Someone posted the 1 hour highlight clip to /r/marxism. I skipped to the last 5 minutes and his conclusion after apparently reading a bunch and writing 7 pages is "I'm right, you're wrong, vote for Biden". Couldn't be bothered listening to the rest, besides his intro where at least he expresses some minor encouragement for Reading Theory™ and claimed he had some fun doing it so there's that I guess. But I happened to have come across this from Marx that seemed pretty fitting for the current time:
The rule of capital and its rapid accumulation is to be further counteracted, partly by a curtailment of the right of inheritance, and partly by the transference of as much employment as possible to the state. As far as the workers are concerned one thing, above all, is definite: they are to remain wage labourers as before. However, the democratic petty bourgeois want better wages and security for the workers, and hope to achieve this by an extension of state employment and by welfare measures; in short, they hope to bribe the workers with a more or less disguised form of alms and to break their revolutionary strength by temporarily rendering their situation tolerable. The demands of petty-bourgeois democracy summarized here are not expressed by all sections of it at once, and in their totality they are the explicit goal of only a very few of its followers. The further particular individuals or fractions of the petty bourgeoisie advance, the more of these demands they will explicitly adopt, and the few who recognize their own programme in what has been mentioned above might well believe they have put forward the maximum that can be demanded from the revolution. But these demands can in no way satisfy the party of the proletariat. While the democratic petty bourgeois want to bring the revolution to an end as quickly as possible, achieving at most the aims already mentioned, it is our interest and our task to make the revolution permanent until all the more or less propertied classes have been driven from their ruling positions, until the proletariat has conquered state power and until the association of the proletarians has progressed sufficiently far – not only in one country but in all the leading countries of the world – that competition between the proletarians of these countries ceases and at least the decisive forces of production are concentrated in the hands of the workers. Our concern cannot simply be to modify private property, but to abolish it, not to hush up class antagonisms but to abolish classes, not to improve the existing society but to found a new one.
[...]
At the moment, while the democratic petty bourgeois are everywhere oppressed, they preach to the proletariat general unity and reconciliation; they extend the hand of friendship, and seek to found a great opposition party which will embrace all shades of democratic opinion; that is, they seek to ensnare the workers in a party organization in which general social-democratic phrases prevail while their particular interests are kept hidden behind, and in which, for the sake of preserving the peace, the specific demands of the proletariat may not be presented. Such a unity would be to their advantage alone and to the complete disadvantage of the proletariat. The proletariat would lose all its hard-won independent position and be reduced once more to a mere appendage of official bourgeois democracy. This unity must therefore be resisted in the most decisive manner.
[...]
Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers’ candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled.
His entire argument is fixated on "You should vote for Biden as harm reduction". The result is pointless vote shaming/vote scolding and not actually any meaningful strategy for agitation and organising as in Lenin, Marx and many others. And "my own text" is Marx, one of the people Vaush is citing as to why you should vote Biden, with arguments particularly fitting given the Democratic party, it's attempts to paint unity, it's fixation on courting the support of small businesses, the attempts to undermine even relatively mild socdem candidates, etc. even despite the different context.
His entire argument is fixated on “You should vote for Biden as harm reduction”.
That's completely wrong. He argues that voting Biden leads to a better situation for socialist ideas. He even says that both parties are very similar and not at all to the left etc.
I know what I heard. Within the first 5 minutes, he's arguing that Lenin dismissed the British Labour party, that Bernie is less radical than Labour was, ergo anyone who voted for Bernie should be happy to support Biden. If Lenin was dismissive of Labour, then it does not remotely follow that someone who settled for Bernie should therefore also settle for Biden. If anything, it demonstrates precisely the opposite, in demonstrating how far back we've gone that a fucking Twitch streamer is trying to argue people should settle for Biden. Marx, Lenin and Engels all supported independent parties explicitly for the purpose of not being forced into compromises. Vaush takes general statements about involvement in elections for agitation and seeking to secure power precisely on the basis of being an explicitly pro-working class party, and butchers them into "You gotta vote for Biden".
The practical end result of Vaush's shit is to vote scold people. It's to continue endless entryism into the Democratic party no matter what the circumstance. It fails to engage with many broader questions e.g. the question of whether or not the immediate priority should instead be to build other forms of power independently of any one existing political party, the viability of entryism into an existing party whos own institutions are explicitly dominated by the interests of capital, and the fact that most candidates are not communists, but some brand of social democrat (if that even) that Vaush himself cites as the kind that would be shit on by Lenin. So we have social democrat entryism, into a party captured by healthcare and fossil fuel executies and lobbyists, with a candidate that generally repudiates Bernie/AOC/Ilhan etc., that Vaush wants to argue you should vote for because Marx and Lenin and Engels talked about communist parties running their own candidates in elections.
