Democratic Party lawmakers are refusing to endorse Zohran Mamdani and are spreading lies about him in the process
Can you name a developed capitalist nation that doesn't practice imperialism? The global south cannot become imperialist because there's nowhere else to imperialize, either they become nationalist, socialist, or remain imperialized.
Systems aren't decided by how "serious" the people in charge are. Iran is still a liberal nationalist country.
Further, the PRC is absolutely serious about socialism, the lives of the working class are dramatically improving and the number of billionaires is shrinking. The large firms and key industries are overwhelmingly publicly controlled. Having a stock market is a contradiction, but one that is limited to medium and small firms, which cannot simply be siezed and planned but are allowed to develop to the point that they can be planned better.
You really shouldn't be speaking as though you understand China if you still don't understand Iran, liberalism, and socialism.
No, I submitted a claim based on what happens as capitalism develops, with the requirement that there be capital left to imperialize. You invented a nonsensical viewpoint and substituted it for my own as a gotcha, and rather than accepting that you misread.
You are fundamentally inventing a flaw in my argument because you didn't understand my initual claim, hence why others have bolded my original claim in response to you in order to get you to see where you went wrong.
You're fundamentally misunderstanding the point. If there's capital left to be imperialized and a country develops to the monopoly stage, it will imperialize the capital. Countries in the global south cannot develop to such a stage unless the pivot to a nationalist or socialist position, and in the former case the presense of imperialist countries means the capital to be imperialized is dried up except through war, which opens up new markets.
This is a law of capitalist development. If a country develops to the monopoly stage and there's capital to be imperialized, it will imperialize it. There has never been a case where this isn't true. The fact that countries in the global south are underdeveloped and over exploited only further proves this point.
See the elections section. It obviously isn't a big focus, but it does happen.
Because that is the status quo. Leftism is about progressing onto the next mode of production, not stagnating or regressing, which is right-wing.
What?
Being slow is not at odds with liberalism, nor is government intervention. Again, this is like saying the US isn't liberal because of the millitary industrial complex. Further, Iran is nationalist as well as liberal, it isn't really imperialized but it isn't socialist either.
I never once claimed that most nations are imperialist. This is straight up something you invented in your head.
Just because this point still seems to not be getting through:
If I say you need enough heat, fuel, and oxygen to start a fire, and you say if you don’t have heat you don’t have fire, I’m still correct. I have never once said that the global south is imperialist, I said the opposite.
No goalposts shifted. This has been my point from the very beginning.
It isn't a flawed notion. Capitalism necessarily leads to imperialism if there is room for it, and if there isn't, it leads to you either becoming nationalist, socialist, or imperialized. These are not conflicting ideas. You're very confused.
Liberalism is not opposed to government intervention. Iran is heavily based on private property. That's like saying the US isn't liberal because of the millitary industrial complex.
You're confusing liberalism, the ideology, with vague ideas of personal freedom.
If I say you need enough heat, fuel, and oxygen to start a fire, and you say if you don't have heat you don't have fire, I'm still correct. I have never once said that the global south is imperialist, I said the opposite.
People can talk all they want, but "debate" matters very little in terms of actual systems of political economy. Iran is fairly liberal and nationalist right now, as an example. I despise your insinuation that I simply only read theory and don't pay attention to the world around me, while you draw false binaries and trap yourself into an idealist worldview.
Again, discussion matters far less than what the actual system is, and furthermore leftism in, say, Iran would be socialist. You have a very liberal view of liberalism, humorously enough.
Reread my comment:
Those on the imperialized end cannot themselves really become imperialist, and the total capital to be imperialized is limited, so you end up with nationalist countries that aren’t imperialist because there’s nothing left to imperialize, but this stays at a crossroads where imperialist countries threaten you into opening up your capital markets to be imperialized.
The global south is imperialized. The most they can do is become nationalist and kick out imperialists, they can't really become imperialist themselves. They would if they could. Assuming, of course, they don't become socialist in the process of kicking out the imperialists.
It's happened in all possible cases, where do you think it hasn't happened?
This is wrong.
First of all, ideologies are not recipes, nor choices made by people, but a product of material conditions and reality. There isn't a debate between "authoritarianism" and "liberalism," there's a decaying liberal capitalist system and different classes pushing for their own interests.
Secondly, it isn't a Eurocentric view. The majority of the world is liberal. Countries like China and Cuba that have managed to move into socialism are not the majority. What's left and right isn't determined by the median opinion, but between moving onto the next mode of production or trying to retain the current system (or even move backwards).
There is no "authoritarian vs liberalism" debate, they aren't even antithetical to each other. It isn't a spectrum. Most liberal countries are despotic.
I'm not denouncing Mamdani, just trying to align expectations and make it clear that revolution is still necessary in order to begin socialism. I'm cheering for Mamdani, fuck Cuomo. But revolution isn't a pipe dream. Thinking that the system can be reformed from within is the pipe-dream. Mamdani plays a role in helping the proletariat become normalized towards socialism and may represent a decent change in a positive direction for New Yorkers, but his win isn't a requirement for revolution, nor does it get rid of the need for it.
To be clear, all socialism is democratic. "Democratic Socialism" is just for reformist socialism, and I'd argue Mamdani is just to give New Yorkers a taste of what a better world could look like. You can't actually change capitalism by working within it, though, revolution remains necessary. Mamdani could prove beneficial in normalizing socialism.
I think you're erasing the economic component of the Marxist position, as well as conflating the nature of the state, which Marxists and Anarchists somewhat disagree on. Marxist communism, in its stateless form, is still fully centralized and planned, but also classless. It isn't about "transferring to the workers," that basis is the means by which to bring about communism. The millitarization of the state is necessary until the world is socialist and all class contradictions have been resolved, but there will still be administrative positions well into communism.
Anarchism is indeed more decentralized, but this is a departure from the Marxist understanding of economic development. The real argument is not based on how to get to the final stage, but what that final stage even looks like to begin with. Full horizontalism a la anarchism, or a one world collectivized and planned a la Marxism.
I do support anarchists generally, certainly over capitalists, but I think a lot of confusion is drawn between anarchists and Marxists due to having different stances on terms and what they look like in practice.