this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
62 points (95.6% liked)

Slop.

757 readers
647 users here now

For posting all the anonymous reactionary bullshit that you can't post anywhere else.

Rule 1: All posts must include links to the subject matter, and no identifying information should be redacted.

Rule 2: If your source is a reactionary website, please use archive.is instead of linking directly.

Rule 3: No sectarianism.

Rule 4: TERF/SWERFs Not Welcome

Rule 5: No bigotry of any kind, including ironic bigotry.

Rule 6: Do not post fellow hexbears.

Rule 7: Do not individually target federated instances' admins or moderators.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

2025-22-08: Due to a (suspected .ml) troll spamming the comment section, you'll now need to sort the comments by "Top" to see the actual comments from users on this post.

Good job everyone blocking and boycotting .ml! It's having an effect, users are noticing and MAUs on their comms are falling!

And for anyone asking "Why are we boycotting/blocking lemmy.ml?" Here's a quick recap:

Lemmy.ml is an instance run by admins who are hardcore tankies and will enforce their ideology on their instance through various means from allowing (and pushing it themselves) propaganda (Such as Russia being justified in some way to invade Ukraine) and known propaganda outlets (Like RT) to removing content on their instance critical of their favored authoritarian regimes such as Russia or China and even banning users for such speech or speech critical of them if it's off their instance (Just like the Reddit mods of ol!).

If it was just some random instance it would have been defederated from long ago like the rest of the "Tankie Triad" (Hexbear and Lemmygrad), but they've positioned lemmy.ml as the "flagship" instance and abused that position and influence to become large enough to keep other instances from defederating from them.

Which I believe is harmful to the Lemmy-verse's overall growth and outside reputation. I have seen it come up before on Reddit threads (and other testimonials from people who came back and tried it again) that "They tried Lemmy but it was a bunch of tankies and went back to Reddit"

I don't know about you, but I'd prefer Lemmy to not end up with the reputation for being "Tankie Central " or even worse "Voat 2.0".

So if you haven't joined the boycott yet, join today and help us foster a better healthier Lemmy-verse!

You can take a look around here on !meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works for documentation of it or checkout this list of curated documentation

Noteworthy Selection

Full collection list at the end

Dessalines - Head .ml admin - Head Lemmy Dev

"Slava Ukraini" is considered a "Fascist slogan" - https://lemmy.world/post/36065538

"NK is actually good, and anything counter to that is Western LIES" - https://lemmy.world/post/31595035

"The BBC is not a credible news source" - https://lemmy.world/post/35824465

Showing support for Ukraine on .ml is worthy of a site ban - https://lemmy.world/post/32775563

Open declaration of support for Russia - https://lemmy.world/post/27352415

"Don't worry guys, the Uyghur Genocide was REALLY just birth control! - https://lemmy.world/post/30580167

Censoring criticism of China while allowing fellow "in-crowd" user "concentration camps were just reeducation camps and weren't that bad" misinfo to remain - https://lemmy.world/post/26985447

Censoring when users call out propaganda - https://lemmy.world/post/32776038 | https://lemmy.world/post/33416433 | https://lemmy.world/post/34051329 | https://lemmy.world/post/35919522

Discussing winnie the pooh and/or the negatives of china is a 30 day ban - https://lemmy.world/post/35374967

Davel - .ml admin

Spreading anti-ukraine Russian propaganda - https://lemmy.world/post/34655572

General negative sentiment to other instances who haven't "seen the way" yet - https://lemmy.world/post/27426510

"See! nobody died IN Tiananmen Square, just AROUND it, so it doesn't count!!" - https://lemmy.world/post/30673342

Response to a valid report of "NK is actually good" as propaganda/misinfo https://lemmy.world/post/32627834

Removal of a credible article that was on the Uyghur genocide - https://lemmy.world/post/33205310

It's totally fine when Russia kills woman and children, war is war after all - https://lemmy.world/post/33224299

Nutomic - 2nd in command Lemmy Dev

Their continued transphobia - https://lemmy.world/post/29222558

General Tankie user behaviour

"Propaganda is good actually" - https://lemmy.world/post/36162233

"The China censorship tool isnt actually censorship! And if it is, it's actually a good thing a state has that much power!" https://lemmy.world/post/30010789

Rooting for Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war https://lemmy.world/post/29274763

Spreading Russia talking points like the Ukraine invasion just being a "negotiating tactic" https://lemmy.world/post/27012640

