(Radical) forums

[Palmares]

I found this site many years ago when it was Che-Lives, and I'm pretty sure it was the only left-wing forum I could find. Over the years there have been various failed splinter forums that came from here. I'm not particularly interested in those, as they are generally shit. I remember one of them was a third-positionist one...!

Do people know of many/any other radical/left forums out there? I'm not being all that sectarian here, so I'm interested at least superficially in anything really, though given I'm an anarchist, that's my preferred tendency. I do know of libcom (have only lurked, not posted), and on reddit there's seems to be some radical sections at least (but I'm not very familiar with reddit generally...). Does anyone here use other such sites? Any good? Many posters?

Otherwise, and to a lesser degree, what other (non-political) forums do people use besides this one? 4chan is a bit of a mixed bag right? Infact, kinda fucked up right? Though anonymous seem interesting. Of these other forums people use, what are they like, politically?

For me, at the moment this is the only forum I use. I have used a few music-based forums in the past, even argued against fash on storm front long ago, but getting restricted made it too boring. I think that's all...?

Maybe I won't end up using any other forums (I've been here 12 years [on and off] afterall!), but I'm interested in people's suggestions nonetheless.

[RedWorker]

4chan and Reddit are terrible, even on the latter's so-called "radical" sections.

[Palmares]

Could you elaborate? Have you used both of those a bit? Or by reputation?

[Sinister Intents]

I tried starting a forum. That was a mistake.

[RedWorker]

Could you elaborate? Have you used both of those a bit? Or by reputation?

I've browsed 4chan many times, and it's full of the most idiotic crap on the Internet. It is not simply that there is crazy madness, which results in arbitrary strings of text. It is rather that the strings of text which are posted are the most idiotic which the human species has the possibility to conceive. In this sense, the posting there is rational - rationally idiotic. I've checked out /r/anarchism and /r/socialism in Reddit several times, and almost everyone there belongs to terrible tendencies or is really confused, with no real knowledge. /r/communism is Stalinist, and arguably it's the least annoying to read because they at least understand a little bit about their own tendency.

Many RevLeft spinoffs seem to be full of shitty people who got banned of RevLeft because they deserved it.

[Sasha]

libcom is the obvious; http://libcom.org/forums

[Sinister Intents]

libcom is the obvious; http://libcom.org/forums

What's it like?

[Palmares]

Yeah, what I've briefly seen of 4chan seems pretty stupid. Like a cesspool. Thanks for the info on reddit, maybe I'll still look at it more, but I just find the whole layout really confusing/unpleasant.

One of the revleft spinoffs was a rebellion of sorts. Interesting, kind of, but still essentially melodramatic internet drama. And of course, another failed forum.

I've checked out anarchist news too. Just too many trolls. I don't understand why trolls even bother. Just seems like the stupidest possible use of time imaginable...

[Hrafn]

If you had spoken Swedish, socialism.nu

[Sasha]

What's it like?

higher level of quality/knowledgeable users, lower level of modding, so mostly good to discuss certain articles etc, not a nice social place to hang out and meet people.

[DOOM]

/pol/ is pure bullshit. The wacko stuff posted there is only bearable if you're a) patient b) drugged or c) both.
/lit/ is cool though.
I don't know much about reddit, I used to write in the anarchist subreddit. However, anarchists are rather liberals and the "marxists" are mostly MLs (complaining about liberal revleft, lol), so it's hardly bearable too.
Libcom on the other hand seems to be a good alternative to revleft.

[Illegalitarian]

Libcom is fantastic, I've seen some of you lot over there as I suspect you've seen me.


420chan is full of socialists of both the marxist and anarchist variety. /pol/ and /his/ are both great, if you're a fan of history.

[Delusional Kid]

I found this site many years ago when it was Che-Lives, and I'm pretty sure it was the only left-wing forum I could find. Over the years there have been various failed splinter forums that came from here. I'm not particularly interested in those, as they are generally shit. I remember one of them was a third-positionist one...!

Do people know of many/any other radical/left forums out there? I'm not being all that sectarian here, so I'm interested at least superficially in anything really, though given I'm an anarchist, that's my preferred tendency. I do know of libcom (have only lurked, not posted), and on reddit there's seems to be some radical sections at least (but I'm not very familiar with reddit generally...). Does anyone here use other such sites? Any good? Many posters?

Otherwise, and to a lesser degree, what other (non-political) forums do people use besides this one? 4chan is a bit of a mixed bag right? Infact, kinda fucked up right? Though anonymous seem interesting. Of these other forums people use, what are they like, politically?

