post all the posts you think are stupid in /c/badposting so no one is allowed to make fun of you for it

Uncle Ho’s guide to become a powerful poster:

From The Path Which Led Me To Leninism by Ho Chi Minh

The reason for my joining the French Socialist Party was that these “ladies and gentlemen” - as I called my comrades at that moment - has shown their sympathy towards me, towards the struggle of the oppressed peoples. But I understood neither what was a party, a trade-union, nor what was socialism nor communism.

Heated discussions were then taking place in the branches of the Socialist Party, about the question whether the Socialist Party should remain in the Second International, should a Second and a half International be founded or should the Socialist Party join Lenin’s Third International? I attended the meetings regularly, twice or thrice a week and attentively listened to the discussion. First, I could not understand thoroughly. Why were the discussions so heated? Either with the Second, Second and a half or Third International, the revolution could be waged. What was the use of arguing then? As for the First International, what had become of it?

What I wanted most to know - and this precisely was not debated in the meetings - was: which International sides with the peoples of colonial countries?

I raised this question - the most important in my opinion - in a meeting. Some comrades answered: It is the Third, not the Second International. And a comrade gave me Lenin’s “Thesis on the national and colonial questions” published by l’Humanite to read.

There were political terms difficult to understand in this thesis. But by dint of reading it again and again, finally I could grasp the main part of it. What emotion, enthusiasm, clear-sightedness and confidence it instilled into me! I was overjoyed to tears. Though sitting alone in my room, I shouted out aloud as if addressing large crowds: “Dear martyrs compatriots! This is what we need, this is the path to our liberation!”

After then, I had entire confidence in Lenin, in the Third International.

Formerly, during the meetings of the Party branch, I only listened to the discussion; I had a vague belief that all were logical, and could not differentiate as to who were right and who were wrong. But from then on, I also plunged into the debates and discussed with fervour. Though I was still lacking French words to express all my thoughts, I smashed the allegations attacking Lenin and the Third International with no less vigour. My only argument was: “If you do not condemn colonialism, if you do not side with the colonial people, what kind of revolution are you waging?”

Not only did I take part in the meetings of my own Party branch, but I also went to other Party branches to lay down “my position”. Now I must tell again that Comrades Marcel Cachin, Vaillant Couturier, Monmousseau and many others helped me to broaden my knowledge. Finally, at the Tours Congress, I voted with them for our joining the Third International.

At first, patriotism, not yet communism, led me to have confidence in Lenin, in the Third International. Step by step, along the struggle, by studying Marxism-Leninism parallel with participation in practical activities, I gradually came upon the fact that only socialism and communism can liberate the oppressed nations and the working people throughout the world from slavery.

There is a legend, in our country as well as in China, on the miraculous “Book of the Wise”. When facing great difficulties, one opens it and finds a way out. Leninism is not only a miraculous “book of the wise”, a compass for us Vietnamese revolutionaries and people: it is also the radiant sun illuminating our path to final victory, to socialism and communism.

a good chunck of posts are stupid. If you look at my profile its like 90% bad posts. dont worry about it too much

I think it’s important to explore how closely your account is tied to your identity and sense of self-worth.

In some respects, you’re the one they call crazy in a world that has gone mad - if everyone treated their interactions on social media as they do interactions in their community then everyone would be much more concerned about negative feedback, not being liked or appreciated, and not having their contributions welcomed.

That sounds like a bad thing, right?

But what if I told you that the way westerners approach social media, especially pseudo-anonymous social media, is generally a product of toxic liberal hyper-individualism. What if the degree of concern you experience, if it was universalised across social media, would make for a much more harmonious and supportive environment because everyone would be much more concerned with things like social integration and avoiding causing offence or losing face?

Unfortunately, being conscious of these things is a bit of a game theory (ick! Sorry for bringing this up) situation at the moment; because of the way that social media is structured, it heavily favours the worst sorts of behaviours and social interactions and it puts the people who have your approach at a major disadvantage.

Because of this situation, the adaptive strategy of not giving a fuck is the most well-adjusted but only in a relative sense. It’s a well-adjusted to these specific conditions but it isn’t inherently well-adjusted and I’d argue that to a large extent it isn’t truly well-adjusted at all.

Imagine if you were in a room of people who all experienced no fear of public speaking because they had zero concern for how their community perceived them and they acted like it. Of course you’d feel like an outsider to that group but would you be problematising or pathologising your experience of anxiety related to public speaking? Or would you think “This room is filled with a bunch of ruthless assholes and even though I wish I could do public speaking without experiencing stage fright, if that’s the price I have to pay to not be like them then I’m okay with that”?

Because that’s kinda the situation you’re dealing with - we are engaged in a form of public speaking, in a broader sense.

I know that “terminally online” is a bit of a clichéd punchline by this point but if you’ve ever encountered people who really do spend a lot of time on social media and who are really heavily invested in it personally, they are almost always really odd specimens. And this is coming from an autistic person lol. This type of person doesn’t seem to demonstrate an understanding of how to relate to people and how to do irl social interactions. (Note that there’s a distinction between people who spend a lot of time on social media and the terminally online type. Think about the distinction between a philosophy undergraduate who necessarily spends a lot of their time debating in a broad sense vs the classic debatebro for comparison; similar in some respects but entirely different in a qualitative way.)

Idk, I just don’t think that you are necessarily maladjusted. Out of step with the people who are on the stronger end of the online spectrum, sure, but that doesn’t seem like a personal failing to me.

If it’s really prohibiting you from engaging more with the community here or from experiencing enjoyment from posting/commenting then I think that all of the basic strategies around social anxiety apply pretty well to that. You can find tons of advice for how to work with this - it’s basically ubiquitous.

To answer your question more directly though, I definitely feel a fair bit of anxiety with posting and commenting. It’s not uncommon for me to draft half a comment to then delete it before it would get posted. I am hyperspecific with my phrasing and choice of words because I really don’t enjoy those combative sort of negative responses and it’s a learned behaviour for me in all aspects of my life, so if you looked at how much impact my anxiety around social media has on me as a person it’s actually quite significant.

I guess I just have a lot of things to say and with regards to things like mental health, history, and autism & ADHD I feel as though I can make contributions that are valuable to the community on those topics.

Except for posting photos of Basil because everyone here loves my communist dog I’m sewing a ushanka for.

by posting

if i get too nervous, i just make a new alt and post with that one

Just post ska everyday.

Same I only post if I’m 99.999% sure it’s perfectly safe and won’t piss anyone off. :)

The more I lurk the more I get the vibes of this place and what’s acceptable and what’s not, so I know what I can say. That’s all I can do. My RSD means getting into any conflict is utterly intolerable for me and causes me to panic, even if it’s just posting on a silly forum where it’s not that deep.

I like your posts comrade, especially Basil. And besides have you seen mine? lmao, I just post whatever brain poisoned shit comes to mind.

Realize that every post you make spites the life of a mod.

I’ve always felt a bit of that too.

“This was a great link/meme, thanks for sharing it!” is often enough to brighten someone’s day, and gets you used to general engagement.

Good vibes are no basis for structuring society on a large scale, but when it comes to interacting with your own community, they’re often enough.

You shouldn’t be worried about if your posts are too stupid, you should be worried if your posts aren’t stupid enough

Practice posting in the general megathread to build up confidence, everyone there is usually chill and nice

I was born a shitposter. I will die as a shitposter.