About 10 years ago it was The Distro for first time linux users to prove they were a True Linux Enjoyer. Think a bunch of channers bragging about how they are the true linux master race because they edited a grub config.
Before Arch that role belonged to Gentoo. Since then that role has transitioned to NixOS who aren't nearly as toxic but still culty. "Way of the future" etc.
All three of have high bars of entry so everyone has to take pride in the effort they put in to learn how to install their distro. Like getting hazed into a frat except you actually learn something.
The Ubuntu hatred is completely unrelated. That has to do with them being a corporate distro that keep making bad design decisions. And their ubiquity means everyone has to deal with their bad decisions. (snap bad)
How about you just read up on Cloudflare Turnstile instead of acting like you know anything? Here are some notable methods:
Residential IP requirements
TLS Fingerprinting
Canvas Fingerprinting
It's still possible to get around these but it's not easy. You either must have as good network engineers on staff as Cloudflare or pay some third party service to unlock it for you. All Cloudflare needs to do is keep their prices lower than the third party services.
First everyone should be reading these works critically and not as absolute doctrine. Any ML who's actually knows what "scientific socialism" means and isnt a tankie larper should know that.
Second, all except for the Catalonia examples are false.
EZLN is literally a Maoist people's army started by a Maoist cadre. The people they organized simply didn't see overthrowing the entire Mexican government as worth it. If you knew anything about Mao you would've known that.
Lenin and Mao were required readings for for the YPG according to western volunteers. Just look into Occalan their connection with the PKK and understand they were just softening their image to get US support.
"original workers councils in Russia" AKA the Soviets. Yeah they didn't read Mao or State and Revolution because they hadn't been written yet! But to suggest they weren't reading early Lenin is obvious baloney given that him and the Bolsheviks were their contemporaries.
The DSA was founded by Marxists and has always been socialist. If you show up at a meeting and say 'I don't think we need to overthrow capitalism' you will be laughed out of the room. I've seen it happen.
The libertarian wing of the DSA doesn't caucus within DSA because they got completely shut down in either the 2017 or 2019 confrenece. Everyone else actually learned something from the failures of Occupy.
What goes forthe Social Democrat wing of DSA is the faction most connected to Labor unions in the DSA, namely Bread and Roses. The rest are either Trotskyite or ML. There are plenty of anarchists still but they don't bother with any national caucus. Besides, its not like anarchists aren't also reading from spooky "authoritarians" like Lenin and Mao. If you want to overthrow capitalism you should read up on the people who've actually done it.
Democrats aren't socialist but there are socialists who are democrats. The majority of the party are beholden to big donors just like the Republicans and view anything even remotely socialist as not only a threat to their donors but a threat to their position in the party.
The democrats are melting down over Mamdani because he might cause a wave of socialists primarying them.
They are also melting down because the main attack they used against Mamdani - calling him an antisemite when he's really just an anti-zionist - had zero affect. This is huge because it's been a tried and true tactic to use against socialists most famously in the UK against Corbyn.
This is not actually the same as socialism. It’s confusing, I agree. The closest comparison is to “social democratic” parties in Europe
Democratic Socialism is not Social Democracy. Democratic Socialism advocates for real socialism through the existing democratic institutions, whereas Social Democracy only advocates for softer capitalism. Particularly, DemSoc's view capitalism as fundamentally incompatible with democracy.
Now there's plenty of things wrong with Democratic Socialism, but the main one is you're playing by the rules written by the capitalists and are assuming the capitalists will follow those rules.
since modern voters tend to judge candidates less by their own idiosyncratic positions than by their party’s general image.
This is more correct than Vox realizes. The parties general image is determined by the vocal democratic supporters people know, not the actual positions of the party. The average democrat voter is far to the left of the average democrat politician and there's nothing the politicians can do about it.
These pundits keep telling politicians that victory comes from chasing a center that doesn't exist. America is polarized. Deal with it. Embrace your base like Mamdani or be abandoned by it.
wut