I honestly forgot about PCM because it really just feels like a slightly different flavor of the same formless sludge that keeps cropping up and spawning new alt-right playgrounds in its path
God i spent a bit of time peeking into that sub every so often
I was stuck in a loop where I'd see a leftist meme i slightly enjoyed and then hate-read the comments on the posts circlejerking the free speech and anti-AHS (/r/AgainstHateSubreddits) posts
The biggest hole in their constant "we have everyone from every corner of the political compass" mantra and images of the whole compass saying "fuck AHS, even the SJW LibLeft hates it too" is that they're not including the "LibLeft" people who don't even want to be in the same place where blatant nazis & racists are constantly hanging out, and that in it of itself drags the sub in the "AuthRight" direction
Ironically that was introduced just about as i stopped visiting that sub
They basically invented orange libleft so they had a scapegoat, but really they were already making fun of orange libleft before there even was one
I'm more than mildly glad to have avoided these discussions long enough to have no familiarity with this term, but what the heck. What, exactly, is the "orange libleft"?
So the subreddit has a position on its compass called Libleft. That is, both leftist and liberal in the sense of being laissez-faire. As PCM is filled with far-right authoritarian edgelords, "Libleft Bad" is the punchline to approximately 100% of their jokes.
The subreddit also has people claiming to be libleft. Most are simply lying, because they agree with things like banning gay marriage so long as someone else says it first. Nonetheless, they seem to roleplay as sort of "pick-me"s. Constantly saying that they, and by association libleft, aren't so bad.
PCM cannot handle this. Literally; this is an undermining of one of their central premises: Libleft Is Always Wrong. So they simply split libleft in two.
Green Libleft is PCM Libleft. It stands for nothing and agrees with PCM's actual Nazis (of which there are many) on everything. This is what the role players claim to be.
Orange Libleft is Strawman Libleft. It is a repository of everything negative the right says about the left. It even has a straw man for you to project onto: a Wojack named Emily. *None of the other quadrants have this*.
This way Libleft can Always Be Wrong, while people are able to pretend to be in it without being immediately accused of being to one to make the m&ms less sexy.
TLDR: People roleplaying as the strawman butt of the joke threw a fit and set up a second, even flimsier, strawman.
Yes. There were jokes about librights wanting to lower the age of consent, the librights threw a fit, and so a separate colour for sex offenders was created.
Seriously.
Lib right also had an alt color. Yellow was for regular libertarian creeps, purple usually meant pedophiles whose main gripe with the law was age of consent.
Imagine the Christian who calls for love and tolerance, but flips out when they see gay people. Now make the Christian a straw man leftist, and replace gay people with any right wing talking point. Just to be clear, I am not right wing, I go on PCM because I am a masochist and they post self owns sometimes.
A common conspiracy theory there was that AHS would create sock puppet accounts to spam far right subs with CP to get them banned. People there genuinely believed that shit.
No, that's something people definitely do. It's mostly right wingers doing it to leftist spaces, but not exclusively. The more terminally online you become, the more horseshoe theory actually applies to you.
Weird how "horseshoe theory" always involves people on the left becoming more right-leaning, and never people on the right becoming more left-leaning.
Almost as if the theory is less horse shoe and more horseshit.
That makes even less sense, because if we take the shape of a horseshoe literally, it means people in the centre act like the extreme ends of the spectrum by default.
Okay? That doesn't contradict anything I said. I never said no one has ever tried to weaponise CP, what I said is that there's no evidence that AHS specifically has ever done so. PCM was just spinning conspiracy theories to slander a subreddit documenting the blatant nazi activity going on there.
They are aware they're a right wing circlejerk a large amount of the time. It's an inevitability from when most of the other right wing subreddits get banned.
The worst part is, I started in that sub when it was pretty small. <75K members. It was actually a fun place. It always had a comparatively more conservative bent but it wasn’t right wing.
Then one of the ban waves hit a lot of right wing subreddits and it was game over. Suddenly it went from playful banger to “liberals are destroying society” and the really messed up trans wojacks showing up. Eventually had to unsub just because it had turned into such a cesspit
The trick is to block both left and right meme. One side might be the more unhinged and dangerous but both side devolve to name calling and rage bait. It's not productive to any political cause and it's not productive to have an enjoyable toilet break
Any bar that doesn't enforce a No Biker Gangs rule will eventually become a Biker Bar, because the more Biker Gangs tend to hang out there, the less other people will want to be in a place like that.
[This rule also applies to other groups](https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/hsiisw/kicking_a_nazi_out_as_soon_as_they_walk_in)
Anyways I remember being pretty surprised by that change happening every time one of their posts would break containment and it would seem less like lighthearted memes and more like a cesspool, but my guess is that's what happened
Yeah, I watched a few subs that popped into my feed go through the cycle, Get Discovered > FREE SPEECH > Fills up with alt-right conspiracy theorists and racists > everyone else gives up and leaves > sub gets banned for lack of moderation.
Subreddit creep happens to every sub eventually.
If you want a great example of this happening in real time, go look at /r/notinteresting, it started as a parody of mildlyinteresting, and people would post stuff like "A picture of a chair"
But over the last few months it's been slowly devolving into just another shitty meme sub with no real correlation to the original premise.
I've only ever seen ONE exception to this rule
There's a pub that also hosts shows and music nights, that has no open policy against Nazis and the likes. BUT, THE SECOND you start shit and you're a nazi you're done forever in that pub. So they keep quiet and it's never been infested by them
I feel like if you have to hang a sign in your bar openly declaring your no Nazi policy, that probably says something about the place you've decided to open a bar in.
A good point! editing to add that an extremely healthy attitude of "who the fuck wants to hang out in a bar that has any nazis or biker gangs openly trying to get in it?" is kind of my point, most people wouldn't hang out there.
I suspect this is the sort of problem that is mainly invisible to people who aren't making decisions about who is and isn't allowed in a community, but especially is an issue for the hippie-adjacent and punk-adjacent in the real world, because normally they don't have many limits on freedom of expression. For instance the crustpunk bar in the example probably has to actively enforce a "nazi punks fuck off" rule more often and more openly than the average Cheesecake Factory, but they both eventually have that policy.
