“The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone — everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed. And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death… the sweetest, most courageous people in the world. You see the fear and power in its eyes. Then you know.”
I mean, the guy who said that went on to ally with social democracies against real fascists. And whatever the theoretical merits, I see no evidence that calling 90%+ of the U.S. population fascists will do anything to advance any leftist cause. It certainly doesn’t help grow any sort of American left-wing movement.
It really is OK to say someone’s take is bad without calling them a fascist. Fascists should be shot; anyone who thinks everyone from AOC to the right needs to be shot is (in the parlance of our times) deeply unserious.
I see no evidence that calling 90%+ of the U.S. population fascists will do anything to advance any leftist cause. It certainly doesn’t help grow any sort of American left-wing movement.
Neither does allowing people to believe that fake shills like AOC represent any kind of actual leftist movement. At this point, this type of politician is an active hinderence to advancing any real left politics, with the exception of their actions and stances disillusioning people.
I don’t disagree. My point is we can get all that across without flattening it to “AOC is a fascist,” which sounds like crank shit to everyone who is not already a communist.
This is a communist forum if you can’t quote Stalin here then where?
If libs are checking this out then good. Hopefully they’ll learn something. If not then they’ll engage with something else until they’re ready. This really isn’t a space where we should be concerned with optics and what libs might think of they’re even looking to learn
There’s such a thing as knowing your audience. If you want to get your message across you have to do it differently to different people. Stating that social democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism should only be done to an audience that already knows what fascism and social democracy is, such as here on this forum.
This doesn’t mean that it is not true though, it just means that if you were to say those exact words to a general audience they would believe you were some crank who thought AOC was itching to put on an armband and do the goose-step. A more general audience would be more perceptive to hearing about how the system corrupts even the most well-meaning individuals, how politicians all end up doing the same shit etc.
This is a public forum that’s federated with plenty of non-leftist instances, and that’s well known to even more non-leftist instances we aren’t federated with. We have occasional efforts to direct more people back here, including lifeboat comms for reddit communities. There are even more ties to the much larger reddit through shared users and the whole history of the CTH sub.
We’re not speaking to the most general of audiences, but there is a benefit to not looking like cranks. This isn’t even a particularly good hot take to cling to, as Stalin himself eventually allied with social democracies against fascists.
I wouldn’t be too worried about what the imagined liberals in the walls might think. There can’t be too many of them and bad faith actors will always be able to find something and take it out of context. And if you can’t speak freely as a communist on a communist niche forum where can you?
Stalin, unlike any of the morally pure western leftists, actually held power and had to defend it and he did so successfully. It’s not like aligning the USSR with “moderate” imperialist nations didn’t have it’s downsides but the alternative was to be overrun and slaughtered by the more radical fascists.
A pragmatic alliance made for lack of better alternatives doesn’t change the analysis of the nature of social democracy. They serve the same master as the fascists. Where the social democrats wants to preserve capitalism by bribing a select labour aristocracy into complementary the fascists use more direct violence but ultimately they will both tend to side with capital if it’s rule is threatened.
Fascists should be shot; anyone who thinks everyone from AOC to the right needs to be shot is (in the parlance of our times) deeply unserious.
They clearly aid and abet fascism though. You’d be a fool not to see that they’re ultimately enemies of real social change and they must be deposed or else nothing good can come.
Do you want to be (arguably) correct on some theoretical point, or do you want people to listen to you? Because the vast majority of people will immediately tune out “AOC is a fascist.”
Clearly it’s more complex than that, and I don’t think I’d be upfront about that. I think, if you talked about how there’s a historical precedence for people like AOC coming into power on a wave of radicalism and just being the same old same old, and how it’s an unavoidable consequence of our system, people would be more willing to hear that. And it’s the same damn concept.
I get that most leftists won’t consciously lead with that hot of a take. But we have it all over this public forum that libs frequently wander into, so you can tell a lot of folks who’ll lead with “AOC is not a path to revolutionary change” will break out “social democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism” after about two beers. And I’d say those are two very different concepts.
Then when they push back we’ll give historical precedence and evidence. My experience with MLs was having them be clearly correct in a way that a lot of others weren’t and then they would say wack shit like “AOC is a fascist” but I’d stick around anyway and now I understand why it’s true. I think it’s generally good for us to always be honest
they would say wack shit like “AOC is a fascist” but I’d stick around anyway
How much of this is survivor bias? How many people punched out at that wack shit and never came back?
Being honest is important, but so is knowing the difference between a topic you are solidly, unambiguously correct on (stuff like the Nazis pulling directly from the U.S. treatment of natives) and a theoretical point that is debatable and ultimately has no provable answer. Honesty works when someone who desperately wants to believe you’re lying digs deeper and only finds more evidence that you’re right. It doesn’t land the same when you’re talking about a topic that a skeptical reader can’t prove to themselves in the same way.
social-democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism
I always said it, but I never understood it till I watched Bernie’s stance on Gaza in real time.