Three main points stand out in examining this resolution: firstly, categorical renunciation of all agreements with the Cadets; secondly, inflexible determination of the Social-Democrats to put forward its independent lists under all circumstances; and, thirdly, sanction of agreements with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Trudoviks.
To reject agreements with the Cadets was the plain duty of the workers’ party. As soon as the election meetings began in St. Petersburg it at once became clear to all that the revolutionary Social-Democrats were right when they said: our liberals have been humbugging ignorant people who have no definite principles with their cries about the Black-Hundred danger in order to avert the real danger threatening them from the left. The petty police tricks of the government, cheating the poor voters out of their votes with the aid of Senate interpretations have failed to change the mood of the mass of the voters (whether there will be 100, 120 or 150 thousand voters, makes no difference). And this mood of the masses is being clearly manifested at meetings as a mood that is to the left of the Cadets.
Of course, the Black-Hundred danger may not lie in the mass of the electorate voting Black Hundred, but in the arrest of Left voters and electors by the Black-Hundred police. There are persistent rumours that the present relative “freedom” (in Russia if a person is allowed to breathe it is called freedom!) of election meetings is a trap laid by the government, which intends to arrest prominent speakers and electors. But it is quite easy to understand that to combat this Black-Hundred danger we need, not blocs with the Cadets, but the preparedness of the masses to engage in a struggle that will go beyond the bounds of so-called parliamentarism.
Secondly, the Conference decided, as was to be expected, that in the metropolis the Social-Democrats will conduct their campaign independently under any circumstances. They may offer to enter into an agreement with another party in one form or another; but we were prepared for complete independence before, and are ready for it now. Taking the election campaign as a whole, an agreement under such circumstances will in fact be an exception; the independence of the Social-Democrats will be the rule.
Thirdly, the Conference offered to enter into an agreement with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Trudoviks on condition that they kept aloof from the Cadets and the pro-Cadet Popular Socialists, and on the further condition that the workers’ curia is given two seats and that the four remaining seats are divided equally.
This proposal is based on the principle of discriminating between parties according to their attitude towards the struggle outside the Duma, which tomorrow may become an immediate question. By making their pacts with other parties conditional upon the observance of certain principles the Social-Democrats provide ammunition for mass agitation and propaganda on the true character of the various parties. The Social-Democrats take into account the peculiarities of the situation in St. Petersburg, where the mass of the “Trudovik-inclined” urban petty bourgeoisie are led in tow by the Cadets. Under such conditions we cannot neglect the task of breaking this hegemony of the Cadets, of helping the working people to take a step forward —a small step, it is true, but one of unquestionable political importance— a step towards a more determined struggle, towards clearer political ideas, towards more definite class-consciousness.
And this result we shall achieve by our agitation, by our whole procedure in conducting the election campaign; and we shall achieve it whatever the answer of the Trudoviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries to our offer may be. There is no need for us to go into all sorts of calculations to ascertain the probability of an affirmative or a negative answer. Our attention must not be concentrated on this. The important thing for us is the fundamental policy of the proletariat, which remains unchanged in the face of various specific possibilities: to the deceptive illusions of peaceful struggle and constitutional toys we counterpose a clear analysis of the tasks of the struggle outside the Duma, a struggle that the course of events is bringing ever nearer. We say to the petty-bourgeois sections of the urban and rural working people: there is only one thing that can prevent the instability and vacillation of the small proprietors, and that is an independent class party of the revolutionary proletariat.
The treachery of the Mensheviks makes our election campaign more difficult, but this increases the importance in principle of an independent Social-Democratic campaign. The proletariat does not have, and cannot have, any other means of combating the vacillation of the petty bourgeoisie than that of developing the class-consciousness and solidarity of the masses, of training them through experience of political development.
While the Trudoviks are wavering and the Mensheviks are haggling, we must throw all our energies into independent agitation. Let everyone know that the Social-Democrats are putting forward their own list without fail, under all circumstances. And let all the poor sections of voters know that the choice before them is between the Cadets and the socialists.
The voters must ponder over this choice. At all events, this reflection will help very much to develop the political consciousness of the masses, which is of far greater importance than obtaining a seat for X or Y from the Cadets. If the masses of the urban poor are taken in once more by the promises of the Cadets, if they are carried away once more by the clamour of liberal phrase-mongering and liberal promises of “peaceful” progress and “peaceful” legislation by Gurko, and Kutler and Milyukov—events will soon shatter their last illusions.
