My two cents on how to achieve left unity:
Anarchists: Stop using the word tankie. It pushes your fellow leftists away and pisses them off. Instead make specific criticisms of communist countries. ESPECIALLY stop calling MLs “red fash”. There is already enough misinformation going around about fascism.
Marxist-Leninists: Embrace critical support. Be willing to criticize and accept criticism of nations like China, the Soviet Union, and especially North Korea. Remember that being against US imperialism is not the only thing that makes a country good.
When it comes to the worse anti-China points, I find it kind of funny how leftists will consistently and correctly point out how people are living in an incredibly effective propaganda machine, and then get extremely mad and upset when someone falls for that exact propaganda. Like, no shit, that's how it works. Argue the facts, yes, but don't pretend someone's a bad person because they're convinced a genocide is happening and, based on that conviction, try to oppose it.
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It is literally impossible to not fall for some sort of propaganda machine if you keep up with news from anywhere. The word propaganda doesn't mean something isn't true, but it's written in a way that pushed an idea forward.
You should always question the motives of any and all journalists out there. Because they all have them and they aren't all pure of heart.
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I'm saying anarchists aren't the only ones who don't do that. You see MLs take Russian, Chinese or Venezuelan state media at it's word too.
The point is facts aren't a relevant in any part of the equation in the world of geopolitics. It's just what you can get people to believe.
This said when you see some baby leftist retweet something that clearly came from radio free asia I cringe every time.
Propaganda works. It's not a personal failing.
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"Every state is bad" is not an unreasonable conclusion to draw based on the current conditions of the world
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From the proposition that all states are bad, it becomes much easier to believe any particular accusation against a state.
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But if leftists know it's being done and that it works, how can leftist be willing to push it? I became more and more of a tankie, the more I read. All while seeing all these gotcha posts on rcompleteanarchy with the uhygur train prisoners.
Whenever I argue for China I start with: there is no perfect government. There probably never will be. But what China /USSR accomplished, based on their material conditions, are/we're great.
When a leftist doesn't want to see that, fine. But please, don't criticize from your Trevor Noah libbrain pov.
Anarchists, especially Western ones, are incredibly idealist. They always approach criticism from the lense of "how things should be" instead of "how they were then, and how they are now". Socialism is a process and you can't just dissolve a state because some people think it should be dissolved. You need to apply a huge amount of organized violence to the state for it to be crushed or even just taken over.
noooooo!!!!!! you can't just dissolve a state because some people think it should be dissolved!
lmao whose the idealist one now? Everyone knows the point of communism is to organize the working class so that when capitalism's acceleration of its crises reaches a breaking point, the people can take the reins.
You seem to have missed the part about material analysis and a look at the past and present. Show me a revolution that succeed without applying violence to the state.