From the guest list, the show looked like it was created to have a space where left commentators of various sorts would come on and hash out ideological differences as the US left is in the wilderness post-Bernie. It would be interesting, I thought, to have a show where an ultra like Sean KB from The Antifada could explain Marxist theory on a panel with social democrats and have some kind of discussion.

It turns out that its basically just a radlib version of The Five from Fox News, where they just take turns kicking the tires on the days news.

Does anyone actually want a show like this? It seems like its trying to fill a market that doesn't exist - or maybe existed a few years ago and doesn't today. When I look around, I don't think to myself, "You know who has some understanding of the political struggle we face in this moment? This DSA-backed state legislator from NYC."

Listening to it was deeply unsettling. I don't recommend it.

  • apricotmarmalade [comrade/them]
    1·
    4 years ago

    oh absolutely not, but the wins we can make can strengthen our case & reforms can always be schools for revolution

      • apricotmarmalade [comrade/them]
        3·
        4 years ago

        historically we haven't lived in a late capitalist imperial core

        i'm not saying it's the only strategy, but i don't think the doomer take should be applied so cut-and-dry. do you have an alternate vision for leftism in the contemporary us?

          • apricotmarmalade [comrade/them]
            1·
            4 years ago

            why and how socdem reformist entryism to the second most anti socialist party in history

            i don't know why you think i want to run entryism into the democratic party; i want the broad left to take a serious look at DSA for 1) networking™ and 2) direct action separate from their electoral fights

            more suited to the conditions of America and it’s system as you imply

            it's not, it's just a thing that we can do to find others with similar leanings as us. socdem structures aren't the solution outright, but if we can use them to fight relevant fights (helping the non-shit unions, direct action against interesting things) even as a launching off point, that's far more interesting to me than just sitting around

            Europe

            again you're kind of missing my point as i don't think the democratic party is worth saving in general. out of interest, were there relevant left base movements within the big european center left parties? or were they fully integrated into the party structure?

            0% success rate of pushing any country or [working?] class that engages with it even a bit to the left

            for what it's worth, alexa who is salvador allende

            pushed the conversation and working class organization more towards revolutionary potential

            you may well be right, but what tells you that this revolutionary potential will be meaningfully leftwing instead of some weird melting pot of Q, fascists, and fundamentalists? yes leftwing militant action can be effective, but so can the neoliberal PR machine. hell, even the vague concept of antifa took enough hits recently. i don't see a way this can go well without organization and outreach that simply won't exist if we just sit around and wait for the crisis to deepen