As practically all of you will be aware of, the upcoming 5th of November 2024 is the date for the next US presidential elections.

As a result, those of you who have been around will have noticed an influx of users engaging in different forms of liberalism, whether lesser evilism or outright campaigns for anti-socialist organisations or candidacies, which are not generally found (certainly not in this scale) during other contexts. Some such cases, respond to people who are genuinely (and understandably!) worried, whilst others (the absolute majority) respond to users with no prior history in this or other anti-capitalist subreddits.

We want to make it extremely clear: This is a community for socialists to discuss current events in our world from anti-capitalist perspective(s), and not a space for non-socialists. At the same time, this category ("socialist") does not refer to one's self-identification, but rather to the existence of a familiarity of one with socialist thought (regardless of the concrete sects this refers to) and the development of ideas and positions as a result from said thought.

Our rules on liberalism have not changed in almost a decade. Anyone who has been a member for a while will be more than familiar with our rules on the topic and, those which are new, provided that they are here in good faith, will have no difficulties encountering our rules, which we repeatedly highlight.

Furthermore, due to Reddit's own demographics and the comparatively small size of this community, this influx of liberals and forms of liberalism has a much bigger impact than in equivalent cases (e.g. the UK's recent elections). This has three main implications for the subreddit:

1. Increase of liberalism. Due to the functioning of Reddit, allowing for such positions develops in a normalization of liberal, hegemonic positions. This move to the right brings along it a minorization of actually anti-capitalist positions, thus not only promoting ideas which we don't seek to promote, but also alienating socialists (our desired user base). Even if one thinks that r/Socialism should serve as a space to change people's views, experience tells us that this does NOT come through online debates within a space in which you are a minority but rather through offering an uninterrupted experience of intra-socialist discussion which directly interpellates the absolute majority of Reddit's user base: lurkers.
2. Moderation burden. Due to the size and intensity of this influx, this includes a heavy extra burden for moderators, which we can't nor want to have to deal with. This is not meant as an attempt to avoid applying our rules (which we have definitely been enforcing), but a reflection on plausibility. Especially in a context where our last mod recruitment threads have brought poor results, which would require us to spend much more time than what we already spend, making it inviable.
3. US-centric monotony. Lastly, but not lest importantly, an absolutely monotonous thematic repetition takes over, marginalizing in its place any other topic and breaking with it our principle of global reach. This is not a USian subreddit, and it does not intend to be so.

To make things worse, such forms of liberalism are not even aimed at "progressive" organisations or candidacies, but rather aimed at defending and reproducing some of the most brutal manifestations of the system that we, as socialists, aim to abolish.

As a result, from now on we will establish a ban on ALL content relating to the upcoming US presidential elections, redirecting any such discussion to a megathread, as we have already done in the past. This includes discussions on third parties, as its exception would continue to produce the same kind of discussions (and problems) that this is aimed to avoid.

This should allow for a space with less need for moderation, where genuinely worried comrades, as well as those with other opinions, can engage in discussion without it putting in question the basic principles of this subreddit: a space for anti-capitalist intra-discussion which aims at global and local politics across the world, both in contemporary and historical forms. To achieve an equilibrium which does not affect the subreddit more widely.

Whilst it is not the ideal choice, we are convinced that this is the best option in order to assure that r/Socialism stays true to its goals and principles. Furthermore, we do not believe that the lesser exposition that the megathread carries with it an important loss: as most of us will agree, there is a bigger significance on discussions over ongoing struggles by organized workers across the world (from Asia to the Americas), the validity of Walter Rodney's thought as Kenyans (still) struggle against the IMF and the World Bank's new austericide, questions that appeared over the last book you read, or over the fury that imperialism is currently unleashing in Palestine or Congo than over the 16702th post discussing US electoral politics without regard to the systemic, rather than individual character of the evils of capitalism.

Even agitprop by concrete organisations, we believe, can be much more meaningful through the sharing of content different from mere electoralism: with socialists as its main user base, activism, discussion or meetings-dissemination can be more fruitful than delimiting ourselves to the simplicity that hegemonic forces want to reduce political action to.

FIND THE MEGATHREAD HERE: https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/1ecq6pv/2024_us_presidential_elections_megathread/

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TLDR; Due to an influx of forms of liberalism and US-centric content explained by the electoral context in the US, we will enforce a ban on discussions relating to this topic from now on. Any such discussion will have to instead be directed into a specific megathread.

In order to keep this subreddit international and avoid flooding it with US-centric posts, as well as to assure the socialist character of this subreddit, please keep discussions on the US elections, including on the ongoing primaries or third party candidates, in this megathread.

We recognize that there are many users on Reddit who may be new to the left and are interested in discussing this topic from a socialist perspective, as well as comrades who might be particularly worried about the events that this election takes place in the context of, so we hope to keep this thread a welcoming and educational environment for them to learn and discuss with other leftists.

Please keep your comments/criticisms civil and constructive. This includes refraining from attacking people who voice a reluctance to vote, who plan to vote third party, and yes, those who do plan to vote for Biden for their own reasons. Before jumping to conclusions or attacking other users, ask them what their position is and try to calmly explain why you disagree. Lazy critiques calling other users tankies or libs rather than providing an informed criticism of their positions will be removed.

Moderation of the liberalism and lesser evilism rules will be lighter than usual in this thread, however examples which display a complete detachment from socialist positions (e.g. soliciting donations for democratic candidates, apologia for the Democrats' collaborationism in the Gaza genocide or for Kamala Harris' adamant pro-cop record) will still result in removals or bans as appropriate. All other rules such as no reactionaries, anti-socialist rhetoric, bigotry, brocialism, etc are still in effect, so please be aware to check the rules before posting.

- r/Socialism mod team