Can you give an example? I mean, providing context for a Soviet decision or elaborating on why the USSR did something doesn't necessarily mean someone agrees with it.
I don't know any M-Ls that won't admit this when in discussion with other left tendencies (especially when it comes to Spain). I'd like to think Marxists have learned from past mistakes. It'd be nice if anarchists did the same so we could focus on the more immediate picture rather than on historical feuds between different factions a century ago.
Thanks for engaging but I still really don't think you've fully grasp what Marxism-Leninism is. You've continued to mischaracterize and create strawmen out of what M-L movements aspire to do (forcing peace at the barrel of a gun??).
Yes, historically, Marxism-Leninist revolutions have relied on centralized vanguard parties, but ultimately each country where a revolution takes place, socialism will be built according to that country's material conditions. There's no reason why our strategies and tactics can't adapt based on our particular situations, but we still take lessons from past attempts at building socialism. Marxism is not a dogma (although there are still those that treat it that way).
When we say a state is inevitible, it's the recognition that a state will naturally arise as long as there are still class relations. To not acknowledge that is to ignore material reality. After a revolution, there will still be a bourgeoisie and they will still be needed to contribute to building the socialist project. People will still have cultural tendencies from the prior bourgeois dictatorship. Money will still be a thing. Imperialism will still exist. How do you secure the ground the working class has won through revolution (which is still what you're talking about, whether you want to call it a "revolution" or not)? As long as the bourgeoisie exist, their interests will ultimately be opposed to the interests of the proletariat. How do you prevent a bourgeois dictatorship from seizing power again? You're going to need to repress them by some means. You're going to have to exclude them from decision-making bodies. What do you call that other than a state?
And class struggle doesn't just end when socialists seize power. It continues. And it's up to the masses to keep the new regime honest about it's ideals. Of course there is always the chance a socialist government can become overrun with corruption. That is the entire lesson we've learned from the violent dissolution of the USSR. But that doesn't mean we abandon the communist struggle. We learn, we recognize the internal and external forces at play, and we try to build on pre-existing theory so that we can better put it into practice.
We can be critical of past and existing socialist projects, but we can't ultimately forget that they must be supported and given grace in the face of the primary contradiction that is Global North imperialism. As long as our societies are influenced by class relations, states are going to exist for the foreseeable future. To think a socialist state shuld be abolished immediately in the context of being surrounded by imperialist predators is an irrational expectation..
Because of this, we are skeptical of the messaging coming from imperialist states. We support the countries that are attempting to progress humanity past capitalism, which is destroying us. For those of us in the imperial core, we understand that any criticisms we have of other socialist revolutions can't ultimately be trusted. Those criticisms -- whatever they may be -- have zero relevance to the nations that are battling for survival in spite of the empire we live in.
We should cautiously inspect the propaganda we consume from all states, socialist or not. But we omly continue to amass reasons to be downright cynical of anything coming out of Western governments.
To Republicans, "liberal" means communist/vegan/trans/Black/Millenial/baby killers/etc.
To Self-described Liberals, "liberal" means Non-authoritarian socialist/centrist/real patriots/pro-science/pragmatic/etc.
Basically, don't go on US social media to see political terms being used with any significant amount of accuracy. Most Americans are so politically ignorant that, even to many of those that describe themselves as politically-minded, these labels have essentially lost all concrete meaning.
It doesn't matter how atrocious a county's leaders and their conscripted goons are. Innocent masses of civilians don't deserved to be dehumanized and wantonly slaughtered.
And also, it wasn't just Japanese people that died in these bomb attacks. Plenty of these migrant slaves that the Japan colonized died in them too.
By this logic, if thousands of Japanese civilians deserved to die in nuclear hellfire because of their fascist rulers, what horrific retribution do innocent Americans "deserve"?
There's a heavy dose of shame and denialism too. To be told your whole life that you are the good guys and that your country gets into every war for noble reasons, you have to really reconcile atrocities in a way that doesn't conflict with that myth. To do so otherwise is admit your entire upbringing is a lie, your leaders are malicious psychopaths, and that you've been complicit in voting for them your whole life. That can really really break people. It's a greatly traumatic thing and is on par with losing your religion or estranging yourself from family.
I'd say for the majority of American liberals, they understandably have a difficult time facing the truth. Because the truth is fucking dark.
This is why I always flinch a little when nationalism in revolutionary countries is described as a "good" thing by communists.
Nationalism isn't "good." It's a force that can stand in opposition to imperialism, which is the primary contradiction. In that way, it's useful. But left unchecked, any nationalism can fester and grow into something dangerous. As you've said, Han chauvanism is a real thing in China and hopefully it remains a fringe ideology that dissolves over time.
I see balkanization of the US and maybe a socialist republic forming within the North American land mass as much more likely than a fascist or socialist seizing of US state machinery as it exists currently.
Well said. It's pointless to argue for 10 minutes to someone out of a position that they were incubated in for their entire lives. You can plant a seed and they can pursue that if they want, but it's internal work. Don't induce suffering on yourself by taking on their ignorance as your burden.
It's mind blowing to consider that humans on Earth might be the first of our kind in the universe. That one day there might be a universe teaming with intelligent life, but it might be long past the age of humans.
Better material conditions of course. Benefits. A manager with an expensive chronic illness is gonna need that health insurance. A manager with kids to support is gonna need that employer-sponsored savings account.
We need to recognize and emphasize the coercion factor that divides the working class, not focus so much on the moral failings that come from that.
I did. I was dragged to it and surprisingly enjoyed it more than I thought.
It obviously only got greenlit to sell merchandise, but within that the actual creators of the film worked in some unexpectedly deep commentary for what it is.
Can you give an example? I mean, providing context for a Soviet decision or elaborating on why the USSR did something doesn't necessarily mean someone agrees with it.