Welcome again to everybody. Make yourselves at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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POV: When you finally convince your friends to turn socialists.
I know he’s not a communist but honestly I have a soft spot for Melenchon. Would probably get couped by the French military in the fantasy of him winning the next election but still :p
Who needs AI when you have autism and a well developed pattern recognition so you can often successfully predict outcomes of certain situations
Sending hugs to all of you, hope you’re having a good day. ❤️
I wish it always rained, the sound of it is very soothing.
I think there might be more infighting in the firearms community then in the leftist ones
Which kind of infighting? Intellectual or physical? Because I think you mean the former /j
It’s weird how pop culture can work that I have the line “I’m tired, boss” in my head in spite of never having watched the movie it comes from and never (in recall memory) engaging much with memes about the line. But I guess I must have seen a meme of it at least once and it stuck in my head.
Its that moment from the Green Mile?
Apparently, yeah.
That is exactly how memes are supposed to work.
I do have some two cents about the midterms in the US.
To be clear, I dont like the democrats. Not only for the obvious reasons but also personal ones related to my family and also local politics.
Anyway, I think this really should be a wakeup call for a lot of tailists. Not just in the USA [Maupin, Haz, A"C"P, etc.] But also like the BSW and WPB and CPGB [although I do understand the leaders of these parties are often opportunists in general and also somehow self defeatingly hateful {I’m looking at you Galloway}].
The democrats basically ran on an anti trump platform, and Talorico himself, to my knowledge, wasn’t doing the anti-trans dance democrats did during 2024, although honestly I dont know a lot of his political positions. But even in Florida they nearly elected a democratic socialist (who wasn’t given support by the dem establishment, shockerrrr)
What I mean is that, even in deeply conservative areas like Alabama, they’re able to elect democrats [including a transgender democrat] if thats their only option that they can do.
Ergo, principled socialist parties are able to win and shouldn’t focus on tailing social conservatives. I know this was obvious to a lot of people already but even I, a Trans woman, was kinda sympathetic to the general philosophy even if I didnt personally like tailists, until now.
(Side note: im combining tailists and “reactionary socialists” here, even though I can acknowledge they are different things. Reactionary socialists is my own term that generally doesn’t seek evolution from the soviet days or from other AES projects and just lazily says “let’s do what they did.” I.e, the soviet union was homophobic so we should be homophobic)
I have to be honest, i don’t really follow your logic here. While I do agree that the groups you mentioned are tailist and reactionary, or at least have tailist and reactionary elements, they are still less tailist than the DSA. Because at least they are attempting to constitute an independent political force separate from the bourgeois liberal establishment. The DSA strategy here was the most tailist of all, and their justification for the strategy the most defeatist.
The Democrat victories did not show that principled socialist parties are able to win (though i of course believe that in the long run they can and must, whether that’s through electoralism is another discussion…) but that self-proclaimed socialists, in order to win in the current political environment and the present liberal bourgeois system, have to debase themselves and sell themselves out to one of the two bourgeois parties.
The DSA did not run independent socialist candidates, instead they completely tailed the liberals by running as Democrats with the justification that they could not win as third party candidates. You had self-proclaimed socialists campaign and vote for liberal Zionists and avowed anti-socialists just because they were Democrats. It doesn’t matter what you say, it matters what you do, and what many (not all, to their credit, some did vote PSL) US socialists did when push came to shove was vote Democrat. A total surrender to the establishment in all but rhetoric.
Even Bernie, who is a social chauvinist and liberal Zionist, for all his many flaws at least is still nominally an independent. Because once you surrender to the Democratic (or Republican, but luckily there are no self-proclaimed socialists yet who claim they have to run as Republican for tactical reasons) party machinery, they own you. If the “Democratic Socialist” in Florida was not able to win without the financial backing of the Democratic party then she would never have been able to play a role as a real socialist even if she won, because that victory would have been beholden to the party apparatus and its donors rather than to a mass movement of the working class.
