"The Social-Democratic lackeys, in an attempt to hurt the Communists, taunt them with being "Stalinists." But we Communists are proud of being called by this honorable title, just as we are proud of being called Leninists. There is no greater honor for the proletarian revolutionary than to be a real Leninist, a real Stalinist, to be a supremely faithful follower of Lenin and Stalin. And there is no greater happiness for the Communists than to fight under the leadership of the great Stalin for the triumph of the just cause of the world proletariat."
- Georgi Dimitrov, Stalin and the World Proletariat (1940)
In this case, both can be true. The vast majority can be incompetent, they just need a lot of bureaucrats and a subset of competent spooks to bring the surveillance state down on people.
oh yeah there's nuance for sure. just sometimes wonder if everyone gets it
another similar example: america is a sclerotic gerontocracy teetering on collapse that's simultaneously the global hegemon
both those things are true, but underestimate the capacity for capricious violence of amerikkka at your peril
oh another one: palantir has been bilking the security state for millions while providing shit-tier ETL for a bunch of failed data-mining projects while simultaneously turning the surveillance capitalism knob up to 11
the former's definitely true but make no mistake, palantir's been a net benefit for the capacity of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie to track leftist networks
oh, one minor quibble
Michael Reinoehl shows they don't even need that. The only competent people involved in that whole thing were the folks that tracked him. Everyone else involved was a bloodthirsty clown and they still got away with it.
Very, very true. You can find an almost unlimited number of examples of the American empire and its enforcers being incompetent, but they're still likely to crush you just fine when they want to.
:yea: The American state is so entrenched that its bureaucracy will likely keep it murdering along for a long time yet, even as its foot-soldiers drink the more-and-more-ridiculous flavor-aid.
Like I'm pretty bloomer. :communism-will-win:
But I don't think it wins by underestimating the oppressor.