.
for a massive orgs comms?
undermines the anti-capitalist messaging a little bit when its on the front page of one of the richest people on the planet dont you think?
Nobody uses Mastodon is a lazy analysis.
Do you want me to pull usage statistics for mastodon vs mainstream social media?
Claiming “nobody is on Mastodon” is a lazy excuse to avoid it. The stats are clear that there is a stark difference, but regardless, organizations should be there too.
There isn’t really a good reason to spend resources on a platform that barely has any people on it.
defeatism, its empty because no one is there and im not going there because its empty so we’re going to continue giving zuckerburg ad revenue
no
I strongly believe the means are the ends. if your only presence is on corporate fascist socials that says everything.