The revolutionary Social-Democrats must tell the masses the whole truth and unswervingly pursue their own path. All those who cherish the real gains achieved in the Russian revolution by proletarian struggle, all who possess the instinct of those who work and are exploited, will follow the party of the proletariat. And the correctness of this party’s views will become clearer and clearer to the masses with every new stage in the development of the Russian revolution.
The practical end result of Vaush’s shit is to vote scold people. It’s to continue endless entryism into the Democratic party no matter what the circumstance. It fails to engage with many broader questions e.g. the question of whether or not the immediate priority should instead be to build other forms of power independently of any one existing political party, the viability of entryism into an existing party whos own institutions are explicitly dominated by the interests of capital, and the fact that most candidates are not communists, but some brand of social democrat (if that even) that Vaush himself cites as the kind that would be shit on by Lenin.
yeah so not voting democrat then trump has 4 more years and he'll arrest and/or shoot antifa and they get life sentences. Good work, lenin would be proud.
Vaush takes general statements about involvement in elections for agitation and seeking to secure power precisely on the basis of being an explicitly pro-working class party, and butchers them into “You gotta vote for Biden”.
you can't have pro-working class parties in the US, there will always only be two viable parties until the electoral system is changed. Imagine voting for a third party and some rando asks you why and then they'll just say that this party will forever just take votes from the more progressive party of the two large ones and ergo result in more power for conservatives and fascists. Like I understand what lenin is trying to achieve but that's not viable in the US.
yeah so not voting democrat then trump has 4 more years and he’ll arrest and/or shoot antifa and they get life sentences. Good work, lenin would be proud.
I do not give 2 fucking shits about individualistic, moralistic vote scolding, even less about attempting to use Marx, Engles and Lenin to do it. It's meaningless. Fixating on "Bernie or Busters" is literally a repeat of 2016 bullshit which didn't even come to fruition the first time around but was still used as a convenient excuse by millionaire consultants who failed to campaign in key states. How do you not realise this yet. Waste your time scolding people on Reddit or chapo.chat to vote for Biden, it won't mean anything in the face of the USPS being fucking dismantled to make mail in voting impossible as in-person voting stations are also shut down. Vote scolding has absolutely nothing to do with socialist agitation or building a movement. If you give a shit, join the Biden campaign and turn them into Marxists. If you don't, continue fruitlessly and powerlessly admonishing people on chapo.chat, the place that will definitely clinch the fucking election single handedly. Whether or not you individually vote Biden has absolutely no real meaning to any kind of socialist project. The democratic election campaign will be whatever it will be. It's in the hands of well paid consultants, lobbyists, and democratic party leadership to get Biden elected. It will be those choices that will be actually meaningful as to whether Biden wins. They're the ones calling the shots. They're the ones deciding where the ad buys go, buying voter information to micro-target texts, and who will be in the cabinet. Being obsessed with a tiny cadre of "Tankies" like Vaush is not only useless, it's actively harmful, assuming Vaush is in any way actively, meaningfully involved in any campaigning. Has he started texting for Biden? Is he going to risk COVID and go doorknocking?
You can’t have pro-working class parties in the US, there will always only be two viable parties until the electoral system is changed.
Labour party was a third party in a first past the post system, until it wasn't. The 2 dominant parties were liberal and conservative. The Labour party only came to prominence shortly before WWII. Just recently, UKIP/Brexit party were threatening enough of the vote share and seats to make them just as if not more significant than the Lib Dems, another 3rd party.
Imagine voting for a third party and some rando asks you why and then they’ll just say that this party will forever just take votes from the more progressive party of the two large ones and ergo result in more power for conservatives and fascists. Like I understand what lenin is trying to achieve but that’s not viable in the US.
Libertarian party is bigger than Greens and Trump still won. Stop giving a shit about vote scolding people. Actually seek to build a long term strategy around building independent working class power, not short term capitulations. Run PSL candidates at the local levels first and build a party from there. Literally Bernies entry into politics was as an independent.
I don't want to give this dumbass even a single click/view. If someone who has more tolerance for self-abuse than I wants to give me the TL;DW
Someone posted the 1 hour highlight clip to /r/marxism. I skipped to the last 5 minutes and his conclusion after apparently reading a bunch and writing 7 pages is "I'm right, you're wrong, vote for Biden". Couldn't be bothered listening to the rest, besides his intro where at least he expresses some minor encouragement for Reading Theory™ and claimed he had some fun doing it so there's that I guess. But I happened to have come across this from Marx that seemed pretty fitting for the current time:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm
Edit: so lol Vaush, at least he sort of tried.
But you didn't engage with his arguments at all but are dismissing them with "at least he tried" and then link your own text?
