cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7288811
It’s also because you DON’T hate AmeriKKKa ENOUGH.
They’ll gain my respect when they stop mindlessly doing the bidding of fascists (so probably never).
It’s also because you DON’T hate AmeriKKKa ENOUGH.
I’m trying my best
If your hate isn’t pure enough, Settlers, Killing Hope, and Washington Bullets should be perfect!
Vijay prashad my love
I’ve heard about settlers but I had a very shallow feeling of it from the title “myth of the white proletariat” of it being those “west has absolutely 0 chance of class consciousness and is a lost cause” type of online third worldist works (I am a third worlder and I will say westerners have a very large labor aristocracy who benefit from imperialism) and I haven’t heard it being a critical work in Marxist spaces, so I felt a bit weird about it. But I will give it a shot and will read it critically, thank you for the website!
Now, I will purify my hatred of the united $$naKKKeSS of ameriKKKa 😈
It isn’t really a work of theory, but history, and as such it isn’t really critical for learning how to think like a Marxist but instead is one person’s application of Marxism to US history. What we can do with that history is better trace the ongoing class character of the US Empire, identify its primary internal contradiction (spoiler: it’s settler colonialism), and that can better inform us how to organize, mostly within the empire.
The thing with Settlers is that it’s somewhat easy to walk away with absolutely no hope for revolution in the US Empire. I’d say it’s closer to valuable historical analysis than theory in that it’s a historical materialist analysis of the US and not about a concept, it has a very well developed understanding of the Statesian labor aristocracy and how it formed through generations of genocide, slavery, and settler-colonialism. You’re 100% correct that people use this book as an excuse to not do any org work in the US Empire and see it as pointless, ironically shifting all of the organizational labor onto the global south, but this is a mistake, and in no way takes away from the importance of the book.
In short, its utility is as a historical materialist analysis, not as an excuse nor as the end-all be-all. The sheer fact that it utterly destroys the western chauvanism that causes passive support for the west common in new leftists is extremely useful as well. In your case, it will mostly be a look at the disgusting history of the world’s worst empire that it desperately tries to hide.
TL;DR don’t walk away from it as a doomer, take the historical analysis from it and use your own judgement. We need to destroy the US Empire, decolonize it, and replace it with an indigenous-led socialist state.
And no problem, comrade!
I also think Settlers needs to be read in the context that it was written in, namely in the early 80s after the destruction of the civil rights movement and infiltration/breaking apart of most militant Black Liberation groups. If it feels hopeless that is mostly because things really did feel hopeless at that point in time.
Great point! And yes, it needs to be contextualized, as all texts really should be.
Got it! :>
TL;DR don’t walk away from it as a doomer, take the historical analysis from it and use your own judgement.
I HEART HOPEIUM, WE WILL MAKE IT COMRADES RAHHHHHHH 🦅🦅🦅
Yep! Revolutionary optimism is the absolute best attitude to have. The harsh reality is that, for now, the average worker in the US still gains more from imperialism than loses from capitalism, but the flipside to that is that the global south is breaking away from imperialism and thus weakening that very same system. As this happens, there will likely soon be an inflexion point where the proletariat in the US Empire aligns with the interests of the international proletariat, and this will mark the beginning of the end of this monster.
Dialectical materialism ensures that our hopium is based on solid ground, and not mere wishcasting! We’re in late-stage imperialism, the global transition between capitalism and socialism is long, messy, and queer, but is already well under-way.
Damn I was memeing but you wrote a very nice reply :D I hope so too. I hope we all live enough to see the global south develop rapidly and maybe even, more socialist revolutions around the globe.
Question: China is rapidly developing and practicing the “socialism in one country” policy, do you think they’d ever become internationalist like how Cuba or other states were? If so, what are the requirements? And why are they not currently? (Optional question)
I think exporting socialism is a pretty crucial step eventually, but I just don’t see any progress towards that as of now. I hope so one day, though.
Fantastic question! In short, there isn’t a correct answer to this, so the following is just my view on it. First, some clarifications:
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Socialism in One Country isn’t a stance against internationalism, but the belief that socialism can be achieved without revolution in the west. This dates back to Trotsky’s insistence that the peasantry were counter-revolutionary due to having petty-bourgeois consciousness, and that the RSFSR would fall without support from a socialist west. The USSR practiced socialism in one country, but was directly interventionist, compared to the modern PRC.
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The PRC’s foreign policy during the sino-soviet split was awful. If you want to learn more about why, I gave my thoughts in a recent thread here. In short, they supported Cambodia over Vietnam, the US over the USSR, all because they thought that the USSR was an imperfect ally due to adopting a revisionist stance that class struggle was over in the USSR. They were right, and this revisionism contributed to their eventual collapse, but so did the split, especially with the terrible foreign policy on the PRC’s part compared to the USSR’s.
Alright, back to your questions!
Question: China is rapidly developing and practicing the “socialism in one country” policy, do you think they’d ever become internationalist like how Cuba or other states were?
