You can’t research socialism on a large scale because it has never existed.

You’re arguing from an ideal. I’m arguing from reality. I look at evidence, not theoretical constructs of how the world ‘should’ be. ’

PRC is not socialist dude. You are straight up delusional. It’s autocratic capitalism. They pivoted to that after Maoism was a titanic failure. But hey, don’t like history or facts get in the way of the fantasy in your head that you got from reading a few books?

it makes them feel important. that’s why.

That’s why most cults have an element of apocalyptic baked in. Fear of the ‘end’ keeps people in line, and it also makes them feel like they are superior to those who are ‘ignorant’ of ‘the end’.

The proto-revolutionaries in the comments here are of the same mindset. They are ‘aware’ want to collapse to come so they can demonstrate how right they were.

Not too different from horror/apocalypse movies too. The fun of those movies is the projection the viewer has about how they would not be as ‘stupid’ as the characters.

pretty much. and most people think you’re an asshole if you disagree with them.

can’t tell you how many times I get told I am an asshole for not being into professional sports. for example. i think it’s pretty harmless, but for pro-sports fanatics I’m a heathen to their religion.

Yeah that’s accurate. I accept lower social status for my goodness.

Turns out other people don’t admire that. They admire assholes and they tend to think anyone who isn’t seeking wealth, power, and status is mentally deficient. At least in USA. I have been told many times that me not rent-seeking and exploiting others is ‘being lazy’.

what kind of education?

plenty of education is about instilling ignorance and hate in people. plenty of ‘educated’ people are the ones creating the vitriol because it’s financailly beneficial for them. Most of the right wing nutjobs are just doing it for money.

I’ve noticed this. Even in small groups of ‘community’ minded people. The sociopaths always rise to the top and the good honest people get pushed aside. And people LOVE it. Because the sociopaths tell people what they want to hear and people love being lied to.

And nothing pisses off a sociopath more when you aren’t swayed by their bullshit or offer deference to their status. They get so angry with you and they will then character assassinate you, usually by spreading lies and rumors. And people eat it up because they’d rather believe in dramatic bullshit lies than the truth in front of their faces.

I grew up in a household full of hateful bigoted ignorant people. I’m aware of the consequences of that.

People who didn’t grow up with that experience aren’t. I noticed most of the hateful ignorant people I meet grew up with ‘supportive’ parents… and basically were isolated form the consequences of their actions. They don’t have ot be nice or kind… because they will get what they want regardless of how they behave because money and power and privileged.

These are also the same people who think anyone who doesn’t have a elite degree or wear designer clothing is subhuman. They think they are inherently superior to other human beings because they possess these things… which were given to them by their wealthy families and they operated under the delusion that anyone who doesn’t have those things just didn’t work hard as they did. And anyone who doesn’t want them… is mentally ill.

Amen. Just look at media. Look at popular media.

Tells you all you need to know.

I think deep down most people are assholes. But it’s just hard-wiring.

Not being a decent person is hard. And assholes won’t think you’re decent unless you are also an asshole with them.

Nice people will also turn on those of us who do call them out. Standing up to popular bully is the fastest way to get people to turn on you.

Popularity is what people care about. As long as violence is against unpopular people, it’s great.

Live your life by example.

The world has enough people who preach and don’t practice. It needs more people that practice and don’t preach.

Socialism only works in small coherent groups. It doesn’t scale. You can run a socialist business, or group, or town. Sure. People are generally pro socialism when it’s amongst their own tribe.

You can’t run a socialist multi-ethnic society for millions of people. Human tribalism.

All the socialists I know seem to have a hate hard on for working class people. At least where I live.

Don’t forget, supporting the status quo and doing the popular thing, regardless of how hypocritical it is.

What gets me is how openly hypocritical people are becoming. There is no more shame. I notice that many of the ‘principled’ people think their principles do not apply to them. Only other people that they don’t like.

I’m not even talking politics. Often in personal relationships people will tell you how lying is awful, but then lie themselves and justify it by claiming that everyone else is doing it or that they had to do it because they are ‘disadvantaged’.

the problem with this place is it’s not user-friendly. and the posts/comments are too nerdy/niche for most people. my lemmy frontpage is like 50% linux nonsense. ordinary people dont’ know what linux is.

for me it’s mostly when i get flooded by comments from extremist nutbags. at least on lemmy they arne’t reporting me to get me banned site-wide. they mostly just send me links via messaging to ‘educate’ me. which is annoying but not pathetic.

most of the banning comes from the bigger subs, not the small niche ones.

every time i have been banned it’s from political comments in a larger sub. never a niche one. my last ban was for supporting the mayor in a city subreddit. apparently it’s ‘enabling racism’ to mention the race of your mayor in a positive light.

social pressure and accolades.

i have a low-pressure good-wage job. I get ton of casual feedback from everyone in my life that I am ‘wasting my life’ by not working in a higher paying job. I’ve had multiple relationships end, because I prefer to stay in my stable & rewarding job than seeking more money and climbing some corporate ladder. etc.

I may be quite happy with my life and my job. But other people tend to look down on that and it has negative consequences for my social/romantic life. They are often jealous of my conditions and/or condescending that I am not ‘optimizing’ my earning potential. A lot of people can’t fathom living outside of a toxic/stressful work environment and regard people who don’t as ‘lazy’ or ‘lacking ambition’.

Yeah I find people to be far more amendable in educational contexts than they are generally. My Russian class is the only place anyone seems to think my interest in Russian literature is cool.

What I struggle with is that I don’t use IG and other social media. And a lot of people’s polite/casual conversations are entirely based on that stuff.

I notice I have an easy time talking to people over 50, but under 40… it’s like I live on a different planet. We have nothing in common to really talk about because they just reference social media stuff and I have no context for it. I quit a bunch of stuff recently because all the new people coming in started straight up being rude/insulting me because my life isn’t governed by chasing social media trends or agonizing about response times like theirs is. I get told off by a lot of new people because I don’t text back fast enough and they take it as a personal attack or something when I said ‘well if it’s that important why not call and have real time voice conversation’.

I also prefer face to face interaction and not constantly being in discord/slack chats, which apparently is how everyone under 30 socializes these days.

It might would. could be a disaster.

plenty of volunteer communities are full of insane gatekeeping types of people.