Hello Lemmians:

Lemmy, Mastodon and specially Lemmygrad are oceans of peace (mostly) because fashy smartpants, botlikers and stomtroopers get b& like a boss.

You may have heard of ForoCoches (a better name would be ForoFachas). Despite its old bulletin board style, it attracts hell of a lot of traffic in the Spanish language. According to metrics, it is THE biggest forum in Spanish.

The problem? It has been utterly corrupted by fascists and nazis since 10+ years. Go take a peek, the meekest thread in General goes like “we’ll put Pedro Sánchez and the feminists against the wall at minute 0 of Civil War 2”, and “who do you prefer, a Charo (= Karen) or an Austrian Painter?”

Well, it’s utter shit to be honest. Only good for shitposting, but even that gets tiresome.

Now, let’s talk about the model this shithole and similar spaces follow. Basically you pay to get an account, which can be banned and then you pay again for a 2nd account. Then there’s the ads. So it’s a bunch of rich technobros living off the hate.

Sounds familiar? Yes, it’s the same shit on X.

Let me apply a bit of Lenin here. The left needs to own the means of production. When applied to the means of communication, this is why I support Canal Red. But we also need internet commons such as spaces like Masto or Lemmy. We also need to own the memes of production ;) So this is also why I support Lemmy since I created an account here 2 months ago or so.

The actual question

Wtf can one do to remedy the situation? Persuade people, open instances…? I believe we absolutely need something like Lemmygrad but in Spanish and meme the fash out of existence (also using tools other than memes ofc). Or maybe there’s some mythical leftist space in Spanish I’ve never heard of.

EDIT: In case I’m not being clear: we need politized, militant internet hangouts.

EDIT 2: As always thanks for the replies! :)

  • big_spoon@lemmygrad.ml
    6·
    2 days ago

    forocoches

    joder…i thought that forocoches was always a hidey-hole filled with reactionaries since the beginning, i mean, it was supposed to be a forum about cars, but it works like some weird iberic something awful

    the latin internet crawling with reactionaries is mostly latam stuck in 2016’s 4chan with the dank memes and pepe the frog, bc we’re always copying the gringos

  • rainpizza@lemmygrad.ml
    5·
    2 days ago

    Wtf can one do to remedy the situation? Persuade people, open instances…?

    Well, this is a very difficult question because answers vary for every spanish speaking country. We can try everything that is within our reach and tailor it for a specific countries.

    In Mexico, I have seen that plenty of people that have left tendencies get their news or information from Telegram channels(I found plenty of my compatriots in Cuban and Venezuelan channels), mild left wing news channels, Telesur, Sputnik, RT(AhiLesVa! is one big example), HispanTv and even Facebook(MicheloCensurado, Diego Ruzzarin, Fidelista por Siempre)! However, that doesn’t automatically translate to participation in forums. However, they might just be lurkers in X, Facebook or Reddit. It is a similar case to the Gusano Right wing Venezuelans heavy presence on social media and the Internet while the socialists and communal Venezuelans don’t appear as often or are just shadow banned. Same case for the Cubans.

    Now, with that scenario, there comes the biggest problem. Lots of forums and places like X/Reddit/more are heavily astroturfed and heavily funded by the imperialists through the Miami Fascists and Spanish fascists. This strong control makes it easy for people to fall into right wing media and right wing forums as the ones that you described.

  • catonion@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    yes, this happens everywhere! it became even more prominent when the troll farms began to flood popular social media sites (facebook, ig, yt, tiktok, etc). prime examples are cerimedo w bolsonaro’s election, and later on cerimedo w milei.

    the mythical leftist spaces move from site to site when there’s censorship or shadowbans. or they create their own subreddits like a few that I know. but yeah, i also found lemmygrad this year and am glad it exists. saludos, compa.

    • Rogelio_Marciano@lemmygrad.mlOP
      2·
      1 day ago

      Saludos! Yeah, what I find to be a pity is that everytime there’s a crackdown on a leftist cyberspace, people scatter like dust under heavy wind. And this is why the platforms owners crack down. But if we control the platform, we gain a revolutionary base in cyberland, so to speak.

  • xikufran@tardigram.com
    8·
    2 days ago

    @Rogelio_Marciano@lemmygrad.ml

    First of all, congratulations on the article. It says many things, and they’re very true, even if they upset the vast majority. It’s almost a reflection of reality, with slight variations, but it’s the truth.

    Secondly, we should all be glad to read that someone is writing about Spain or Spaniards. It’s not very common, and it’s not very usual for us to be seen as having a certain prominence from the outside, whether for better or for worse. The ego and pride of being Spanish, as some might think, is still quite strong and burdensome in certain aspects, but it motivates them a lot.

    The sad thing about all this, as you so rightly point out, is that if this monopoly, this right-wing argument about how any Spaniard is and how they should be, were to disappear overnight, many could die, just like that. The simple fact that any individual—which essentially means all of us—wouldn’t say what they shouldn’t do, what they should do, and how they should feel as Spaniards would be a huge problem.

    For example? Well, the most mythical phrase that someone once uttered aloud, summarizing the anti-fascist sentiment to the extreme, was something like, “Death to intelligence!” That said it all and more. For the traditional establishment, for the inherited establishment, for the monarchical establishment, for the entrenched and typical right wing, the very idea of ​​thinking or defining oneself as thinking is an insult and a huge problem, just to conceive of having to consider more than one point of action, of moving forward, proceeding, or accomplishing. For them, there is only one way, one, and that’s it.

    Finally, nothing to remind you of the proud Iberian: someone in shorts, with suspenders, with an enormous, white chest, but always with a toothpick in his mouth, who, shouting and beating his chest, will tell you that he knows very well who he is, what he is, and why he is.

