Yes this is about Contra, but the fact she literally only considered US citizens in her analysis is telling. Like not a single argument about foreign policy, or concern about people 30 centimetres over the border occurred to her.

And all the Dem Socialist reply guys are arguing against her on her terms. Like fucking hell, are you Internationalists or not? Fuck how large the US left is, you're fighting for the Whole Left! I understand revolt in the Imperial core is both important and difficult, but jfc!

I'm afraid I'm going third-worldist here (for values of third world that include, like, Germany and Spain.)

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Foreign Policy is also why I didn't vote for Clinton. She and her cronies are such blood hungry warhawks. I wouldn't ever vote for trump either, but I know a few vets who also couldn't vote for Clinton because of her ghoulish stances on so much FP. Also really funny how when people talk about voting for lesser evils, it's the same thing this thread is about, FP is always completely ignored.

      • shitshow [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        "No fly zone" pretty much sold me against Clinton. That's hawk shit. Only later did I learn that "No Fly Zone" was Madame Secretary's original plan for Libya when it broke out into civil war. It ended up being the first of several escalations of the US into the conflict that eventually led to open-air slave markets.

        • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Clinton was literally asked if she would do anything different if she had the chance for Libya. She said no, and she has no regrets. There is still open slave markets in Libya. https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/14/hillary-clinton-has-no-regrets-about-libya/

        • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Yeah dude, he would be like, "Donald Trump want's to leave Iraq! Well, not me, Jack—I'm gonna surge the troops just like my boss, Barrack Obama did. We need more troops deployed!!" partly cause he probably thinks that and partly cause his brain is so bad he just automatically takes the opposite stance trump does cause uhhh, libs love it i guess

        • Melon [she/her,they/them]
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          4 years ago

          That's most states so....

          Write in votes in many states are binned so there's no shame in going with Howie Hawkins.

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      The only reason foreign policy is ever brought up in mainstream news is because of the troopz! That's all they really ever talk about, especially people like fucking Jake Tapper who has such a fucking hardon for war but gets all serious n sad when some US person gets blown up. Like, yeah I guess those million+ iraqis lives didn't matter, huh jake?

      • thelasthoxhaist [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        But remember to not attack the troops, they are innocent of killing civilians they real bad guy is the generals, and if you continue they will use the nurenberg defence

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Don't forget that having "limited opportunities" in the US is a blank cheque to join the military and commit murder and oppression overseas.

          Even at minimum wage an American makes in an hour what the Afghan they're sent to kill makes in a week.

        • lvysaur [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          the per capita doesn't even matter, at least 2 million were killed in Iraq

          • poopbuttcummy [any]
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            4 years ago

            nah, i mean, on a surface level, 300 million Iraqis would've been rad

          • Steve2 [any]
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            4 years ago

            Matt Yngelsias: Nnnyoho! I recommend a full suite of minor policy shifts in order to enact transformational change! And if anyone tells you that isn't sufficient, just tell them that twitter isnt real life and that people in the real world shouldnt be stymied by petty concerns like climate change! Please forgive my cheerleading of the Iraq invasion! I explained in a 2006 blog post that that was how you became cool as a young radical democrat in the early 2000s.

  • VHS [he/him]
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    edit-2
    4 years ago

    You're right, comrade. I was thinking lately of a socdem event that i attended about a year ago, where someone spoke on the stage about "good union jobs" ...working for MIC companies making weapons of war. It's either a troubling lack of perspective, or intentional western imperialism.

  • thelasthoxhaist [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    The American left keep proving my hate of the US as the correct take

    • itsPina [he/him, she/her]M
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      4 years ago

      We really need the people of the gutter making our breadtube content tbh. Once you become even slightly upper middle class you've lost your touch.

      • ShoutyMcSocialism [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        I don't understand why someone with real thorough knowledge of Marx from here doesn't make videos.

        • hauntingspectre [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Because making cogent, coherent, and interesting long form video essays is a significantly different skill than dunking on people in a microscopic internet forum.

          • ShoutyMcSocialism [he/him]
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            edit-2
            4 years ago

            Nah I've definitely seen a few of you go off on some Marxist rants that if expanded upon could make a decent say, fifteen minute long video.

              • ShoutyMcSocialism [he/him]
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                4 years ago

                Just do one of those situations where you talk over some image like Shaun's skull.

            • itsPina [he/him, she/her]M
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              4 years ago

              as someone who has tried to make a video essay are two i have fucking terrible self esteem and while I did good in shit like speech class I never really like my performance ever so I end up shooting again and again until im disheartened enough to log back in to chacha

        • itsPina [he/him, she/her]M
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          4 years ago

          Check out Hakim, black red guard, philosophy tube is also a Leninist I think but he doesn't make vids on that.

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Because advocating for armed revolution gets you thrown off Youtube at best and imprisoned for terrorism at worst.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
        hexagon
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        4 years ago

        I found the high end video production gear lying in the gutter, and I picked it up.

    • the_river_cass [she/her]
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      4 years ago

      Because Biden’s probably more likely not to further reduce trans rights

      laughs in kamala harris

      seriously, though. this is such a shit take

        • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
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          edit-2
          4 years ago

          Reminder that the only reason we got marriage equality in this country is because of the motherfucking Roberts Court. The Democratic Party never ran on something even as tepid as gay marriage until the jurisprudence fell in their lap from the most reactionary institution of our constitutional system. Not even under Saint Obama.

          Now they all pretend to care, but what did they do? They'll throw up rainbow flags and even trans flags all over the place, but what did they do? Are we supposed to settle for a reluctance to instate bathroom cops and call this progress?

