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One step closer to revolution. Only time will tell if it's a fascist one

Maybe this isnt the place to have this discussion, but I think it would be great to make these mega threads a regular thing. We have a lot of work to do, people to radicalize, etc.

It begins now.

When you run on the status quo, and the status quo sucks, people are gonna turn to whoever manages to present themselves as an alternative.

When you run to the right, and the people who like right-wing policies already have a party giving them the policies they want, they're not gonna switch parties, and you're just going to alienate the parts of your base/coalition that are affected by those policies.

Not an effortpost but I think those are two simple, straightforward responses to anyone being like, "How could this possibly happen?"

I'm also running around countering any "she lost because she's a woman" takes with with Tammy Baldwin in WI and Elissa Slotkin in MI winning despite their states going to Trump, which are two invaluable rhetorical data points, imo.

America’s officially fascist. Now what? - NonCompete

We've barely gotten past processing democrats third once in a lifetime fuck up in recent memory but I think we are missing out on imagining ehat a Trump presidency actually looks like.

That motherfucker is already doing interviews by refusing to respond to questions and slowly swaying to yacht rock, imagine when he's president for a week and he has to make a decision and hee settles it by a ymca dance competition with the joint chiefs of staff.

Comrades in the Pacific Northwest might be interested in my post from last week, opening discussion about a socialist movement originating in and focusing on Cascadia: https://hexbear.net/comment/5576727

There are flaws, but rhetorically it should be liberal-friendly. We live in the most politically progressive region of the US, but we are constrained by U.S. federal politics. Perhaps we should develop a Cascadian identity of our own that better represents us. Getting your politics from CNN or MSNBC will never ever take you there (as has been thoroughly proven for three elections, how much harder can our states support Democrats?bits not enough).

(On Democrats running to the right to appease donors, rather than left to appease voters, and losing the election)

They always will, they serve the same donors and bourgeois powers. Marx and Lenin are vindicated by the passage of time. They were not clairvoyant, they just accurately analyzed the systems around them and saw what necessarily follows from their directions.

Everyone, get organized, read theory, learn self-defense and self-sufficiency. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. Defend yourselves and protect each other.

Is there a list somewhere of all the things Democrats have said they're gonna do, possibly with corresponding elements of the actual results of their policy? I know it's really basic stuff but tbh news moves so fast now and actual results (if any) of their policy move so slow or get cancelled at the last minute that I can't even remember a lot of it. I have some but it would be useful to have more to build a broader point that these people aren't helpless against The Parliamentarian™️ and ®️, they could actually do a lot to help people if that was actually their intention. Getting ready to have this conversation with my mom lol, she's actually been rly receptive lately. I just hate seeing people I know falling over and over for the same shit they say while nothing changes or things get worse either cuz they have no alternative or they adopt the same positions as the far-right

Ofc was peak this type of Democrat, Democratic supermajority in congress and what did we get for "Hope and Change"? The fucking ACA lmao

We must remind the libs that history exists and that the last 3 (only counting presidential ones) elections have all somehow been "the most important election of our lives"

Also ofc this is all a lib framing and regardless of what they say, they are committing a genocide and steward a global empire for their class, but its good for meeting people where they're at

A softer list I made on a Lemmy.ml thread that got a good amount of momentum and very little pushback on what liberals should do in the coming years, a mini What is to be Done?

1. Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to the Workers to protect themselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it, the point is that organizing is the best thing any leftist can do.

2. Read theory. A good primer is Blackshirts and Reds. It will help contextualize what fascism is, what causes it, and how to stop it. I can offer a good introductory reading list regarding Marxism if you'd like, but this is a good starting point.

3. Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground.

4. Be more industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well. Theory guides practice, which sharpens theory to be reapplied to better practice.

5. Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. The Democrats will not save us, we must save each other.

