I know I am in a bit of a dark place, but I need a place to doompost. I am slowly realizing that fascism is unbeatable as an ideology, ugh and where to start?
First off, conservatives remain unbeatable in the culture wars despite being the aggressor. All I ever wanted was to be allowed to mind my own business in peace, but the masses always need to target and harass me just because I'm different. Every day I am constantly told by the media, by the internet cool kids, and just from normal people that "Liberal bad, conservative good" ad nauseum. That I should be treated like dirt for not being white or straight. Sure, you'll see the odd pride flag, but that is pretty much social suicide and is an easy way to get marked as a pariah.
Speaking of culture wars, fascists clearly have the people on their side. Twitter, and most of social media is completely unusable because it's a hog hellhole. Don't even bother trying to talk to them, no matter how many scientific studies prove the races are equal or whatever, I've found that they don't want to hear it, they'll think of a smart-alecky insult to call you, and they automatically win. . IRL is full of hogs too, any time politics gets involved, it's only the CHUDs that talk. I don't talk because I really don't want to get beat up.
- Finally, we are totally outmatched by them. They have been stockpiling weapons, they have been training for decades before I was ever born. Look, I'm just an absolute scrub, I don't really like my odds.
EDIT: I've taken out a good deal of the unproductive defeatism.
Lol they have not 'mastered battle tactics', nor are they in 'flawless physical condition' (as if that matters in modern warfare). They are also not geniuses at protecting their interests. They just have alot more money on their side, but they still can't openly control the U.S. government. Most people are incoherent liberals, not fascists.
Facism is not 'unbeatable' it inevitably beats itself because it doesn't have any decent understanding of causality and history and is therefore doomed to face plant into a war of its own making. As was said before, it's just a matter o how many dead are left in it's wake, which will likely be hundreds of millions. But that is why it is so important to keep fighting, regardless of the odds.
Worms we may be- but everything dies. When fascism dies, us "worms" will gnaw it down to the bones and leave those bones to become dust.
What use are their bombs when they would have to raze their own homes to the ground to get rid of us? What use are their police when they won't even wear a paper mask during a plague? What use are their sycophantic senators when their sheer greed cancels out their ability to actually commit atrocities in the first place? Beautiful entropy eats away at every vein and capillary in the fascist body politic. Yes, we will suffer, but they'll suffer more at their own hands. All we have to do is survive, and it doesn't matter if you crush one thousand worms- one thousand more will find you eventually.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_52.htm
Take it from 50's China, when they were still recovering from a century of poverty and colonialist subjugation. They looked miserable then, but now they're the actual most powerful country on the planet- not simply pretending to be powerful by being a bully like the USA is now. They knew all they had to do was survive.
We can be those survivors, too. Come with us.
One thing I give props to Bernie Sanders was that he kept his message simple. People understood what he was saying. Gotta get the message to the people any way any how.
Exactly. What wouldn't?
I mean, aren't we all tired of the gaslighting? And the material conditions are gonna get worse before they get better and you can't eat ideology :zizek-preference:
You gotta hit em with that Mick Lynch energy. The media apparatus is trained to make its interviewees crack and look insane, but Mick sends it right back, making the union side look ever more reasonable and correct against the whackadoodle mainstream media's barrage
yeah obviously you should not be telling non socialists to read theory that's the socialist equivalent of that guy standing in the town centre yelling at people to read the Bible. Chuds would not be successful if they were trying to persuade people by getting them to read mein kampf. Theory is for the converted
explain the concepts you learned from theory to people when there is a natural opening for that concept in simple direct language avoiding using as many scary words as possible
I am slowly realizing that fascism is unbeatable as an ideology
how? we (leftists and (some) liberals) already kicked their asses once 80 years ago, quite handedly too. We forced them to unconditionally surrender to communists, a fact so horrifying to confront that their leader chose to blow his own brains out instead. fascism is the ideology of losers. it's for people (and countries) who think they're more important than they actually are, and for that reason they are fundamentally incapable of accurately judging the strength of their enemies (us, in other words). Fascists only seem strong because,- in true pathetic loser fashion- they first attack those who are weak and unable to defend themselves. Look at how 21st century fash do terrorism, they go and shoot up schools and malls- targets with little security or protection. The Nazis attacked Czechoslovakia and Poland and thought they were tough. Same mindset. Eventually they will end up forcing a battle they cannot win out of a false sense of superiority, and they will be destroyed.