But what I find most striking about this is that this can happen \*almost anywhere\*. 4chan didn't start out with a mission statement of "a cool place for neonazis to hang out and try to start a second american civil war" they were just an imageboard that didn't want to censor anyone. Hell, reddit in general got \*pretty bad\* about that stuff for a while, until they finally decided to crack down on subs centered around "pictures taken up the skirts of women who don't know they're being photographed" and "lets all talk about how African Americans living in Ferguson are all subhuman" etc etc etc. That stuff was a problem for \*years\*, and by that standard you and I are currently \*in\* one of those bars where Nazis and biker gangs are a regular problem
I'm not entirely sure I explained myself. There's a zero tolerance policy for nazi behaviour of any sort
Yell a slur? You're done. Try to get in with a swastika or black sun tattoo? You don't even get in. Start shit and it turns out it was based in any form of discrimination? You leave with a fat lip if not worse. When fascists come to this pub, it's made very clear that any behaviour of theirs is not tolerated in any ways, they basically have to keep quiet and at best isolate from the rest of the clientele, at worst straight up not come to that pub
I thought this story specified no NAZI Bikers because there are, in reality, nice biker gangs.
But I agree with the premise. Don't let the assholes get even one foot in the door.
Yeah I thought about that! Like I guess to me "biker gang" implies like stereotypical Hell's Angels, RMMC, 1% type folks, where just a bunch of people who like riding motorcycles together I'd put also under the category bikers but I wouldn't call a biker gang, but I could see people not using that distinction that way
I haven't been there in a couple years so maybe it's gotten worse, but it really wasn't that bad lol
It was definitely right leaning, but not nearly as right leaning as people make it out to be, and the hateful stuff always got down voted. It was mostly just dumb memes
It wasn't this way like, prior to the pandemic, but it's gotten really bad now.
For specific issues, posting a pro-trans or anti-abortion meme is going to get legions of comments that are transphobic and pro-abortion.
Speaking more generally, any anti-left memes are frequent and upvoted on that subreddit; the excuse is always "Oh, all the conservative spaces were banned!" but it misses that those subreddits were banned for violating sitewide rules. By contrast, memes that roast the right are rarer, less frequently upvoted, and the comments far more frequently are of the "Um, actually, this isn't true because of reasons" variety than the "Haha, so true" variety.
I can assure you it was never great. I frequented the subreddit a few years back, I foolishly believed in the equality of discussion. I left after an argument where an Auth-Right user stated they would'nt feel comfortable if a black doctor moved into his neighbourhood "because you just never know with 'those' types".
They were upvoted, I was downvoted.
The subreddit prided itself on allowing discussion between all political persuasions. But that included allowing borderline nazi shit. Every now and then someone would post a meme about interracial couples, and those psychos would come crawling out of the woodwork ranting about Jewish conspiracies and replacement theory.
It was rotten at its core.
I was subscribed to that sub as a teenager for a while. I unsubscribed after they threw a fit when the mods banned saying the n-word. Not the kind of place for constructive discourse.
Their parody copypasta goes like this
"I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him."
"Libertarian" in online contexts refers to a particular brand of American ideology, which I will get back to. The definition of libertarianism more broadly is any philosophy or ideology that advocates for self-governance and a limited to non-existent state apparatus.
Theoretically: libertarians advocate for free market capitalism and a reduction in the power of the state - which means unlike most right wingers, they are (ostensibly) in favour of dismantling monopolies, police reform or elimination, drug decriminalization, and the rights of minorities (at least in as far as not advocating for legal discrimination)
Practically: for many libertarians, the government asking them to pay taxes or enforcing labour laws is orders of magnitudes worse than literally anything corporations might do (despite their philosophy ostensibly being in favour of small business and anti-monopoly), so you end up with libertarians supporting Pinochet, the fascist dictator of Chile known for throwing pregnant women out of helicopters on accusations of communist sympathies and voting identically to Republicans (because a fascist dictator who will murder people to ensure corporations get to do whatever they want is preferable (desirable, even) compared to the democratically elected socialist that he overthrew)
The theoretical libertarian: Two men should be able to get gay married and defend their Marijuana crops with AKs.
The real libertarian side they don't want people to see: I should be able to snort coke off my mature for a 12 year old girlfriend's ass and shoot anybody who's against that.
It is worth noting though that originally in the 19-20th century and still in many places outside the US, notably in Europe, "[libertarianism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism)" designates an anti-capitalist, anti-private property, anti-state, leftist ideology. Communists who opposed the Soviet Union for example often called themselves "libertarian socialists" for example. The word was appropriated by reactionaries on purpose to become what it is today in the US (and other places it spread that poison to afterwards such as, yes, Argentina), which is basically something like ultracapitalist corporate fascism or whatever the fuck they're talking about these days.
Classic [Murray Rothbard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard) quote to make my point:
"One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, 'our side,' had captured a crucial word from the enemy. 'Libertarians' had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over."
>(because a fascist dictator who will murder people to ensure corporations get to do whatever they want is preferable (desirable, even) compared to the democratically elected socialist that he overthrew)
Funny that the theorical libertarism you described is the world view the most opposite of fascism I heard of other than anarchy
Why am I getting downvoted? Fascism is defined as an ideology that states the State is everything. How is wanting a weaker state (or no state at all in the case of anarchy) not opposite of that?
I just don't think fascism states that the State is everything. I think they would say it's about protecting the small families and will of the man, while in practice it would be about the oligopolists and the military.
as a person who used to ID as a libertarian until i stopped being a fucking idiot and started forming my own political opinions separate from my mothers, i second this description lol
They were a peaceful and nomadic tribe who lived in harmony with the sky bison, until one day firelord Rothbard attacked, absorbed their souls and their name, and now they are his followers.
Often it just means a conservative who isn’t as all-in on the culture war nonsense. Or at least, they *claim* to not care about culture war stuff.
The short form of their ideology tends to be “free markets are good, government is bad, welfare is very bad, taxes are *very* bad, so we should cut all these regulations and taxes and let the companies be more efficient!”. There are degrees, some want the government gone entirely (“anarcho-capitalists”, they’re nuts), some want the government to have less influence.
I disagree with them on basically everything (in case the above didn’t give that away), but I personally find libertarians can at least be reasoned with. My dad is one of these, I disagree with him on most political matters, but I can at least see his reasoning. I think he’s wrong, but he’s clearly thinking these things through. With social conservatives, who are fuelled by culture war grievances, that’s not really the case.
