God. I've searched my entire life for people who actually care about oppression, who wish to see it removed in their life.
That's exactly what the sub is about though. There are people here who want five minutes away from the constant, choking, hatred and abuse they're surrounded by in every other space they visit. Those attitudes cause stress and despair and can ultimately silence people when they can't handle any more exposure to it.
The user that was banned was called out for perpetuating casual transphobia, and responded by mocking the idea. That's nto a sign of someone willing to learn. It's also not helpful at all to our comrades if they find their struggles mocked and dismissed. I don't know why we should tolerate the alienation of more marginalized members on the off chance we might be able to educate a passerby.
We can't educate as a community if we don't have the viewpoints of the oppressed to learn from. Their participation is much more valuable for understanding the world than those who embody its corruption.
Continued exposure to this subreddit is making me lose faith in anarchism as a concept.
It had the opposite effect on me. I used to spend more time on /r/socialism, but a lot of the users there don't understand the value of having a place where people can discuss the specifics of their issues without being questioned by capitalist trolls or brocialists, etc.
I've learned a lot from lurking on /r/anarchism. There are plenty of issues that haven't appeared on my radar until I saw people talking about, and that's pulling me closer to this community.
Otherwise, if we do not help them to understand, if our arguments do not outweigh theirs, why would they ever join us in our fight against capital?
We also have to be wary of letting their bigotry push other people away. I think you're underestimating the harm they can cause. We're not necessarily going to have greater numbers by accepting people like that. Let me mention again that the banned user was ridiculing the attempts to educate them.
Capital isn't the only enemy. We're all under that burden, but some people have other burdens stacked on top of that which makes life even more difficult and exhausting. Exploitation looks like a lesser problem to people who face being beaten and harassed for who they are.
If we can't help them with their issues, then they're going to be too busy dealing with them alone to help in the fight against capital.