General Discussion Thread - Juche 114, Week 19
cimbazarov @ cimbazarov @lemmygrad.ml Posts 0Comments 15Joined 2 yr. ago
Maybe I'm biased but you can even see the difference in cultures between predominantly Catholic countries vs Protestant countries. The former seems to have alot more distinctiveness and (not very, but slightly more) collectiveness
Inshallah comrade
Bernie and AOC have demonstrated that they will compromise on their "principles" ( if you even consider them that) to fallback to the Democratic party line. Putting our support in them is not a way to move their supporters to the left, but for them to move leftists to the right.
I think AOC is just a careerist, and Bernie is genuine, but functionally they are the same. I think of it similar to the SPD in Germany during the late 1910s and how it compromised with the bourgeois which killed any real revolution from happening.
Bernie wants billionaires to "pay their fair share" and then what? Is that really the root of the problem? They start paying more taxes and everything becomes fine for us?
I think in order to move people further left, we have to break their trust in AOC in Bernie. They have to see that there is no politician out there that actually is fighting for their interests, and their salvation lies in their own hands and they must organize.
Edit: oops I meant to reply to your other comment
Wartime revolutionary action against one’s own government indubitably means, not only desiring its defeat, but really facilitating such a defeat.
banger quote. So he's calling out the people who say they are against the war, but take no action that would impede the government from waging the war.
The war cannot but evoke among the masses the most turbulent sentiments, which upset the usual sluggish state of mass mentality. Revolutionary tactics are impossible if they are not adjusted to these new turbulent sentiments.
I think this is important when analyzing our own modern day situations, and not just taking what Lenin lists out here and applying it willy-nilly. It is my belief that we do not need to gain the support of the masses before performing an action because if we can understand the "turbulent sentiments" correctly, then we can come to a conclusion of what the correct action is. By performing the correct action we gain support of the masses. I think of it kinda like the whole UnitedHealthcare CEO situation, but the killer was not organized and only arrived at a correct action by chance.
Those who stand for the "neither-victory-nor-defeat" slogan are in fact on the side of the bourgeoisie and the opportunists, for they do not believe in the possibility of inter national revolutionary action by the working class against their own governments,
This is a nice way of framing it. In the end our goal is the revolution and everything we do is to achieve that end.
edit: I dunno how you are going about selecting texts, but could I submit a vote for Theses on the National and Colonial Questions
This is actually the first time I've seen the original
How do y'all talk to libs about how the media is portraying Trump as subservient to Putin? For example refusing aid to Ukraine and easing sanctions on Russia. I don't really have a good answer other than the long history after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that the US and Russia would probably never be allies.
I can understand why he'd be hard on Ukraine, but even I have trouble understanding why Trump seems so friendly with Russia
I was in a similar position. Best advice I can give is to try to find a local Marxist org if you can. Luckily there was one for me, but I know not everyone has one. I think isolating ourselves is probably the worst thing we can do right now, even though the capitalist system makes it easy to do so.
I used to think that I could convince my more lib/conservative minded friends since I read so much, but it's not that easy even if you have all the knowledge needed for making a point. I have never successfully converted someone, but I think I at least made them think a little bit more critically and even have them agree with me on some things.
Even in the context of Trump being in charge of the US right now, I still feel somewhat alone when talking to liberal-resistance-minded people about it because it’s like they’re approaching it from another universe of belief about how things work.
Yea I feel this too, and imo it's because they are not against the system but the individuals running the system.
I been getting clips of her too. I could only watch for a couple seconds before I had to stop because I couldn't stand her smugness
Eugene is great!
This leaves us with “join them”, and here Trump’s calculation seems to be that if the U.S. does so first, it undoubtedly can negotiate much better terms for the U.S.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I dont think the US wants to "join" in an alliance with China-Russia. America will not join anything if they are not the leader of it and have the ultimate say on decisions.
Still, the fundamental reality remains that Trump, for all his faults, seems to have understood earlier than Europeans that the world has changed and he’d better be the first to adapt. This was clear from Rubio’s very first major interview in his new role as Secretary of State when he declared that we’re now in a multipolar world with “multi-great powers in different parts of the planet”.
This is giving Trump too much credit no? The Rubio quote sounds more like trying to manufacture consent for war than building an alliance between multiple great powers.
True. There needs to be some vanguard of the revolution though.
I think it's a result of declining material conditions and concessions being given to oppressed minorities coinciding at the same time. The two are separate things, but timing wise they coincide so it's really easy to falsely link them as cause and effect.
At risk of sounding like a lib, I really do feel we are missing some kinda strong and intellectual leader type that goes against the status quo. Unfortunately the only leaders willing to go against the status quo are people like Trump and Milei, who I dont really consider strong. Even the status quo they go against is in more of a backwards cultural way rather than economic, because economically the status quo is already trending towards neoliberalism. This could also just be me being western biased, there are things going on in the Sahel states that I'm not too informed on.
Putin maybe? But he seems to be another capitalist at the end of the day. China is off doing their own thing. The whole Gaza genocide and Syria collapse just made Iran look really weak to me, but idk Im just an amateur looking at the situation from afar. Guess the west is literally just going to collapse through its own contradictions with no one there to pick up the pieces
Feels bad 😞
This has been my struggle for a while. I'm pretty convinced that the principle issue of America/the west is not that there are "dumb people" that support Trump and right wing policies though they contradict with their class interest, it's the people who are apathetic and are only able to think about what's immediately in front of them (I need more money, I need this treat etc.) and disconnect everything else going on, such as when people are wrongfully detained they assume that it would never happen to them.
I've also found that when prodded, these people will not want to learn or get involved because it will make them depressed (they also say "I'm not interested" as if it's some hobby), but also they have a discontent for their current lifestyle anyways. There are infinite excuses they will make up on why not to learn or get involved.