I alluded to this already, but the PRC is already internationalist, just non-interventionist. I’ll elaborate on that more later, but instead I’ll answer what I predict will happen in the future:
As the US Empire continues to decline and the PRC continues to rise, there is a leftward turn within the youth of the PRC. Conditions are rapidly improving there, it’s true, but staying so interconnected with the global market is a calculated risk with consequences for the working classes as well. They’ve relied heavily on exports, and this made them reliant on the world’s biggest treatlerites, the US Empire.
In the latest Five Year Plan, however, the one for 2026-2030, a huge focus is being placed on raising domestic consumption, lowering working hours, and raising quality of life directly. The last few Five Year Plans have been focusing on green development, rapidly improving production, and equalizing the rural/urban divide that was sharp due to rapid development in the cities, but now that those are well under-way, China is beginning to try to rely on itself moving forward.
This opens them up to more interventionism, as the multi-polar world emerges, if they so choose, such as if the US Empire truly does try to spark a hot war in Taiwan/Japan/ROK (though the ROK is moving more towards the PRC these days and against Japan/US).
If so, what are the requirements?
Essentially, they need to not depend on the US Empire for exports, and drive up domestic consumption, something they’ve already aconowledged. The PRC also has a defensive millitary, not an imperialist one like the US Empire, so they’d need to pivot their range to a more active role, something the US is trying to prevent now by couping a bunch of states in South America.
And why are they not currently?
This is where I will answer how they are already internationalist. It’s because right now they are undermining the basis of imperialism by focusing on win-win development with the global south, and bypassing unequal exchange. A huge part of how unequal exchange functions is tech monopoly allowing the west to charge monopoly prices for tech, but China doesn’t do that. That’s why BRI and cheap EVs, solar, etc. have been seeing a huge swing in the global south, and has allowed the global south to escape underdevelopment.
It’s a boring, slow, gradual internationalism, but they are trying to build that multi-polar world where the US Empire isn’t the only player. That’s why the US Empire is increasingly desperate to stop China, when they seemed just fine only 15 years ago. Chinese foreign policy during the Sino-Soviet split was terrible, and this is also a course-correction to not directly make the same mistakes they did for the latter half of the 20th century.
As time goes on, though, the youth are more radical and aren’t simply content with the current level of development, they dream of the social safety nets of the Maoist era and yearn more for direct action. The process of democracy in the PRC is slow and gradual, but does respond to the will of the people. As these demographics shift, and more youth enter the CPC, we will likely see a more radical shift.
Just as Mao, Deng, and Xi all adapted to their present material conditions of China, so too will Xi’s successor have to, and considering 2049 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, expect big shifts in the years leading up to that.
Sorry that this was so long!
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Death to ALL Yankee fascists, I’ll respect the troops when they regret being troops and do something about it.
Now waitaminit! I’m a yankee… a real one. Actual descendent of families from the oppressor race that came to the New World on the Mayflower and then the Pacer…
Do not paint my anti-monarchist ancestors with such a reprehensible stroke! My Yankee family took down fascists across Europe and also in the Pacific theater some 80+ years ago…
Ack!
(Oddly enough, to current events, I actually called this one out to my husband last mid-summer.) Can’t recall the actual thing that tipped me off, but I opined that Trump was gonna go all Teddy Roosevelt and “walk softly and carry a big dick…” and he was getting ready to head into meddling in South America.
Fuckin’ hell… I was right.
He’s all over the map and it doesn’t help that Steven Miller - whom Steve Bannon introduced to Trump and told him, “This guy IS a fascist…” and Trump latched onto him like a limpet - is creating a domestc nightmare that is consuming the public’s attention.
TV President indeed.
Daddy Warschmucks needs people around him to throw under the bus if it gets too shitty for him. Miller is the architect of the domestic terror and has created such a perfect smokescreen that the foreign intervention that makes Kegsbreath stiff and wet can roll out across the region.
I noticed that once they got Maduro, the “drug boat” interventions have seemed to stop, though am not sure on that, the press being the Administration’s bitches that they are - due to the corporate consolidation opening them up to government control via leverage through the SEC and the FCC. (What spineless cunts).
Thing is, troops don’t regret being troops until they’re wounded and walking around in constant pain, getting fuck-all from the VA. Trump doesn’t like wounded vets… they’re broken men to him and suitable for the trash heap only. Recall his dismissive attitude at the War Memorial in Europe during his last Administration? What a cocksucker.
I recall the guys that came home at the end of the Vietnam war. I was 10 at the time. Young men - kids actually - literally dumped off of planes at nearby air bases (in California) still covered in dried blood from the gunfights as they left Saigon… and just turfed with their duffel and a “Thanks for your service… goodbye…”
Lots of them ended up homeless and drug addicted and drinking themselves into oblivion as a way to run from their regret, PTSD and physical pain if they came home injured. I’d see them on the street… sleeping on the sidewalk near the liquor store. One guy we knew in the neighbrhood had half a jaw and the side of his face was open with a steel band of some sort poking through the scar tissue. Dude drank a ton.
