The DM was a DM asking us to change our no tankies policy and remove the fuck tankies banner as it was apparently upsetting hexbear users. Apparently tankies view the word tankie as a form of slur. The admin wants us to ally as a form of “left solidarity”
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I am a social democrat. I think we should elect socialist politicians through our existing democracy. The socialist politicians will then vote on legislation to regulate the economy and ensure that corporations do not gain an outsized influence in the free market.
Looks at Allende, the Indonesian Genocide, ÖSDAP, and the US Civil War… I am sure, this time the ruling class will just say “aww shucks”, and peacefully give up power, rather than fight to retain power like every previous time.
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Here in the US, the people rule. Since socialist policies are in the interest of the people, they will want to vote for politicians who support socialist policies.
This is literally objectively not true:
https://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy
The US is not, and has never been, a democracy, because the people do not direct the actions of the government except on the margins. There is no democratic input on imperialism or capitalism. Those are invariate, and the system is designed to protect those from public influence.
It’s crazy to see a far left news source be used to try to convince people that the US has never been a democracy.
We have always been a democracy and we thankfully still are a democracy. We are in danger of losing our democracy to fascism however. If we don’t fix the flaws in our democratic institutions we will end up in a fascist dictatorship.
I am well aware we are circling the fascist drain. I also know that the modern neoliberalism movement started by Regan and Thatcher is how we got here.
and yet these and other popular policies remain politically impossible
“Far left” lol lmao even
Ok, you know things. Cool. So why are you being so dodgy about hyperspecific political tendencies? Why is such a precarious, controlled, center-left (by ur standard) system like the US worth balancing?
come on this has to be satire. you can’t be serious about this shit.
Study: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens:
From the abstract:
further down:
What is it, like, 70% of Americans want single payer healthcare?
The people rule so effectively in the USA that the candidate with less votes has won 1/3 of presidential elections in the 21st century.
How can you be a “democracy” if the candidate with the most votes loses the election? I thought that was the number one rule of democracy, the person with the most votes wins.
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This has been tried many times and history shows that it’s a really effective way of getting yourself couped and get a brutal reactionary regime put in your place. The bourgeoisie is not burdened by any high-minded liberal ideals when it comes to preserving their wealth and power, they are going to do whatever it takes.
Have you ever heard of anarchism and mutual aid
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I’m personally more afraid of being drafted in a war started by russia but whatevs
Oh, so you’ll just say whatever whack shit about the genuine struggle for socialism, but when confronted you drop a “whatevs”. Let me know when you scheme up an anti-authoritarian scheme to build socialism when surrounded by hostile imperialists. We would all prefer that.
What’s your point? Are russia not currently being an imperialist nation? They are invading a country for the sake of territory
My point is you’re changing the subject to Russia (fuck Putin, the invasion is unjustified and horrific, fuck NATO, they are using Ukraine as a puppet to weaken their geopolitical rival and imposing a brutal privatization regime) when we were talking about “authoritarian socialism”. Revolutions are authoritarian. Maintaining the victory of the working class over the capitalist class is authoritarian. The entire point of socialism is to seize authority and wield it for the good of the people, at the people’s direction. There’s no way to do it without authority because you will be crushed by reactionary forces inside and out.
Now, just out of the blue, for no discernable reason, the Russian government decided it would just go ahead and conquer a large population in a land where it would have to fight an insurgency for approximately forever. Yes, this is definitely what’s happening. A tankie might call this pure MSNBC brain, but there is literally nothing else you need to know in order to understand this conflict. Stay strong, and continue to be the smartest person in the room.
Ah yes, I’m fully aware that this only began in February 2022 and not a single moment before. There isn’t a history of russia fucking around for the last decade.
Maknova’s territory, disregarding their anti-Jewish pogroms that were only stopped later, still worked under the authority of one man. The CNT-FAI even found a need for stopping strikes and purging anticommunists during their struggle against fascism. Expecting a socialist movement to be perfect is ahistorical and throws aside the will of those who are the most annihilated by imperialism. There’s a reason this discussion largely occurs in the global north.
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