Vaush is a debate bro who values winning arguments above all else, including on topics he knows nothing about. He is a chauvinist who supports the plight of minorities as long as they lick his boots. If they do not, he deems them “subhuman.” He is a self-admitted sexual harasser who gave a dubious apology. Despite describing himself as an anarcho-syndicalist and libertarian socialist, he does not want to abolish the government and he has admitted that his political project is nearly identical with that of social democrats. He has cultivated a cult of personality that deflects all criticism as “out of context” when he himself proudly maintains those positions as “based and high IQ.” Although most of his detractors are hardly better.
If you have a timestamped link that adds context, please let me know and I will add it.
“He who is reluctant to recognize me opposes me.”
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its more obvious that socialist parties should attach themselves to elections to merely make themselves look legitimate and create news coverage. thats basically it. thinking youd be able to change it from the inside is incredibly uncommon, it only really happens in the third world, e.g. bolivia and chile, and you could argue that was due to massive left wing unions.
Well there's also enacting social change to bring relief in local matters to strengthen their legitimacy, and to completely fucking dunk on the bourgeois parties on the national stage by roasting them on their own platform
mhm
It’s also due to their position as colonized and exploited nations. Due to this economic reality, there is a division in the local bourgeoise between the national bourgeoise and the comprador/colonial bourgeoise.
Nations like Venezuela are able to get pretty far via electoralism because they can form coalitions with the national bourgeoise to gain power.
No such division exists in America, there is no comprador class here. The national bourgeoise ARE the imperialist ruling class, they cannot be collaborated with in a common project of national self determination and decolonization.
Venezuela actually differs from a lot of other social democratic electoral victory projects because they actually did build an independent working-class movement and counter-society. It's literally the reason the 2002 coup went down in defeat - the Chavismo organizations mobilized people in the streets and overwhelmed the indecisive and outnumbered coup plotters. Venezuela should actually be THE model for timid Western succdems who love electoralism and fear revolution, because the Chavismo project utilized electoralism as the primary means of mobilizing the impoverished masses that had until then been politically apathetic and relatively irrelevant.
Right. From my understanding, the utility in electoral engagement is primarily in measuring the numeric strength of the movement, building an independent organizational structure, and forcing the state to openly cheat at its own game if possible. Voting for Democrats or Labour dose absolutely none of these things. Instead of giving us an idea of our strength, it only makes the bourgeoisie look more powerful.
The Bernie and Corbyn campaigns bordered on doing these things. They built up Momentum and DSA respectively, contested the political leadership forcing them to tip the scale, and gave us an idea of our popular support. Now that those efforts have been crushed, that well has dried up.
The situation would be more ideal if DSA and Momentum were actual parties with full independence, instead of factions engaging in entryism. Even DSA and Momentum are a significant compromise on Lenin's position if I understand him correctly. There may be other justifications to engage in electoralism, but I wouldn't point to Marx or Lenin to justify it.
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IMO, it is always easier to change the direction of an organization with similar goals than it is to build one from scratch. On the other hand, you could argue that's exactly what we tried to do with the Democrats. What the DSA does have going for it is that it is more or less independent, and engages in work outside of electioneering. It is different from Momentum, which from my understanding is/was a full subsidiary of the Labour Party. I have hope for the DSA, even if it isn't ideal today.
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