• Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    hi, I’m Matt :)

    • democratic market socialist, marxist revisionist
    • artist, linguist, historian, map game player
    • antifascist, antimonarchist, anticommunist

    you used 14 words when you could have just used 1 and said “liberal”

  • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netM
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    11 months ago

    I don’t think anyone on the right actually supports Palestine. Inventing a horseshoe to explain a very tiny handful of dudes on the internet who are exclusively trolling, as though they have a legitimate or consistent political ideology. Even the anti-Semites seem to be outweighing their own rabid fascism with their even more rabid Islamophobic fascism.

    • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      There are people on the right who support Palestine (the Muslim Brotherhood, for instance), they just mostly aren’t in the west/on twitter.

    • windowlicker [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      being just anti-israel is significantly different than being pro-palestine. people on the right (especially the far-right as depicted here) are not in favor of palestinian statehood, or their national self-determination, or liberation for their people, or protecting their culture at all. they are just anti-israel.

  • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    My biggest issue here is the assumption that there must be a side one has to pick in the Russo-Ukrainian war. I’m not supporting Russian but I’m not “Slava Ukraine” either or whatever the hell the libs say. Both countries are corrupt with ultra right problems. I just want the bloodshed to end and a peace deal, which by lib standards makes me a tankie I guess.

    • Kaplya [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      This is as good as saying that in 1940, you don’t support either the British or the Nazis because they’re both right wing bourgeois governments fighting one another anyway.

      The Soviet people in 1940 understood all too well what it meant if the Nazis had triumphed over the British during the Battle of Britain. It would have spelt a far worse struggle against fascism when the Nazis inevitably turn against them.

      Similarly, a NATO/Ukraine fascist victory over Russia today would spell doom for left wing anti-imperialist projects across the world. The US taking over of Russia’s vast resources and military hardwares would destroy any capacity of the Global South to assert their economic independence from the West, and to wage armed struggles against the Western imperialists. Furthermore, economic collapses would inevitably lead to far right dictatorships and their brutal execution of labor leaders and left wing activists.

      This is why reading theory is so important for every communist. Without the ability to understand the contradictions of capitalism, no socialist movement would be able to get off the ground. Only a constant spiral of defeat awaits them.

      • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        11 months ago

        This is as good as saying that in 1940, you don’t support either the British or the Nazis because they’re both right wing bourgeois governments fighting one another anyway.

        If you’re talking about Ukraine, no way they become the next Nazi Germany. This war has wrecked their productive capacity too much, which wasn’t great to begin with. At worst, they’ll be a poorer Poland.

        If you’re talking about US/NATO military hegemony, hate to break it to you but that ship has already sailed. It doesn’t have the ability to unilaterally impose its will like it once did, but it’s still a massive force; there’s a reason Russia engaged in a proxy war instead of directly attacking a NATO member.

        Similarly, a NATO/Ukraine fascist victory over Russia today would spell doom for left wing anti-imperialist projects across the world. The US taking over of Russia’s vast resources and military hardwares would destroy any capacity of the Global South to assert their economic independence from the West, and to wage armed struggles against the Western imperialists.

        What you’re describing doesn’t sound like a peace deal, that sounds like NATO victory and then some; the West prefers a proxy war as well to actually invading Russia. What I’m talking about would be something along the lines of semi-autonomous status for the separatist regions, a hardline “no NATO membership for Ukraine,” Russia keeps Crimea, but Ukraine doesn’t demilitarize. And for what it’s worth, I think China’s global position is going to come out stronger from all this regardless of outcomes.

        This is why reading theory is so important for every communist.

        If you’re going to appeal to theory, then cite the relevant theory.

        • Kaplya [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          11 months ago

          If you’re talking about US/NATO military hegemony

          I am talking, of course, about US imperialism, and which it will continue to arm and support fascist paramilitary to brutally slaughter leftists across the world, as it has done so many times over the past century. The only way to end this is to end US imperialism.

          What you’re describing doesn’t sound like a peace deal, that sounds like NATO victory and then some

          This war doesn’t end until either NATO is demilitarized, or Russia is demilitarized. There is no off-ramp from here, a ceasefire will only come when either of the two conditions occur, as trust is already permanently broken:

          First, the US refusing Ukraine to negotiate for a ceasefire back in March 2022 made it very clear that they have no intention of suing for peace. There is a reason why Russia transitioned into an attrition war in May 2022 (what they call “Phase 2”), and it is precisely because they have correctly read the responses from the other side. If Russia loses, that means it has economically collapsed, and the chaos as a failed state that ensued.

          Second, the Minsk agreements were the ceasefire period, during which Ukraine was re-armed and trained by NATO, and its military is being used against Russia today. This is why there is no longer a solution where the situation goes back to status quo. NATO will just continue to re-arm Ukraine, or worse, give them nuclear weapons as was in Zelensky’s provocative statement in January 2022 anyway. The only way for this to end is the demilitarization of NATO, or if Russia collapses.

          If you’re going to appeal to theory, then cite the relevant theory.

          I’d start with Lenin’s The Proletariat and the War.

      • KarlBarqs [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        11 months ago

        victory over Russia today would spell doom for left wing anti-imperialist projects across the world.

        Russia only tacitly supports the ones that poke the US/NATO in the eye. The current government is a nationalist, right-wing capitalist government. Should they win, that would strengthen that side of politics in Russia for a long time, and I truly can’t imagine Russia starting its own BRI like China has going on. If a leftist, anti-imperialist project threatens a victorious Russia, the Russians will still come down against it.