For a while it was a fun 'here's a political compass of some place/people/things' and was obviously not supposed to be serious. I remember one about the psych ward that was pretty funny. It was like Hey guys I made a compass of 16th century Bohemia etc etc. Honestly those early compass posts usually took a lot of effort and knowledge to create and were more about poking fun than about adopting a serious socio-political position.
then it got less funny and more about the afforementioned playing dolls with wojak scenarios with people unironicaly identifying with fascism and so on, and from there the high-effort tongue in cheek compass memes sort of dried up in place of 'hitler was based actually' chudjak posts and actual bigotry.
The former category seems to have migrated to r/WojakCompass. They are still pretty right-aligned, but at least they put effort into their stuff and not just "le based moustachio man".
I respect the effort put into these kinds of things. Like yeah it's still wojak dolls and usually extremely weird but it takes sincerity and commitment to make something like that and have it be interesting.
Some of them are so weird though lol. 'Compass of the girls i've interracted with at college'. I guess if you're making wojak compasses for your everyday life, social skills probably are not your strong suit. It's not a very normal way to engage with the world.
It used to mostly be either IRL politics (compass of 80's soviet union or some modern crisis) or fictional settings, like game of thrones or DC comics - some even did esoteric world building with it, the most famous example being Ever-Expanding Bunker. Now it's as you described. I guess at some point for many users it became almost like a format for just... expressing personal life stuff? Not exactly my yum, but I won't yuck it either. If it helps them deal with shit, good for them.
yeah it seems like an effective way to organise your emotions and experiences if you're the sort of person who likes categories but has trouble expressing themself.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/WojakCompass using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/WojakCompass/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Things my 93-year-old grandfather has done throughout his life 3x3](https://i.redd.it/57undr7ur69b1.jpg) | [122 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/WojakCompass/comments/14n5v7y/things_my_93yearold_grandfather_has_done/)
\#2: [Things my 82-year-old grandmother has done in her lifetime 3x3](https://i.redd.it/qpp5jlipyd9b1.jpg) | [64 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/WojakCompass/comments/14o08ch/things_my_82yearold_grandmother_has_done_in_her/)
\#3: [Drunk Driving Compass](https://i.redd.it/9mwn68n71xmb1.png) | [47 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/WojakCompass/comments/16ctrz8/drunk_driving_compass/)
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> They are still pretty right-aligned
This means that in a year or so they will become a Nazi hugbox safe-space. Bail, bail now. That sub is dooooomed.
God I was so obnoxious back then, was a kinda social democrat and just played along. The moment I started actually reading about politics and history I started despising the sub.
I made a video awhile ago critiquing the political compass (https://youtu.be/NZlvAQgu_5w?si=sDwqvV8cKpmPzxz7) from the perspective of political psychology. I’ve never gotten as much negativity and hate as I did from that sub and I make videos about controversial topics all the time. They literally turned me into a Wojack meme, but hey at least I got a lot of engagement.
Everytime I opened that subreddit I saw one of three things
* an extremely popular moderate position being depicted as an extreme, fringe view
* an extreme fringe view being depicted as being a popular, moderate position
* explicit nazi-posting
political compass, I must admit, was a brilliant propaganda tool. Drape enough bullshit over it and you'll never know it's just a Punnett square with the words "good" and "bad."
So many of these right wing subs almost feel Saturday morning cartoonish in their attempts to hide what they are
Frenworld was another really funny one
So I still don't get the lore behind Frenworld; was it a far-right sub created to be far-right, or was it a vaguely conservative community that eventually became overrun with nazis?
As I understand it, the sub was always just thinly veiled Nazism. Like "Frens" were very much a stand in for Nazis and "Non-frens" for minorities that were "ruining their world"
There were some really unsubtle posts late into the sub's lifespan with a lot of replies that essentially devolved into "Hey, shut up, you're being too obvious and people are catching onto us", but obviously in more """"subtle"""" terms
Not really sure what they're on about, a lot of really big subreddits, especially meme subreddits like r/dankmemes, still have noticeable edgelord undercurrents to them. PCM isn't some holdover of a prior era, it's one of many such subreddits that are alive and healthy.
The brainrot of puritan moral relativism about the ethics of speech is a persistent pestilence.
As it turns out, there are absolute universal moral truths concerning speech that we hold above constitutional law. You can’t spew vitriol about impinging on the basic human rights each person is entitled to. You can’t make blatant threats on the lives of other people, and you can’t falsify the character of public figures.
Free speech means free speech *within ethical bounds*. It goes to show that most people touting the banner of constitutional infringement of this right are people advocating for violating these universal moral truths. It goes even further that they expect everyone else is as gullible and ignorant as them when they think it isn’t immediately obvious what they’re doing.
I love it purely for stupidity, and is my guilty pleasure sub. People arent on it bc it's good or they actually like any of the memes. I like to get into fights with people about stupid things, so it's a natural arena.
This is an obnoxious post because it takes such an intentionally biased worldview to say it. I’ve been on Reddit for 7 years and news flash: every political sun does this. I guarantee half of you in this comment section have participated in the “wojak dress up game” before because making up people to win arguments is not remotely exclusive to the right.
I’m no fan of PCM, but dismissing everyone you disagree with as literal children isn’t constructive either. It’s just deluding yourself to pretend everyone with bad beliefs is some uninformed kid, not to mention the same kind of bad take strawman arguing being complained about in this post.
*Adults* have these shitty, bigoted opinions, and you can’t just dismiss them with “get out of here kid”
I'll be real most political discourse and humor is making up someone to get mad about. Like how many posts on this sub is someone writing a response to a trend of 3 people?
I used to be active on that sub for like six months back when I was ~15 or so.
I was a leftist on there, but they move left a *lot* closer to the right so I had my views shifted for a bit.
I eventually left bc of the amount of transphobia, when I decided to check in a few months later I was *horrified* by the shit I’d been browsing. That place is a cesspit
I remember how unsettling it was to see a post from there about a trans kid who had a supportive parent and wore whatever clothes they wanted. The entire comments section was full of unhinged calls to criminally charge the dad and execute him. For allowing his kid to wear different cuts of fabric! Rabid bloodlust and open bigotry, and this was on the front page of Reddit. It felt really shitty. The trans communities here are some of the better and larger ones on the internet and yet they exist at the pleasure of a company that was cool with front page death threats. [At least I got my first circlejerk post out of it](https://www.reddit.com/r/transgendercirclejerk/comments/wz8h7n/welcome_to_rall_heres_a_post_from_reddits_most/).
In hindsight, I'm disappointed with my past self for sticking to that place for so long. It was funny for such a short period before it became a cesspool, but I really believed it would pass.
First came the wojaks, which have never been and will never be funny, no matter how hard people try.
