Hi comrades, want to give you all an informal update on the discussions around the site’s misogyny problems that’ve been happening over the last several days. I wanna make sure you know that the admin/mod team has seen all of that discourse and we’ve been actively discussing solutions in the matrix mod chat. We’re taking this shit very seriously and acknowledge that we haven’t used a heavy enough hand on misogynistic rhetoric. As some of you saw we nuked that cheating thread from a couple weeks ago and handed out temp bans to the most egregious offenders. Idk how that was allowed to run it’s course but we apologize for that oversight. We’re going to do better.
We’ve come up with some ideas for how to improve this part of the site culture and we want to get suggestions from y’all as well, since the alarm was sounded on this by our beautiful c/traa posters to begin with. Our ideas so far include:
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A zero-tolerance policy towards any even remotely misogynistic/patriarchal posts or comments, as too much has slipped through the cracks on that, establishing a clear protocol for bans for violating rules against misogyny, and ideally tracking repeat offenders in a way that makes deciding a course of action easy when they reoffend.
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Uphold TC69 thought by starting up a book club (and hopefully more to follow) on feminist theory and encouraging mass participation, particularly from the he/him’s on the site. “The Will to Change” by bell hooks has been suggested by multiple people as a great starting point but please feel free to suggest any other works.
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Relaunching /c/menby with a trusted educated mod team and a specific focus on countering mainstream narratives about masculinity, relationships and sex that breed reactionary, patriarchal attitudes
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Encouraging [namely femme] participation in /c/womenby and taking steps to revitalize that sub as an excellent source of discussion on feminism and intersectionality
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Holding another mod drive to get more folks into mod positions in our communities who can help weed out reactionary attitudes
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Encouraging users to use the report button often on any post that seems even remotely sus, with the promise that no one’s going to be punished for “report abuse” for reporting posts in obvious good faith
Please let me know your thoughts on the above or any other ideas you have for making the site better, safer and more inclusive for our femme comrades. Once we’ve fully hammered out plans and updated policy we plan to make an announcement post highlighting these changes for the whole userbase. Thank you all for being here and being who you are 
“Improve material conditions” might just be a Marxist Thought Terminating Cliché. It really absolves you of the investigation required for proper analysis.
Two days late to this take but I’m actually inclined to agree with it bc 9/10 times someone simply saying ‘improve material conditions’ never follows that up with what conditions they intend to improve, any kind of idea or starter for a plan to execute, or how their hypothetical improvements would change the conditions they observe. Like, we talk about Marxism being a science a lot but a lot of novices talk about it without really following the Scientific Method.
Yes this is my feeling as well. It’s like Mao said: No investigation, No right to speak.
That might be a bit harsh in tone, but if you’re saying we need to “improve material conditions” you should be able to back that up with details. If you can’t, you need to do more research.
Also, material conditions are NOT strictly economic conditions. They are all conditions that shape your actions and desires. Laws and their application, and how those laws impact social groups are part of the Material Conditions under which we live. Social Norms, which are an outgrowth of laws, which can persist after a law is repealed or changed, are also part of Material Conditions.
As an example: After the October Revolution, incredibly broad and loose divorce laws were implemented, and the results of that was a stark rise in divorce. Prior to that it was almost impossible for a women in Russia to leave an abusive or undesired marriage.
This change in the law resulted in a huge change in women’s material conditions within Russia. Allowing for more autonomy and freedom to pursue relationships on their own terms.
Maybe I’m just a walking incendiary by nature (don’t laugh!) but frankly, I don’t consider that harsh in the slightest– if anything that’s just the fact of the matter; and I’d expect at the very least an exposition kin to what you’ve written about the divorce law reforms post-October Revolution out of anyone seriously looking to deploy the material conditions cliché. There’s a dogmatism in not doing so, I think; and makes that particular comrade’s implementation of Marxism little more than religion at least from where I sit.
I fully agree. Avoiding dogmatism should be a high priority for all comrades. I have a strong habit of doing even basic research before making a comment on a topic I’m not fully versed in. In doing so I sometimes find things I didn’t expect to find, which is actually kind of exciting. I derive a lot of good feelings from checking my assertions at the door. I don’t mind scrapping a comment because I discovered my assertions were not based in reality. Posting is reactionary if you do so with full confidence and an empty head. There are a lot of “truths” we take for granted and we need to avoid that at all costs. If I’m waxing philosophical I try to make sure that’s clear.
Part of this comes from having the ability to recognize ones own limitations. I know where the gaps in my knowledge reside and I want to avoid those gaps becoming reactionary points of view.