There is no number of foreigners that is unacceptable to sacrifice for a middle class livelihood. Anti-cop because they can imagine a scenario where a cop inconveniences them. These principles don't apply to the Waffen SS because they can't imagine a soldier personally inconveniencing them and, of course, foreigners aren't really humans.

  • kristina [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    tbf you do need at least some of them on our side to do a revolution. czechoslovakia famously had communists infiltrate the police from the top down and purge reactionaries and used this for leverage for a quick and painless socialist revolution, though afaik we were the only country that did it that way and the liberal government was extremely weak after ww2. partisans were able to quickly join police departments as the government reformed and had a ton of leverage.

    with russia, they formed soldiers councils among sympathetic soldiers and used their experience to train workers in combat. in china vast swathes of the nationalist military defected to the communist cause. at one point, the communists had 10k socialists vs around 3 million soldiers, tables flipped pretty quickly as it went on. russia certainly had an imperialist military, and so did east germany (remnants of imperialists, more like) and their example would be more applicable to america's situation.

    • Redbolshevik2 [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      The funny thing is, I don't even think that joining the military is morally irredeemable. I just hate this "Look, I'm just as much of a victim as the children I killed" attitude. Mike Prysner is an ex member of the Waffen SS and he's dedicated his life to defeating American Imperialism.

      • Abraxiel
        ·
        2 years ago

        I agree with you here. There's no need to coddle smol bean soldiers. There just needs to be a viable path toward atonement such that they can be used for the dismantling of the imperial apparatus.

      • HamManBad [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        There is very little that is irredeemable. Maybe it's my Christian upbringing showing but if you repent whatever you did and commit yourself to the revolution, you should be forgiven. I'm not taking about being opportunistic here like Hans Landa, I'm taking about a genuine change of heart. If you're reading this and you're in the military or the FBI or the police forces, it's never too late to do the right thing. Being a bastard is a role people choose to play, it is not the essence of their being.

      • Shoegazer [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The only good American vets are the ones who acknowledge their sins and seek redemption through actions and not defend their time in the military and don’t get pissy when POC/foreigners are understandably wary of them as if they’re entitled to automatic forgiveness.

      • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        ...and living in abject poverty, the material conditions between those soldiers that led them to a revolution aren't even close to US soldiers who are doing it for slightly more comfortable middle class lifestyle.

        • kristina [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          really depends on ethnic background and other factors though.

      • kristina [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        a good number were volunteers too, usually like 50-100k at any time. like 2/3rds of american forces were conscripted for vietnam, russian regular army was like 4 mill prior to collapse. do the math i guess

        though most conscripts would just be sitting in border outposts in the russian empire and not doing anything crazy. became a big issue during ww1 and the war with japan

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          It makes sense then, conscripts tend not to want to die for the empire for little to no gain.

          Thanks for the information

          • kristina [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            should also be considered that a lot of american 'volunteers' arent true volunteers, they join the military because theyre in the middle of nowhere with zero education and want a way out and its a purely economic decision. most dont expect to have to terrorize children. one guy i know just sat in a car near the border playing on a gameboy seeing if there were any cartel drones flying around. said he detected a single one in his entire career

        • LeninWeave [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          like 2/3rds of american forces were conscripted for vietnam

          1/3, but I doubt they'll do that again because even with a minority being draftees there was a lot of rebellion.

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      communists infiltrate the police from the top down and purge reactionaries

      This kind of strategy is great if you can swing it, but it requires a large organized and disciplined leftist party that the US has never had. Part of the reason why we over focus so much on individual choice is because the capacity for anything else has been burned out of American society by the conditions of American capitalism.

    • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      in china vast swathes of the nationalist military defected to the communist cause. at one point, the communists had 10k socialists vs around 3 million soldiers, tables flipped pretty quickly as it went on.

      Not remotely comparable since the KMT had to resort to kidnapping random teenagers and forcing them to bear arms against the CPC. At that point, joining the Communists was pure self-preservation so you had a rifle to shoot the KMT goons who were about to kidnap you.

    • 69copsinatrenchcoat [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      nah. we have plenty of street gangs. probably better at urban guerrilla warfare, especially defensively, than the US military.

      • kristina [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        probably true, and there have been many socialist groups organized around illegal activities, but ultimately there will be some sort of confrontation that requires regimented, centralized tactics. read mao tbh, he has a lot of fascinating takes and theres a reason he is required reading in us military academies.

        one take that mao had was that the 10k or so troops he had were battle hardened and had grown to be friends with the rural people through stopping to repair towns and so on. he then would order the army through hazardous terrain in order to bring pursuing nationalist chinese troops 'down to their level', experience what they have experienced, and make them more likely to join the socialist cause through shifting their material conditions drastically due to attrition

        • 69copsinatrenchcoat [they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          organized crime: notoriously disorganized.

          remember, more than 0 of these groups grew like mushrooms on the corpse of groups like the bpp. these are (for the most part, probably even less than the US military) not raging barbarians or disorganized hordes of angsty teens with machine pistols. don't buy the copaganda.

          • kristina [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            i mean, the big crime people™️ near me are like, extremely disorganized lmao. i know them. theyre just less stupid than the cops

            • 69copsinatrenchcoat [they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              the majority of the organized people I've met have been from chicago or los angeles. and they were pretty on their shit.

      • Shoegazer [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        nah. we have plenty of street gangs. probably better at urban guerrilla warfare, especially defensively, than the US military.

        Yeah shooting at children because of terrible aim is good urban guerrilla warfare lmao. I don’t know about where you live, but in the US gangbangers aren’t training with guns

        • 69copsinatrenchcoat [they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          people die when that shit happens? it's not actually worse than the US military. at least they don't intentionally shoot random kids.

          and I mostly think they don't give a shit. again, still less bad than the US military.

          • Shoegazer [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Yes, people die. And they don’t care, which is I think it’s funny that you think they’re good at urban warfare and defense