i mean, US imperialism is bad, and i will even say that the newest cod game is blatant anti-communist propaganda, but this ain’t it vro 💀

Mao said allat in 1927 to advocate for the militarisation of the CCP after the Nationalist government tried to crack down on anyone they didn't like, killing hundreds of thousands.

And ofc, modern MLs, Leftcoms, Stalinists and co. picked it up with "all the power comes from voting" memery about how voting is actually useless af and all an average person must really do is grab a gun and go shoot capitalists and fascists up (I understand that some of that is clearly ironic, and it's funny but a bunch of people are really like that unironically), while we, glorious keyboard revolutionary front, sit on a couch and write theory or something, while the plebs bring us into power.

The thing is, that quote isn't really even right in my humble opinion.

Like I understand the criticism of voting in a liberal democracy, especially the US liberal democracy™. While voting is an expression of the popular will, it can lead to said people's will to be manipulated or straight up rigged against the people (especially considering that originally in most bourgeoisie democracies there was no universal suffrage, only the rich voted), so it often gives people an impression that they are in charge, while the bourgeoisie are the one really holding the reins over economy and, consequentially, the politics.

But political power doesn't come from guns, or the barrel of a gun. Guns are just tools of wood, metal, plastic or whatever, but they alone are that: objects. Without people to use them, they would be useless, no political power comes from them. They are tools.

All political power comes from having the majority of the people you intend to govern/rule over to support, accept or at least tolerate your authority.

Guns are an easy way if you wanna "rule": you force the people to accept your authority using violence and making people submit to you because people, y'know, fear for their lives. But if people weren't people and had completely no fear for their lives as a concept (we wouldn't survive as a species that way, but imagine if fear just disappeared) you could have all the guns on the planet, shoot up all the people you want and still have zero political power.

Voting is imperfect, always will be, it's far from the only source of political power even in the times of peace, much less war. Especially, yet again, when we are talking about bourgeois democracy. But I am sick of people pretending like an armed revolution is the only way to achieve anything and anyone trying to do anything peacefully is only worthy of ridicule. I personally am not a pacifist, some war is unfortunately inevitable and protecting oneself from the oppression is a right thing to do, but I hate the warmongering and the war. Full stop.

And being a dick, completely failing to reflect on the failures of the past or spouting something along the lines of "they didn't shoot enough reactionaries" or not doing anything to actually make your views feel, you know, approachable doesn't make you any closer to the revolution.

In short: NO YOU'RE NOT IN THE 1927 CHINA OR 1917 RUSSIA, YOU'RE NOT A HARDENED REVOLUTIONARY, YOU DON'T ACHIEVE SHIT BY JUST SITTING ON YOUR ASS TALKING ABOUT HOW VOTING IS EVIL AND YOUR GLORIOUS LEADER WAS ACTUALLY AWESOME FOR ALL THE PURGES HE DID AND THE DICTATORSHIP THAT DIDN'T HAVE A THING TO DO WITH SOCIALISM HE INSTALLED!!!

P.S. Sorry for all the ranting, just want to get this all out of my system

For some reason everyone seems to see him super positively even occasionally in communities like this one despite the fact that he was just as much of a revisionist tyrant as Mao. But for some reason just because he has hype and aura moments he gets a pass from many people despite imo doing something worse than any other fake socialist dictator, opposing actual socialism under Hoxha and unjustly occupying large parts of greater albania (one of the most proletarian nations), on behalf of Serbian bourgeoise imperialism.

I'm tired boss.

Once again I got some history related sub (that I actually already blocked) shoved on my face and there we go again. Tankie tanking or just Russian fascist? U never know, the rhetoric is almost the same, just sprinkle some "US imperialism" on the narrative and the cake is ready

The latest one, Modern Warfare 4 features a full-scale North Korean invasion of South Korea.

Pardon me if this sounds condescending but I think the reason why so many leftists are so openly hostile to liberals is because they are teenagers who want to be edgy and make their liberal parents uncomfortable or haven't grown beyond that mindset.