Someone who wins by proclaiming socialist ideas but does so within the prison-like confines of an imperialist party completely hostile to the working class, once they get into a position of power which is granted to them and maintained by a party machinery which is implacably hostile to socialism, will inevitably have to “go along to get along”. And worse, they use their socialist legitimacy and the trust they earn through espousing socialist ideas to lead workers who are becoming more and more class conscious astray and lead them back into the swamp and diffuse the revolutionary energy back into a system designed to absorb and dissipate it.
We have seen time and time again what the real result is, and how these elected so-called socialists, make compromise after compromise and betray their base in order to not be ostracized by the party. How AOCIA and her like viciously demonize the People’s Democracies and AES states around the world, how they put a veneer of progressive legitimacy on the most vile imperialist propaganda about the Islamic Republic of Iran or about the Palestinian Resistance.
Has a single one of these supposed champions of socialism and anti-fascism stood up and demanded the release of the criminally abducted President of Venezuela?! Has any one of them said anything about the Nazi torture camps in Ukraine? I have seen right wing libertarian anti-war people mention it but not a single “democratic socialist”. Shameful.
We will see what happens but i predict the same will happen with this new crop of “Democratic Socialists” too. Rather than hold their ground they will vote in their role as representatives for whoever and whatever the party leadership tells them to in order not to rock the boat, because their real role is to be pressure release valves and to placate the masses with progressive rhetoric while the bourgeois uniparty goes on doing what it has always done.
They will betray the anti-Zionist movement at a time when anti-Zionist sentiment is overwhelmingly popular across the West, and they will betray the anti-war movement at a time when the working class is in no mood to continue to bleed, physically and economically, for these imperialist wars. They will redouble support to the Nazi regime in Ukraine and call it a “just war” while narratively preparing the ground for war with China.
I can imagine of nothing more tailist to the liberal warmongering consensus than parroting anti-Russia, anti-China imperialist propaganda, yet i can guarantee you that is what most if not all of these DSA electeds will end up doing. Because to fulfill their promises of bringing back and expanding social welfare and social safety nets, in a time when the rate of profit throughout the western capitalist system is in precipitous decline and the entire system is in deep crisis, the only way is to desperately try to keep the plunder of the global south going. Social democracy in the imperial core only works through imperialist plunder.
It is the epitome of American arrogance to think that the same strategy of entryism and participation in bourgeois parliamentarianism which for a century has failed in Europe and has led to the betrayal by the SPD, the betrayal by Labor, the betrayal by Die Linke, and on and on, that this will now magically work in the US even though it has never worked before. Why? Because US socdems (which is what Democratic Socialists are) are special and exceptional and immune to being absorbed by the system as everyone else who tried this was?
That wasn’t my point. My point was that, in the aggregate, people will push past ingrained social conservatism [and other beliefs] if they think someone will support their material conditions or if they’ve become disillusioned with the system.
I brought up the demsoc in Florida because Florida is the last place you’d really expect a demsoc to run, considering its full of Gusanos and retire-ees.
Obviously voting doesn’t translate to a revolutionary vanguard. But what im saying is that the start, the actual conversion to socialist beliefs, can happen if its impossible to deny. And really once the economic reality hits, the vanguard isnt too far behind.
Sure. But that is what Marxists have been saying all along. That people are driven by material conditions and that as socialists we have to offer a credible path toward systemic change which can improve those material conditions in order to gain the support of the masses. But it’s not about a conversion to socialist beliefs. It’s not the beliefs that come first, it’s the option for a real alternative, for someone who can put forward a credible radical break with a status quo that has not been working for most people.
The problem is that anyone who runs as part of the Democratic party is fundamentally a fake alternative. It may be different in rhetoric but in practice it will result in more of the same due to the internal dynamics of the party and the intrinsically corrupting nature of the system. Which will lead to the oposite of a rise in socialist consciousness. It will lead to a premature rejection of socialist ideas if those ideas become associated with the same failed bourgeois liberal political forces that have never worked for the working class and never will.
