oh wow another hoi4 twitch streamer. how novel. I'm so tired of these grifters that make a "job" out of making "ermmm akshually" dunking and reaction videos between two sessions of whatever paradox game.
Yeah bro you dunked on an online reactionary good on you. There are protestors being killed by police in Kenya but it's vitally important that you post about this youtube guy sure.
The moment you make money from your streaming stop calling yourself a communist or divide the two completely. One side of you is a communist, the other is a streamer. You simply cannot reconcile making money from this, because you will self-censor yourself very quickly in order to chase more money.
But this isn't even about the money aspect. I'm so tired of online "communists" in general. Lemmygrad and PW are the only reasonable places left. Prior to 2020 I learned a lot online in those spaces but now it's just devolving into a flanderization of itself. It's all about the post-irony "ermm what did he mean by this??" types of posts that even the OP doesn't know what they mean by it, they just wanted to post. You make your own meaning because they're on 5 levels of irony and clearly saying their point would cancel at least 4 of those layers and we can't have that. It's a contest to be the cleverest smartass all the time.
And when you point people to fully-owned spaces like the aforementioned, they don't want to join. They keep getting banned and driven off the lib platforms but they want to stay there. One argument is that the people are there, sure, but nothing is forcing them to exclusively use one platform. Imo they just want either the money and the fans.
They don't want to be part of a collective platform because that entails work, and rules, and giving up your name to an extent. It pays more to be doing their own thing.
It's very individualizing. People start getting followings of fans that will defend them just because they like them. You see that any time one of these guys gets called out for being a sex pest. Thus instead of building a movement they are building a cult. If what you're doing ends up being a Logan Paul then you're not really doing communism.
A ton of maoists and ultras too on social media, and very vocal too. They don't know what they're saying either, just like the rest. Before the internet these are people who would have thought "gosh maybe if I'm the only one that thinks like this I might be wrong". Now they find each other and they get to stroke their brain to Bordiga all day long on their armchair. Then once in a while post something that a trotskyist would say (but still claim they're not trots).
I agree with most of what you're saying. I think that "online communism" can be a good starting point for people, as it was for me. But as one develops, there's less and less that can be learned from videos and online forums.
No disrespect to any streamer, but even the ones I respect (The Deprogram, Richard Wolfe, or Democracy Comes Home), I hardly watch them because I don't feel like I'm learning anything. But I am grateful for where they brought me.
I guess online communities are good for an alternative community. I keep Hexbear as it keeps me from proprietary social media. But I don't have much hopes for it beyond entertainment and a few small good things it has. I think the second that the Fediverse becomes dangerous to capital, they'll find a way to shut us down.
Ya it's super sad. I recommend staying clear of all that drama, if possible.
My litmus test for impactful 'content' is if I remember it a week later. Sometimes I do, a lot of the time I don't.