From a post on /r/leftistvexillology/
"Capitalism, fascism, reaction; beat the three and humanity is free!"
.......
"Of course, the three arrows representing the struggle against capitalism, fascism and reaction have quickly found their way into other social democratic parties."
:stalin-stressed: :stalin-stressed: :stalin-stressed:
That election poster that gets thrown around alot is just that. An election poster where the socialdemocrats were trying to position themselves as the preservers of the democratic republic(which should be remembered, had not existed for long). It's not the only way to interpret the symbol.
https://www.reddit.com/r/leftistvexillology/comments/dx5jky/three_arrows_without_the_big_lib/
What do you think? What do you associate the arrows with? I always assumed it was 'down with monarchism, Nazism, and capitalism' before reading that thread. It's amazing how fast the meaning of the symbol was co-opted and altered (although notable that not everyone recognizes it as such).
I am curious, in Europe do you discuss the history of these groups in a political context at school?
In the American education system (at least in the midwest), they not only teach insane revisionism like that one meme: "the Native Americans taught the settlers how to grow corn =)" But you can actually make it out of college with a bachelor's of science without ever really learning about history in a context that matters (like the political groups who were fighting one another)
The Weimar years are covered extensively in German schools, but it's usually lib shit that tries to explain the failure of the Weimar Republic with "people not yet being democratically minded enough" without giving a materialist answer for why they thought liberal democracy is a fuck.
All the facts are there, the SPD's role in the violent supression of communism, the catastrophic economic situation, the murderous violence during the later years that came almost entirely from the nazis, the glaring blindness of the courts to said violence, while the same courts where draconically clamping down on the left. And the "conservative revolution", the monarchist revanchism that was necessary to give Hitler a majority instead of a plurality, is also covered. Just from the data presented, it's not a "both sides bad" thing.
But when the dots are connected, an answer like "a socialist revolution in 1920 would have prevented the nazis" or "conservatives side with fascists because they prefer fascism over socialism" is obviously avoided and things veer deeply into horseshoe theory land.
Do you see a leftward trend with the youth in germany?
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I'm too old to see any trends with the youth lol. Seriously, though, the kids seem to care a lot about the climate issue. The weekly school strikes have stopped since the Covid shit began, but the youth is a lot greener than previous generations and i'm under the impression that for them, green means a lot more anti-capitalism and a lot less of the new agey stuff that was a hallmark of previous greens here. I think the kids are alright, it's the boomers and the gen x chuds that i worry about.
Maybe I'm also too old to be down with the youth, but for my fellow mid-20s, idk if green means anti-capitalism. Everybody's green, but in more of a personal-consumer way (thrifting, using less plastic, taking the train more). That's not bad obviously, but I don't feel like it relates to leftist thought or action in more than a very vague "corporations bad" way. Maybe it's different for the actual teens!
i have an a level in history and didn’t learn about anything like this until well after i left school. in my experience, pretty much all of what i’d consider a “meaningful” historical education has been self administered.
That's interesting, like Wolff says, he was drawn to Marxism because all his educators specifically avoided it in academia
i remember wolff talking about how all his university work was written using marxist theory, and that he did so well in uni because his economics professors had never read marx. it wasn’t mere avoidance, it was outright ignorance.
Hmm interesting, do you have any idea which of his shows that may have been from? It's hard to locate stuff of his because of the sheer amount of content he produces. I really enjoy hearing about his experiences from his education
i’m almost certain that he talks about his educational background at length in this interview with yer uncle yanis: https://youtu.be/RhFw-s5IUT4
In the UK. No. We study the Victorians, Tudors and the monarchs. Socialists are never ever touched. In fact anyone or thing that is connected to literature individuals or organisations advocating for anti-capitalism is now illegal in schools as of a few weeks ago. Not that it matters too much because it was never touched.
In Irish high school (maybe 16 yrs) we had probably a whole semester on post-WWI Germany, which was pretty cool. I can't recall all the details, but we did cover the different factions and learned about Rosa Luxemburg. By no means a radical education or anything, but still we covered the basics, I guess.
more just i have family that explains stuff cause theyre from the soviet bloc