Biden is worse than Trump - https://lemmy.world/post/33631617

Uyghur Genocide denialism - https://lemmy.world/post/33873969

Full Collection

Evidence of bans, censorship and bias to push their 'ideology'

https://lemmy.world/post/34395059

https://lemmy.world/post/32720369

https://lemmy.world/post/32298242

https://lemmy.world/post/32471440

https://lemmy.world/post/35919522

https://lemmy.world/post/32292143

https://lemmy.world/post/35254858

https://lemmy.world/post/32222856

https://lemmy.world/post/32426343

https://lemmy.world/post/32058315

https://lemmy.world/post/35919814

https://lemmy.world/post/32775892

https://lemmy.world/post/33554899

https://lemmy.world/post/33194656

https://lemmy.world/post/34502019

https://lemmy.world/post/34502777

https://lemmy.world/post/34503244

https://lemmy.world/post/35919218

https://lemmy.world/post/36120253

https://lemmy.world/post/36120386

https://lemmy.world/post/32825174

https://lemmy.world/post/32426884

https://lemmy.world/post/32191006

https://lemmy.world/post/32720652

https://lemmy.world/post/32676095

https://lemmy.world/post/32298242

https://lemmy.world/post/32292143

https://lemmy.world/post/32221990

https://lemmy.world/post/32222278

https://lemmy.world/post/32222991

https://lemmy.world/post/32223697

https://lemmy.world/post/32224698

https://lemmy.world/post/32425984

https://lemmy.world/post/31569892

https://lemmy.world/post/31368129

https://lemmy.world/post/31329952

https://lemmy.world/post/31596159

https://lemmy.world/post/30665418

https://lemmy.world/post/30876228

https://lemmy.world/post/31090903

https://lemmy.world/post/31329952

https://lemmy.world/post/31368129

https://lemmy.world/post/29490804

https://lemmy.world/post/29507466

https://lemmy.world/post/29878102

https://lemmy.world/post/29980157

https://lemm.ee/post/65494823

https://lemmy.world/post/28480760

https://lemmy.world/post/28481615

https://lemmy.world/post/28482147

https://lemmy.world/post/28480936

https://lemmy.world/post/28482273

https://lemmy.world/post/28481272

https://lemmy.world/post/28481064

https://lemmy.world/post/27674360

https://lemmy.world/post/27674117

https://lemmy.world/post/27673934

https://lemmy.world/post/27673724

https://lemmy.world/post/27577337

https://lemmy.world/post/27378634

https://lemmy.world/post/27346630

https://lemmy.world/post/27341283

https://lemmy.world/post/27288224

https://lemmy.world/post/27156418

https://lemmy.world/post/27054157

https://lemmy.world/post/27008261

Allowing known propaganda outlets, altered headlines and general misinfo tactics

https://lemmy.world/post/32764202

https://lemmy.world/post/32323822

https://lemmy.world/post/32283425

https://lemmy.world/post/32289824

https://lemmy.world/post/32337368

https://lemmy.world/post/30843744

https://lemmy.world/post/28275465

https://lemmy.world/post/27428838

https://lemmy.world/post/27416097

https://lemmy.world/post/27314050

https://lemmy.world/post/27288953


Update 6/1/2025 - adding additional links since original post

Update 6/14/2025 - adding additional links since last edit

Update 6/19/2025 - adding additional links since last edit

Update 6/30/2025 - adding additional links since last edit

Update 7/03/2025 - adding additional links since last edit/formatting changes

Update 7/09/2025 - adding additional links since last edit

Update 8/13/2025 - adding additional links since last edit/formatting changes

Update 9/20/2025 - adding additional links since last edit

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] boboblaw@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I didn't mean to be curt or rude, I just kind of assumed the parallels were obvious.

Countless mathematical systems might be devised that are not at all interesting or useful. Some, maybe just a few, might be really useful. But the vast majority will inevitably be nonsensical, contradictory, useless, etc.

Some people might claim that 2+2=5. Maybe most people will assert ridiculous crap like "the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is exactly 3". Does that imply that mathematical claims are purely nonsensical meaningless feelings?

Is logical/mathematical intuition the same kind of feeling?

Let's keep it simple and consider the value of these systems to be purely in their practical usefulness. The systems in which "2+2=4" consistently prove more useful, so there's a clear reason to prefer those.

Are there no moral assertions that consistently prove more useful than their negations? Is it not substantionally more useful to assume that "murdering your children for fun is wrong" than to assume the opposite?

Often times mathematical discoveries are the result of some sort of logical leap, a feeling that there is some kind of underlying, unifying pattern. Is this intuitive feeling so different from the one that leads you to conclude that it is wrong to murder your children for fun?

This is not to say that that intuition is generally correct, whether it be mathematical or moral. And it would be wise to seek confirmation or proof.

And of course most peoples' intuition is wrong on a variety of topics, from probability to justice.

Most people would get the Monty Hall problem wrong. Most people would give a nonsensical account of morality. I think we can agree the first case is simply a matter of education and investigation.

If people were given sufficient means and opportunity, I think they'd achieve consensus on the underlying principles of probability. Can you imagine a future in which people might achieve consensus on principles of morality?