Today’s army is voluntary so I imagine that the regret is going to be a lot more difficult to see, compared to the draftees of the 1960’s. It’ll be there though, in the quiet corners where no one is looking. Hidden and full of shame for the shit decisions they made to join up in the first place.
Those chickens coming to roost are gonna be a nightmare.
Also, have you noticed that since Bill Clinton’s people told the DOJ to go ahead and release all the files they have on him, that the Trump Administration’s gone silent about ol’ Billy-Boy?
My bigger question is what is the SCOTUS thinking is going to happen now that even business is telling Gen-z kids to quit thinking of college and good paying jobs and instead aim a little lower and opt for the service sector or the Trades (which DO pay well, but it takes decades to get to a point where you can command a good wage and get it…)
Fun times ahead.
My Yankee family took down fascists across Europe and also in the Pacific theater some 80+ years ago…
And then the yanks spent the following 80 years propping up fascism all over the world. Funny that.
As for your comments on Vietnam vets, I’ll just say this: The whole war was just one massive continuing My Lai massacre, and only about 25% of the US troops who went there were drafted. The idea that they were all innocent little babies who were dragged from their cribs and shipped off to a war they wanted no part of is just another brick in the foundation of lies the USA is built on. I will shed no tears for child killers andremoveds.
Death to America.
And then the yanks spent the following 80 years propping up fascism all over the world.
Oh hell yeah. Neverending war. Hasn’t changed one iota… War industrialists are among the vilest humans on the planet.
I remember hearing the jets taking off - some 35 miles away - from my dad’s farm in the hills, when Reagan invaded Grenada. Every 30 seconds. for hours as they did a bug out and mass movement of equipment to support the operation. All night long. Was in High School then, and nothing has changed since then.
You really want that death for America to happen?
Kill consumerism.
This imperialism continues because it’s the only way to keep the economy moving.
You really want that death for America to happen?
Yes.
Kill consumerism.
The word you’re looking for is “capitalism”.
Consumerism is the engine of capitalism. You can have consumerism in a socialist society and will still have the violence.
People want their materialistic shit and will allow death, destruction and degradation - somewhere else - for it to happen.
Acab means military too
Crossposted from hexbear? Fucking please.
Maybe don’t?
Fucking please.
You’re welcome?
“How dare you crosspost truth from the good instance!” - Midwesterner realizing that the “Tankies” are the only ones that make sense, and I might have to change instances.
I think they are bad in different ways tbh.
Also, on a personal level your average ICE employee is much more actively fascist and evil than your average military employee. There are actually a decent amount of relatively normal humans in the US military, after all most of the US military is just a massive fucking supply line.
I really expected to see more pushback from the military. Every single one of them swore to defend the Constitution from all threats foreign and domestic, and are literally oath-bound to engage Trump the same way they do any other enemy of the US. Instead they keep just blindly following orders from chief domestic enemy while the Constitution burns.
Like, I never expected to see the military actually unite against the Trump regime, but surely there are at least a few thousand people in a force that large who take their oath seriously, right? …apparently not. Not a single one of the troops has stepped up to do what’s right, opting instead to do what’s easy.
Cowards and/or traitors, all of them.
I think that stems from a misunderstanding of what the US military is. It’s the armed force that maintains and expands the amerikkkan empire, nothing more or less than that. Any pretense of an “oath” or any kind of rules or laws or principles is just a pretense.
You don’t have to like the military to understand how childish and devoid of nuance views like this are.
Also anyone who feels the need to type america like that immediately forfeit any semblence of credibility there may have been. I keep blocking .ml to not have to interact with tankies yet you keep popping up like cockroaches
You can be less bad without being good. Hell has levels, after all.
Hell ain’t real.
Trying to equivocate the atrocities of the US military as being “not as bad” as what ICE is doing to US citizens is tacitly implying that those being oppressed in the global South by US military are less worthwhile than that of US citizens.
Hell ain’t real.
Have you heard of a metaphor
I have, unfortunately your metaphor sucked and only served to further imply that those of the global south are somehow less worthwhile than US citizens.
I don’t mean to be abrasive here, but if you really believe that, you may either not know what the US military actually does or you may think people in the Global South are less worthwhile than those in the USA (like it says in the title of the post).
“anyone who disagrees with me is either an idiot or a terrible person”
I don’t want to be a Debbie downer, but in this case they’re right. It’s literally impossible to argue. Look at the rape rates of enlisted women to see what we do to our own, let alone the people we’ve dehumanized.
deleted by creator
this edgy shit won’t accomplish anything
What about this is “edgy shit?” The meme makes a great point, the troops are direct footsoldiers for maintaining imperialism globally, like when they murdered hundreds of civilians and kidnapped an elected president purely for oil.
Still waiting for that reply, lmao.
Just crickets lol
Everybody
gangstahitler until the Cowbee shows up lmao.🤣