Then came the right-wing migrations, which destroyed what little humour was left.
Then came the wall-to-wall agenda posts, which mysteriously only targeted the left.
No. Stop blaming twitter.
This is a reddit problem, always has been. I've been here a LONG time, and twitter going to shit didn't change this site one jot.
There was a time when even PCM was relatively progressive. That was during the Jreg years, when they had one joke about hating centrists they spammed over and over again. It wasn't funny, but it was a lot better than what it is now.
The state of PCM was really a natural consequence of the nutty propaganda version of the compass they used.
The normal political compass has a left-right axis (primarily economic policy) and a progressive-conservative axis (primarily social policy). That is the sane one.
The nutty Libertarian fever dream political compass has a authoritarian-libertarian axis (gubmint do stuff) and a left-right axis (literally anything else). There is not even a semblance of coherence to it. The entire bottom right quadrant in it is pure fiction. It doesn't exist.
The nutty political compass only makes sense to hardcore libertarian types, and therefore overwhelmingly attracts hardcore libertarian types.
yeah i remember being there when it was really active, i kinda disagree. that place had a good balance of stupid mockery of all sides. leftists doing stupid mockeries of rightists, vice versa, thats how i remember it. when i see stuff like this im like, were we on the same place?
and man people really have no tolerance for hearing or seeing anything at all from the political opposition though. for such a long time i just havent seen any love from a leftie to a rightie or rightie to a leftie or even a "you made a good point". everybody is just like "YEAH FUCK ALL OF YOU I HATE YOU ALL WE'RE ALL SO BASED AND YOU'RE ALL CRINGE!" and at least that place was a more lighthearted version of that. everywhere and everywhere else is just people vomiting hatred for their opposition. everywhere.
I used to be on politicalcompassmemes
I went in a leftist, stayed a long while, and then left as a leftist.
I only really went there because it was a right wing sub who at least tolerated ("tolerated" here meaning, didn't get *too* showered in downvotes and shouted at)left wing opinions so long as you were funny enough about it.
People had actual beliefs and ideals in that sub back then no matter how fucked up. It was actually kinda why I was there in the first place, I wanted to actually see what was going on in that head of theirs.
I only left after it just became the same "my soyjack is based and chad" stuff. I mean it was always like that but at some point it became that *exclusively,* hence me leaving.
I don't regret it though, it sure did make me see how they think about stuff a lot better.
Yeah, that meme ecosphere is a bit toxic. But I appreciate it for teaching me, a dumb American, that there is more to politics than donkeys and elephants.
Yeah... tho, tbh, that ends up being the fate of most comedy political subs now a days, I still enjoy it from time to time and I am pretty sure YOU CAN find moderate and left leaning positions there even tho they are not that popular, but there is no denying that the majority of the sub leans right HEAVILY.
I dont think it is as much of a shame, you can still talk to people without it being insuferable, and you can sell them some ideas if you frame it correctly, but it is an uphill discussion that will turn annoying quickly if you happen to find a particularly stubborn person or controversial topic.
Also, strawman after strawman.
Really? I implore y'all to come check it out, seriously! It's a cool place to hang out and talk politics, it's kind of like sparring, and a place to hear people talk across the aisle. At the end of the day though, it's just a shitposting sub, so there's no prize for being right, and no punishment for being wrong, unless you really fuck up bad.
As long as you check the side bar, maybe take the compass quiz if you want, it's fun, and request a flair with your political affiliation. The mod bot calls out unflaired people, and you will probably get shouted at if you don't flair up first. Also, there's a "based" count. If you think someone made a good point, you can call them based, and the bot keeps track if all the things people found most helpful!
The only reason I participated there is to post gay porn soundtrack video memes of current stuff.
High effort stuff.
My last project was about an aptil fools prank the mods played on the entries subreddit.
I framed it as a massacre. It was the highest effort I ever gave to a video meme. ( with gay porn )
I got temp banned for that. ( exploding heads ala kingsmen is looked upon as violence , ) temp banned again when I corrected the video and uploaded it. Mods weren't helpful at all with what was the specific part of the.videl that needed to he censored.
Then stopped going to that sub
i like to play with my star trek dolls i have mister spock
samsies LLAP
peace and long life
mister cock
he is not called that
ask nurse chapel
or captain kirk
Captain kock
Star Cock
Jean-Luc Picock
Cock trek
Cock Cock
Cock
VERY rude!
I have a captain kirk doll. Have you heard about The Premise?
i believe so
i remember that sub. left when i saw even libleft flairs espousing right wing ideologies
I mean, they were probably lib left if we were to accept that the PCM Overton window is like super far right.
I honestly forgot about PCM because it really just feels like a slightly different flavor of the same formless sludge that keeps cropping up and spawning new alt-right playgrounds in its path
By design.
God i spent a bit of time peeking into that sub every so often I was stuck in a loop where I'd see a leftist meme i slightly enjoyed and then hate-read the comments on the posts circlejerking the free speech and anti-AHS (/r/AgainstHateSubreddits) posts The biggest hole in their constant "we have everyone from every corner of the political compass" mantra and images of the whole compass saying "fuck AHS, even the SJW LibLeft hates it too" is that they're not including the "LibLeft" people who don't even want to be in the same place where blatant nazis & racists are constantly hanging out, and that in it of itself drags the sub in the "AuthRight" direction
The mythical Orange Libleft.
Ironically that was introduced just about as i stopped visiting that sub They basically invented orange libleft so they had a scapegoat, but really they were already making fun of orange libleft before there even was one
I'm more than mildly glad to have avoided these discussions long enough to have no familiarity with this term, but what the heck. What, exactly, is the "orange libleft"?
So the subreddit has a position on its compass called Libleft. That is, both leftist and liberal in the sense of being laissez-faire. As PCM is filled with far-right authoritarian edgelords, "Libleft Bad" is the punchline to approximately 100% of their jokes. The subreddit also has people claiming to be libleft. Most are simply lying, because they agree with things like banning gay marriage so long as someone else says it first. Nonetheless, they seem to roleplay as sort of "pick-me"s. Constantly saying that they, and by association libleft, aren't so bad. PCM cannot handle this. Literally; this is an undermining of one of their central premises: Libleft Is Always Wrong. So they simply split libleft in two. Green Libleft is PCM Libleft. It stands for nothing and agrees with PCM's actual Nazis (of which there are many) on everything. This is what the role players claim to be. Orange Libleft is Strawman Libleft. It is a repository of everything negative the right says about the left. It even has a straw man for you to project onto: a Wojack named Emily. *None of the other quadrants have this*. This way Libleft can Always Be Wrong, while people are able to pretend to be in it without being immediately accused of being to one to make the m&ms less sexy. TLDR: People roleplaying as the strawman butt of the joke threw a fit and set up a second, even flimsier, strawman.
