From my understanding, the premise of revolutionary defeatism involves supporting the defeat of your own bourgeois government. I am an American. I am perfectly fine with that when it comes to things like US military actions in the Middle East. However, there has been one enemy the United States has had that is definitely quite different, Nazi Germany. It's pretty much universally believed among the left that Nazi Germany was bad and should never be supported (and that's for a GOOD reason).

But how does revolutionary defeatism square in with something like that?

  • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    and the nazi machine would have killed a lot more Jews and other groups they hated in the extra time they had

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      yeah that has to be factored in as well. the Wannsee Conference wasn't until 1942, but even a delay of a few months is a staggering human toll

    • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It's 50-50. Yes, but look at how many lives have been lost because we created the Atlantic power block. I dunno if one can be longtermist about this kinda thing. There is no way to do a counterfactual. We simply wouldn't be looking at unchecked species endings global warming if the US wasn't there to claim sole super power status after the war.

      • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        the US didn't have to create nato or do containment doctrine, etc and while you could surely anticipate the capitalists doing some cold war shit i don't think it's reasonable to expect any specifics or the full extent of the terror, especially before Truman.