oh, yeah, i think that's obviously true. in fact it's not only true there but more universally. it's not even political necessarily - its in any subculture now, identification through posting/profile - due to internet representation being hyperreal as a form of instant identification - is more important than actual action then action is no longer as "real" in its observability (unless its recorded, of which it is then essentially staged to begin with).

Baudrillard probably laughing his ass off somewhere rn

exactly, there's a thread in life sxn about regretting the amount of time you spend online and i'm like

kinda... but this is just how we all live now. IRL? this is realer than real

it's not like ten-fifteen years ago where if you were always online you were a weirdo

one kinda still might be but that would depend on how they spend time online, not the fact that they're online

Do yourself a favor and never take anything Austin, TX does seriously

As someone who thankfully no longer lives there lol

I think what's the most telling and what f***s me up about this is seeing how younger generations interface with the internet vs people around a decade or so older than them.

Like back when I was getting to use the internet - which was basically like the "golden age" of most sites, like reddit, 4chan, even digg was a thing, and they didn't have as cancerous monotone cultuures yet, the idea of "you" being linked to your online persona was basically blasphemous. The only thing which was an exception to this was like, if you were someone relatively famous (like idk an early a career youtuber). But even then a lot of famous people online were pseudononymous - many of the most famous Newgrounds creators or general bloggers didn't have real names or pictures exposed until years later. The idea of the internet usage being intrinsically linked to you as an extension of you rather than a disconnected entity you interface with is just imprinted on zoomers.

Like, back in the day you maybe had the same username & avatar across all sites or something, but you never linked it to your face - or even really real; ESPECIALLY if you weren't 18. You would always lie about your age and where you were. Now you have zoomers who get an ipad and go "hey yeah my name's jayden johnson, i'm 13, and i live in iowa, and here's my youtube channel and all my social media." the idea of this is still shocking to me and i say this as someone whose entire career is built in digital media.

it's no surprise to me that internet behavior - like idk, "cancel culture" (as a phenomenon, not as a rw twitter talking point) - has gotten so absurd and mutated. Internet behavior itself hasn't ever changed because it's just how people act, but the distinction of identity and usage in relation to that has, and that's created this horrible environment

Internet looking hella realistic across the US last week

tribuneofthepeople.news/2021/09/24/revolutionaries-commemorate-chairman-gonzalo-across-united-states

I believe that the conflation of one's IRL identity and their URL identity is the root of a lot of our current era's problems, and tbh to circle back to OP's subject - I think a lot of THE MOST VISIBLE leftists don't actually care about changing s***. That's because by nature of their being part of a very visible and very online discourse, the most common denominator views rise to the top. Anyone who sees a cynical opportunity to profit off of that model is obviously going to do so while cosplaying as a "leftist" because that's what gets supporters in that space. Same s*** happens on the far right, frankly to a more absurd degree in a lot of cases.

EDIT: I also have to add that you're spot on about how warped things have become because of this dynamic. The internet remains a place of little to no direct consequences for your actions if you want it to be, but it also now has MASSIVE ramifications for the worldview of the individual and both identified and anonymous statements exist in the same sphere of influence. That's f***ing horrifying honestly.

I get your point but bro, this is effectively a personal blog. Yes people like this exist, but this is a fringe of a fringe political faction. They have zero political capital in this country other than being used as ammunition for opposing groups to say "see! ____ are in the company of radicals!"

I guarantee I can pull up one of any of the thousands of evangelical/hardcore christian protests that I guarantee happened across the deep south any given day in the recent past and you'd rightfully laugh in my face.

And I believe you dont know what the f*** youre talking about so where are we now

we’re at the place where you’re proving @op s point i asked a super simple question that you won’t answer

yo maybe im slow but didn't marx say that humans being selfish was a result of living in capitalist society and not inherent to human nature

or is this just a thing that modern leftists say

because you can't tell me what the f*** the contemporary left is lmao

Most of them are just filling their own pockets

i was paraphrasing so dont take it to heart textually, as yeah the actual theory itself that marx wrote is a lot more complicated. marx didn't agree with someone like kant that humans were intrinsically selfish in a transcendental sense, but he did believe that humans were unique (like as a species vs animals) and also kept from an individualist self-realization due to capitalism. The belief is that - in a Darwinian sense - behavior/nature is borne from conditions and then expression is derivative of those conditions. However on a fundamental level, like drawn back from capitalism as a holistic concept a second, the idea is that humans have an explicit need for self-activity and satisfaction which is borne from individualist conditioning and needs. One problem (again, paraphrasing a bit) is that under capitalism, there are two issues which arise A) a system is in place of which prioritizes not only a universal goal (i.e. growth/profit) but also acts in the interest of those who control the production (it does not matter who it is because the relationship of those who control such intrinsically under such a structure is the same for this exact reason of conditioning) and B) environments exist of which humans interfere with each other's abilities and needs, disrupting organic society and realization.

ill say as a disclaimer i don't agree with 100% of everything from marx on like a pseudo-theological basis so ill admit my a***ysis is a bit skewed in favor of what i do believe (ironically), so just take that w/ a grain of salt as im not trying to be actively misleading. also though keep in mind these are extremely dense concepts from incredibly long and detailed texts too, so me condensing it into like a single paragraph is bound to be a bit different since these things cant really be described succintly

Yes, most of the things we call human nature are actually just culture, and culture stems from economics. The economy of hunter and gatherer will create different cultural values than a capitalist culture or a socialist one

A large percentage of the BLM protests over the last few years have been led by Marxists. I’m sure then you didn’t claim they had no political capital.

That “personal blog” is read by thousands of people and has hundreds of people connected to it. That “personal blog” has been able to organize entire apartment buildings into rent strikes.

Being a communist isn’t something you do just because it’s cool or because a lot of people are doing it. You become one. You become one because you’re absolutely sick of this rotten system. You likely have been either involved in politics your entire life or been f***ed over by the system so much you never gave a f*** about whose in office. In 2018 I was running around knocking on doors trying to get people to vote for my local progressive candidate. I’m older now and realize how much of a selfish motherfucka that candidate was.

You become a communist because you want to make the world a better place. Yeah we talk s*** sometimes but that’s because we’re so frustrated with the state of things.

I just cant believe ppl think ppl become communists to grift lol. It's the worst grift there is

but why