Check out my "Read Theory, Darn it!" introductory reading list!
BBILBO BBAGGINS
this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
1 points (100.0% liked)
Memes
46115 readers
216 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Gandalf really pulled the double consonant in Bilbo's name, dude was ANGRY
Ignore what politicians say, look at what they do.
Both is good. Sometimes politicians are quite honest in an explanatory way for their actions, both need to be taken into account. They don't have to be honest, but their stance is usually projected clearly.
Although when someone tells you how terrible they are, listen.
The phrase is 'When someone shows you who they are believe them' and has nothing to do with their words because people say all kinds of shit.
the fear for good, is the fear for change or admitting they where wrong. it is pride, as well as lazyness, combined with stupidity and weakness. because weakness is not how strong one seems(or lack there of) but weakness, is how little a person would be their real self, as well as how much they assume that in order to be strong they need to supress others so they are in a worse state than them. supressing people is a sign of the weak, because they are blinded and can only destroy.
Socialism is the people. If you are afraid of socialism, you're afraid of yourself.
- Fred Hampton
Rest in Power.
load more comments
(2 replies)
All you have to do is come up with a new name for it. It's not like any of them have a clue about what socialism actually entails.
Historically, such a strategy doesn't actually work. Sooner or later, you get accused of being a godless commie or a tankie anyways. You can either stand firm in your beliefs and attempt to sweep away the dirt of the Red Scare to accurately contextualize Socialism and AES states, or fail to support them at all, leading to issues like Trotskyism (poor understanding of theory and a lack of support for AES) or PatSocs (Nationalist Socialists in the Imperialist countries).
You can try acknowledging that people have actual differences of opinion instead of referring to different ideological tendencies as a result of poor understanding. Doesn't really help your cause to always come across as pretentious and arrogant, even to people who would otherwise be your allies.
There's a difference between a difference in opinion, and a difference in understanding of what is clear-cut. I specifically singled out Trotskyism as an example because it's an overwhelmingly western ideology, hasn't seen any real practical success, and the fact that Trotskyists have historically ended up indirectly supporting Capitalism by attacking AES with the same or sometimes even greater vigor. I don't denounce Trotskyism out of arrogance or pretentiousness, most Trots spend more time fighting Leftists than working to overthrow Capitalism, and can therefore not be seen as genuine allies.
Are there good Trots? Yes, many in fact. The Party for Socialism and Liberation has Marcyite roots, but due to adopting a strong, pro-AES internationalist position, they end up, despite differences in opinion and what I consider clear-cut theoretical shortcomings, as actual allies worthy of support. In fact, that's why many Marxist-Leninists end up joining PSL. I also get along quite well with many Anarchists, as I used to be one myself.
If you mean that I in general am pretentious and arrogant, I try not to be. In fact, I try to always take a positive and gentle approach when correcting misconceptions about Marxism, and try to disengage when it's clear that that isn't working. If you have suggestions for how I can be better, I am more than willing to listen. However, I am not going to stop correcting misconceptions when I see them, as to not do so when I know better weakens the movement overall. It's akin to the Socialist Revolutionaries in pre-Revolutionary Russia denouncing theory as "divisive" and celebrating individual acts of terror as "real victories," when we know now that it was the Bolsheviks, and their adherance to strong theoretical study and working class organization that led to successful revolution.
we know now that it was the Bolsheviks, and their adherance to strong theoretical study and working class organization that led to successful revolution.
To give an example, I disagree on this. Now, if you were to approach this discussion under the pretense that my disagreement is based on poor understanding of history or of theory, that would be pretentious, and therefore unproductive if you actually want to change my mind. Instead, keep an open mind and be willing to entertain an alternative perspective.
In my opinion, the Bolsheviks were oppurtunists who co-opted the revolutionary fervor in order to centralize power and influence in the movement under their control. They did indeed use Marxist theory to guide and justify their actions, but that doesn't make it right. I understand that Marxist theory advocates for the centralization of power and control, I just disagree with it, which is a view more in line with Trotskyites than Marxist-Leninists.
I'm not trying to say that you are particularly arrogant or pretentious, but Marx and especially Lenin certainly were, and that is reflected in their work.
