I am a Democrat, but I will say that my moderate Republican friends are a lot easier to political discussions with than my further left friends (I have one communist friend who is an exception, because he owns up to the fact that he is unhinged). I actually agree more with my progressive friends than my Republican friends. But when I do disagree with my progressive friends, they become unpleasant.
Anyone want to place bets on why those friends are quote unquote "becoming unpleasant"?
he owns up to the fact that he is unhinged
a coward and a liberal
not sure we should accept the neoliberal's framing here at face value. "owns up to the fact the he is unhinged" could mean he openly and honestly advocates for a position that the author here finds unhinged. i'm picturing something like
uncritical support for the democratic people's republic of korea and its struggle against the genocidal imperialist occupiers
that's completely unhinged sure, and you are deeply unserious
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Maga people thinking going from maga to the neoliberalism that installed Pinochet is "deradicalisation".
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People that think Bernie lukewarm social democracy was "radical" instead of literally the most central political position around most of the world.
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People that admit they were never really radical leftists to begin with.
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Zionists, settlers, supporters of apartheid, supporters of genocide.
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No actual deradicalisations.
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Wanting to belong just shortcuts people's brains. Absolute boomer logic. I too would love to just be a cog in the machine. I love the idea of all working together to settle Mars, Expanse style, except the way I'd do it would be to bring back Soviet style communism (Red Planet huehuehuehue).
Difference is, I still actually don't want to society to suck and be shit, and for these 20 something boomers, they just don't give a fuck. They love slavery so long as it is part of their identity. Imperialism is fine, because it is people who look like me who are doing it. Even though it is Coca Cola and Nestle and the oil companies that are the ones who reap the benefits.
Same thing with organised religion. People literally could not give a fuck if it makes sense, or if it makes their lives worse, or if it used as a cudgel to bludgeon the poor unfortunates that fall outside the pre-defined good group. They don't care if it serves archaic power structures, and even do not give a fuck when it is arbitrarily used against them. They just pick an identity (or more accurately have one randomly assigned to them by the circumstances of their birth), and then they go with it. Pure vibes.
So yeah not in the least bit surprised that the army brought these people "back into the fold"
Honestly, a leftist CCC would be an amazing thing for people to do. I've done a couple things like that for a local org and it was incredibly rewarding.
They went on to say that it's a "great equalizer", lol:
I'm aircraft maintenance in the Air Force. I have never experienced a greater equalizer than working on the flight line. Doesn't matter your sex, race, or orientation. If you're good at your job, you're one of us.
Outside of bombing mostly brown ppl, this isn't even true internally. The sexual assault rates for women in USAF are astronomical, and the class and race divisions are all there: if you're not a straight white, you aren't going up through the ranks, with the exception of a few tokens.
I made a bunch of money and realized that I only care about myself and you should just do that
Dude thinks life being more valuable than property is radical, peak ghoul.
"I'm as progressive as they come but fuck the homeless population." - that guy
Strong case of basing their politics off of oppositional defiant disorder.
You know 90% of them think of their Social Democracy Lite phase as “radicalism.”
“What made you realise your privilege and adopt an ideology that actively protects it”
When the American state collapses, you will see some nuclear grade meltdowns from these people who think the BLM riots were "insane" or "chaotic" lmao.
why do these fucks always take the mantle of "rational, data driven" is how they found neoliberalism?
what if your own reasoning and data interest actually made you a communist instead?
Because that implies that data has 'ideology' as opposed to just data points existing in a vacuum.
the central conceit of neoliberalism has always been that it's the most rational position and only the true adults in the room will accept its mandates.
this was all the more mindboggling in the aftermath of the World Wars, when state-driven planning resulted in absolutely massive economic and industrial booms and even better profit for the bourgeoisie than under "free trade". it was literally just "ignore what happened over the last five years, ignore the evidence of your senses, we have to do deflation and remove funding from programs." this total willingness to ignore history and science in the pursuit of maintaining the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie even at the expense of their own profits means that there is no hope that in the current day, neoliberal governments will follow China's lead. hell, even mild Keynesianism and full employment measures would be regardless as giga-Stalinist ultracommunism now. this is bad for us proles of course, but pretty great if you're interested in watching Western imperialism collapse - they will resist with all their might any attempt to take the offramp that would save the imperialist system
when state-driven planning resulted in absolutely massive economic and industrial booms and even better profit for the bourgeoisie than under “free trade”.