I’ll start by just saying that the classic response to the election results remains timeless:

If democrats were serious about protecting the things you cared so much about, they would have taken the election more seriously than nominating a candidate who so clearly had dementia that they were eventually forced to pull him from the race. They only pulled him from the race just months before the election because his mental decline was so obvious that it was completely indefensible, and that’s after he did untold damage in both voter turnout and campaign time.

Copying over a comment I made in another thread:

I think this article I shared earlier in the week on /c/history is a pretty good piece to send to people, especially those at least sympathetic towards socialism. It outlines how the abolitionists actually managed to achieve lasting change in the United States, despite its 2 party system and powerful slave-owning aristocracy.

Basically it lays out what was done by the abolitionists to achieve a better world. That could help us start a serious discussion on what is to be done in our time.

The Abolitionist Dirty Break by Ben Grove

From the introduction of the piece:

How can a small movement challenge the Leviathan? How can it find strength in its independence? How can it topple a power that seems omnipotent and achieve a revolution?

In 2024, these tasks may seem hopelessly difficult to socialists in the United States. But defying the powerful has never been easy, and we will always have lessons to learn from our predecessors. One of the most important, yet also misunderstood, is the American abolitionist movement.

It’s easy enough to celebrate abolitionists for their righteous principles: activists of every stripe invoke their legacy. Yet abolitionists and their Radical Republican allies were more than just moral idealists. They were also cunning revolutionary strategists. Using principled independent politics, they successfully attacked America’s slaveholding oligarchy and the two-party system that protected it. Their insights and debates have tremendous relevance for modern socialists, because abolitionism helped to ignite the most important revolutionary rupture in U.S. history: the Civil War and the downfall of chattel slavery.

And these were the conditions that their movement built itself in:

By the 1820s, a two-party system of Whigs and Democrats was developing, nurtured by the brilliant New York politician Martin Van Buren. Van Buren’s explicit goal was to use the excitement of party politics to distract the masses from more dangerous conflicts over slavery. Whigs and Democrats would have fiery conflict and genuine power struggles—but both sides suppressed opposition to America’s true ruling class: the planters of the South, the Slave Power.

I made a similar post from some early successes I've had today. Most of it is functionally aftercare. Here's the gist:

Just a reminder to tell your fellow liberals that they didn't fail anyone. They were failed by DNC leadership

• Holy shit this worked REALLY REALLY WELL. STRIKE NOW COMRADES (shoutout to @Sickos)
• I also had good luck with this so far.

I've also had success with: "The disenchantment with the Democratic party will pave the way for a true 3rd party that represents regular folks instead of rich donors."

What’s Left? - Elliot Sang

Here's a little "intro to Marxism-Leninism" list I threw together, modified a bit. It's critically missing Queer Theory, Feminist Theory, and National Liberation theory, so any additions on that matter would be excellent. I am working through intersectional theory right now, which is why it is missing from this present list, the goal is to be as straight to the point as possible.

A good intro for someone with no familiarity is Engels' Principles of Communism and if you are anti-AES but willing to read I recommend Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds.

From there, it becomes more important to understand that Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components:

1. Dialectical and Historical Materialism

2. Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value

3. Advocacy for Revolutionary Socialism

And as such, I recommend, in order:

1. Politzer's Elementary Principles of Philosophy

By far my favorite primer on Dialectical and Historical Materialism. By understanding DiaMat first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism.

2. Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

Further reading on DiaMat, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, essentially explaining how Capitalism itself preps the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates.

3. Marx's Wage Labor and Capital as well as Wages, Price and Profit

Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value.

4. Lenin's Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism

Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions.

5. Lenin's The State and Revolution

Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, and not replaced. Also a good call to action to cap off the intro.

After reading all of this, whoever has completed these works should have a good grasp of the basics of Marxism-Leninism and be equipped to do their own Marxist-Leninist analysis, though tons of excellent and fairly critical works were dropped for the sake of limiting the scope to an intro reading list.