For me, at the moment this is the only forum I use. I have used a few music-based forums in the past, even argued against fash on storm front long ago, but getting restricted made it too boring. I think that's all...?

Maybe I won't end up using any other forums (I've been here 12 years [on and off] afterall!), but I'm interested in people's suggestions nonetheless.
If you're looking to have a rational discussion about politics I'd suggest staying as far away from 4chan as possible /pol/ is the supposed to be the politics board, it's pretty much a far right circle jerk. The best board on 4chan I'd say is /lit/, but that's not really the place for discussing politics.
Anyway, I suggest r/socialism, I post on there quite regularly. Yes there is quite a few social democrats and liberals that don't understand what socialism is, but the majority of the community is pretty good, and try to actually educate liberals and such on what socialism actually is.

[Illegalitarian]

r/Marxism is the only socialist reddit worth considering. The rest are dens of ancap and liberal hooliganism.

r/anarchism is legit too

[Palmares]

Could someone explain the whole /"something"/ and r/"something"/ etcetera to me in n00b speak? I'm not so familiar with these sites so I'm not really down with the lingo. Perhaps I'm behind the times... :unsure:

[Delusional Kid]

Could someone explain the whole /"something"/ and r/"something"/ etcetera to me in n00b speak? I'm not so familiar with these sites so I'm not really down with the lingo. Perhaps I'm behind the times... :unsure:

Reddit is website with various user created "subreddits" for different topics.
For example r/cooking would be a subreddit.

[Palmares]

Is that the same for 4chan?

[L.A.P.]

I got banned from r/communism immediately after my first post

[Palmares]

You must clearly be a reactionary! :lol:

But seriously though, what the fuck could you say in one post to get banned? Did you make a really, in bad taste, joke which included...

Racism
Sexism
Homophobia
Queerphobia
Transphobia
Islamophobia
Anti-Semitism
Lookism
Ageism
Sizeism
Classism
Ableism
Heterosexism
Speciesism
Xenophobia

Hmmm... Did I miss any? But yeah, must have been quite the post. :ohmy:

[Illegalitarian]

Classism? What sort of liberal nonsense is that? Aren't all communists classists?

Or is it specifically speaking about looking down on someone for being underprivileged economically?

[Palmares]

I would say, in common usage it relates to discrimination based on lower socio-economic circumstances. But of course some strange folk might want to defend the rich...?

Nonetheless, I was referencing PC liberalism for the sake of a joke. :unsure:

[Illegalitarian]

I would say, in common usage it relates to discrimination based on lower socio-economic circumstances. But of course some strange folk might want to defend the rich...?

Nonetheless, I was referencing PC liberalism for the sake of a joke. :unsure:

Oh, I wasn't directing that at you lol, I was merely mocking the concept of classism.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Libcom is fantastic, I've seen some of you lot over there as I suspect you've seen me.

Libcom is fantastic - although I wouldn't dream of registering because I'm definitely not the target audience - because it refers to actual, real-life political currents, and a pretty narrow set at that. Most of the other sites people have mentioned take a "big tent" approach, and as an old friend once said, in a big tent there is a lot of room for shit.

[Palmares]

Anyone ever seen this site?

http://www.soviet-empire.com/ussr/

Perhaps not totally what I'm into, but some interesting stuff on there. Only briefly looked at it though.

[Sasha]

Anyone ever seen this site?

http://www.soviet-empire.com/ussr/

Perhaps not totally what I'm into, but some interesting stuff on there. Only briefly looked at it though.


redalert tankies & nazboll central, i would stay well clear of that crap unless to entertain yourself with some trolling

[Decolonize The Left]

When I first joined this forum some years back I was overwhelmed and intimidated. I posted only for a brief while then left to post on a much smaller leftist forum where I was able to develop my ideas with support and coherence. That forum was as splinter forum from here and has since dissolved but I believe it was foundational and important for me and others.

This said, there are few quality locales for leftist discussion and debate online at the moment.

[RedWorker]

The SPGB has a forum: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum

[L.A.P.]

You must clearly be a reactionary! :lol:

But seriously though, what the fuck could you say in one post to get banned? Did you make a really, in bad taste, joke which included...

Racism
Sexism
Homophobia
Queerphobia
Transphobia
Islamophobia
Anti-Semitism
Lookism
Ageism
Sizeism
Classism
Ableism
Heterosexism
Speciesism
Xenophobia

Hmmm... Did I miss any? But yeah, must have been quite the post. :ohmy:



I said something about their Maoist propaganda image being a shame, then suggested handing r/communism over to the left-communists and renaming their subreddit r/Stalinism

[Illegalitarian]

Soviet Empire doesn't go without merit. If you're interested in learning all about the old M-L states and the like, it can be cool to browse. As far as leftist communities go though... nah, lol.

