Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht, born on this day in 1871, was a German socialist politician and theorist. Originally associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Liebknecht later became a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of both the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Liebknecht is also known for his outspoken opposition to World War I.
The son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founders of the SPD, Karl Liebknecht trained to be a lawyer and defended many Social Democrats in political trials. He was also a leading figure in the socialist youth movement and thus became a leading figure in the struggle against militarism.
As a deputy in the Reichstag he was one of the first SPD representatives to break party discipline and vote against war credits in December 1914. He became a figurehead for the struggle against the war. His opposition was so successful that his parliamentary immunity was removed and he was improsoned.
Freed by the November revolution he immediately threw himself into the struggle and became with Rosa Luxemburg one of the founders of the new Communist Party (KPD)
In January 1919, the Spartacus League played a leading role in the Spartacist Uprising, a general strike and armed rebellion in Berlin. The uprising was crushed by the SPD government and the Freikorps (paramilitary units composed of World War I veterans). For their role in the uprising, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were both kidnapped, tortured, and murdered on January 15th, 1919.
Their contributions to European socialism are commemorated annually in Germany during the second weekend of January, an event known as the Liebknecht-Luxemburg Demonstration, or "LL-Demo" for short.
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This is basically it, at least for the "true believers." I used to be one. They take institutions like the courts, the press, the legislature, academia, the military, etc. at face value. When these institutions fail to deliver justice, it is always perceived as a failure of leadership, or a consequence of external challenges. MAYBE something which can be smoothed out with some reforms. The legitimacy of the institution itself is never questioned.
Liberals believe A: The institutions are tautologically good because their constitutions / charters / mission statements assert a benevolent purpose, and B: that these institutions are the primary (the only legitimate, or the only meaningful) vehicles for social progress.
From this mindset, they see little difference between the left and the right. Corruption undermines the legitimacy of these institutions. Fascism undermines the legitimacy of these institutions. Anticapitalist agitation undermines the legitimacy of these institutions (insofar as they are instruments of the bourgeois state).
When the left attacks the New York Times for being transphobic cheerleaders of genocide, they're attacking a core pillar of Liberal Democracy, and in doing so, undermining the engine of social progress. Liberal Democracy requires the Fourth Estate, and their stated mission is to "bring truth to power," so if you're trying to cut the New York Times down a peg or two what you're really doing is letting the powerful off the hook.
It is pure idealism through and through.
Boiled down to its essence, this logic becomes hard to distinguish from fascism. As the vehicles of social progress, these institutions become indispensable. Each one is a keystone of civilization. If lost, the only imaginable outcome is barbarism. The military is the Thin Blue Line which prevents despots and terrorists from ruling the world. The Democrats are the Thin Blue Line which prevent nakedly reactionary book burning freaks from ruling the USA. The media and academia are the Thin Blue Line preventing an epistemological crisis. The corporate sector is the Thin Blue Line preventing unmitigated Chinese technological and economic superiority. As the pressures on Liberal Democracy mount, criticism of these institutions will be met with existential hostility.