That is the fastest way to discredit socialism – by showing that nothing fundamental will change by electing self-proclaimed socialists who go just on to become part of the bourgeois machinery. The more that the American left wastes time and mass energy deluding itself that it can change the Democratic swamp from the inside, the less prepared they will be for when the revolutionary conditions come that will determine if an organized socialist movement takes over when the bourgeois order collapses or a fascist one.
You don’t have to start with an already formed vanguard, but you do have to start forming the vanguard. And you don’t do that by funneling the masses into a bourgeois party, you do it by drawing a clear distinguishing line between the socialists and the old parties. Otherwise you will just be subsumed by the swamp.
“We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation.”
– V. I. Lenin
Where did I say exactly that said the democratic party was a good thing or that socialists should defend it or run in it?
Fair point. Nowhere, i guess. Perhaps i was reading more into what you wrote than what you were actually implying. In that case we agree and i was just preaching to the choir. Now i feel a bit silly.
Its alright. I know im not always clear with what I write. What your wrote was fine, just too the wrong person, so no need to feel silly. Thanks for being civil though, sorry if I came off as combative in my last response myself
Thanks for being so understanding. I’ve been in a strange mood these last few days seeing US comrades celebrate the Democrat victories, knowing that this will almost certainly end with their hopes dashed and a lot more demoralization than if they never put their trust in this strategy in the first place… I suppose that is a painful learning experience that they will just have to go through, as we did in Europe.
Rare Germany W (it wasnt the state)
finished book of the new sun quartet
Have a great week, everyone! Make sure to join a party. Many have periphery membership, so if time or money is a concern, you can still contribute!
As always, communism will win.
I hope you all have a nice week :D
You too!!!
You too, Oppo!
thanks oppo
Thanks Oppo, you too!
You too!
You too! (ʘᴗʘ✿)
ty, you too ! <3
Serbia has 100% been color revolutioned.
Looks like it. The only reason why a lot of people were confused or in denial about it at first is because Vucic’s government was already semi-comprador, very much in bed with the West in a lot of ways and not remotely anti-imperialist. It does not appear to make sense that a mostly compliant right-wing neoliberal would need to be color revolutioned.
So why was it necessary to do this? Because the EU can never accept even the smallest amount of deviation or hedging. We saw this in Hungary. We saw it in Romania. Brussels needs one hundred percent control and anything less is unacceptable. They are desperate to “complete the European project”. They can feel the clock ticking on the EU and they think that if they can just keep expanding it until they have absorbed every single country in Europe, centralize all power to Brussels and turn the EU into a Federation this will somehow save the project from collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions.
Some people were also confused because they think that a color revolution means that the US and its regime change machinery have to be in the driver seat behind the color revolution, but they miss the fact that the EU, and especially the Germans, can act as imperialists in their own right, often taking the lead on regime change operations within Europe.
People forget that Yanukovich was also a semi-comprador, and he was still couped. So Vučić was also always gonna be a target for the west.
The smell of a freshly baked General Discussion Thread.
So Xanax withdrawal sucks major ass.
But on a positive note, the Belgian government seems to have fallen and once again my support goes out to my comrades back in Belgium.
Other than that, there were no riots in The Netherlands this weekend so multiple far right hooligans firms looking to defend their cities were standing around on some squares like the absolute goofies they are.
Xanax withdrawal is no joke.
Any withdrawal from an anti-psychotic sucks more than an antidepressant withdrawal 10 times over, imo
Good luck, I just read about it and it may take a little while. Hang in and don’t give up.
Thanks. Luckily this ain’t my first drug related rodeo and I hadn’t been taking it for too long so I expect to be better somewhere this week.
I hear ya.
Anyone that has gone through withdrawals like this can relate, especially me, who have gone through multiple ones for very long times as well…
You’re welcome, comrade and good! I was reading about extended use symptoms and the article was talking about months. 🙃
It blows my mind that benzos are still prescribed with their known withdrawal issues. My heart goes out to you comrade and I hope you find relief!
Sorry I can’t find anything about Belgium other than cyberattacks on supermarkets
Where is that picture from? It is absolutely stunningly gorgeous.
it’s from this article, you’ll probably like the other photos too
Thank you!