[Palmares]

redalert tankies & nazboll central, i would stay well clear of that crap unless to entertain yourself with some trolling

I guess "entertain" is the most appropriate word. All the random stuff about North Korea on there certainly entertained me. But I wouldn't seriously go there for discussion.

[The Disillusionist]

If you're interested in extremist post-leftist crap, you might try anarchy101.org, though it's not really structured like a forum website. It's more like Yahoo answers, except nobody has any answers and they all agree with each other anyway. :rolleyes:

[The 92nd One]

I'm assuming some of you guys know about it already but if you don't mind a chan, "getchan.net" will be right up your street. :grin:

[The 92nd One]

also come visit us at 8chan.org/ussc

we are just starting up and could use some traffic :)

[Asero]

also come visit us at 8chan.org/ussc

we are just starting up and could use some traffic :)

Man, 8chan's leftist boards are brocialist as fuck. Also, /leftypol/ is better than /ussc/. Unless you're prepared for being consumed by complete ignorance, I don't recommend going to any chan-styled anonymous political imageboard.

The memes are great, though.

Also, /leftypol/ is better than /ussc/

[The Red Star Rising]

The only reason to browse 4chan is because you need a laugh or want to see the occasional bits of awesome that comes out of 4chan. However, these gems are very much the products of "a million monkeys on a million typewriters" rather than anything positive about the community and generally all the best stuff can be found without going into the hornet's nest. For example, there is no need to delve into /tg/ for its occasional bouts of brilliance when everything worth seeing migrates to the 1d4chan wiki or to less utterly toxic tabletop gaming communities eventually. Most of the other "chans" tend to be either dumber or utterly abhorrent (like, hosting actual child pornography abhorrent) and are not worth your time.

Reddit is crippled by the fact that its method of pushing forth content devolves into what amounts to a popularity contest. You can make the most reasoned, insightful commentary but if the community likes someone else more you may as well not have posted at all. Hence r/communism basically becoming the e-shrine great shrine of Stalin.

[DOOM]

If you ignore /v/ /pol/ and /b/, 4chan's actually a pretty nice place.
Reddit on the other hand has some amazing subreddits but I don't believe that it's made for in-depth discussions about radical topics. /r/communism and /socialism are..well shit.

[Creative Destruction]

libcom.org has a forum.

[Creative Destruction]

You must clearly be a reactionary! :lol:

But seriously though, what the fuck could you say in one post to get banned? Did you make a really, in bad taste, joke which included...

Racism
Sexism
Homophobia
Queerphobia
Transphobia
Islamophobia
Anti-Semitism
Lookism
Ageism
Sizeism
Classism
Ableism
Heterosexism
Speciesism
Xenophobia

Hmmm... Did I miss any? But yeah, must have been quite the post. :ohmy:

"Specieism"? Ugh. And wtf is "lookism"?

[Sharia Lawn]

There is also a forum called red marx and rev forum. I think they are still around, anyway.

[motion denied]

If you ignore /v/ /pol/ and /b/, 4chan's actually a pretty nice place.

Add /r9k/ to that list. I agree though.

[G4b3n]

"Specieism"? Ugh. And wtf is "lookism"?

Specieism means to imply that humans are more entitled to the Earth and its resources than other animals or that other animals do not have an equal right to life. I believe that we are more entitled and we do have more of a right to life, but that is beside the point. You mostly find vegans using the term.

I have never heard the term "lookism" used before, but I find that anarchist circles tend to put some focus on discrimination by body type and appearance. Fatism, fatphobia, etc.

[Palmares]

"Specieism"? Ugh. And wtf is "lookism"?

:lol:

I'm not super familiar with "lookism" due to the fact I've escaped the more PC cirlces a long time ago, but... from my vague knowledge, it apparently refers to people who are discriminated based on how "good-looking"they are. I think it's a thing in some areas of the US, Germany, possibly Denmark...? I remember, when I was in Philippines last, I saw an antifa sticker that said "no ism"]", a few of them, then I noticed the "no lookism" one. Of course I rolled my eyes when I saw it. And of course my Pinoy friends had no idea what it meant. It was embarrassing to explain to them what it meant... first world problems... fo real.

:unsure:

[Creative Destruction]

Specieism means to imply that humans are more entitled to the Earth and its resources than other animals or that other animals do not have an equal right to life. I believe that we are more entitled and we do have more of a right to life, but that is beside the point. You mostly find vegans using the term.

