If your views are never challenged, you’ll never grow as a person.

On the topic of chinese foreign policy, isn’t that usually «Bully whomever mentions Taiwan until they leave»? Seems to me you only got a taste of the product you’re peddling.

No, I think the desire is understandable. Just look at how unproductive some of the comments here are to even engage with your question meaningfully. People willfully misconstrue and attack the person instead of the argument.

I don’t think the problem goes away in an echo chamber, though they may be smaller. The goal posts people erect to show that they belong in the group are also aggravating. Trying to be the best buy bring most extreme, and so on. Groups drift over time.

All that said, you are not going to change anyone in an online discussion, that’s functionally impossible. Discuss to learn.

Reddit just isn’t the place for these discussions considering it’s a cesspool and seldom a good take will ever appear in large communities. Like twitter, we all know the big subreddits have been flooded with pro-west sentiment and propaganda. I don’t think it’s worth it. I still do use twitter so I’m a bit hypocritical lol.

There are comrades on twitter but they are difficult to find because of the algorithm. I’ve only been able to find them because I follow left-wing people in general. But even when you find comrades you will always find their tweets being flooded by, not only libs, but little loser neo-Nazis. They’re much braver than I, being so open about your politics on fucking twitter and still going even with all the harassment. I retweet and like but I’m too scared to comment. Lets not forget the fact that Twitter, in their trending section, is exclusively running “coverage” on Ukraine. This only pushes people in one direction considering whose narrative they decide to spread, and with the fear mongering of “Russian State Affiliated Media”:

So to me, if you’re okay with dealing with all that then you’ll find some good people on Twitter, but there is risk considering the amount of fascists infesting the site. I don’t comment much on my comrades’ tweets because I don’t want problems yet.

When it comes to people in real life I just tend to pick and choose my battles. Some people who aren’t too involved in politics I can talk to, but others who are involved (not academically) in current events or have strong political views (I.e. racist AF) I tend to avoid for now.

I only say all this to illustrate my own experiences and choices. There are people on twitter who don’t have worms in their brain, but those that do will flock to those who don’t just to be a dick, or worse, dox them. Also the warnings for certain media sources can be a real struggle. I don’t think it’s wrong to stick to Lemmygrad considering the amount of depraved individuals that hang out on more mainstream social media, I only ever talk extensively on here. I stick on Twitter because, even subtly, I want to at least help a little with spreading our messages.

Your mental health also matters. If even the thought of these people flocking to you with their bullshit causes you any distress or exhaustion, it’s probably not worth it. Debating doesn’t really go anywhere unless people are genuinely wanting to listen. Social media brings out the worst in people so there’s a good chance no one is arguing in good faith. There, unfortunately, are real life consequences for being an outspoken ML. Doxxing is real, and because these sites are lenient (at best) on explicit fascists, there’s a chance they will try to find personal information. I don’t want to scare you or anyone, but it is a reality for marxists online, especially if you live in the west/NATO affiliated country.

So honestly, if you can mentally/emotionally handle the chance of dumbasses flooding your notifications: go for it. Try not to debate as it never works. At most the best you can do is share sources and accurate information. People will either take it, or most likely, won’t bother to engage. If you’re not worried about physical harassment, or are in a place where that won’t be an issue: go for it. For me, I’m waiting until I get my degree to even bother engaging explicitly with “the masses” because at least then I’ll have a little bit of “paper protection”.

Wall of text lmao but hopefully explaining my personal experiences/views can help you make a decision.

My day to day life is a liberal and fascist echo chamber so if it’s bad to want the comfort of the few communist or Indigenous led bubbles im in then I don’t want to be good.

I had to deal with the same pure neoliberal ideology from my parents, and I gotta say, not good for anyone’s mental health. There is only so many times we can explain.

I’ve taken a page from the right and consistently toe the line to see how much I can get away with. Before they know it I’m posting Houthi music and taking selfies in front of my bookcase with Quotations from Mao in full view.

If anything, it’s more worthwhile to engage with theory noobs vaguely sympathetic to communism than it is to waste time on confirmed anticommunists. Usually when the latter try to ‘debate’ with me, I reply with ‘Good point. You really showed me how wrong I was. I wish that I were as smart as you.’ which is my more polite alternative to saying ‘fuck off’. Any debate where somebody’s goal is ‘winning’ is not a debate worth having.

Now theory noobs, on the other hand, those people are worth engaging. Judging by their futile arguments with capitalist apologists, they’re already more‐or‐less sympathetic to communism, or at least ‘the idea of it’, so the door’s unlocked for you. The problem is that their politics are very undeveloped: they can’t explain why the people’s republics resorted to ‘authoritarian’ measures, or how they were better than the anticommunist régimes that preceded them, or even why they existed at all, so they resort to crude shortcuts like ‘well, those states weren’t socialist’ (which may indeed be true, but it’s a dull counterargument that gets us nowhere).

That’s where you can come in. Politely correcting them or expanding on their points is going to develop them more than any argument with a capitalist apologist ever could. More than likely, you’ll be introducing brand new information to these people, and that will hold their interest. I vaguely remember (possibly misinterpreted) a documentary that discussed Imperial Russia and hyperinflation. When I learned about the defects of Imperial Russia, the turn to Bolshevism was suddenly much easier to understand, even if I still didn’t quite agree with it.

Act natural. Don’t overwhelm them with too many resources (link spam) or paragraphs at once. If they ask why you approached them and not the anticommunists that they were trying to debate, you can reply with ‘Because I know that you’ll listen.’

Yes, but you should use bombs or something to express your opinions. The revolution will not happen peacefully.