memes

The fact they don't list dissent or criticism of China/Russia as being bannable in the rules is one of the bigger problems. They will just ban you for Rule 1 or 2, neither of which have anything to do with that and leaving banned users scratching their heads wondering what they did wrong. Meanwhile to the other .mls, it just looks like the devs banned someone for a "legitimate" reason because the devs will leave a comment painting the banned user's comment in that light.

Example: User "BillyBobJones" expresses a dislike of China's genocide of the Uyghur Muslims. Dessalines or Davel will quickly ban BillyBobJones under Rule 1 or 2 for, say, "racism". Then they will leave a comment under the deleted comment accusing BillyBob of saying something racist and saying that's why BillyBob was banned. Unless an .ml user bothers to check the modlogs, they won't know what BillyBob actually said and will praise Dessalines/Davel for removing a racist. Dissenter removed, echo chamber reinforced.

To be fair, I did sign up a long time ago. However, I do have reasons to stay in .ml. Here's a response I posted elsewhere: https://lemmy.ml/post/40683138/22907808

To understand what you mean, is that seal winking? If so, are you saying that maybe I'm not being forthcoming or honest? I hope that you and I and everyone here can agree that we're trying to understand what we're all saying and where we all stand. I'm not being sarcastic or trying to hide anything.

Thanks for the straightforward response.

It sounds as if it's clear that .ml admins are pro-Russia and pro-China. I understand you're also asking if I'm making content-flow choices.

I think it's worthwhile to interrogate where I stand in relation to .ml and my identity.

The way I see it, .ml does have posts that mourn aspects of countries like the USA and posts that recognize achievements of China. I'm not sure I've seen posts praising Russia, like at all, ever (if anything, I've seen posts critical of how Russia is a hyper-militaristic society).

I take this to mean that .ml is not indoctrinated in the way that many of my friends are. Some of my friends think that capitalism is perfectly ethical, and they sweep under the rug awful things about capitalism. They sweep under the rug how capitalism creates systemic inequality, how capitalism optimizes for accumulation instead of human flourishing, how capitalism is short-sighted in its investment strategies, how capitalism cannot create infinite growth in a contained system like planet Earth. I see these kinds of analyses in .ml. And I do not see them as much in other places.

I want to make it clear that I'm not saying those analyses don't exist elsewhere. However, I see .ml engaging with them much more. I could be wrong, and I'd be very interested if you can link to other communities that engage with things like, for example, classical economics instead of neoclassical or post-Keynesian economics. Anyway…

This might lead you to believe that I have a specific political project in mind that I'm supporting. And yeah, I believe in humanism, in human development, and in empathy-based ethics. However, I do not believe in static visions of the future. I do not think that there's a Single Best Way Of Solving World Problems. I believe the world is a complex system and we need multiple simultaneous experiments at all levels to get more of what we want and less of what we don't want.

And what is it that I want? I want more acceptance of diversity and less hatred. I want more people working in good working conditions and less shitty workplaces. I want more equality of opportunities and less hoarding of privilege by the wealthy. I want more people out of poverty and less people stuck in the cycle of poverty. I want more investments that care about the long-term benefit of everyone and less investments that care about the short-term benefit of elites. I want more people who can choose what to do with their lives and less people stuck with what they've got in front of them.

So am I anti-USA and pro-China?

• If you tell me the story that the USA is lagging in healthcare compared to its rich-country counterparts, then I want less of that. Am I anti-USA because of that?
• If you tell me the story that the USA managed to be an innovation power-house for a century because of its entrepreneurial state, then I want more of that. Am I pro-USA because of that?
• If you tell me the story that China has a demographic problem because of its gender imbalance, then I want less of that. Am I anti-China because of that?
• If you tell me the story that China is investing immensely in the development of green energy, then I want more of that. Am I pro-China because of that?

What I'm trying to say is that we have to look at reality with openness. I believe we should not stick to a simplistic story. I believe simplistic stories blind us to complexity and nuance. I believe we should not stick to easy stories such as "pro-USA" or "pro-China". I believe we need to be able to break complex systems down and find what we want more of and what we want less of. I believe we then need to be able to accept that in complex systems we cannot know the end-state. I believe, instead, we need to try things out at multiple levels and see if we're getting more of what we want and less of what we don't want.

So yeah, I see myself as someone who sees in .ml the kinds of analyses that I don't see elsewhere. Of course, I'm open to alternatives and am curious about where you stand and what you believe.