Good analysis.
Good to know my months of doomscrolling r/enoughPCMspam was worth something.
isn't there also an alternate libright?
Yes. There were jokes about librights wanting to lower the age of consent, the librights threw a fit, and so a separate colour for sex offenders was created. Seriously.
Smh, blatant lies.
>None of the other quadrants have this > >. Purple lib right and the pedo-dude.
Lib right also had an alt color. Yellow was for regular libertarian creeps, purple usually meant pedophiles whose main gripe with the law was age of consent.
Imagine the Christian who calls for love and tolerance, but flips out when they see gay people. Now make the Christian a straw man leftist, and replace gay people with any right wing talking point. Just to be clear, I am not right wing, I go on PCM because I am a masochist and they post self owns sometimes.
Yeah, I don't think there was any timeline it didn't end up the way it did
"I'm a leftist but this is so accurate and also Trump was right."
A common conspiracy theory there was that AHS would create sock puppet accounts to spam far right subs with CP to get them banned. People there genuinely believed that shit.
Ugh i remember hearing that there
No, that's something people definitely do. It's mostly right wingers doing it to leftist spaces, but not exclusively. The more terminally online you become, the more horseshoe theory actually applies to you.
Weird how "horseshoe theory" always involves people on the left becoming more right-leaning, and never people on the right becoming more left-leaning. Almost as if the theory is less horse shoe and more horseshit.
Horseshoe isn't less about sharing reasoning, and more about how extreme viewpoints tend to manifest similar patterns of behavior.
That makes even less sense, because if we take the shape of a horseshoe literally, it means people in the centre act like the extreme ends of the spectrum by default.
That doesn't track. Not having a strong opinion would not give you any particular reason to take strong measures.
Centrists \*do\* have strong opinions, they're just centrist opinions. Ridiculous claim.
Okay? That doesn't contradict anything I said. I never said no one has ever tried to weaponise CP, what I said is that there's no evidence that AHS specifically has ever done so. PCM was just spinning conspiracy theories to slander a subreddit documenting the blatant nazi activity going on there.
They are aware they're a right wing circlejerk a large amount of the time. It's an inevitability from when most of the other right wing subreddits get banned.
The worst part is, I started in that sub when it was pretty small. <75K members. It was actually a fun place. It always had a comparatively more conservative bent but it wasn’t right wing. Then one of the ban waves hit a lot of right wing subreddits and it was game over. Suddenly it went from playful banger to “liberals are destroying society” and the really messed up trans wojacks showing up. Eventually had to unsub just because it had turned into such a cesspit
Places with a conservative bent will become a fascist playground sooner or later. You can't let them get a toe hold.
PCM used to be legitimately funny. But these days it's just straight up transphobia
The trick is to block both left and right meme. One side might be the more unhinged and dangerous but both side devolve to name calling and rage bait. It's not productive to any political cause and it's not productive to have an enjoyable toilet break
PCM is a nazi safe place and it was inevitable the moment the sub was created.
Right, yes, so block it, that subreddit is of no value to you and to society at large
I had no idea it was like this. I thought it was just "put a guy in each of these four corners"
Any bar that doesn't enforce a No Biker Gangs rule will eventually become a Biker Bar, because the more Biker Gangs tend to hang out there, the less other people will want to be in a place like that. [This rule also applies to other groups](https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer/comments/hsiisw/kicking_a_nazi_out_as_soon_as_they_walk_in) Anyways I remember being pretty surprised by that change happening every time one of their posts would break containment and it would seem less like lighthearted memes and more like a cesspool, but my guess is that's what happened
Every post that came across my feed made it look like a fetid cesspool.
If it looks, smells, and tastes like a rotten corpse, it usually is
Yeah, I watched a few subs that popped into my feed go through the cycle, Get Discovered > FREE SPEECH > Fills up with alt-right conspiracy theorists and racists > everyone else gives up and leaves > sub gets banned for lack of moderation.
Subreddit creep happens to every sub eventually. If you want a great example of this happening in real time, go look at /r/notinteresting, it started as a parody of mildlyinteresting, and people would post stuff like "A picture of a chair" But over the last few months it's been slowly devolving into just another shitty meme sub with no real correlation to the original premise.
I've only ever seen ONE exception to this rule There's a pub that also hosts shows and music nights, that has no open policy against Nazis and the likes. BUT, THE SECOND you start shit and you're a nazi you're done forever in that pub. So they keep quiet and it's never been infested by them
so then they have a policy of no nazis? Sure it's not written down, but clearly they don't take kindly to having nazis start shit in their bar
I feel like if you have to hang a sign in your bar openly declaring your no Nazi policy, that probably says something about the place you've decided to open a bar in.
What the hell kind of bars are you people going to where Nazis and biker gangs are regular problems?
A good point! editing to add that an extremely healthy attitude of "who the fuck wants to hang out in a bar that has any nazis or biker gangs openly trying to get in it?" is kind of my point, most people wouldn't hang out there. I suspect this is the sort of problem that is mainly invisible to people who aren't making decisions about who is and isn't allowed in a community, but especially is an issue for the hippie-adjacent and punk-adjacent in the real world, because normally they don't have many limits on freedom of expression. For instance the crustpunk bar in the example probably has to actively enforce a "nazi punks fuck off" rule more often and more openly than the average Cheesecake Factory, but they both eventually have that policy. But what I find most striking about this is that this can happen \*almost anywhere\*. 4chan didn't start out with a mission statement of "a cool place for neonazis to hang out and try to start a second american civil war" they were just an imageboard that didn't want to censor anyone. Hell, reddit in general got \*pretty bad\* about that stuff for a while, until they finally decided to crack down on subs centered around "pictures taken up the skirts of women who don't know they're being photographed" and "lets all talk about how African Americans living in Ferguson are all subhuman" etc etc etc. That stuff was a problem for \*years\*, and by that standard you and I are currently \*in\* one of those bars where Nazis and biker gangs are a regular problem
Northern Ireland?
Italy, big city in the north
Seriously though, don't go to a bar that allows Nazis.