“The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone — everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed. And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death… the sweetest, most courageous people in the world. You see the fear and power in its eyes. Then you know.”
" What?"
“That the bourgeois are not human.”
The key word is objectively. If you disagree, it’s not a difference of opinion. You’re just wrong
I mean, the guy who said that went on to ally with social democracies against real fascists. And whatever the theoretical merits, I see no evidence that calling 90%+ of the U.S. population fascists will do anything to advance any leftist cause. It certainly doesn’t help grow any sort of American left-wing movement.
It really is OK to say someone’s take is bad without calling them a fascist. Fascists should be shot; anyone who thinks everyone from AOC to the right needs to be shot is (in the parlance of our times) deeply unserious.
social democracy is the moderate wing of fascism
moderate fascists are better than extreme fascists
no contradiction here
tldr
Neither does allowing people to believe that fake shills like AOC represent any kind of actual leftist movement. At this point, this type of politician is an active hinderence to advancing any real left politics, with the exception of their actions and stances disillusioning people.
I don’t disagree. My point is we can get all that across without flattening it to “AOC is a fascist,” which sounds like crank shit to everyone who is not already a communist.
This is a communist forum
if you can’t quote Stalin here then where?
If libs are checking this out then good. Hopefully they’ll learn something. If not then they’ll engage with something else until they’re ready. This really isn’t a space where we should be concerned with optics and what libs might think of they’re even looking to learn
There’s such a thing as knowing your audience. If you want to get your message across you have to do it differently to different people. Stating that social democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism should only be done to an audience that already knows what fascism and social democracy is, such as here on this forum.
This doesn’t mean that it is not true though, it just means that if you were to say those exact words to a general audience they would believe you were some crank who thought AOC was itching to put on an armband and do the goose-step. A more general audience would be more perceptive to hearing about how the system corrupts even the most well-meaning individuals, how politicians all end up doing the same shit etc.
This is a public forum that’s federated with plenty of non-leftist instances, and that’s well known to even more non-leftist instances we aren’t federated with. We have occasional efforts to direct more people back here, including lifeboat comms for reddit communities. There are even more ties to the much larger reddit through shared users and the whole history of the CTH sub.
We’re not speaking to the most general of audiences, but there is a benefit to not looking like cranks. This isn’t even a particularly good hot take to cling to, as Stalin himself eventually allied with social democracies against fascists.
I wouldn’t be too worried about what the imagined liberals in the walls might think. There can’t be too many of them and bad faith actors will always be able to find something and take it out of context. And if you can’t speak freely as a communist on a communist niche forum where can you?
Stalin, unlike any of the morally pure western leftists, actually held power and had to defend it and he did so successfully. It’s not like aligning the USSR with “moderate” imperialist nations didn’t have it’s downsides but the alternative was to be overrun and slaughtered by the more radical fascists.
A pragmatic alliance made for lack of better alternatives doesn’t change the analysis of the nature of social democracy. They serve the same master as the fascists. Where the social democrats wants to preserve capitalism by bribing a select labour aristocracy into complementary the fascists use more direct violence but ultimately they will both tend to side with capital if it’s rule is threatened.
They clearly aid and abet fascism though. You’d be a fool not to see that they’re ultimately enemies of real social change and they must be deposed or else nothing good can come.
Do you want to be (arguably) correct on some theoretical point, or do you want people to listen to you? Because the vast majority of people will immediately tune out “AOC is a fascist.”
Clearly it’s more complex than that, and I don’t think I’d be upfront about that. I think, if you talked about how there’s a historical precedence for people like AOC coming into power on a wave of radicalism and just being the same old same old, and how it’s an unavoidable consequence of our system, people would be more willing to hear that. And it’s the same damn concept.
I get that most leftists won’t consciously lead with that hot of a take. But we have it all over this public forum that libs frequently wander into, so you can tell a lot of folks who’ll lead with “AOC is not a path to revolutionary change” will break out “social democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism” after about two beers. And I’d say those are two very different concepts.
Then when they push back we’ll give historical precedence and evidence. My experience with MLs was having them be clearly correct in a way that a lot of others weren’t and then they would say wack shit like “AOC is a fascist” but I’d stick around anyway and now I understand why it’s true. I think it’s generally good for us to always be honest
How much of this is survivor bias? How many people punched out at that wack shit and never came back?
Being honest is important, but so is knowing the difference between a topic you are solidly, unambiguously correct on (stuff like the Nazis pulling directly from the U.S. treatment of natives) and a theoretical point that is debatable and ultimately has no provable answer. Honesty works when someone who desperately wants to believe you’re lying digs deeper and only finds more evidence that you’re right. It doesn’t land the same when you’re talking about a topic that a skeptical reader can’t prove to themselves in the same way.