this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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The Left Needs to Change Our Social Media Use (islamicsocialist.substack.com)
submitted 1 week ago by IslamicSocialist@lemmygrad.ml to c/communism@lemmygrad.ml
19 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Share everywhere, let's begin building a new way to use the internet

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[–] ExotiqueMatter@lemmygrad.ml 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That has been my position for a while: that we should settle our main accounts and activities on independent social media particularly the fediverse and use main-stream social medias as a way to reach out for more peoples.

I also think we should adjust our communication: debunking the propaganda about AES and historical communist theorists and leaders is good, but we do it so much that we barely talk about Marxist economic theory and philosophy. When trying to win over peoples in the process of getting radicalized, we should first talk about things like how the bourgeoisie is stealing the worker's surplus value and how that fact plus the competition and need for perpetual growth inevitably lead capitalism to fail, the rehabilitation of Stalin and Mao has to come after.

[–] IslamicSocialist@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 week ago

I have been saying this for a while and it's why I made Redline Media Institute. I'm not going to just wait for the Left to come around, I'm going to help build.

We need a wide range of different propaganda for different purposes. Our group has guides on social media strategy, psychological warfare, and memetic warfare.

We have and need more propaganda centered on left-wing communities - defending AES, talking about Marxist economics and philosophy, theory, etc.

We need propaganda for the progressives to move them left - micro-dosing ideology, challenging liberal notions, etc.

We need propaganda to influence normies to the left, usually a combination of the previous two but in smaller micro-doses and said as a passing piece in content that isn't even political.

Like I said "What makes a pipeline a pipeline is the many entry points into it that leads to specific political communities." We need to pull in people from anywhere.

[–] Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

While I mostly agree with everyone you say, I still believe one has to meet the masses where they are found, and increasingly among younger people, this is on mainstream social media sites, so a little bit of both.

[–] Solenoid@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Too many braindead antimaterialists who think that their ideas or conscientiouses create reality.

[–] baffled_and_aghast@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

True but if you look at the careers of every successful revolutionary they did tons of reading, writing, and getting the word out. Don't discount theory, communication and networking. That's not idealism, that's putting ideas into action.

[–] IslamicSocialist@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 week ago

Facts, this was exactly what I did after I studied theory and got self-activated to organize with the organizations I belonged to.

[–] IslamicSocialist@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 week ago

I never said not to use popular social medias, but to use them specifically for the purpose of spreading ideology. The sites like this one where we aren't censored or as censored need to be spaces of planning, discussion and getting propaganda. Then we should go to popular socials specifically to spread these beliefs and propaganda into communities outside our own echo chambers.

"You need to see every corner of the internet as a city to influence and people to bring towards the movement as best as possible. That’s our biggest weak point in the Left in terms of influence, the lack of mass mobilization and spread of influence."

[–] big_spoon@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i mean, this has lots of sense...that's why i left most of my accounts on traditional websites. now i'm in mastodon and lemmygrad, and i use linux and most free software that i can

[–] IslamicSocialist@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I use both. I use Linux, element, and signal for my computer, communications and planning with the comrades, and the popular social media's specifically for propaganda and reaching out to comrades to bring into the organizations our group is building.

[–] Cowbee@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Fantastic article! I already agree with federated, explicitly leftist spaces as our base, but one thing I see under-mentioned is the necessity of engaging with reactionary-controlled spaces to agitate and bring people over to our spaces. We need to be on Reddit to bring people to Lemmy. We need to be on Lemmy.ml to bring people from Lemmy.world and the like to places like Lemmygrad.ml and Hexbear.net. We need to be on Twitter to bring people to Mastadon.

One thing I really think is helpful is agitating not just on Reddit, for example, but on Lemmy.ml in areas where radicalized liberals can see it. It's why I host my intro ML reading list there, and do all of my agitation there. I have recieved DMs from users thanking me for continuously pushing the ML perspective and helping change their minds, so I know it works.

At the same time, the areas we control, such as Lemmygrad.ml, need to be developed spaces that are easy to transition people to. Introductory reading guides, helpful FAQs, and more are already great exampled we do. We need to continue fostering our communities here so that we have spaces to bring people.

All in all, excellent article, well done comrade!

[–] IslamicSocialist@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I fully agree and I'd love your involvement with the work we're doing in this. I don't know if you saw the Redline Media invite link at the bottom of the piece but that is where we're working from temporarily until we move to self-hosted servers. We need as many people involved in this project as much as possible.

[–] Cowbee@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'll have to think about it! I'm extremely busy lately, and have recently begun org work IRL on top of that, so my hands are pretty full at the moment, but I'll keep it in mind!

[–] IslamicSocialist@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 week ago

Trust me I fully understand. Between my content, work, Red Rifle Collective, and the think tank - I have no free time, and honestly I am happy since political work is my love. I hope you can in the future, we'd love the extra hands with this project.

[–] ComradeRandy@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Very true, those with the patience and tolerance for Reddit absolutely have a duty to guide comrades here.

[–] Cowbee@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago

Yea, been thinking about doing it recently.

[–] rosewhorl@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 week ago

commenting to boost/bump + so i can find this post more easily later (saved as well of course)

this has been a long time coming for sure. this is a tad dramatic to say but watching the internet i grew up with being dragged around as a rotted, empty beaten-dead-horse-corpse is very upsetting and disturbing. but I need to find it in me to work hard and turn that emotion into the fuel needed to collect and (re)distribute resources

[–] tinfoilhat@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Covert propagandists, people who belong to one of many (or multiple) subcultures and online or real life communities, who talk about their subject and micro-dose beliefs and ideology into their content as a way to begin the entry into the pipeline. They don’t make politics their primary topics to discuss, it’s secondary to their hobby or niche as a way to begin radicalization. Once the algorithm picks up on left-wing talking points or positions, it will begin feeding more left-wing content to their audience. 

We all need to be, to some extent, covert propagandists at a minimum.