[โ€“] purpleworm@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

Countless mathematical systems might be devised that are not at all interesting or useful. Some, maybe just a few, might be really useful. But the vast majority will inevitably be nonsensical, contradictory, useless, etc.

Some people might claim that 2+2=5. Maybe most people will assert ridiculous crap like "the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is exactly 3".

Right, because math has reference to reality, so some mathematical systems are worthless or, for the purpose of practical application, false, and some are valuable and help us to determine real things.

Is logical/mathematical intuition the same kind of feeling?

I can't rule out these being grouped together, but I think that logical intuition is much more innate. Regardless, the same kind of feeling as what? As a mathematical system hypothetically would be (based on how you mischaracterized me above)? I think that's an opaque psychological question and I don't see it as especially relevant.

Does that imply that mathematical claims are purely nonsensical meaningless feelings?

No, of course not. I wouldn't describe them as feelings in the first place, but beyond that I wouldn't call them meaningless because we can observe the utility of using math to solve practical problems.

Let's keep it simple and consider the value of these systems to be purely in their practical usefulness. The systems in which "2+2=4" consistently prove more useful, so there's a clear reason to prefer those.

Right

Are there no moral assertions that consistently prove more useful than their negations? Is it not substantionally more useful to assume that "murdering your children for fun is wrong" than to assume the opposite?

If we need to tell children that Santa is watching them in order to get them to behave, then we can call that useful, but that does not thereby make Santa real as anything but an arbitrary social construct. Likewise, "good" and "bad" aren't made real beyond their existence as arbitrary social constructions by the fact that you can make useful social norms using those concepts.

Often times mathematical discoveries are the result of some sort of logical leap, a feeling that there is some kind of underlying, unifying pattern. Is this intuitive feeling so different from the one that leads you to conclude that it is wrong to murder your children for fun?

Yes, it is different, because you can work backward from a correct logical leap (or forward with the new aim in mind, depending) and have an actual proof of this idea being correct. You cannot do this with moral intuition, you just have your feeling and it can never advance beyond that in terms of establishing the reality of your belief.

This is not to say that that intuition is generally correct, whether it be mathematical or moral. And it would be wise to seek confirmation or proof.

And of course most peoples' intuition is wrong on a variety of topics, from probability to justice.

Most people would get the Monty Hall problem wrong. Most people would give a nonsensical account of morality. I think we can agree the first case is simply a matter of education and investigation.

If people were given sufficient means and opportunity, I think they'd achieve consensus on the underlying principles of probability. Can you imagine a future in which people might achieve consensus on principles of morality?

It's possible for there to be moral consensus in the future, but it would have nothing to do with a process similar to consensus in math, it would be basically the same as a consensus in aesthetic sensibilities, but with governments having a much stronger incentive to promote it. I can't really say how likely or unlikely it is, though I am inclined to say that there will probably never be a positive consensus because I believe the negative position -- that morality is imaginary and other things should inform our actions -- is the much more useful position. I'm not saying everyone will agree with me, there probably won't be a negative consensus either, I just think it's more likely than a positive consensus.

If you look back on the comment I made to the other person, you'll notice that I said that politics as people commonly think of it needs to be separated into political (moral) values and political-economic analysis of real systems. I believe that one of the greatest strengths of Marxism as a political theory is that it rejects moral values and argues in terms of material benefit and personal agency on the basis that they are things people subjectively desire as a product of the way people are (the dreaded "human nature"), with this being a necessary element in the class conflict that has driven history. I want a society that is oriented toward human flourishing, and I think it's much more realistic to make the argument that socialism can benefit people materially and help them to have agency in their life rather than tell them that this or that thing is "good" or "bad," whatever those terms even mean, because they can arbitrarily reject that such a thing is true and there's nothing to prevent them from doing so. With Marxism's claims about reality, it is there own desire to benefit that would prevent it.

It reminds me of why Geoff Waite said "Nietzsche is the only position outside of socialism," because it's perfectly possible and indeed appealing to some people to take up a highly aesthetic form of ethics that rejects these ideas of material benefit and turns one's life into an art performance for the sake of a subjective sense of personal satisfaction, even if it is immensely harmful even to themselves from our perspective. Morally, there is nothing you can say to this person, because they've chosen their moral system and it's just different from yours. If you can make an appeal, I think the only option actually is Marxism (which would make this sort of a rejection of Waite's thesis), by trying to reason with them that their attitude is pathological and they can be happier if they embrace materialist analysis and pro-sociality. Ultimately though, and this is why I'm bringing this up, you can't really tell them they are wrong because values have no independent reality, believing in natural rights is not comparable to believing in the sun, the only thing that you can do is appeal to their subjective sensibilities -- the same general paradigm that got them in this mess -- and give them something that appeals to them more.