Hi there,
I'm sure you've seen me around, as I've been here for quite while. I enjoyed and saw how this site grew, etc, but what I enjoyed was the genuine topics and conversation of discussions about this site. Perhaps it is the reintegration of life and routine, away from Covid, but I've noticed a decline in quality that makes me reminiscent and nostalgic for the past and even for members like LiberalSocialist.
You used to have something to say, regularly.
Chapochat/Hexbear wasn't just recycled memes and images from r/thedeprogram or r/trueanon.
There are still interesting things and conversations that are posted but they've been drowned out by pages of mediocre images that substitute picture and image for discussion and introspection; as another poster once typed, paraphrasing, we're all just trying to create site taglines and phrases and substituting quips for insight and catharsis.
Fair enough that catharsis, solidarity, and revelation can only be achieved through living your life and not through quiet meditation and discussion on reddit or psuedo-reddits. But there was at least more frequency of effort posts, venting, and exegesis of history, current and social events, and understanding of the world or at least an effort to do so.
To my observation, such that I lurk here, Such effort is only spared on video games. On media. On the dunk_tank. On getting upset about wrong opinion.
Despite the federation, this site seems to have only become isolated and divorced of what made it unique: effortposting.
Maybe it's not just Hexbear. Maybe that is why UlyssesT left; the catharsis is exhausted and online space is dominated by a a tendency for performative and justified outrage and yearning for solidarity and emotional validation. But rather than copium, as anyone afflicted with a disease would prefer, some small part of me wanted prognoses rather than diagnoses.
I don't know. I reflect on things like /moretankiechapo or /genzedong and see how things have declined in qualityposts. Perhaps it is for the better, as UlyssesT had discovered, to have the impetus to go outside and not only live life but to evangalize socialism and recapture purpose and community.
I'll see you tomorrow.
I used to write effort posts but 2023 has been a super busy year for me and I am seriously burned out.
I already have an entire series of Hexbear exclusive multi-part articles in the works, ranging from a deep dive into the Soviet economic system, to modern day China’s agricultural and property market crises, and how the past intersect with the present.
They’re all 60-70% done but I could never bring myself to finish them, for each layer I managed to peel off during my research into the subjects, I end up discovering entire hidden worlds behind them that demand further investigation and eventually getting so burned out by all the readings (plus all the translations I have to do because most of the materials have not been published in English) that I put them off for long periods of time.
I am the king of not finishing things I have started, for I am a perfectionist and insist on treating writing effort posts on obscure internet websites like I’m doing serious research for a PhD program, complete with citations and figures for illustration. Please don’t be too hard on me, I am doing all these work for free, and I still have a full time job that I have to do to feed the family. (And no, I will not be taking donations or monetizing any work/research for what is essentially a side project for me.)