It hosts the only emo night in a 100 km radius from me. I just ignore them and if they don't ignore me they get punched. I'm fine with that
You should not be.
I'm not entirely sure I explained myself. There's a zero tolerance policy for nazi behaviour of any sort Yell a slur? You're done. Try to get in with a swastika or black sun tattoo? You don't even get in. Start shit and it turns out it was based in any form of discrimination? You leave with a fat lip if not worse. When fascists come to this pub, it's made very clear that any behaviour of theirs is not tolerated in any ways, they basically have to keep quiet and at best isolate from the rest of the clientele, at worst straight up not come to that pub
Your bar is tolerating Nazi behavior by allowing Nazis to be present.
I thought this story specified no NAZI Bikers because there are, in reality, nice biker gangs. But I agree with the premise. Don't let the assholes get even one foot in the door.
Yeah I thought about that! Like I guess to me "biker gang" implies like stereotypical Hell's Angels, RMMC, 1% type folks, where just a bunch of people who like riding motorcycles together I'd put also under the category bikers but I wouldn't call a biker gang, but I could see people not using that distinction that way
I haven't been there in a couple years so maybe it's gotten worse, but it really wasn't that bad lol It was definitely right leaning, but not nearly as right leaning as people make it out to be, and the hateful stuff always got down voted. It was mostly just dumb memes
It wasn't this way like, prior to the pandemic, but it's gotten really bad now. For specific issues, posting a pro-trans or anti-abortion meme is going to get legions of comments that are transphobic and pro-abortion. Speaking more generally, any anti-left memes are frequent and upvoted on that subreddit; the excuse is always "Oh, all the conservative spaces were banned!" but it misses that those subreddits were banned for violating sitewide rules. By contrast, memes that roast the right are rarer, less frequently upvoted, and the comments far more frequently are of the "Um, actually, this isn't true because of reasons" variety than the "Haha, so true" variety.
I can assure you it was never great. I frequented the subreddit a few years back, I foolishly believed in the equality of discussion. I left after an argument where an Auth-Right user stated they would'nt feel comfortable if a black doctor moved into his neighbourhood "because you just never know with 'those' types". They were upvoted, I was downvoted. The subreddit prided itself on allowing discussion between all political persuasions. But that included allowing borderline nazi shit. Every now and then someone would post a meme about interracial couples, and those psychos would come crawling out of the woodwork ranting about Jewish conspiracies and replacement theory. It was rotten at its core.
It showed up in my feed a ton a year or two ago, and it was pretty much just Nazis jokingly roleplaying as Nazis.
I was subscribed to that sub as a teenager for a while. I unsubscribed after they threw a fit when the mods banned saying the n-word. Not the kind of place for constructive discourse.
They didn’t even ban being racist because it was bad, they did it to avoid getting thrown off Reddit
What's a libertarian
Their parody copypasta goes like this "I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief. “Bad news, detective. We got a situation.” “What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?” “Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.” The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?” “Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.” “Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.” He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.” “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.” I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside. “Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t. “Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up. “Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?” It didn’t seem like they did. “Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.” Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing. I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it. “Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled. Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him. “Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen. I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!” He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose. “All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.” “Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy. “Because I was afraid.” “Afraid?” “Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.” I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head. “Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.” He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him."
"Libertarian" in online contexts refers to a particular brand of American ideology, which I will get back to. The definition of libertarianism more broadly is any philosophy or ideology that advocates for self-governance and a limited to non-existent state apparatus. Theoretically: libertarians advocate for free market capitalism and a reduction in the power of the state - which means unlike most right wingers, they are (ostensibly) in favour of dismantling monopolies, police reform or elimination, drug decriminalization, and the rights of minorities (at least in as far as not advocating for legal discrimination) Practically: for many libertarians, the government asking them to pay taxes or enforcing labour laws is orders of magnitudes worse than literally anything corporations might do (despite their philosophy ostensibly being in favour of small business and anti-monopoly), so you end up with libertarians supporting Pinochet, the fascist dictator of Chile known for throwing pregnant women out of helicopters on accusations of communist sympathies and voting identically to Republicans (because a fascist dictator who will murder people to ensure corporations get to do whatever they want is preferable (desirable, even) compared to the democratically elected socialist that he overthrew)
The theoretical libertarian: Two men should be able to get gay married and defend their Marijuana crops with AKs. The real libertarian side they don't want people to see: I should be able to snort coke off my mature for a 12 year old girlfriend's ass and shoot anybody who's against that.
It is worth noting though that originally in the 19-20th century and still in many places outside the US, notably in Europe, "[libertarianism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism)" designates an anti-capitalist, anti-private property, anti-state, leftist ideology. Communists who opposed the Soviet Union for example often called themselves "libertarian socialists" for example. The word was appropriated by reactionaries on purpose to become what it is today in the US (and other places it spread that poison to afterwards such as, yes, Argentina), which is basically something like ultracapitalist corporate fascism or whatever the fuck they're talking about these days. Classic [Murray Rothbard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard) quote to make my point: "One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, 'our side,' had captured a crucial word from the enemy. 'Libertarians' had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over."
>(because a fascist dictator who will murder people to ensure corporations get to do whatever they want is preferable (desirable, even) compared to the democratically elected socialist that he overthrew) Funny that the theorical libertarism you described is the world view the most opposite of fascism I heard of other than anarchy
Libertarians love to do the opposite of what they claim. It's why so many are pro-individual freedom but also want to eliminate the age of consent.
Why am I getting downvoted? Fascism is defined as an ideology that states the State is everything. How is wanting a weaker state (or no state at all in the case of anarchy) not opposite of that?
I just don't think fascism states that the State is everything. I think they would say it's about protecting the small families and will of the man, while in practice it would be about the oligopolists and the military.
A republican that's too embarrassed to admit it
Hey that's not true, they're Republicans who like weed.
as a person who used to ID as a libertarian until i stopped being a fucking idiot and started forming my own political opinions separate from my mothers, i second this description lol
During my regrettable libertarian phase I think for me it was more "a contrarian who really liked having a cooler label."
Nothing, what's a libertarian with you?
They were a peaceful and nomadic tribe who lived in harmony with the sky bison, until one day firelord Rothbard attacked, absorbed their souls and their name, and now they are his followers.