Fascism is a deeply flawed, incoherent ideology of irreconcilable contradictions. It inevitably fizzles out on its own... it's just a question of how many dead it will leave in it's wake. The fact that it has happened before makes it impossible to happen the same way again.
Also hard disagree on it's actual popularity. It's really just a small collection of weirdos with good marketing, lol. The best way to combat them is to unmercifully mock them because they have bad ideas and should feel bad about themselves.
The American right-wing isn't as tough as they make themselves out to be. They're armed to the teeth but are completely helpless when the nearest Wal-Mart isn't around to supply them with their needs. They also aren't in the greatest shape from what I've seen.
Yeah, this is the reality. My Trump supporting neighbor took his stupid Trump flag down and he is pretty sheepish now. Once the fists start flying, they curl up in a ball and cry.
Also, I think that material conditions are gonna force people to see solidarity as the only way forward just as a survival instinct. Humanity is cooperative BY NATURE.
Already people can see clearly that sharing housing and having each other's backs against Karens and employers is effective, if difficult. It's self evident.
extremely cringe post
You have real points in there but they're hidden in the self-defeatist drivel of being "worms"
if nazis try to take me out of my house I will kill them.
You see how hard they have to work to counter a small movement? They had to oppress pride and coopt pride and subvert pride and it still isn't working, transformative queerness overcomes them often enough they are passing their pants. Feudal kings handed them keys to the church to control us and many Christians still believe in liberation ideology. The CIA has used everything from drugs and disease to assassinations and outright war to push us down, with the wealth and power of the most powerful nation to have ever existed at their back, and we still aren't dead yet. Their full power is being used to break us and we keep moving. Our ideas survive because they are fundamentally true, and fascists, with all their hatred and violence, cannot ever change what is true.
Your concern is good, it's good to see the enemy's strength and place it in an analysis of the context and our own power. It is not doomerism or defeatism to acknowledge the reality that our traditional base of power (labor) has been largely deconstructed or coopted or deranged via financialization and that social change has been built not on coherent left movement-building but on slow liberal concessions devoid of economic justice. That's the best we've seen for decades and those liberals will abandon us very soon.
Things are very bad for us right now, purely in terms of power and numbers. But that's not a reason for defeatism, it's a reason to elevate the struggle, because we can grow rapidly and successfully bully everyday libs. And the younger generations are increasingly cool due to furthet proletarianization, albeit in a financialized context. No revolution, or survival of fascist attempts at takeover, or building a resilient community that supports our marginalized comrades will look possible at first, it will always feel stressful and like you're about to lose the entire time. You've gotta be a realistic bloomer, you've gotta get with your comrades and organize, and you've still gotta have that backup plan to leave your community/country just in case. Fight for success, ensure that you live in defeat.
Keep in mind that "us" here is Western leftists. Worldwide, things are looking pretty good for the left due to China giving other countries sustainable breathing room from the worst of imperialism. But we're in a challenging and precarious situation domestically.
a lot of the time they end up going out to live in the woods in a "militia" of around 100 chuds and then splinter about the issue of if they should pay the $100 of federal income tax or declare war on the US government. Then someone sleeps with someone elses wife and the whole things gets really personal
I think that the material conditions of neoliberalism are unsustainable and the acceleration of climate change and the poverty neoliberalism creates is already dissolving it's hold. It's really a cut your nose off to spite your face ideology, isn't it?
Afraid I agree with that unfortunately, the crushing of the left at every level of society is a focus of neoliberalism. Why make yourself more appealing if there's nothing else to choose from? Basically ideological monopoly as a political strategy.
Remember that the threats loom greater in our minds than equivalent opportunities, and losses are remembered far more easily than wins.
It is likely going to get rough though. There are no more low-drama liberal hegemony years for us to coast on. We need to be building up localized bases of support that people can defect to, knowing they'll be safe. Harboring 2 people makes you a target; harboring 200 people makes you a force to be reckoned with.
