Reduction of consent manufacturing power, something that has probably been critical in failures of nato to make advances. Belarus could have been MUCH more aggressively taken if people around the world were not opposing the media narratives being presented to them. The imperialists want narratives they can control, both in real-time and in the historical record. Take Gaddafi for example, almost nobody would call him left wing, and we failed terribly to oppose the consent manufacturing machine that wanted to invade. Had we been stronger back then we may have been able to spin more left-wing narratives about Gaddafi and make the imperialists question whether they would hold control of the historical record on him.
It is important for them to maintain the air of illusion that they are the good guys, as soon as their citizens lose that illusion they lose the ability to control them.
Venezuela is another country that leftists online have probably up to this point in time managed to cause enough support for to prevent the US from just believing they can go in heavy-handedly. Other parts of Latam too. They will try less heavy methods because they can not manufacture stories that will hold up due to opposition they will receive from the left.
News media used by the ruling class to manufacture consent is just the same as the information we spread around online. Online social media is just a digital newspaper where the users are choosing the articles of the day, we are strong enough now to hurt their consent manufacturing. And the biggest issue it causes the ruling class is that every time they go too far without enough consent -- it grows the left. Every time the ruling class must take an action without enough consent manufacturing having occurred they must make a calculation on whether it is worth it or not. Our goal in both the online and offline space is to make it not worth or to set ourselves up to gain from it by having been vocally right all along.
Do you really think that we're the kingmakers, that we exercise any measurable sort of damper on imperialist policies, with less than a percent of the population voicing their public opinion?
Putin has been in power for 20 years. I don't think he's come close to losing it even once. So I don't believe that there is "a delicate balance of power", or that aggregate decisions of Western leftists (or even leftists in Russia) to critically support or reject him would have any bearing on whether he stays in power or not.
We're not kingmakers but anti-imperialist efforts are not worthless.
Putin has been in power for 20 years. I don’t think he’s come close to losing it even once. So I don’t believe that there is “a delicate balance of power”, or that aggregate decisions of Western leftists (or even leftists in Russia) to critically support or reject him would have any bearing on whether he stays in power or not.
Silly stuff. You saw how much the US could be destabilised in just 5 years of Trump by the opposition party actually trying to do destabilisation. The communists are completely capable of doing this, the choose not to because it is a very inopportune time and Putin gives communists enough of what we want in regards to anti-imperialism, china and support for anti-imperialist efforts elsewhere in the world in order to keep things balanced.
In Russia I suspect you might be onto something. I'm not very knowledgeable about Russia though.
In Anglo countries I think any impression of this is us just overstating our relevance. I can only think of one instance in the past 50 years when any Anglo country had its government subverted. Plus their institutions are some of the longest-standing and strongest in the world; this is connected to how they've been so dominant for so long.
Australia had one of its prime ministers get couped by the CIA and another one literally disappeared, just straight up vanished. Greece was couped by the CIA too.
You're right though though it is very difficult to destabilise anglo countries. It requires massive effort and resources, something socialists don't have in most places. The American destabilisation wasn't led by socialists, it was led by liberals, the liberal media, the liberal apparatus all working in one unified way.
The only place where socialists have similar strength is France, Spain and perhaps Greece. All three have successfully destabilised thanks to the efforts of the left.
Gough Whitlam was exactly who I was talking about. And even then, it's the great power subjugating a lesser power, so I'd say it's a different category from popular pressure that overturns a government's policy.
The other guy was dummy thicc and got nommed by some wildlife.
As a foreigner, I get the sense that Russia is in a really strange place right now ideologically. Polling indicates that people who were alive at the time preferred the USSR over the Federation, however Stalin seems remembered more as a nationalist symbol than a revolutionary one. The 100th anniversary of 1917 passed four years ago with little fanfare (at least according to English language reporting), and the nominally Communist parties in Russia seem about as coherent and developed as the plonkers in England.
Personally, I think they need more time to untangle their shit and develop among themselves before I'm willing to direct support towards any particular organization as an outsider. Shock therapy really fucked them up badly.
As an Eastern European person living in the region and closer to the sources, this is close. Communists in Moldova and Russia are more about anti-Western conservatism, based in cold-war nationalism.
Common talking points: Russia VS the removed West. We won't give up our country to the US, to the LGBT EU propaganda, we protect our Christian values, we need a strict dictator, like Stalin(Putin will do) , to keep the order. World War 2 was a crowning achievement of our military might. We want to have our status as a global military power back.