Sorry. I knew what specieism was. I was "ughing" at the fact that it was given any sort of serious credence by anyone other than some political vegans.


I have never heard the term "lookism" used before, but I find that anarchist circles tend to put some focus on discrimination by body type and appearance. Fatism, fatphobia, etc.

I mean.. fat shaming sucks and all, but is this really deserving of some "ism" as if it were some structural issue and not just a plain case of people being assholes?

[Creative Destruction]

:lol:

I'm not super familiar with "lookism" due to the fact I've escaped the more PC cirlces a long time ago, but... from my vague knowledge, it apparently refers to people who are discriminated based on how "good-looking"they are. I think it's a thing in some areas of the US, Germany, possibly Denmark...? I remember, when I was in Philippines last, I saw an antifa sticker that said "no ism"]", a few of them, then I noticed the "no lookism" one. Of course I rolled my eyes when I saw it. And of course my Pinoy friends had no idea what it meant. It was embarrassing to explain to them what it meant... first world problems... fo real.

:unsure:

These sort of things make me feel like a horrible conservative, but I can't help but cringe at identity politicking when it is taken to this extent. I can see "lookism" or whatever being an issue subsumed in feminism, when confronting things like standards of beauty, but... I don't know if it's really a thing to be taken seriously in isolation, as if "ugly" men have an issue with this in any meaningful sense.

I got to be careful, because shit like this is going to make me stupid and irrational and completely discount most identity politicking on the face of it. I'll have to do some serious privilege checking or something.

[The 92nd One]

8chan is good. /leftypol/ is a good board with hundreds of users

[#FF0000]

8chan is good. /leftypol/ is a good board with hundreds of users

Hahahahaha, oh hell no, dude. The chans are all a pit, and 8chan's among the worst.

[red-winter]

I myself am a Redditor, and the leftist subreddits are generally shit. I unsubscribed from r/Communism because it's extreme tankie central. They pretty much worship Stalin on every ground possible and even constantly defend the DPRK as some sort of a bastion of Socialism that only has a bad image from "Western imperialist propaganda lies." They're essentially USSR fanboys/girls stuck in the 40s. r/Socialism is ehh, I feel like a lot of people on there don't necessarily know their politics too well, let alone what the different tendencies are. There was big support for Most Glorious Comrade Leader Master Darth Bernie Sanders on there so it kinda shunned me away. The only leftist subreddit I regularly browse is r/FULLCOMMUNISM, but that's because it's generally a parody board where they make fun of things with a leftist flair. People on there seem to know what they're talking/joking about, so I don't hate it as much as the others. 4chan is pretty much a dead end for any sort of common sense discussion. I don't know much about other sites except that soviet-empire is pretty much like r/Communism. Sorry for the wall of text, but that's all I got. The only decent forum I could find is this one right here. :marx:

[The 92nd One]

no, it's really not a pit. its a pretty good community, like 300 users and its pretty fast moving. :)

[#FF0000]

That doesn't mean it ain't a pit.

[Comrade Jacob]

Revleft is the best there is and that makes me want to blow my brains out.

[#FF0000]

Revleft is the best there is and that makes me want to blow my brains out.

I don't think there's a single good political forum out there, really.

I've been in some alright communist facebook groups though, and a lot of the better ones were started by revleft posters. We had a lot of good posters and a lot still hang around but I don't think forums in general are especially popular anymore outside of a few communities.

[Comrade Jacob]

I don't think there's a single good political forum out there, really.

I've been in some alright communist facebook groups though, and a lot of the better ones were started by revleft posters. We had a lot of good posters and a lot still hang around but I don't think forums in general are especially popular anymore outside of a few communities.

The Communism101 group is dreadful. But some lesser know ones are quite good.

[#FF0000]

The Communism101 group is dreadful. But some lesser know ones are quite good.

Yeah. Communism101 (Anti-Tank) is much better, imo, but obviously they're not big fans of certain schools of socialist thought.

[The Idler]

The SPGB has a forum: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum
I was gonna mention this, but you got there first. Its gotten pretty good there. I recommend it. ICC also have a forum.

[lutraphile]

Spamming my own creation: reddit.com/r/theleft
Created in protest of r/socialism banning people and deleting posts they disagreed with. Goal of being a democratically moderated board for socialists

[Luís Henrique]

"Specieism"? Ugh. And wtf is "lookism"?

Something only ugly people experience.

So, for the records, I know absolutely nothing about it.

Luís Henrique

[Guardia Rossa]

I'll apply my own "Kaustesquiste" theory and support the creation of a federation of communist forums.