        I think we can all acknowledge that not supporting the Nazi side of things is the right call, but I don’t think we should be so quick to pretend Russia winning would somehow lead to global communist victory. They’re still capitalists at the end of the day, the Soviet project is unfortunately long gone.

        • Kaplya [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          11 months ago

          Hard disagree. I cannot imagine a scenario where left wing movements can survive better if NATO/US imperialism wins in the region. Russia would end up like Ukraine with a fascist takeover.

          The conservative, nationalist liberal government gained traction because US imperialism has destroyed all left wing oppositions in the region. The communists won the 1995 election until they were couped by the US. The same story happens everywhere, from Iran to Afghanistan to Indonesia to Chile to Nicaragua.

          And we’re not just talking about military coups. Have you ever wondered why so few socialist governments survive and how almost none of them had succeeded in their reforms? Because the US monetary imperialism has constructed such vast global financial institutions that ensured that no Global South country can possibly pay off their dollar debt, and thus forcing them to institute austerity, privatization of public assets upon coming to power in order to sustain their economic activity without going broke.

          Michael Hudson described one mechanics of US monetary imperialism here:

          Among the BRICS+ countries, Argentina is a case in point. Its foreign dollar debt has grown largely by IMF sponsorship. The IMF’s main political function in US foreign policy has been to enable pro-American client oligarchies to move their money out of countries whenever there is a chance of a left-wing or simply democratic reformer being elected. Convert their Argentinean currency into dollars lowers the peso’s exchange rate. Without IMF intervention, that would mean that as the exchange rate falls, the wealthy classes engaging in capital flight receive fewer and fewer dollars. To support the currency – and hence, the hard-currency dollars that capital-flight actors receive – the IMF lends the right-wing government dollars to buy up the excess pesos that the client oligarchy is selling off. That enables Argentineans to move their money out of the country to obtain a much higher amount of US dollars than they would if the IMF were not lending money to the right-wing puppet government.

          When the new reform government comes in, it finds itself loaded down with a huge foreign debt owed to the IMF. This debt has not been taken on in a way that helped Argentina develop its economy and earn dollars to pay back the loan. It is simply a result of IMF support of right-wing governments. And the IMF then tells the new government (whether Argentina or any other debtor) to pay off its foreign loans by lowering the wages of labor. That is the only way that the IMF recognizes for countries to “stabilize” their balance of payments. So the reform government is obliged to behave just like a right-wing government, intensifying the class war of capital against labor. The “cure” for their balance-of-payments deficits thus becomes even worse than the original disease, that is, its rentier oligarchy moving their money out of the country.

          Only by ridding the influence of Western imperialism in the Global South can left wing movements begin to flourish. The principal contradiction in the Global South today is not the national bourgeois-proletariat struggle, but an anti-imperialist struggle. Only after resolving the principal contradiction can we actually stand a chance to fight against the national bourgeoisie.

      • autismdragon [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        11 months ago

        Some good anarchists I know though discord say “no it doesn’t mean that, the Iron Front coopted an existing symbol and applied a meaning to it that wasn’t there” which is why I’m not against the three arrows.

        But yeah this guy decided to just own it I guess. Fucking wild.

        ETA: Oh I should specificy according to said anarchist friend the third arrow isnt supposed to be communism/Bolshevism its supposed to be capitalism.

        • SpookyGenderCommunist [they/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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          11 months ago

          Yeah, I’ve got an iron front patch on my jacket, not because I’m anti-communist, but because it’s a way to signal my leftism and anti fascism to others, without attracting the attention of chuds who will be more likely to recognize an antifa flags patch.

  • edge [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    It’s not horrible considering the kinds of people I’ve seen on Twitter. The biggest thing is the center line should be moved to the line between Israel and Palestine (under Ukraine ofc). Supporting Israel automatically puts you on the right.

    Although it’s not an horseshoe because obviously the reasons for supporting each country vary wildly. Like any chud who supports Russia and Palestine (if they even exist) is 100% doing it just to be contrarian against Democrats.

    Basically 6-7 categories, from left to right:

    • leftists like us
    • socdems who genuinely care about oppressed peoples, but have bought propaganda about Russia
    • same as above but are also concerned about Hamas’s actions and want a ceasefire and for Israel and Palestine to just get along and live in harmony. This is the very center point (after moving the line like I said).
    • Biden, neolibs, NAFOs, neocons, basically most American politicians and their fervent supporters
    • Republicans, probably Trump aligned, who oppose Ukraine because Democrats support it, but love Israel because they’re still Christian conservatives and Christian conservatives love Israel plus anti-Arab racism
    • contrarian ““I support current thing””-posting Trump supporters who just take the opposite position of Biden without much thought (I’m not sure these actually exist since the racism would override the contrarianism, if they do exist, there are probably very few)
  • Crowtee_Robot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    Liberals, liberals everywhere. So many words. A sprawling labyrinth of meaningless buzzwords that all lead to the same core of the maze: liberals.

    agony-mescaline

  • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    each day i decide a new redditor politics is the most annoying thing on the planet. today it’s “market socialists.”

    bud you’re a Democrat. you have Democrat politics. maybe you read Marx, then you read Keynes, then you read Mises, then you go and vote Democrat. Those rare positions you hold that deviate from the Democrat consensus are boutique differences of opinion that merely allow you to believe that you occupy the Reasonable Center between radicalism and apathetic ignorance, but as soon as you fetishize your Reason in these patently unreasonable conditions you’ve capitulated to the world eaters.