          My brother is a nurse, and from the conversations I've had with him (a dude who lives under a rock socially and culturally), understanding of gender fluidity is practically institutionalized within the profession - at least for people going through modern academic programs. And here we have a party which tells us over and over again how important it is to believe in science - which is to say, they will scold us for using air conditioning in a heating climate while defending the sacred right to frack, and thrust someone with the history of Kamala Harris into the position to take the reigns of the party when Biden inevitably strokes out.

          I'm just a cishet stipulating from the sidelines, so if I'm out of line feel free to set me straight, but this whole charade is an abomination. And these people have the nerve to call us privileged and self-centered.

        • Churnthrow123 [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          There's nothing politically for Biden/Harris to gain by throwing away trans rights. That's not to say that they're allies, but they have no reason to throw anybody under the bus right now.

    • Mardoniush [she/her]
      hexagon
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      4 years ago

      Obviously I think people should care more about those they have everyday material relationships with. "The People" are actual people, not some haughty lib ideal, and maintaining their social and cultural relations is key to fighting capitalist alienation. Nations, however, don't exist. Cultures exist, cities and regions exist. The nation is an illusion.

      If she wants to vote for Biden to save her Trans and Black friends some small extra bit of harm, cool, I can't shame her for that. But at least acknowledge that small bit of comfort comes at the cost of actual, real dead children and screaming parents somewhere far away.

    • anonymous_ascendent [none/use name]
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      edit-2
      4 years ago

      The answer to that is “of course both these options are terrible! The point is to overcome this hurdle not fall into it. Electoralism is a trap. Vote if you must but it doesn’t really matter both options are unconscionable. Stop talking about elections! Get on with more radical forms! “

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I think Americans are in a unique position, as the most powerful country in the world, with the ability to crush anyone

        Angry Vietcong and PVA noises

    • Churnthrow123 [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      The answer is very obviously "ending American imperialism" from the aspect of pure human misery. Our imperial adventures have caused orders of magnitude more suffering and devastation than even living in a pre-Stonewall America was for queer people.

      It's a dumb hypothetical, though, because Trump is not going to end American imperialism, and his bumbling version of foreign policy is still needless cruelty that doesn't solve much. It's just funny to watch the "intelligence community" work their entire lives only to have their plans interrupted by a guy who wants a milkshake.

  • Spike [none/use name]
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    4 years ago

    They talk about celebrating the Bolivian results in defeating the CIA, but then say how everyone must support Biden, the man who wants to increase foreign interference and CIA influence so the US can be more successful in pulling off coups. They need to at least acknowledge they are supporting a man who wants to harm these countries. But then maybe they don't even know about it because they don't follow or care about foreign politics.

    • Lil_Revolitionary [she/her,they/them]
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      4 years ago

      honestly i worry that if hillary won, maybe venezuela and bolivia would be in a lot worse trouble, and possibly war with iran. i wouldnt want to support a candidate who would destroy the future of other countries more efficiently than we do now

        • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
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          edit-2
          4 years ago

          Not to pull a debate nerd move, but this is fully counterfactual. A competent Clinton administration could very well have crushed Bolivia, and maybe even Venezuela or Iran, but the empire was already in such a state of decline that a second Clinton administration was not in the cards. If the empire were running like a well oiled machine, we would have got Clinton, but the fact of the matter is that it was already breaking down like an old car.

          If everything were running smoothly in the imperial core and we still had the capacity to do this shit, we would not have ended up with Trump in the first place. Again, Trump is a symptom of the rot, not the cause of our imperial embarrassments.

      • Churnthrow123 [none/use name]
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        4 years ago

        Latin America would have been in big trouble had Hillary won. Hillary would not have killed Soleimani, though.

  • Praksis [any]
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    4 years ago

    Whenever I'm talking to my ''leftist'' US friends they too seem to just handwave foreign policy away like it's nothing.

    • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
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      4 years ago

      They are bad people for doing this, but it cannot be understated how poorly the corporate media covers foreign affairs. Unless you are a foreign policy nerd or history bookworm you will never have any idea what the state is up to overseas. Fuck Chomsky, but Manufacturing Consent nailed it. The media will only talk about stories which push the agenda and confirm useful biases. Anything which reflects poorly on the foreign policy apparatus will be buried in print, and never even make it to radio or television.

  • Bedandsofa [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    For all the talk of internationalist perspectives ITT, I haven’t seen anyone even sort of reference the basis of our proletarian internationalism.

    “The working men have no country,” and we’re internationalist because we are part of an international working class, simple as that.

    An internationalist perspective is more than just being woke about imperialism—you actually have to ground yourself in some sort of material, class analysis.

    As for Contrapoints, honestly who gives a fuck. Why so many posts today arguing about youtube people? The overwhelming majority of people around you do not have, and will never have, any idea who Vaush or Contrapoints are. From an internationalist perspective there’s plenty going on in the world right now—Nigeria is about to explode, there are massive protests in Thailand that look to be spreading across borders, big protests in Haiti.

    • MonarchLabsOne [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      I think we need an answer to Contrapoints and Vaush and Some More News instead of just bitching about them.

      They are keeping penitential internationalists from developing. Micheal Brooks used to prevent that. It's so fucked that he's gone.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
        hexagon
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        4 years ago

        Where are our charismatic hardliners?

        No one seems to have any fucking edge on Breadtube unless it's to punch left.

      • ElChango [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        I know they aren't specifically taking shots at Vaush/Contra, but Thought Slime and Non-Compete do a good job of being actual breadtubers

          • ElChango [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            Black Red Guard takes some good shots, but again, doesn't really call out others.

  • CEGBDFA [any]
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    3 years ago

    deleted by creator

  • Chomsky [comrade/them]
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    4 years ago

    The American left is arguing about whether or not to vote for joe biden. Important work.