If you want to make that point, I would ask that you back that claim up. There are a few important things you need to tackle in order to do so:
-
The mass support for the Bolsheviks among the Working Class, and the Soviet system in general
-
The mass expansion in democratic power under the Socialist system as opposed to the prior Tsarist system
-
You need to prove the cause of the Bolsheviks being "power/control" and not a genuine adherance to the pursuit of Socialism
All 3 of those are hard truths that we can see through commonly accessible historical texts and archival evidence. We can track metrics like the doubling of Life Expectancy, free healthcare and education, the highest literacy rates in the world, massively lowered wealth disparity, a huge emphasis on teaching Marxism to all workers, and more. What we find, is that while not perfect, the USSR was indeed a massive progressive movement for the working class not only in Russia, but the whole world over, from Cuba, to Algeria, to Palestine, to China, to Vietnam, Laos, Korea, and more. The presence of the USSR forced the New Deal into existence, among other western concessions, even those not aligned with the USSR benefited.
If you have an opinion and feel confident enough to stand by it, I would hope you also have reasons and experiences that back that up. From what I have shown, and if you want me to link stats and sources I can, I think it's fair to say that the Bolsheviks were genuine Marxists that upheld and carried through the revolution. Regardless of percieved arrogance of Marx and Lenin, their teachings and theory provided the theoretical backbone for every long-lasting leftist country, even the EZLN who most think of as more Anarchistic (they have their own ideology but much was inspired by Marxism-Leninism).
I highly recommend listening to Michael Parenti's 1986 "Yellow Parenti" lecture.
load more comments
(1 replies)
My dad: “Yeah, maybe a good solution to the problem of not being able to pay rent would be government-provided housing”
Also my dad: “Socialism is horrible! If it wasn’t, then why would EVERYONE be trying to leave Communist countries like Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe???”
I wonder what the modern world would look like had the USSR not been dissolved, and repaired its relationship with the PRC.
To me the biggest hypocracy in general when it came to forms of communism.
It's a failed ideology, it will always collapse in on itself as soon as it grows.
Followed with
We need to destroy it at all costs to keep it from taking hold anywhere in the world.
You don't need to stop something that's self defeating. It's like the tower of babel story in the bible. Mankind was building up a great tower because they thought uniting they would be a powerful as gods, so god knocked over their tower, scrambled their languages to divide and conquer the world.... Isn't that kind of an admission that, God believed without his interference man can be as strong as he is?
Yep, really US foreign policy purely supports that which it can profit from, and it can't do that if the population starts using its own resources for its own benefit rather than allowing them to be stolen by the US.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(9 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
Socialism has been tried many times in all forms but pure unregulated capitalism hasn't yet.
Pure unregulated Capitalism can't exist though, there's no such thing as a "pure" system to begin with.
The impure regulations corrupt the free hand of the market.
Is the market some form of holy spirit? Regulation comes from the market, not despite it.
Regulation opposes the market.
Regulation restricts competition, and is a natural result of companies using accumulated Capital to institutionalize their own positions and maintain a given edge. Capitalism erases its own existence.
I think we're both saying the same thing.
Maybe, but you phrase it like we can have unregulated Capitalism for any period longer than an afternoon, and I'm explaining why we can't.
load more comments
(20 replies)
load more comments
(8 replies)
But the talking head on Fox told me what to think about socialism, using no facts or common sense.
What am I supposed to do? NOT believe them?
How is this a meme?
You won't get it if you're taking the old bloke and his words at face value.
The meme value comes from the context, being a scene from LOTR.
The gandalf pictures, it's humourously describing the process of pitching Socialism to Americans. Simple.
How is this not a meme?
sorry, the first time I saw it the image didn't load on my instance, so I thought OP was saying the title text alone was the meme.
load more comments
(3 replies)
"No, no, they tries to tricks us, precious [capitalism]! They wants to take you from us, stop you from helping us, precious, gollum!"
That's right, they aren't going to overcome their irrational fears. They'll have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future until it becomes normal and they realize the sky didn't fall. I actually had hope that we were on the verge of a strong progressive wave, but then millions of people decided not to show up because Harris wasn't perfect enough for them. So basically fuck y'all, and good luck with the whole People's Front of Judea vs the Judean People's Front deal. The thing about MAGA is they fucking show up, and they're gonna keep showing the fuck up. Idiots need to figure out that you don't make change happen by turning away when your ideal options don't appear on a menu so you can click on one and go back to scrolling. /end rant
I think what you're missing is that for most Socialists, electoralism has already been proven as a losing game to begin with, and is far below the minimum requirements to enact change. Real power comes from organizing, which is why Leftists always push for it (and when it happens, they get results).
load more comments
(8 replies)
view more: next ›