I think we'd see much more mileage by actually explaining to liberals why we believe what we believe. It's important to remember that liberals are different from conservatives. Most liberal voters truly do mean well, they are just saturated by centrist, moderate media like CNN or NYT. If we actually tried to explain our positions to them instead of just telling them to shut up or kicking them out of our spaces we would most likely start to see more liberals who are at least open to leftist positions if not being radicalized themselves.

Edit: Just to be clear I'm talking about this on an interpersonal level. Im not saying that the left should be making coalitions with liberal parties.

Also, I know that liberalism is bad. I also know that liberal parties and institutions love to backstab leftists. My point is that if you see a liberal in a leftist space (or in person) your first response shouldn't be to push them out by berating them.

rebranded Bad Empanada still at it with the same bullshit

imagine expecting every muslim person to condemn 9/11 or some shit before you can even acknowledge them as human beings

I always thought systems like capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy and imperialism were almost like living creatures. Obviously they aren't conscious, but they seem to adapt to resistance and find ways to keep themselves going.

I also always felt uncomfortable with the idea that some humans are inherently evil or the world's problems can be explained by ‘bad people do bad things’. I feel like, as leftists, we should come from a place of empathy and understanding the material conditions that shape people's behaviour. 

I'm ranting in this subreddit because I find it frustratingly myopic how often geopolitics and working-class liberation get treated like a team sport, particularly by tankies and campists. Like opposing one imperial power means defending another kinda thing. I feel like we spend so much time arguing about who the good guys and bad guys are that we sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. Even though this is a joke sub, I think there's more room for nuance here than in a lot of other leftist spaces.

What interests me is why systems of exploitation are so difficult to escape, and why even movements that begin with the goal of liberation can end up reproducing the same hierarchies they originally opposed. Revolutions can replace one ruling class with another. Institutions that were supposed to serve people can end up prioritising their own survival. How do we actually prevent that from happening?

I've recently started learning about cybernetics, which is basically the study of feedback, control and how systems regulate themselves. I'm particularly interested in anarchist cybernetics and plan to read more about it. It made me think about whether we could understand these problems better by looking at the relationships and feedback loops that keep systems functioning, rather than just focusing on the individuals within them.

But I also feel conflicted about trying to intervene in a system when I'm part of it myself. My own ideas about what needs changing have been shaped by the very systems I'm criticising. How do we avoid assuming we know what's best for everyone else? And how do we make sure that attempts to improve things don't just create new ways for power to become concentrated?

I also wonder about the practical side of this, especially when it comes to sharing resources and organising society. We have so much knowledge and technology available to us, yet we still have systems that produce enormous waste alongside deprivation. For the longest time I thought it was just an optimisation issue! However now I realise it's also about who has power, who benefits and who gets to make the decisions.

I guess what I'm getting at is whether we could approach liberation less as a matter of replacing the people in charge and more as a matter of changing how power and decision-making work in the first place.The way it is currently, like is that something in our nature, or is it just a bunch of systems that formed and that we’re stuck in? 

I'm still learning and I don't have a solution. I would really love to hear what people think, especially where this way of thinking might be wrong.

Could cybernetics help us design systems where the ability to recognise and correct harmful behaviour is distributed among the people affected, rather than held by a central authority?

I don't even consider myself a Marxist, but calling someone a larper and telling them to read Marx in regards to an idea that Lenin came up with is peak irony

Just thought I'd toss this out there. Every click funds the UNRWA. You do have to turn off adblock for it to work, but I've been using the site for years and it seems reputable.

As the United States has more or less officially capitulated to Russia, agreeing to buy oil from them, denying use of military software and intelligence, and Wiktoff calling Putin a “humanitarian figure” (🤡), how will tankies react to this? Will they finally go full mask off and claim that Trump and Musk are critical communist comrades attempting to fight back the decadent capitalism of Biden and the European Union? I would like to hear your thoughts on this.