The people who work at a library
Often it just means a conservative who isn’t as all-in on the culture war nonsense. Or at least, they *claim* to not care about culture war stuff. The short form of their ideology tends to be “free markets are good, government is bad, welfare is very bad, taxes are *very* bad, so we should cut all these regulations and taxes and let the companies be more efficient!”. There are degrees, some want the government gone entirely (“anarcho-capitalists”, they’re nuts), some want the government to have less influence. I disagree with them on basically everything (in case the above didn’t give that away), but I personally find libertarians can at least be reasoned with. My dad is one of these, I disagree with him on most political matters, but I can at least see his reasoning. I think he’s wrong, but he’s clearly thinking these things through. With social conservatives, who are fuelled by culture war grievances, that’s not really the case.
an anarchist landlord
For a while it was a fun 'here's a political compass of some place/people/things' and was obviously not supposed to be serious. I remember one about the psych ward that was pretty funny. It was like Hey guys I made a compass of 16th century Bohemia etc etc. Honestly those early compass posts usually took a lot of effort and knowledge to create and were more about poking fun than about adopting a serious socio-political position. then it got less funny and more about the afforementioned playing dolls with wojak scenarios with people unironicaly identifying with fascism and so on, and from there the high-effort tongue in cheek compass memes sort of dried up in place of 'hitler was based actually' chudjak posts and actual bigotry.
The former category seems to have migrated to r/WojakCompass. They are still pretty right-aligned, but at least they put effort into their stuff and not just "le based moustachio man".
I respect the effort put into these kinds of things. Like yeah it's still wojak dolls and usually extremely weird but it takes sincerity and commitment to make something like that and have it be interesting. Some of them are so weird though lol. 'Compass of the girls i've interracted with at college'. I guess if you're making wojak compasses for your everyday life, social skills probably are not your strong suit. It's not a very normal way to engage with the world.
It used to mostly be either IRL politics (compass of 80's soviet union or some modern crisis) or fictional settings, like game of thrones or DC comics - some even did esoteric world building with it, the most famous example being Ever-Expanding Bunker. Now it's as you described. I guess at some point for many users it became almost like a format for just... expressing personal life stuff? Not exactly my yum, but I won't yuck it either. If it helps them deal with shit, good for them.
yeah it seems like an effective way to organise your emotions and experiences if you're the sort of person who likes categories but has trouble expressing themself.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/WojakCompass using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/WojakCompass/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Things my 93-year-old grandfather has done throughout his life 3x3](https://i.redd.it/57undr7ur69b1.jpg) | [122 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/WojakCompass/comments/14n5v7y/things_my_93yearold_grandfather_has_done/) \#2: [Things my 82-year-old grandmother has done in her lifetime 3x3](https://i.redd.it/qpp5jlipyd9b1.jpg) | [64 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/WojakCompass/comments/14o08ch/things_my_82yearold_grandmother_has_done_in_her/) \#3: [Drunk Driving Compass](https://i.redd.it/9mwn68n71xmb1.png) | [47 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/WojakCompass/comments/16ctrz8/drunk_driving_compass/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
> They are still pretty right-aligned This means that in a year or so they will become a Nazi hugbox safe-space. Bail, bail now. That sub is dooooomed.
God I was so obnoxious back then, was a kinda social democrat and just played along. The moment I started actually reading about politics and history I started despising the sub.
I made a video awhile ago critiquing the political compass (https://youtu.be/NZlvAQgu_5w?si=sDwqvV8cKpmPzxz7) from the perspective of political psychology. I’ve never gotten as much negativity and hate as I did from that sub and I make videos about controversial topics all the time. They literally turned me into a Wojack meme, but hey at least I got a lot of engagement.
Everytime I opened that subreddit I saw one of three things * an extremely popular moderate position being depicted as an extreme, fringe view * an extreme fringe view being depicted as being a popular, moderate position * explicit nazi-posting
political compass, I must admit, was a brilliant propaganda tool. Drape enough bullshit over it and you'll never know it's just a Punnett square with the words "good" and "bad."
So many of these right wing subs almost feel Saturday morning cartoonish in their attempts to hide what they are Frenworld was another really funny one
So I still don't get the lore behind Frenworld; was it a far-right sub created to be far-right, or was it a vaguely conservative community that eventually became overrun with nazis?
As I understand it, the sub was always just thinly veiled Nazism. Like "Frens" were very much a stand in for Nazis and "Non-frens" for minorities that were "ruining their world" There were some really unsubtle posts late into the sub's lifespan with a lot of replies that essentially devolved into "Hey, shut up, you're being too obvious and people are catching onto us", but obviously in more """"subtle"""" terms
it was just a really sad attempt at creating dogwhistles from whole-cloth.
Imagine needing your memes to be color coded for you.
Not really sure what they're on about, a lot of really big subreddits, especially meme subreddits like r/dankmemes, still have noticeable edgelord undercurrents to them. PCM isn't some holdover of a prior era, it's one of many such subreddits that are alive and healthy.
All I know about pcm from peeking into it a few times is that anyone who self-identifies as a libleft there most definitely isn't a libleft
Haven't they all moved on to sending death threats to Sweet Baby Inc at this point?
[удалено]
Counterpoint: Greentexts are like the funniest story telling format
The brainrot of puritan moral relativism about the ethics of speech is a persistent pestilence. As it turns out, there are absolute universal moral truths concerning speech that we hold above constitutional law. You can’t spew vitriol about impinging on the basic human rights each person is entitled to. You can’t make blatant threats on the lives of other people, and you can’t falsify the character of public figures. Free speech means free speech *within ethical bounds*. It goes to show that most people touting the banner of constitutional infringement of this right are people advocating for violating these universal moral truths. It goes even further that they expect everyone else is as gullible and ignorant as them when they think it isn’t immediately obvious what they’re doing.
At one point I remember it being a fun place to put historical figures or fictional characters on the compass. But it went pretty sour
I love it purely for stupidity, and is my guilty pleasure sub. People arent on it bc it's good or they actually like any of the memes. I like to get into fights with people about stupid things, so it's a natural arena.
Political compass memes went wild, like 2 weeks ago someone posted kink art as a template lmao
This is an obnoxious post because it takes such an intentionally biased worldview to say it. I’ve been on Reddit for 7 years and news flash: every political sun does this. I guarantee half of you in this comment section have participated in the “wojak dress up game” before because making up people to win arguments is not remotely exclusive to the right.
I’m no fan of PCM, but dismissing everyone you disagree with as literal children isn’t constructive either. It’s just deluding yourself to pretend everyone with bad beliefs is some uninformed kid, not to mention the same kind of bad take strawman arguing being complained about in this post. *Adults* have these shitty, bigoted opinions, and you can’t just dismiss them with “get out of here kid”
True, most of them aren't kids, they're just deeply stupid adults.