His entire argument is fixated on "You should vote for Biden as harm reduction". The result is pointless vote shaming/vote scolding and not actually any meaningful strategy for agitation and organising as in Lenin, Marx and many others. And "my own text" is Marx, one of the people Vaush is citing as to why you should vote Biden, with arguments particularly fitting given the Democratic party, it's attempts to paint unity, it's fixation on courting the support of small businesses, the attempts to undermine even relatively mild socdem candidates, etc. even despite the different context.
That's completely wrong. He argues that voting Biden leads to a better situation for socialist ideas. He even says that both parties are very similar and not at all to the left etc.
I know what I heard. Within the first 5 minutes, he's arguing that Lenin dismissed the British Labour party, that Bernie is less radical than Labour was, ergo anyone who voted for Bernie should be happy to support Biden. If Lenin was dismissive of Labour, then it does not remotely follow that someone who settled for Bernie should therefore also settle for Biden. If anything, it demonstrates precisely the opposite, in demonstrating how far back we've gone that a fucking Twitch streamer is trying to argue people should settle for Biden. Marx, Lenin and Engels all supported independent parties explicitly for the purpose of not being forced into compromises. Vaush takes general statements about involvement in elections for agitation and seeking to secure power precisely on the basis of being an explicitly pro-working class party, and butchers them into "You gotta vote for Biden".
The practical end result of Vaush's shit is to vote scold people. It's to continue endless entryism into the Democratic party no matter what the circumstance. It fails to engage with many broader questions e.g. the question of whether or not the immediate priority should instead be to build other forms of power independently of any one existing political party, the viability of entryism into an existing party whos own institutions are explicitly dominated by the interests of capital, and the fact that most candidates are not communists, but some brand of social democrat (if that even) that Vaush himself cites as the kind that would be shit on by Lenin. So we have social democrat entryism, into a party captured by healthcare and fossil fuel executies and lobbyists, with a candidate that generally repudiates Bernie/AOC/Ilhan etc., that Vaush wants to argue you should vote for because Marx and Lenin and Engels talked about communist parties running their own candidates in elections.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1907/jan/14.htm
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1907/duma/iv.htm#v11pp65-450
yeah so not voting democrat then trump has 4 more years and he'll arrest and/or shoot antifa and they get life sentences. Good work, lenin would be proud.
you can't have pro-working class parties in the US, there will always only be two viable parties until the electoral system is changed. Imagine voting for a third party and some rando asks you why and then they'll just say that this party will forever just take votes from the more progressive party of the two large ones and ergo result in more power for conservatives and fascists. Like I understand what lenin is trying to achieve but that's not viable in the US.
I do not give 2 fucking shits about individualistic, moralistic vote scolding, even less about attempting to use Marx, Engles and Lenin to do it. It's meaningless. Fixating on "Bernie or Busters" is literally a repeat of 2016 bullshit which didn't even come to fruition the first time around but was still used as a convenient excuse by millionaire consultants who failed to campaign in key states. How do you not realise this yet. Waste your time scolding people on Reddit or chapo.chat to vote for Biden, it won't mean anything in the face of the USPS being fucking dismantled to make mail in voting impossible as in-person voting stations are also shut down. Vote scolding has absolutely nothing to do with socialist agitation or building a movement. If you give a shit, join the Biden campaign and turn them into Marxists. If you don't, continue fruitlessly and powerlessly admonishing people on chapo.chat, the place that will definitely clinch the fucking election single handedly. Whether or not you individually vote Biden has absolutely no real meaning to any kind of socialist project. The democratic election campaign will be whatever it will be. It's in the hands of well paid consultants, lobbyists, and democratic party leadership to get Biden elected. It will be those choices that will be actually meaningful as to whether Biden wins. They're the ones calling the shots. They're the ones deciding where the ad buys go, buying voter information to micro-target texts, and who will be in the cabinet. Being obsessed with a tiny cadre of "Tankies" like Vaush is not only useless, it's actively harmful, assuming Vaush is in any way actively, meaningfully involved in any campaigning. Has he started texting for Biden? Is he going to risk COVID and go doorknocking?
Labour party was a third party in a first past the post system, until it wasn't. The 2 dominant parties were liberal and conservative. The Labour party only came to prominence shortly before WWII. Just recently, UKIP/Brexit party were threatening enough of the vote share and seats to make them just as if not more significant than the Lib Dems, another 3rd party.
Libertarian party is bigger than Greens and Trump still won. Stop giving a shit about vote scolding people. Actually seek to build a long term strategy around building independent working class power, not short term capitulations. Run PSL candidates at the local levels first and build a party from there. Literally Bernies entry into politics was as an independent.