EDIT: AOC is doing what the unions wanted her to do.

https://hexbear.net/post/236928/comment/3033122

DISCLAIMER: Before you jump on me, the below post is to show how much of a dead end electoral politics is. You cannot vote in socialism.

But you should still vote in socialists. The more, the better. Building up the organisations needed to actually bring in socialism is much easier under a more left-adjacent government.

AOC and the other progressive Democrats did not vote for the anti-strike legislation because they’re liberals or hate workers or anything. Their vote was necessary to pass the 7 paid sick days bill. That was the agreement between the progressive and conservative Democrats.

But this nuance is fucking lost on people here. When you play the electoral game, you have to compromise. Every elected official will do so. AOC, Bernie Sanders etc. are not betraying the working class when they support such bills. They’re doing the best they can.

But it’s as if the people here don’t want the best. They just want empty gestures. And when people like AOC do the smart thing that would at least benefit some people, they act as if AOC is the same as Nancy Pelosi.

Guess who wants you to believe that? Guess who benefits from that? The Republicans. It’s grifters like Jimmy Dore and Infrared and Glenn Greenwald that push this rhetoric all to drive more leftists to either apathy or direct support for people like Tucker Carlson and DeSantis who are the “true” populists.

The vote passed by like over a hundred votes. The handful of progressive congresspersons couldn’t have stopped it. But what they could do, was get the other bill with the paid sick leave passed in exchange for a vote that was already going to pass. I mean, it’s like people are forgetting that the latter vote barely passed. Almost no Republican voted for it.

Why? Because the Republicans hate the working class more than the Democrats.

Please don’t forget that.

TLDR: AOC, even if it doesn’t seem like it at times, is better than most Democrats and all Republicans. A Congress and Senate filled with people like AOC will be exponentially more conducive to implementing socialism than any other. It will still not bring in socialism. Socialism can only be achieved by a revolution. But creating the conditions and the organisations and the class consciousness necessary for that revolution, is easier under a social democratic government than any other.

  • ilyenkov [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Puts to bed people like PatSocs too, showing them to be the fascist clowns that they are.

    Exactly. And I think these people are dangerous because white chauvinism has basically been the major stumbling block in the history of US communism, but the patsocs are basically like "no, you don't have to question your own identity, you don't have to look at patriarchy, whiteness, settlerism, patriarchy, cis-normativity, het-normativity, etc., you don't have to listen to the marginalized or oppressed, you can love America, be a misogynist and totally still be a communist bro!" and that message appeals to some people.

    Anyways, ty for reading my post. Hopefully what I'm saying is making sense, I am brain-fogged the fuck up from covid atm. I think struggle sessions are important. I used to be a gigantic lib until I got bullied into reading Lenin on the old subreddit. I started falling into the patsoc trap a bit too, until i got called out on that too and actually read some theory by Afrikan Marxists, Marxist feminism, and stuff. So I think it's good for us to talk seriously about this stuff. I think when it comes to some things, like crucial things for socialism, the whole "you believe that, I believe this" and lets all just get along thing is liberalism and harmful. But also, it can be hard to find the right tone online. It can be hard to remember there is another person on the other side of things. So I hope I haven't been too hostile. I hope you keep making posts and we can all keep learning together. Left-unity is good, but real unity emerges from struggle :)