That is like the conservative wing of the Putin supporters. The only thing that leftists have in common with them is being against a neoliberal takeover from foreign corporations. There are actual leftist organizations, including marxist-leninist ones, that will never support either Putin or the western-backed liberal opposition.
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Reduction of consent manufacturing power, something that has probably been critical in failures of nato to make advances. Belarus could have been MUCH more aggressively taken if people around the world were not opposing the media narratives being presented to them. The imperialists want narratives they can control, both in real-time and in the historical record. Take Gaddafi for example, almost nobody would call him left wing, and we failed terribly to oppose the consent manufacturing machine that wanted to invade. Had we been stronger back then we may have been able to spin more left-wing narratives about Gaddafi and make the imperialists question whether they would hold control of the historical record on him.
It is important for them to maintain the air of illusion that they are the good guys, as soon as their citizens lose that illusion they lose the ability to control them.
Venezuela is another country that leftists online have probably up to this point in time managed to cause enough support for to prevent the US from just believing they can go in heavy-handedly. Other parts of Latam too. They will try less heavy methods because they can not manufacture stories that will hold up due to opposition they will receive from the left.
News media used by the ruling class to manufacture consent is just the same as the information we spread around online. Online social media is just a digital newspaper where the users are choosing the articles of the day, we are strong enough now to hurt their consent manufacturing. And the biggest issue it causes the ruling class is that every time they go too far without enough consent -- it grows the left. Every time the ruling class must take an action without enough consent manufacturing having occurred they must make a calculation on whether it is worth it or not. Our goal in both the online and offline space is to make it not worth or to set ourselves up to gain from it by having been vocally right all along.
Do you really think that we're the kingmakers, that we exercise any measurable sort of damper on imperialist policies, with less than a percent of the population voicing their public opinion?
Putin has been in power for 20 years. I don't think he's come close to losing it even once. So I don't believe that there is "a delicate balance of power", or that aggregate decisions of Western leftists (or even leftists in Russia) to critically support or reject him would have any bearing on whether he stays in power or not.
We're not kingmakers but anti-imperialist efforts are not worthless.
Silly stuff. You saw how much the US could be destabilised in just 5 years of Trump by the opposition party actually trying to do destabilisation. The communists are completely capable of doing this, the choose not to because it is a very inopportune time and Putin gives communists enough of what we want in regards to anti-imperialism, china and support for anti-imperialist efforts elsewhere in the world in order to keep things balanced.
In Russia I suspect you might be onto something. I'm not very knowledgeable about Russia though.
In Anglo countries I think any impression of this is us just overstating our relevance. I can only think of one instance in the past 50 years when any Anglo country had its government subverted. Plus their institutions are some of the longest-standing and strongest in the world; this is connected to how they've been so dominant for so long.
Australia had one of its prime ministers get couped by the CIA and another one literally disappeared, just straight up vanished. Greece was couped by the CIA too.
You're right though though it is very difficult to destabilise anglo countries. It requires massive effort and resources, something socialists don't have in most places. The American destabilisation wasn't led by socialists, it was led by liberals, the liberal media, the liberal apparatus all working in one unified way.
The only place where socialists have similar strength is France, Spain and perhaps Greece. All three have successfully destabilised thanks to the efforts of the left.
Gough Whitlam was exactly who I was talking about. And even then, it's the great power subjugating a lesser power, so I'd say it's a different category from popular pressure that overturns a government's policy.
The other guy was dummy thicc and got nommed by some wildlife.
As a foreigner, I get the sense that Russia is in a really strange place right now ideologically. Polling indicates that people who were alive at the time preferred the USSR over the Federation, however Stalin seems remembered more as a nationalist symbol than a revolutionary one. The 100th anniversary of 1917 passed four years ago with little fanfare (at least according to English language reporting), and the nominally Communist parties in Russia seem about as coherent and developed as the plonkers in England.
Personally, I think they need more time to untangle their shit and develop among themselves before I'm willing to direct support towards any particular organization as an outsider. Shock therapy really fucked them up badly.
As an Eastern European person living in the region and closer to the sources, this is close. Communists in Moldova and Russia are more about anti-Western conservatism, based in cold-war nationalism.
Common talking points: Russia VS the removed West. We won't give up our country to the US, to the LGBT EU propaganda, we protect our Christian values, we need a strict dictator, like Stalin(Putin will do) , to keep the order. World War 2 was a crowning achievement of our military might. We want to have our status as a global military power back.
That is like the conservative wing of the Putin supporters. The only thing that leftists have in common with them is being against a neoliberal takeover from foreign corporations. There are actual leftist organizations, including marxist-leninist ones, that will never support either Putin or the western-backed liberal opposition.