UPDATE: the mod(s) have responded and automod has been adjusted.

Original post: Can we have a vote on it, or at least a debate? I think the vast majority of users on this sub agree the rule is ridiculous. It feels hypocritical for mods of a socialist subreddit to be policing speech to such a degree without input from the community. And as someone wth autism, frankly I find it patronizing to have neuotypical folks tell me I can't say idot/stupd.

The words were used as medical terms for people with intellectual disabilities long long ago and became slurs for a bit, sure. But the terms have evolved into generic expressions of frustration. You can't ignore over a hundred years of changing contexts for a word.

When I call a capitalist policy "stup*d" I'm not saying it's intellectually disabled, I'm saying it's illogical. It's not a slur, it's an adjective.

They're extremely common words in working-class vocabulary, so we look like wokescolds when normal people come to this sub and are punished for saying such a common word.

We would have to start banning similar words and phrases with offensive roots, like "rule of thumb", "peanut gallery", "master bedroom" . We can't keep bogging ourselves down with policing language when the terms arnt offensive when used in the modern day. Slurs are generally bad, we all agree, but the full context (including how it changed to become normalized) matters.

If we were to vote, and still choose to ban the words, that's fine. But we should at least have a say.

PS: Also notice how any medical term used for autism or intellectual disabilities gets eventually turned into a slur. Why keep capitulating to people who try to use it in a derrogatory sense, and continually change terms in response, just for it to happen again and again? Let us reclaim it

Another side note, search for the words in any leftist publication, like Jacobin, and you'll see they use it frequently. Literally the only space where it's considered offensive is this subreddit, and maybe small corners of Tumblr.

If only they understood that capitalism is the reason why you can't find people and its also the reason why nobody wants to work on farms. Within the next 6 months I see this woman selling her land to AI developers.

Hey guys,

I'm a young french guy politically engaged and I tend to get depressed when I see the world, what people thinks of certain subject, the collective lack of empathy about real people. I'm just deperate, I try to keep up with the fight everyday but it's hard.

Few days ago I made a post saying how much of a shame it is seeing people's opinions of us protesters of the 17th october in France and got a whole lot of support, it was heartwarming. We have to support each other and fight towards the same direction, when I lack of motivation, starts being pessimistic, seeing all of you makes me think that I'm not the only one.

I know we have to go outside of this bubble sometimes to meet people with contractitory opinion but still, it's a nice place to have, not only because of this but to share opinions, discuss seriously about certain subject, educate ourselves.

Thank you everyone again 🫶🫶

I snip different images and combine… I am not on the next level of drawing yet lol

Seriously, folks. There have been about 10 posts about the Democratic Party, or individual Democrats in the past day. The Democrats are a capitalist party. They are not socialist. Their members are not socialist. They are off topic. Please stop.

This was just a regular event of people dancing in that spot...

wtf is the covered text supposed to say? so far I can only make out: Organize but BE __S_S

https://www.bl00d.money/

Hello comrades, newbie here. I'm looking to expand my regular reading, aside from the great recommendations already in the sidebar. Right now my go-to sources are wsws.org (more global) and themilitant.com (though it's a bit too US-centric for my taste). What outlets, podcasts, or independent journalists do you actually trust for honest news (and leftist!) coverage? Thanks!

I used to be a liberal SocDem. I was new to the ideas of socialism, I hadnt fully formed my opinions yet, and I was still learning. Now I'm a full-on Marxist Communist.

But it was an absolute miracle that you guys didnt scare me off.

Everywhere I look on this sub, socialists condemn socdems as being reactionaries, liberals, fascists, etc. Whenever anybody even mentions supporting liberal-but-not-socialist ideas they are downvoted into oblivion. There are posts suggesting 'purges' of unwelcome users. Any positive mention of Bernie Sanders is met with accusations of reactionary fascism.

There are 50,000 users subscribed here and like it or not, a lot of them are socdems and liberals. Most of the active users hold more extreme and revolutionary ideas while most of the lurkers, the people who dont comment or vote, are probably socdems and liberals. I believe this because I used to be one of those socdem lurkers. I believe that there are many users out there who are probably in the position I used to be in, users who are just learning about more revolutionary communist or anarchist ideas.

As we go into the future, I feel like we should be more open towards liberals, socdems, and even "brocialist"s. (Edit: yeah brocialists fucking suck but they can be fixed) I love /r/FULLCOMMUNISM but this is /r/socialism. I like to think they arent enemy fascists but rather they're comrades in the making.

Enough of my stupid opinion, how do you guys think that the sub should handle more moderate liberal content and users in the future?

please centre it, we're all proud centrists here who love it when things are nice and centred