The left in the US and Europe is just a very small portion of politically advanced (arguably) workers and petit bourgeoise - even if we were to all agree on a course of action and a concise set of political values, it would not accomplish anything other than to feed our own egos.

If we want the power to implement our preferred program, we need to be organizing our fellow workers, not arguing online. We need to have real answers to their questions, and have a real platform, so that they would join us.

Honestly, everything else is just lifestyleism. Of course many of us know this but we choose not to organize anyway, either because we feel too impotent or we are afraid of sticking our necks out.

  • Homestar440 [he/him]
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Couple of things, first of all "just lifestyleism" is a dismissive way of describing the very necessary coping that goes on in communities like this. Even the lefty infighting that happens is, at least to some extent, a relief from liberal hegemony. We're all in hell all the time, most of us don't even have families that agree with us, we only have each other.

    The other thing is, we don't "feel" too impotent, we are too impotent. This isn't a movie, it isn't about grit and determination and chutzpah, it's about material conditions. All of us understand viscerally how precarious we and all our coworkers are. I spend my breaks at the restaurant steering conversations toward capitalism and it's flaws, and most people are very interested and prone to agree, but I couldn't organize the place if I wanted to. I've been there for 5 years, people come and go extremely quickly, most are working more than one job, unionizing is just not feasible. I don't have any answers, but I wouldn't be so quick write off online activity, whether it's relieving stress by shitposting here, or tweeting and reddit posting, as completely useless.

    As always, solidarity comrade

    General P.P. Balls