That's the problem, it didn't. State led ultra fast capital accumulation tanked the profitability of western firms in a very short period of time. It was basically the ideal conditions for having a falling rate of profit, high accumulation and relatively low/falling birth rates. By the 1970s, the capitalist class were looking for any excuse to get rid of state-led industrial policy they could and the oil shock was the perfect opportunity. The neoliberal era is basically the aftermath of the capitalist reaction and victory over the post-WW2 industrial boom.
they will resist with all their might any attempt to take the offramp that would save the imperialist system
What gives me hope is seeing western militaries struggle to even field ships against say, Yemen (iirc most nations in operation prosperity guardian pulled out because their ships kept breaking down lmao). Their whole military has been drained of weaponry in Ukraine and Israel and are literally falling apart.
From Mattei's The Capital Order, on wartime measures during WW1:
While it is true that the British imposed caps on sale prices and limits on profits, these measures did not antagonize private capital. Rather, private capital had cooperated, securing for itself guaranteed fixed dividends and substantial economic advantages. Moreover, the windfall opportunities that came with compelling trade unions to abandon their restrictive practices (for example, on work hours and wage flexibility) and a license to impose tighter factory discipline outweighed any disadvantage of the modest profit limitation (Rubin 1987, 19). The British government also footed the bill for the reproduction of the labor force through welfare measures. In other words, these costs were transferred from the private capitalists to the community at large—i.e., a process of socialization of the cost of reproduction.
In Italy, as in Britain, during the war the state assisted capitalists with deference. It became the main supplier and client of industry; it procured raw material, acted as guarantor of bank credits and as discipliner of the labor force; and it provided subsidies and coordinated effort (see De Stefani 1926a, 144–55). During the war Italian capitalists gained exponentially more; unlike in Britain, the Italian state had no ceiling on profits. Industrialists ably justified price increases while the government lacked any serious tool to account for their production costs, ultimately accepting and buying at inflated prices. Purchasing contracts were often made informally, and negligence, abuse, and fraud were the ordinary state of things. The state granted tax breaks to abet the capitalists further (Segreto 1982, 42–43). The metallurgical and mechanical sector especially benefited. Large industries like Fiat, Ilva, and Ansaldo had increased their workforce tenfold (Zaganella 2017, 190). Fiat alone was producing fifteen times more vehicles in 1918 than in 1914 (more than 90 percent of which were for the Italian government). Overall, the automobile sector increased its revenue from 32 million in 1913 to 160 million in 1918. The surge in profits confirmed the expectation of many Italian capitalists who had strongly supported war intervention as an opportunity to get out of the overproduction trap while minimizing their dependence on foreign capital (Porisini 1975, 8).
in this environment, the only justification for not continuing to heavily involve the state was that it would have eventually (and indeed very almost did in Italy) lead to a socialist revolution. as such, the theories of neoclassicist economists in the immediate aftermath of WW1 which eventually culminated in neoliberalism; a political project accepting capitalist crises and lower profitability in exchange for not allowing workers to accumulate any power, masquerading as an economic project of objectivity
During the wars, fraud and the destruction of capital were able to raise the profit rates high. However, after the war, the situation was different and profit rates declined rapidly until the neoliberal era where they rebounded again. You should read this interview to get started
so they are basically doing their own accelerationism because their ideology forces them to. no FDR this time to save the day.
Speak for yourself. On certain topics, I’m still radical as fuck. It just so happens that economic policy and similar things aren’t where I’m radical.
Sincerely,
A transgender corporate attorney who is raising a family in the suburbs
FUCK YOU, GOT MINE
I was a lot more naive and very idealistic. I’ll just fess up that I was much more left leaning in the last handful of years. A lot of it was the socialist kind of stuff as absolutely embarrassing as it is to say. It was never tankie level, but with long story short I came to realize that markets are pretty tight, America and it’s institutions probably aren’t NEARLY as bad as I thought they were in fact they’re really good, came to have a lot more compassion for liberals and centrists, “revolution” is cringe and reform is literally the ONLY way, etc.
I’d still say I’m a pretty idealistic guy and I still have particular issues even we might not agree on. But neoliberals strike me as very reasonable and sensible. Now if I could wish for anyone else to be deradicalized, it would be bringing the Trump crowd back to the bog standard fiscal conservatism. Lmao
Deeply unserious
Everyone always talks about class enemies, but what about class friends?
and 
