Don't you know that any potential leader is probably just a grifter? If you want to build an effective leftist movement, you have to have no leaders whatsoever. Directionless resentment is surely the only way forward.

  • ChudlyMcChubbyPants [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    In the Gilets jaunes, leadership was a task, not a vested rank. Followers freely did so, or not. The leadership condition ends when the task is done. The Pashtun of Afghanistan have something similar. Many tribes' chieftains had no force of command, only of persuasion.

    Such structures tend to spring up spontaneously where there is collective work to be done and no fucking Anglo cracker to impose their dom/sub hangups on it.

    • Puffin [any, they/them]
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      4 years ago

      And how's that gonna work out for a movement that needs millions of followers sustained over many years?

      • ChudlyMcChubbyPants [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        There are still Pashtun in Afghanistan. You should ask them how they've been doing beating back not one but two empires for the past 40-50 years.

        • Mardoniush [she/her]
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          4 years ago

          The last time someone successfully controlled Afganistan he was named Alexander the Great. A good chunk of those Pashtuns are the remains of his armies. They don't fuck around with johnny-come-lately amateurs.

          • ChudlyMcChubbyPants [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            Noice. I did not know that far back. The Art of Not Being Governed is still in my get-to pile.

            • Mardoniush [she/her]
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              4 years ago

              Invaded and burned, yes...conquered...well technically they were in the Mongol sphere, practically not so much. Timur had to burn it down al over again. Aghans can't catch a break.

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

                Timur showed up over 100 years later, though. A few cursory searches seems to indicate that the Mongol Empire held the territory for quite a while after the conquest in 1221. (Alexander's empire, meanwhile, fell apart when he died...)

        • cuckfucker93 [none/use name]
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          4 years ago

          they've been doing that for thousands of years. May as well ask americans to just abandon the love of guns while you're at it

          • AliceBToklas [she/her]
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            4 years ago

            I mean, they're the largest group in that whole area of afghanistan but the taliban didn't have universal support from them