That’s leftists. Not Democrats. Anyone to the left of Democratic socialist. So not Bernie Sanders either.
Is this definition of “leftists” widely accepted? I always thought that word was just another word for liberal or anyone who isn’t right wing these days.
Well, anyone right of Richard Spencer these days is typically called, “Communist”, “liberal”, “globalist”, “leftist”, “BLM terrorist”, “Antifa”, and “far left extremist” interchangeably by the side that’s been working very hard to make sure words don’t mean anything anymore.
But to leftists, the distinction is still important: leftists believe in Marx’s idea of a class struggle. Most other Democrats, on the other hand, don’t even know what that is.
The class struggle goes like this: what’s good for the miner will never be good for the mine owner. What’s good for the line cook will never be good for the restaurant owner. What’s good for the actor will never be good for the studio executive. And so on and so forth.
The reason these two sides are inherently at odds is because every penny paid to workers is a penny NOT made in profit. And likewise every penny made in profit is a penny NOT paid to workers. If workers score by stealing points from bosses, and bosses score by stealing points from workers, then workers and bosses are on different teams.
Bernie makes allusions to this notion constantly by heavily using the phrase “working class”. Plus his proposals are pretty anti-capitalist (cancelling student loan debt, Medicare for all). So leftists flocked to his banner, elated.
Oooh as a communist… where to even start. Most of this is US/anglo centric…
- Actually read fucking theory. Most of it was literally written for 19th century German factory workers with a third grade education who worked 16 hour shifts in the orphan crushing factory. When people say this it isn’t because they want to feel smart, it’s because you’re saying dumb shit that got litigated out in like the '60s and you sound like a moron.
- This does not include “video essays” on “breadtube.” If I wanted something explained to me badly by a pedophile I’d join NAMBLA.
- For the love of all that is holy, read something written after the second World War. Vast intellectual strides have been made in the past several decades. We do not need to relitigate the fucking Sino-Soviet split in the year of our Lord 2023. They both kinda fucking sucked. Read Debord. Read Tiqqun for all I care. But if I get handed one more Trotskyist zine I’m gonna fucking lose it.
- Any modern communist party, especially in the imperial core, is probably dogshit. The IMT are sex abusers, PSL has terrible politics, and I’m not even gonna touch the western Maoists.
- We are not in an era of resurgence for the Left. Comparing the intellectual and political influence of the Left in e.g. the '70s vs today is straight up depressing. The average SNCC/BPP member could run circles around 90% of Twitter “Leftists” while ripping a fat joint of the worst dirt weed known to man.
- Anti-intellectualism is an extremely bad look. We should seek to deeply understand as much of the world as possible, not fall back on misunderstanding and anecdotes. That isn’t to say that the modern state of academia isn’t godawful, but forming opinions off screenshots of headlines does not lead to a coherent worldview.
- For anarchists especially: stop fetishizing mob violence. “Death penalty without trial for alleged rapists!” is not a progressive opinion, and will give free reign to the worst elements in society.
- Horizontal organization is not a panacea for State repression. While the BLM protests would have been more immune to COINTELPRO than was the BPP, it was dead easy for the government to shut them down through standard curfews and kettling because the whole thing was so goddamn disorganized.
- While deplatforming is often effective as a tactic, it can easily be turned around on the Left. Big business is only your friend so long as it’s profitable, and will kick you off as soon as an advertiser complains about anti-landlord discrimination or some dumb shit.
- Opposition to technology is also not a progressive viewpoint. It is important to separate a given technology from who owns it. Computing can be used to democratize production and allocate resources – the fact that it is primarily used to further the aims of the capitalist class is an implementation detail of the present economic system. Personally, I’m gonna keep taking aspirin even though it’s manufactured by Big Pharma.
- “Shrill panic” is not a good tone, especially when your understanding of the facts is limited. Would Fred Hampton have had a meltdown on main because some junior state senator in Idaho proposed a piece of legislation that was clearly never going to make it to a vote? No? Ok so shut the fuck up then.
- US pigs are terrible, but that isn’t a unique phenomenon. “Of course the French can protest that good, they don’t have US police!” sir the French police literally love beating protestors to within an inch of their life, you sound like an idiot.
- It’s not enough to say “thing sucks.” You have to come up with something better. And that’s often fucking hard, but incredibly worthwhile.
I truly do have optimism that we can build a better world. Every once in a while, it shines through the cracks: kids partying in the street while cops look on powerless, a little old lady cheering from the window while marchers chant “fuck 12,” even a single trans person finding a community that accepts them wholeheartedly.
But damn do you internet mfs make it hard sometimes.
