The left's main vulnerability is splitting and infighting. We are terrible at it. This is known.

To build revolutionary change, a revolutionary party is needed. It must do its work and carry on its work. In the military, they taught me that the number one priority is preserving your ability to fight. It's ok if you have setbacks, lose equipment or men or tactical position or advantage; but it's a catastrophe if you lose the capacity to fight.

Leftist infighting is what robs the movement of its ability to fight on. It kills the movements. (The Buddhists know this, and consider 'creating a schism in the sangha' the supreme sin. That's a tangent, but the Buddhists have maintained an ideological movement for 26 centuries so they're doing something right.)

We need to mock people who shame other leftists for impurity, who insult them for making mistakes. Liu Shaoqi said: "The attitude of some Party members towards these shortcomings and mistakes and towards those comrades who have incorrect ideas is one of “bitter hatred and gall”. They lightly sever all relations with comrades who have committed some mistake and whom they attempt to expel from the Party outright."

It is ok for comrades to make mistakes in action, and to have mistaken beliefs. That's the completely normal, inevitable part of having a movement. In fact, that's all a movement is: listening to people's beliefs, listening to their wrong beliefs, correcting them, unifying the thought of the party, unity makes strength. It is not ok to have incorrect ideas of “bitter hatred and gall”, and lightly sever all relations with comrades who have committed some mistake.

MAO MADE 30% MISTAKES, INCLUDING CAUSING THE BIGGEST FAMINE IN HUMAN HISTORY!!! If you can forgive that, you can forgive someone who made an off-colour tweet when they were a teenager.

People who try to cancel comrades for stuff they did/said in the distant past, or for non-core differences of opinion, are dong the imperialists work for them: dismantling the socialist movement.

PS: the aim is always to have a cohesive, united, strong movement with the correct views. Anything that serves the aim is good. Anything that wrecks the aim is bad.

  • GarbageShoot [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    The Chinese Famine of 1906 - 07 was probably larger from a mortality standpoint, though it didn't last as long. The so-called Great Chinese Famine is only the greatest if you take maximalist anticommunist numbers, and recent scholarship is generally in the direction of it being significantly overestimated. Both that death toll and Mao's "30%" (while he did make serious mistakes, let me be clear) are things that were basically encouraged to be exaggerated even in China itself because of the Dengist revolt and new orthodoxy needing to discourage support for Mao-era policy.

    What I'm saying is that your anti-wrecking post contains wrecking.

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]A
      ·
      2 months ago

      What I'm saying is that your anti-wrecking post contains wrecking.

      In a nutshell what vampire's asking for is some sort of hexbear party line, which if taken seriously would yet again lead to a big site-wide argument and probably bannings because its trying to take what isn't a serious website in a serious direction.

      my god, we've argued over stacking fucking rocks and are currently in a cold war over rule 8 of the dunk tank. I do not want to even remotely want to touch contentious theoretical topics - such as the sino-soviet difference on the concept of the national question and the right to self-determination. Also shut the fuck up we're not even going to talk about it, that's just something that would open pandoras box if the most arsonistic people got their hands on the concept - and have a gigantic shitflinging fest to end all gigantic shitflinging fests until in the name of wrecking wreckers for wrecking we stumble ourselves into a new gigantic shitflinging fest.

    • Moonworm [any]
      ·
      2 months ago

      We should try to stick together and not quibble over little stuff

      You misrepresented Mao and are actually wrecking

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        It's almost like that first sentence isn't what I was responding to

    • Vampire [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 months ago

      My basic point is Mao made massive huge gigantic mistakes, but we judge him on whether he pushed socialism forward on balance.

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        My point is that his mistakes were historically overstated by the Dengists as a pretext for right-deviation, and that's the portrayal we, as communists, have mostly inherited.