    And this text would never occur to any self-proclaimed fascist Spaniard to be translated into any other language. They should learn to read and understand Spanish if they truly want to know Spain and its people, but obviously we’ll make an exception because not all of us are like that.

    Best regards.

    Primero de todo felicitar por el artículo, dice muchas cosas y muy ciertas aunque moleste a la gran mayoría pero es así casi una copia de la realidad, matices mas o matices menos pero una verdad.

    En segundo paso alegrarnos todos de leer que alguien escribe algo de España o de españoles, no es muy común y no es muy habitual que nos leamos como con cierto protagonismo desde fuera, sea para bien o para mal pues el ego orgullo de español como algunos podrán pensar es todavía bastante largo pesado es ciertos detalles, pero les motiva mucho.

    Lo triste de todo tal como muy bien menciona es que si de un día para otro desaparece este monopolio o este argumento tan derechista de como es y como debe ser cualquier español es que se pueden morir muchos, así tal cual. El simple hecho de que cualquier particular que viene a ser todos entre todos medio no diga lo que no debe hacer, lo que debe hacer y debe sentirse como español sería un enorme problema.

    ¿Ejemplo? Pues la mas mera mítica frase que en su momento alguien dijo en voz alta y resumiendo al máximo en contra de los fachas algo así como “¡Muera la inteligencia!”, con eso decía todo y más. Para el patronato clásico, para el patronato heredero, para el patronato monárquico, para la derecha arraigada y tan típica lo que es pensar o definirse como pensar, es un insulto y un problema enorme, solo de concebir que tiene que considerar mas de un solo punto que hacer, que avanzar, proceder o realizar. Para ellos solo hay una forma, uno y gracias.

    Ya para terminar nada hacer recordar como es el humano ibérico orgulloso, alguien en pantalón corto, con tirantes, con enorme pecho en blanco, pero sin falta del palillo en boca, que gritando y pegando golpes en pecho te dirá que sabe muy bien quien es, como es, y por que es.

    Y este texto a un buen español facha jamás de los jamases se le ocurrirá traducir a ningún otro idioma ajeno, pues que aprendan a leer y entender español si es que de verdad quieren conocer España y sus españoles, pero obvio haremos excepción porque no todos somos así.

    Saludos cordiales.

    • Rogelio_Marciano@lemmygrad.mlOP
      3·
      1 day ago

      Thanks for the support / gracias por el apoyo 😀

      “Death to intelligence!”

      Not far from where I worked is a street bearing the name of José Millán Astray, founder of the Spanish Legion and author of the utterance. The full quote is:

      “Death to intelligence, long live death!”

      As a teacher, you can imagine how sympathetic I feel to that quote.

      The requisites for being a far-right Spaniard are common to all fascists: be male, stupid, xenophobic, mysoginist, traditional, religious (albeit hypocritical), defend the rich, lick boots.

      They’re mad because the 1% who fit the description cannot convince more than 10% - 15%. And that’s through truckloads of $$$ spent in propaganda.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      2 days ago

      i’m suspicious of any fediverse instance that blocks hexbear by default and you should be too

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    Lo que debiéramos hacer es comunicarnos más en Español en los lugares que tenemos por así atraer la gente que busca este contenido

    Especialmente cuando discutimos tópicos acerca de Latinoamérica

    Y si quieren leer los gringos lo que pensamos pues que traduzcan con chatgpt

    • prof_tincoa@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      I can read/listen to Spanish, but can’t really write/speak yet. I’d love to be in Spanish instances/communities.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Spanish only policy is an effective barrier and the elections of the past few years in Latin America prove that solidarity w Western leftists is needed to stem the fascist tide.

      • Rogelio_Marciano@lemmygrad.mlOP
        2·
        1 day ago

        Been reflecting on this, too. Even Spanish fascist dabble in English language 4chan memes. I have mixed feelings but like it or not, the internet’s dominant language is English, maybe as lingua franca.

        Federation can help this because, as far as I know, contents can come from several instances and therefore they come in their preferred languages.

        • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          12 hours ago

          i think that that the elections in latin america have proved that spanish is a test bed for the us empire’s misinformation campaigns and watching it manifested in candidates like abughazaleh is proof in the pudding to me.

  • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
    6·
    2 days ago

    Para ser sincero yo jamás he visitado ningún foro hispanohablante pues todo lo popular es en inglés. Eché un vistazo a forocoches y no puedo creer que logra tener casi un millón de miembros. O tal vez sí, dado que semejantes foros en inglés tienen 30x más gente como el de stack overflow.

    Todos hablamos el inglés en línea incluso cuando no es el idioma nativo del uno ni el otro, como lo es entre tú y yo. Dudo que eso cambiará hasta que latinoamérica (y españa supongo) se independice de la infraestructura de los EEUU porque no hay razón para los creadores reducir sus audiencias con un cambio de lenguaje ya que ganan más dinero de los americanos. No quiero ser un aguafiestas pero si forocoches es el foro más popular en español y ellos ni tienen un millón entonces ¿qué tanto podemos crecer una plataforma comunista? Nuestras comunidades hispanas aquí en lemmygrad son casi vacías…

  • gopher@tardigram.com
    5·
    2 days ago

    @Rogelio_Marciano@lemmygrad.ml you should check out tardigram.com. We have recently made 1y online. We found the same problem with the Spanish forums and started our own. We try to make it a healthy community. We federate with mastodon and other activity pub platforms. We have grown up to be one of the biggest mbin instances in number of users and still keep a steady growth.

    Come join us! 😆