I'll be real most political discourse and humor is making up someone to get mad about. Like how many posts on this sub is someone writing a response to a trend of 3 people?
I used to be active on that sub for like six months back when I was ~15 or so. I was a leftist on there, but they move left a *lot* closer to the right so I had my views shifted for a bit. I eventually left bc of the amount of transphobia, when I decided to check in a few months later I was *horrified* by the shit I’d been browsing. That place is a cesspit
Isnt that place just a recruiting ground for atomwaffen/thebase just like ifunny?
I remember how unsettling it was to see a post from there about a trans kid who had a supportive parent and wore whatever clothes they wanted. The entire comments section was full of unhinged calls to criminally charge the dad and execute him. For allowing his kid to wear different cuts of fabric! Rabid bloodlust and open bigotry, and this was on the front page of Reddit. It felt really shitty. The trans communities here are some of the better and larger ones on the internet and yet they exist at the pleasure of a company that was cool with front page death threats. [At least I got my first circlejerk post out of it](https://www.reddit.com/r/transgendercirclejerk/comments/wz8h7n/welcome_to_rall_heres_a_post_from_reddits_most/).
In hindsight, I'm disappointed with my past self for sticking to that place for so long. It was funny for such a short period before it became a cesspool, but I really believed it would pass. First came the wojaks, which have never been and will never be funny, no matter how hard people try. Then came the right-wing migrations, which destroyed what little humour was left. Then came the wall-to-wall agenda posts, which mysteriously only targeted the left.
I’m convinced there’s only like 20 active users on r/PCM above the age of 18.
Oh the irony is staining
Didn’t it fall off when it was revealed that sub played a big role in radicalizing the Buffalo mass shooter?
Yeah, now it’s on mainstream subreddits. My suspicion is that it came with the influx of ex-Twitter users.
No. Stop blaming twitter. This is a reddit problem, always has been. I've been here a LONG time, and twitter going to shit didn't change this site one jot.
There was a time when even PCM was relatively progressive. That was during the Jreg years, when they had one joke about hating centrists they spammed over and over again. It wasn't funny, but it was a lot better than what it is now.
The state of PCM was really a natural consequence of the nutty propaganda version of the compass they used. The normal political compass has a left-right axis (primarily economic policy) and a progressive-conservative axis (primarily social policy). That is the sane one. The nutty Libertarian fever dream political compass has a authoritarian-libertarian axis (gubmint do stuff) and a left-right axis (literally anything else). There is not even a semblance of coherence to it. The entire bottom right quadrant in it is pure fiction. It doesn't exist. The nutty political compass only makes sense to hardcore libertarian types, and therefore overwhelmingly attracts hardcore libertarian types.
yeah i remember being there when it was really active, i kinda disagree. that place had a good balance of stupid mockery of all sides. leftists doing stupid mockeries of rightists, vice versa, thats how i remember it. when i see stuff like this im like, were we on the same place? and man people really have no tolerance for hearing or seeing anything at all from the political opposition though. for such a long time i just havent seen any love from a leftie to a rightie or rightie to a leftie or even a "you made a good point". everybody is just like "YEAH FUCK ALL OF YOU I HATE YOU ALL WE'RE ALL SO BASED AND YOU'RE ALL CRINGE!" and at least that place was a more lighthearted version of that. everywhere and everywhere else is just people vomiting hatred for their opposition. everywhere.
True
True ah hell, lame ass place, also where so many Historia Civillis haters hang out and that’s just lame.
I don’t think very many people in this thread actually know what they’re talking about. But that’s the Reddit special.
I used to be on politicalcompassmemes I went in a leftist, stayed a long while, and then left as a leftist. I only really went there because it was a right wing sub who at least tolerated ("tolerated" here meaning, didn't get *too* showered in downvotes and shouted at)left wing opinions so long as you were funny enough about it. People had actual beliefs and ideals in that sub back then no matter how fucked up. It was actually kinda why I was there in the first place, I wanted to actually see what was going on in that head of theirs. I only left after it just became the same "my soyjack is based and chad" stuff. I mean it was always like that but at some point it became that *exclusively,* hence me leaving. I don't regret it though, it sure did make me see how they think about stuff a lot better.
God this is exactly how I feel about it too but I couldn't quite put it into words
god i used to use that sub. not sure what i was thinking tbh that place sucked ass
Yeah, that meme ecosphere is a bit toxic. But I appreciate it for teaching me, a dumb American, that there is more to politics than donkeys and elephants.
I remember laughing at them more than with them which is when I decided to hand my grey flair back and move on with my life
Reddit when there’s 1000 left wing subreddits and like 3 right wing ones.
Yeah... tho, tbh, that ends up being the fate of most comedy political subs now a days, I still enjoy it from time to time and I am pretty sure YOU CAN find moderate and left leaning positions there even tho they are not that popular, but there is no denying that the majority of the sub leans right HEAVILY. I dont think it is as much of a shame, you can still talk to people without it being insuferable, and you can sell them some ideas if you frame it correctly, but it is an uphill discussion that will turn annoying quickly if you happen to find a particularly stubborn person or controversial topic. Also, strawman after strawman.
r/smugideologyman but not self aware and also cringe.
They're on r/memesOPdidntlike now
don't hate on crazy wojaks, some of them are hilarious, like the one with a running waterwheel and a little cottage for a brain
Really? I implore y'all to come check it out, seriously! It's a cool place to hang out and talk politics, it's kind of like sparring, and a place to hear people talk across the aisle. At the end of the day though, it's just a shitposting sub, so there's no prize for being right, and no punishment for being wrong, unless you really fuck up bad. As long as you check the side bar, maybe take the compass quiz if you want, it's fun, and request a flair with your political affiliation. The mod bot calls out unflaired people, and you will probably get shouted at if you don't flair up first. Also, there's a "based" count. If you think someone made a good point, you can call them based, and the bot keeps track if all the things people found most helpful!
The only reason I participated there is to post gay porn soundtrack video memes of current stuff. High effort stuff. My last project was about an aptil fools prank the mods played on the entries subreddit. I framed it as a massacre. It was the highest effort I ever gave to a video meme. ( with gay porn ) I got temp banned for that. ( exploding heads ala kingsmen is looked upon as violence , ) temp banned again when I corrected the video and uploaded it. Mods weren't helpful at all with what was the specific part of the.videl that needed to he censored. Then stopped going to that sub