So is being anti-communist just as bad as being a communist? How deep does the rabbit hole go?

Well it depends what type of “communism” we’re talking about. Fascism has usually a pretty clear understanding: repression of political dissent, emphasis on a national feeling and a sense of unique destiny to destroy/conquer whoever disagrees, various forms of eugenism (in the sense of killing people because they’re homosexual or handicapped), the cult of work as a duty to your homeland, as in some cases also strong racism (to my knowledge this is not a feature of italian fascism, but rather other forms of nazism/fascism).

So now, what is communism? According to marxists and anarchists, communism is the stateless, peaceful, egalitarian society. However, marxists believe an intermediary step is required to reach communism: the dictatorship of the proletariat, which has led to countless deaths and suffering. So if “dictatorship of the proletariat” is your definition of communism, then i would almost agree with you “communism” is just as bad as “fascism”. However, there still are some differences:

• women’s rights (and often gay rights) are faring well under marxism-leninism ; that is, women are equal in their right to be exploited by the State
• most leninist regimes, despite their atrocities, are not known for putting forward racial theories and committing genocides (although Stalin in the USSR had quite some genociding on his hands)

So no, it’s not the same. And in any way, most people you will meet through life will talk about communism as the principle free and equal society. That is, the abolition of privileges (remember 1789?) and freedom and equality for all. In this anarchist understanding of communism, then really there’s nothing wrong with communism.

Free association + Mutual aid + Solidarity against domination = <3 Short introduction to anarchism i wrote in another topic

This kind of stuff is why some people left reddit.

I can’t see which post you’re replying to. These thread lines are an optical illusion.

Antifa’s method of activism is controversial

While there is nothing controversial about being anti-racist, Antifa is not simply anti-racist. It’s the style of activism that’s controversial. From wikipedia:

Antifa is an anti-fascist political movement in the United States[2][3][4][5] comprising a diverse[6][7] array of autonomous groups that aim to achieve their objectives through the use of both non-violent and violent direct action rather than through policy reform.[8][9][10][11] Antifa political activists engage in protest tactics such as digital activism and militancy,[11][12] sometimes involving property damage, physical violence and harassment, against fascists, racists and the far-right

Petitioning for policy reform is relatively non-controversial. But that’s not Antifa. Obviously some of the more extreme actions (e.g. violence and property destruction) are controversial - and Antifa is open to them.

Antifa’s ideology is controversial

Components of Antifa ideology:

• anti-racism (non-controversial of course)
• anti-capitalism (obviously controversial and IMO unpopular)
• anarchy (obviously controversial and IMO unpopular)

I can’t even get my head around how it’s possible to be both anti-capitalist and anarchist at the same time. Anarchy is also favored by the extreme right, and obviously anarchy is a recipe for pure uncontrolled capitalism – most oppressive form of capitalism. What am I missing?

Lemmy censorship

In the case of lemmy.ml leadership, what we see is extreme censorship. We’re not just talking censorship of trashy messages. I recently posted a thread on the status of the cock.li email servers, and it was censored because the word “cock” appeared in the domain name. (proof). Obviously it’s essential to mention the domain name of the service we’re talking about.

No one will care if racist msgs get censored, but any post that’s incompatible with an anti-capitalist or anti-government viewpoint is also likely to be censored when you see how fast and loose they are with the censor trigger.

So am I racist because I’m not an antifa nor a fascist? Do I need to be an antifa to be anti-racist?

It’s a political movement